“Smart Cities: From Innovation to Business” was the main theme of the 84th Tech Day which took place on the April 14th at the Altice Labs Auditorium in Aveiro.
The political determination to improve the citizens’ quality of life, the economic pressure to reduce costs and the need to optimize services in urban spaces urge the cities to reinvent themselves through the convergence of innovation, technology and social aspects, by becoming intelligent, sustainable and citizen-centered cities, in other words, Smart Cities. On this Tech Day, the discussion was around this theme and it was addressed in two main approaches: a technical one and two cities testimonials.
With an overture by Alcino Lavrador and a keynote by Carlos Sá Carneiro of MEO, it was followed by a presentation about “The chain of value of sustainable cities” by Vasco Lagarto, of TICE. Inês Ferreira of MEO, spoke about “The internet of things and smart cities” and Gonçalo Cavalheiro of Grace made a presentation about “Citizen-centered cities of the future”. The first part of the event was moderated by Paulo Pereira of Altice Labs.
The second part of the event, totally composed of external speakers, was dedicated to the presentations of Viseu and Aveiro cities. As part of the discussion themes were the main needs and problems faced by the cities (that fall within the scope of smart cities), the future vision of a sustainable city and experience of ongoing projects.
The 84th Day had approximately 261 participants (in-person and remote). The average of the event’s evaluation based on the enquiry made to the participants was 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10) .
Some comments from participants:
“I thought it was very interesting to have two perspectives, a more technical approach on the first part and a user/consumer of technology approach on the second part. I even ended up liking more the second part.”
“I really enjoyed the talks. I think the Smart Cities theme could be the focus of even more Tech Days. Suggestion for another theme: Cybersecurity.”