Future Cities events

Future Cities events are the live dimension of the open debate catalyzed by a dedicated SD Working Group of Wise Media's Sustainability Summit initiative. Giving voice to an ongoing thought leadership symposium, they engage policy makers and private sector decision makers in three  continents.

Since 2009, Future Cities events focus on urban innovation, fostering ICT-based modernization programs aiming to increase security and efficiency in metropolises worldwide. Organized on the occasion of major world-class summits, they shed light on trends in urban innovation, fostering the drive for security and efficiency in metropolises worldwide. The aim is to discuss a vision of smart cities in the context of today’s Digital Society, looking at the evolution of infrastructures supporting citizens in their daily experience as consumers, employees, travelers, patients, users and consumers alike.

Focus topics

The main axes of investigation are:

• Disruptive technologies transform today’s business models and create new avenues for smart metropolitan development. In the digital era, urban ecosystems can redesigned leaning on the availability of Big Data, artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art predictive models. Data is everything and is central to automatic processing, trading and control.
• Ubiquitous intelligence and connectivity unleashes a new world of opportunities in light of next generation mobile applications, with secure IDs, social media, mServices, mCommerce and advanced contactless solutions redesigning landscapes across supply chains, retail and distribution networks. Internet TV paves the way to programmatic advertising and to a device-agnistic media and entertainment industry.
• Urban Innovation looks at the smart building concept to interpret the need for efficient urban living, while addressing the necessity to increase safety and security measures in the context of raising concerns and emergencies. Complex requirements range from monitoring and controlling public areas for public security, facilitating urban mobility, as well as interpreting emerging lifestyles.

Under the Patronage of

Ministry of Interior UAE

Endorsed by

European Commission

Official media partner

Future Cities engages the representatives of local administrations and leaders of prime corporations to debate sustainable development roadmaps, sharing lessons learned in the context of prime public and private sector initiatives (from eGovernment, to healthcare and education; from labor, to social relief and financial inclusion programs). It calls to action the experts who can advocate for a responsible approach to urban development in light of today’s global, hyper-connected society.

The Future Cities Conference brings together regional, national and local authorities from the different continents, offering a world-class platform to the debate on how sustainable development will be pursued in today’s urban aggregates. It illustrates how intelligent infrastructures can support security and governance, while streamlining access to services in urban environments.

Launched in 2021, Eco-Smart Living is a new event format
'on land and sea' promoted by the Future Cities Working Group

The fourth Future Cities Conference for the EMEA region took place at Wise Media’s seventh Summit on sustainable development and opened its doors under the patronage of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H.H. Sheik Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The conference was endorsed by the European Commission and Abu Dhabi Police. The Summit was supported by the Emirates Identity Authority and hosted  by the prestigious and highly influential government organization, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR). As the world’s most exclusive thought leadership symposium on advanced applications in the areas of urban planning, modernization and development, as well as management and deployment of digital solutions in the context of today’s mobilized societies, the Summit brought together government representatives from around the world, policy makers, pioneering innovators and the leading players in the ICT industry to communicate and share their knowledge, experience and innovations.

Government ministers from seven nations, top representatives of international non- government organizations and decision makers from the public and private sectors who contributed to the rich agenda of proceedings and exclusive meetings included: Ronald Noble, Secretary General – Interpol; Richard Kerby, Inter-Regional Adviser – United Nations;  Luigi Soreca, Director General Home Affairs – European Commission; H.E. Atef Helmy, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt; H.E. Karim Sinjari, Minister of the Interior, Kurdistan; H.E. Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunication, Somalia; Hon. A.Silima Pereira, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Tanzania; Erik Mothibi Molale, Permanent Secretary – Ministry of Labour & Home Affairs, Botswana; Maj. Gen. Tarek Mahdi, Governor of Red Sea, Egypt; Isaac Kgosi, Permanent Secretary in Office of the President – Botswana; Sayed Aqa – United Nations Development Program; Minerva Novero-Belec, Bureau for Development Policy – UN Development Program.

Future Cities connecting continents

The Future Cities Working Group started its activities at Wise Media’s sixth EMEA Summit in the UAE. Hosted by the UAE Government, the event was attended by 525 high-profile delegates and saw representatives from public administrations world-wide engage in an open debate on the future of urban aggregates within evolving and interconnected societies. The debate connected continents with Future Cities Americas later in the year in September in Rio de Janeiro.

A conference addressing the topic of Future Cities went live both in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in Milan, Italy. Focus of the year was on “Urban Security”, with particular emphasis given on one hand to the challenges faced by cities hosting major international events, such as the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the 2012 Olympic Games in London and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016; The event was held on the occasion of Wise Media’s second global event on ICT driven innovation in Brazil, during the Americas summit on security, mobility and traceability. Some of the end-user and industry influencers who participated included: Hilário Medeiros, Security General Manager – 2014 FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee Brazil; Guillermo Calderón Aguilera, General Director – Metrobus, Mexico; Marcos Troyjo, Vice President – Brasilinvest Group; Victor Hugo Avila, Deputy Manager of Commercial Innovation – Correos, Chile; Carlos Roberto de Oliveira, Director VP of Technology – Casa da Moeda, Brazil; Celio Ribeiro, Executive President – ABRID, Brazilian Association of Companies in Digital Identification Technology; Ernesto Castagnet, Industrial Organization & Strategic Planning -Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina; and Dr. Fernando Neira Orjuela, – Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (UNAM), Mexico. The debate continued in Europe, on the occasion of the sixth edition of QUID Innovation Italy.

The initiative brought together government representatives, urban security providers, city planners, major events organizers, transportation and telecommunications operators, strategic analysts and international experts as well as professional technologists and integrators to develop a lively and participative debate – drawing out future scenarios for the whole high-tech sector to maximize the opportunities offered by this fast emerging area of development.

Public sector representatives interested in joining the debate on Future Cities please address conferenceteam@wisemedia.com

Learn more about Wise Media Events

For further information contact conferences@wisemedia.com