Smart city is a concept that is currently very topical and that seems to be the direction in which urbanisation is going.  However, an agreement is still missing on a common definition of smart cities and on the criteria which need to be fulfilled in order to define a city as a smart city. According to the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities’ Strategic Implementation Plan “Smart cities should be regarded as systems of people interacting with and using flows of energy, materials, services and financing to catalyse sustainable economic developments, resilience, and high quality of life; these flows and interactions become smart through making strategic use of information and communication infrastructure and services in a process of transparent urban planning and management that is responsive to the social and economic needs of society.”

The main characteristic of smart cities seems to be the interconnection between different network industries ((thus covering topics such as energy, mobility and communications technologies) providing a wide range of services and a general context of interexchange between public and private. The mentioned interconnection between different industries will be at the core of the FSR Conference on “Smart cities, smart regulation?”. Practical cooperation with a common aim between such regulated sectors entails a need of coordination and harmonisation between the different regulatory policies as well as industrial requirements and approaches. Just to mention one example, the issue of data (key in the smart city concept) is a core element that needs to be tackled both from the regulatory and industry perspective. The aim of the Conference is precisely to stimulate the debate between stakeholders representing the different sectors and to look at specific issues in a productive way.

At the moment in which they register in the conference, participants and speakers are asked to provide a 1 sentence definition of smart city. Common elements of definition will be gathered and presented at the beginning of the Conference.

Programme:

08:45 – 09:00     Welcoming coffee

09:00 – 09:20     Opening and introduction of the definition of smart city

09:20 – 09:30     Welcoming by the City of Florence

09:30 – 10:00     Florence moving to smart

10:00 – 10:40     The case of the City of Malaga

10:40 – 11:10     Coffee break

11.10 – 12:30     Session I – Smart cities: technology and urban planning

12.30 – 13.30     Lunch

13:30 – 14:45     Session II – Standards, interoperability and cybersecurity: A smart system

14:45 – 15:00     Coffee break

15:00 – 16:15     Session III – Smart cities and regulation: need for coordination?

16:15 – 16:30     Concluding remarks

16:30 – 17:00     Networking coffee

Among confirmed speakers: Ronnie Belmans (EnergyVille and KU Leuven), Susanna Carillo (ENDESA), Anne Deltour (EC – DG Connect), Olivier Duroyon (Alcatel – Lucent), Lilian Edwards (University of Strathclyde), Thanh Nguyen (Orange), Alexander Scheuer (Deutsche Telekom), Alin Stanescu (Qualcomm), Gianluca Vannuccini (Municipality of Florence).