Smart City Casablanca, a successful 4th edition!
After 3 first rich in lessons editions, the fourth edition of Smart City Casablanca could announce itself only under the best auspices … And it was the case, with full rooms, captivating and varied sessions and very appreciated moments of networking. Praised for the richness of the topics covered and the quality of the speakers, this new edition was characterized by an unprecedented enhancement of innovation and a strong representation of the international.
Honored by the High Patronage of His Majesty, Smart City Casablanca 2019 was held on April 17th and 18th, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency in Casablanca, with as a main theme the one of « Artificial Intelligence at the service of the citizens », or how the artificial intelligence and digital can help improve the action of smart cities? The event kept its promises and ended with great success. With the attendance of more than 3,250 participants demonstrating the strong interest generated by the event, Smart City Casablanca once again confirms its position as the largest Smart City event in Africa.
Internationally renowned speakers
With an intense programming where successive keynote, conferences and workshops … and as witnessed the quality of the discussions conducted by 85 speakers and experts from different horizons, we will remember from this 4th edition the many experiences sharing, the enthusiastic prospects and recommendations that will undoubtedly inspire the future actions that will be undertaken by the decision-makers for the transformation of Casablanca into a smart city. Indeed, these two days offered the main actors of urban development the opportunity to present their experiences, know-how and points of view. Among them, Mihaela Ulieru, President of the Impact Institute for Digital Economy, who hosted a remarkable first keynote addressing citizens in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution and 4.0 citizenship; Louis A. Zacharilla, co-founder of The Intelligent Community Forum, who brilliantly demonstrated how it has been possible to connect and foster collaboration among different intelligent communities around the world; or Armand Roland Pierre Beouinde, Mayor of Ouagadougou.
A 4th edition marked by innovation and very popular networking times.
For this 4th edition of Smart City Casablanca, innovation has been particularly valued this year. This resulted in the creation of a village where 32 Moroccan start-ups presented their solutions. Another major action to promote innovation, the Open Innovation Lounge operation organized in partnership with LaFactory By ScreenDy, made it possible to discover these start-ups with strong market potential, then to distinguish three during a session. of pitches in front of the contractors and the big companies present during the event. This is how Smartone (a scalable and fully configurable IoT platform providing turnkey smart solutions), NoubApp (an application that manages queues) and QwebTeam (A mobile solution playing the role of a card virtual health insurance facilitating the care of the beneficiary insured) were awarded an award at the closing ceremony of the event. More than 200 BtoB appointments between start up and corporate were recorded during these two days. The innovation finally shone during the conferences through a new session format which focused on feedback from open innovation at the service of the Smart City and which offered the opportunity to local start-ups to express themselves to speakers of known fame.
International cooperation was also at the heart of Smart City Casablanca.
The concept of Smart City has no boundaries and like the first three editions, this 4th edition has not departed from the rule of making the event a special moment of meetings and exchanges. Indeed, openness and cooperation were at the heart of the relationships that Smart City Casablanca creates, develops and strengthens with its national and foreign participants. Not less than 80 representatives of national and foreign delegations – including African ones – were present. Among the latter, we can mention: Bangkok, the event’s guest city, Ouagadougou, Dakar, Ramallah, Cocody, Shanghai, Nouadhibou, Marseille, Bamako, Ariana, Sfax, Rio de Janeiro, Libreville, Guelmim, Kenitra
Agadir, Tetouan, Rabat, Temara, Sale … This 4th edition was finally and especially marked by a transfer of expertise that consists of a Smart City Ouagadougou organization project concluded between the Mayor of Ouagadougou and Casablanca Events & Animation.
The citizen at the center of the event
In addition to the congress, Smart City Casablanca, through Smart City Connect – a Casablanca-specific initiative – has created a Créathon, to invite digital players to invent new solutions that meet the challenges of an inclusive and sustainable city. The Smart City Connect was also marked by the inauguration of the Caravane Wecasablanca, which took its neighborhood places of the United Nations to offer to the Casablancais unprecedented activities in world premiere such as a scripted course in plan sequence to 360 ° since the inside the Gloria orchestra of Mozart’s Coronation Mass or a timeless show on which a young ballet dancer and a little robot engage, for a ritualized choreography.