The 4th edition of the Safe & Smart City Conference, a premier Europe-Israel event gathering entrepreneurs, innovators, global companies, start-ups and policymakers for a vibrant debate about the future of modern cities, inspiration and business opportunities, took place in Nice, France on December 7-9, 2019.
The event explored key issues that impact the quality of life of citizens, including the improvement of public services, the security of sensitive infrastructure and public space, cybersecurity, smart transportation, and data protection. The conference provided a platform for cooperation, creativity and development of a shared vision for tomorrow’s safe and smart cities. One of the overarching themes of the event was the “sustainable” character of local authorities as to the criteria for defining a “Safe, Smart, Shared and Sustainable City”.
The 3 day-program encompassed presentations by 47 speakers from Israel and Europe, including political decision-makers, municipalities, entrepreneurs, high-tech start-ups, innovation experts, academics and researchers. The participants came together to share their experience, analysis, and vision of the city of tomorrow, in order to achieve a common objective, synthesized by the formula: “Better Life, Safer World and Shared Values”. The program included plenary sessions, specialized workshops and a gala dinner, as well as the economic morning session with the Mayor of the city of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
The conference opened with keynote speeches by Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller-Lietzkow, CEO of HafenCity University, and Gaby Kaminsky, Managing Director of Cityzone Israel, who discussed the smart city concept, exploring the complexity of transforming an analog city into a digital city.
Michal Michaeli, International Economic Development Director at Mayor’s Office, Tel Aviv and Christian Von Den Brincken, Managing Director, Stroer Media SE spoke about the new challenges faced by the “resilient cities”.
The topic of security on the local level was also prominently featured at the conference with talks by Yochai Corem, Vice-president, CYE, and Gen. Gal Hirsh, among others.
The event ended with a closing dinner, marked by the speeches of Maximilien Pellegrini, Managing Director of SUEZ Water France and Rudy Salles, Deputy Mayor of Nice in charge of International Relations, Caroline Pozmentier, Vice President of the South PACA region in charge of International Relations and guest of honor at the event, Gen. Gal Hirsch.
The conference was organized by ELNET, in partnership with the city of Nice, and local French local authorities, including the metropolis Nice-Côte-d’Azur and the SUD PACA region. The conference was also co-sponsored by major industrial players in the fields of Smart City – such as Suez Eau France for water, electricity, and ENEDIS for Confidentia for facial recognition, and featured the innovation ecosystem of the Startup Nation Israel, including Tel Aviv, Netanya and Jerusalem.
