The 6th edition of Smart City Summit & Expo (SCSE), a four-day trade show event [March 26-29], in Taipei, Taiwan, brought together about 50 artificial intelligence (AI) firms, over 300 technology companies, as well as municipality leaders from home and abroad, and kept them at the forefront of smart cities’ digital transformation and innovation. Smart City Summit & Expo, Asia’s largest annual smart city trade show, aims to accelerate the application of AI technologies in different areas such as transportation, healthcare, education, energy efficient and sustainability, and architecture design through exhibitions, forums, and networking events.
Yu Cheng, Head of the Taiwan Smart City Solutions Alliance (TSSA), the event organizer, and chairman of Chunghwa Telecom Co said, “Over 1700 international professionals from 107 cities and 42 countries or regions across the globe, including guests, visitors, and information industry associations’ business delegations from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, India and elsewhere participated in the event.”
There were over 2000 international visitors, an increase of 30% relative to the previous year. A delegation of 128 representatives and city leaders led a large group of 276 members from cities around the world to take part in the Smart City Mayor’s Summit March 26 and attended the launch of the Global Organization of Smart Cities (GO SMART) initiative March 27. The Smart City Mayor’s Summit was moderated by Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je.
The event brought 337 exhibitors from around the world this year; approximately 1250 booths were set up to display products and solutions of smart city, marking an increase of 20 per cent compared to last year’s edition. 66 professional forums (a half-day session is counted as a forum) were held during the event, and 43 of them, or 65%, were held in English. More than 33,000 visitors attended the event, and more than 19,000 visitors are attended the forum. The 2019 SCSE includes four professional sub-expos: Smart Healthcare Expo (SHE Taipei), Smart Education Expo, Intelligent Building Expo (IBE Taipei), and Intelligent Transportation System Expo (ITS Expo); with ITS Expo a new sub-expo added to this year’s edition.
Cheng pointed out that to help artificial intelligence pick up its momentum in city applications, SCSE is introducing the first edition of AI 50 Campaign. The campaign had actively looked for aspiring AI startup founders across the globe over the past several months during the call for public submissions. A total of 36 AI startup companies were selected from 52 submissions around the world. The selected AI startups exhibited at the AI 50 Pavilion, and participated in a variety of businesses matchmaking and networking events. The select exhibitors-the 36 AI startup companies from 15 countries demonstrated various ready-for-deployment AI technologies and applications, aiming to boost the development of AI and create opportunities for an innovation-driven smart city ecosystem.
Chunghwa Telecom chairman Yu Cheng, a leader overseeing and supervising business operations of Taiwan’s largest telecommunications service provider, invited over 70 telecommunication companies from around the world to attend the World Telecom Smart City Conference. The session aimed to explore new business opportunities in next-generation 5G networks and ways to realizing the full potential of smart cities. In addition, more than 200 SIs have been invited to attend World System Integrator Conference to exchange knowledge and insights on the deployment of emerging technologies for smart city development.
