From 17-19 November, this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress will take place in Barcelona. Here, over 300 of the most innovative and influential smart city thinkers will gather together to share knowledge, present visions and highlight opportunities on how we will create efficient, economically viable, sustainable and liveable cities.

This year’s event has a fantastic line-up of speakers, including Beth Simone Novek, founder and director of The Governance Lab, who will discuss how citizen engagement, collaboration and partnerships are reshaping cities. Further presentations will be made from: Edward Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University; Pankaj Ghemawat, global professor of management and strategy at the Stern School of Business; and Juliana Rotich, executive director of Ushahidi.

This year’s programme will focus on the following topics:

Society. To be a smart city means to combine the potential of the new urban infrastructures with collaborative technologies and platforms, enabling citizens to contribute with information to improve their quality of life and to build more sustainable cities. The aim is to set the citizen in the core of the smart city, to be more inclusive and equitable, promoting social cohesion and social innovation.

Sustainability. World population growth, the consumption of the limited natural resources and the production of energy that our cities needs impose great environmental challenges. A new urban model, developing a more intelligent and sustainable way of living in our cities is urgently required, where all kinds of green areas, public spaces and urban services are integrated.

Governance. Cities are currently facing enormous challenges: aging population, increasing urbanization, environmental impacts and resource constraints. The use of technology helps to promote good governance, by enhancing transparency and accountability through open data, using online platforms and real time data. Partnerships and bottom up approaches are the key strategies in achieving sustainable cities, economic growth and better services to citizens.

Technology. The impact of new technologies has substantially changed our everyday life in many aspects as mobility, energy, environment, social networks and governance. This is a great opportunity to change how cities are managed and operated, promoting social and economic development. All citizens should benefit from these improvements, which ought to be accessible for everybody.

Mobility. The development of new technologies applied to all means of transportation, the integration of services, the availability of real time data, and shared services can help to improve the management of citizen’s mobility and freight within our cities, to reduce traffic and CO2 emissions. Besides, city planning focused on private vehicles is being reoriented into a more adapted city for pedestrians, bicycles and public transportation.

As always, Microsoft will have a strong presence at the event, presenting its CityNext initiative which is helping governments, business and citizens to become more empowered to create more sustainable, prosperous, and economically competitive cities.