Smart Cities Expo & Forum To Launch In 2020, Supporting USD 2 Trillion Global Market

As the smart cities market tops USD 2 trillion by 2025, the new Smart Cities Expo & Forum at the World Future Energy Summit 2020 will show how technology can be leveraged to improve happiness, health, sustainability and safety in cities across the Middle East and beyond.

Across the world today, there are 33 ‘megacities,’ those with a population of 10 million people or more. By 2030, Euromonitor predicts this number will grow to 39, and all but one of those six new megacities, Chicago, will be in a developing economy. Unless urban growth is carefully planned and managed, then densely packed, poorly built cities will place a heavy burden on the environment – leading Frost & Sullivan to forecast a global smart cities market of USD 2 trillion by 2025.

The new Smart Cities Expo & Forum will showcase a full range of smart city innovations within one of the world’s leading commercial events for sustainable technology.

“The urban environment is where all the pressures on sustainability collide – the buildings we live and work in, transportation, communications, how efficiently we deliver and use energy, and our ability to provide food and clean water,” said Dr Lamya Nawaf Fawwaz, Executive Director, Brand & Strategic Initiatives at Masdar. “The Smart City Expo & Forum provides the ideal platform to showcase how the latest innovations can deliver the next wave of connected communities to support economic competitiveness and citizen happiness.”

Hosted by Masdar and part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the World Future Energy Summit is the leading global event and marketplace for future energy, cleantech and sustainability. Already, Masdar is successfully applying smart city innovations at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s pioneering low-carbon community advancing a wide range of solutions for urban sustainability.

Within the World Future Energy Summit, the Smart Cities Expo & Forum brings forward-thinking governments and municipalities, together with pioneers in smart infrastructure, future transportation and next-generation building technology to explore the potential of connected communities. The expo itself will be built to resemble a smart city, where the technologies and concepts can come to life.

“Since its inception in 2008, the World Future Energy Summit has helped transform the energy landscape in our region and beyond,” said Grant Tuchten, Group Event Director, World Future Energy Summit. “The Smart Cities Expo & Forum is the next stage in the event’s evolution to consider the many complex, interconnected factors that contribute to sustainable development,  placing the Middle East at the forefront of change.”

The Smart Cities Forum will provide knowledge exchange across four days of discussion and case studies, with leading global experts sharing their experience and insights. Sessions will cover topics such as: urban master planning, the roles of private and government sectors, air quality, connectivity, the sharing economy, smart infrastructure, and the built environment. In keeping with the World Future Energy Summit’s origins, energy efficiency will be a priority with a focus on green buildings.

The Smart Cities Expo will include a variety of smart city innovations that harness the potential of the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain; and include breakthrough technologies in smart infrastructure, smart mobility and smart buildings. Many of the concepts are driven by rapid improvements in digital connectivity, and our ability to collect and use data in real time.

“The Smart Cities Expo & Forum will connect new markets with the technology and knowledge we need to build the cities of the future – cities that are environmentally and socially sustainable – and to make our existing cities work better,” said Grant Tuchten.

The World Future Energy Summit, hosted by Masdar and part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, a global platform for accelerating the world’s sustainable development, runs at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) from 13-16 January 2020.

The Summit is the largest event of its type in the Middle East and among the largest in the world, it attracted around 800 exhibitors and around 33,500 attendees during the 2019 edition

Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week will take place from 11-18 January 2020.