For our latest piece, Balazs Csuvar, Head of Delivery at DG Cities takes a break from strategising future transport to travel in time. Visiting Barcelona for the Smart City Expo World Congress last week, he takes us back to 2015, to his early experience of the international event, to consider how the sector has evolved – and he’s reassured by the greater integration, collaboration and city-level approaches he finds.

Last week, I was in Barcelona for the Smart City Expo World Congress with a delegation organised by LOTI, the London Office of Technology and Innovation. As the work we do at DG Cities often involves a degree of prediction - looking to the next technology, helping our clients anticipate trends, identify and apply useful solutions - it’s interesting to look back at what was exciting and new then, and how that compares to the current market.

Back in 2015, the year NASA found evidence of flowing water on Mars and the first automated vehicle drove coast to coast across America, the Congress was full of technological possibilities. I was drawn to a range of innovations that had yet to see extensive real-world deployment, such as smart lighting, parking management, IT solutions and car-sharing platforms. The landscape of the smart city was beginning to take shape, but in small pieces.

Fast-forward to 2023 and there’s a clear shift in emphasis. The Smart City Expo World Congress showcased data analysis platforms, success stories from cities and countries, and a growing focus on sustainability and net-zero initiatives. The focus has transitioned from clever but ultimately standalone solutions to greater integration and systems thinking. In 2015, exhibitors were focused on offering specific technologies to address individual challenges: smart lighting and parking solutions were independent of each other, and corporate IT systems operated in silos. The emergence of car-sharing platforms provided convenience, but lacked the connection to other urban initiatives that could have prompted wider adoption.

Exhibitors are now presenting integrated solutions that promote collaboration and interoperability. Data analysis platforms have taken centre stage, demonstrating the growing importance of leveraging information to improve places, as much as leveraging technological advances. Cities and countries are recognising this and sharing successful projects that break away from the trend of isolated technological deployments that I think has held some of the sector back.

Integration matters

It was good to see this shift – no solution exists in a vacuum and the places we live and work are complex and interconnected, from energy and transport networks to broadband fibre. At DG Cities, we have always championed integrated planning, holistic neighbourhood approaches and deep engagement. Success relies on understanding what really happens when an innovation meets real homes and people with diverse needs and perspectives.

This change in emphasis I found at the Expo, this move towards integrated solutions, is a positive development for the sector. It signifies a departure from the piecemeal implementation of technologies, where individual solutions were imposed on cities without a comprehensive strategy. However, as I found with many of the standalone solutions eight years ago which, in most cases, had yet to be applied, the same is true here – the successful implementation and evaluation of holistic projects is yet to follow.

The transition to fully integrated systems that seamlessly communicate with each other requires time and strategic planning. The smart city movement is maturing and AI is rapidly evolving; the next eight years may witness the emergence of groundbreaking examples where systems are not only designed to talk to one another, but are also implemented cohesively. And it’s not only systems that need talk to each other – we need to work collaboratively, across disciplines, between the public and private sector, within our teams, and with the communities we serve. That is one of the benefits of the Expo – the opportunity to discover new ideas, talk to the people behind them, learn from case studies and build human networks.

The smart city has to have social intelligence

This sharing of knowledge is fundamental to the way we operate at DG Cities, where our multidisciplinary team is drawn from a mix of public and private sector backgrounds. It brings together engineers, economists, behavioural scientists, specialists in mobility, transport, planning, connectivity, communications and more. We work in an open, collaborative studio, finding opportunities to share different stages of projects as they evolve; examining what works, what we can improve, how we can achieve wider benefits from an investment or initiative. I think that this way of working is what helps us to develop integrated solutions and guides a more people-centred approach.

What can we expect from the Expo in 2030? Flying taxis and self-propagating street furniture? I hope we’ll see the fruition of some of the ideas that I saw emerging – to have moved significantly further from concept to real-world examples of holistic projects that enhance the quality of places and people’s lives. I’m proud that our work at DG Cities, alongside similar initiatives around the world, is helping to lay the foundations for this smarter, more interconnected and sustainable urban future.