One of the few universal ‘languages’ across the globe is technology and innovation, and those are languages the Curiosity Lab is very comfortable with. With our surmounting local, national and international recognition in these areas, the Curiosity Lab was thrilled to be invited to the world’s largest smart city expo to showcase City of Peachtree Corners’ and Curiosity Lab’s contributions to smart cities and innovation alongside nations from across the globe.
Earlier this month, representatives from the City and Lab traveled to Barcelona, Spain to showcase the groundbreaking technologies and innovation developing in the Silicon Orchard at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022. This leading international conference, held in Barcelona since 2011, aims to empower cities and collectivize urban innovation across the world through identifying collaboration and innovation opportunities. Very much in line with our own mission, the event hopes to help cities create a better future for their citizens.
Peachtree Corners City Manager Brian Johnson and Assistant City Manager and CTO Brandon Branham represented the lab at the conference, where the two met with multiple international government officials, city managers, technology officers, media and smart city groups to further spread the word about Peachtree Corners, identify additional areas of innovation for our smart city and to secure additional startups to join Curiosity Lab. With over 22,000 attendees, 134 countries represented and over 850 exhibitors, this was an extremely target rich environment for the city to achieve these goals. In fact, countries were separated into pavilions to make visiting more digestible for attendees.
The Curiosity Lab team was joined by our partners at North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA) at the expo. Announced in October of this year, our cross-regional partnership with NTXIA extends both Peachtree Corners’ and NTXIA’s efforts in supporting the expansion of smart cities across the country through public-private partnerships. Showcasing together at the Smart City Expo further highlighted our belief in supporting cities across the United States and the globe in their journey to becoming a smart city. This, enhanced by our recent international recognition with the 2022 IEEE Jury Award, made our exhibit and representatives a popular destination for attendees.
While at the expo, Johnson and Branham kicked off their meetings with a handful of Spanish companies and government organizations including Capmar DGT, Ekiona, Libelium, Smart City Cluster and more.
The pair continued strengthening our Canadian ties and met with Canadian companies and government executives including City of Toronto, Ovin and Toronto Connected Community in addition to various smart city startups.
In addition, they met with a handful of Catalonian companies such as Center for Innovation of Transport, Moba, Lovely Map and App and Town for potential partnership and deployment opportunities at the lab.
Further meetings with international companies included AI Transformation Finland, Lanez, Taiwan Institute of Innovation (fostering our MOU with Startup Terrace to support Taiwanese startups), and more.
Finally, Johnson and Branham had a chance to meet with multiple Israeli startups and organizations they originally spoke with during the Israeli delegation earlier this year and met additional contacts that would be a perfect fit in our startup environment.
Outside of government organizations and companies, Johnson and Branham secured international media interviews with ABI Research, Bee Smart City, SmartCityWorld, Stefanini Sysman, Cities Today to name a few. We are looking forward to seeing these pieces published live.
Between meeting with media, delegations, startups and additional companies and organizations, the team had over had over 1000 inquiries/interactions with conference attendees while onsite.
This event was a fantastic success for the city and the Curiosity Lab.
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