Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), the economic development agency of the Federal Republic of Germany, will present best practices from German Smart City initiatives. Various experts from urban innovation networks, Smart City initiatives, Digital Innovation Hubs and financial services will discuss and present how German cities cope with the increasing urban agglomerations and the new demands on housing, mobility, communications, climate neutrality or health. Best practices from numerous German cities and regions will be streamed during the workshop.
The workshop is part of the newly launched GTAI initiative *Smart Cities & Digital Transformation“ with the aim to promote the attractive development of German Smart City initiatives in various key sectors such as energy, digital economy, mobility, logistics, construction, health and security. Examples from numerous German cities and regions will be streamed during the workshop.
14:00 Opening & Welcome by Dr. Robert Hermann, CEO Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI)
14:15 Session I – is there a German Smart City approach?
The first part of the workshop focuses on the German Smart City landscape in general.
- Are German cities smart?
- Is there a uniform German smart city strategy?
- Where does Germany stand in international comparison?
14:45 Session II – the German Smart City ecosystem: drivers, challenges & opportunities
Based on regional examples, we will discuss in which areas German cities are particularly active in the development and implementation of urban & digital technologies.
- What kind of projects are implemented; how do individual Smart City strategies differ from each other?
- Who are the players, drivers and initiators of German Smart City initiatives?
- How do Fraunhofer Morgenstadt or Berlin TXL – The Urban Tech Republic contribute to Smart City development and what are the future-proof concepts for German Smart Cities?
15:15 Session III – from pilot to market. How are smart city strategies financed and promoted?
Following an introduction about funding opportunities for foreign companies and GTAI investor services, we will talk about innovative ways how Smart City solutions could be financed.
- Is the German Smart City market attractive for foreign companies? In which areas?
- How are pilot projects successfully commercialized?
- What opportunities are there for foreign startups ?
15:45 Q & A
16:00 Conclusion
Dr.-Ing. Von Radecki is head of the Competence Team Urban Governance Innovation at Fraunhofer IAO and head of the innovation network “Morgenstadt: City Insights”. His work focuses on “Urban Governance” as well as systems analysis and complexity research with a direct reference to urban systems.
Since 2012, Mr. von Radecki has been heading the “Morgenstadt Initiative” of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft – an innovation partnership between 35 mainly European cities, 42 private companies and 12 research institutions to promote urban innovations and the implementation of sustainable and networked urbanization.
Parallel to his role at Fraunhofer IAO, Mr. von Radecki is co-founder and CIO of the Fraunhofer spin-off BABLE. Mr. von Radecki also advises cities such as Stockholm, Manchester, Eindhoven, Zagreb, Porto, Vienna and others on the digital transformation of the governance system.
Beate Albert works at Berlin Partner for Business and Technology which is the agency of the state of Berlin, that is pivotal for business promotion and technology transfer.
Within Berlin Partners Beate holds the role of Head of the Smart City Unit. Her unit coordinates Berlin´s Smart City projects, is responsible for stakeholder management, knowledge transfer and smart city marketing.
Josefina Nungesser leads within the GTAI the dept. for Trend – and Innovationscouting which she built from scratch since 2017. The main focus of Josefina and her team is hereby to internationalize the German Digital Hub Initiative. From 2013 to 2016 she worked as Startup & VC Strategy Leader at Oracle. Previously she worked as a Strategy Consultant with PwC but originally started her career at Microsoft as Western Europe and later Central- and Eastern Europe Partner Programs Lead.
Michael works as Senior Manager at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) where he is responsible for the set-up and management of the new GTAI initiative “Smart Cities & Digital Transformation”. Previously Michael worked for the Italian Trade Commission as Trade Analyst before he joined the European Commission as Policy Officer in 2012, in charge of implementing various EU initiatives for the deployment and the uptake of key enabling & digital technologies.
Philipp Bouteiller, CEO of Tegel Projekt, professor at XU University, responsible for Europe’s largest development around urban tech & smart cities: dismantling the entire inner-city airport Berlin Tegel and converting it into Europe’s central hub for future industries, with space for 1,000 companies and 5,000+ residential units in a new climate positive district powered by smart technologies.
Gerrit van Doorn is Managing Director of Award-winning Smart Village Hoher Fläming in Germany. He led several European companies, villages and cities in their efforts to become more sustainable. He is serial entrepreneur and founded successful companies in Germany, Scandinavia and Netherlands.
Daniel Stephens is Manager of Finance and Incentives at Germany Trade & Invest. He has been with GTAI for eight years, having previously worked in England, the USA and South Africa. He holds an MBA from the University of Leicester.