digital infrastructure

With its new "ISCN Spotlight" format, the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN) brings together invited experts from 4-5 different countries and regions of the world for a dedicated practical exchange on current smart city topics. Focus topic of the first edition: The development of urban digital twins (UDT).

Like a fish in water – that’s how the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN) “swam” through the annual Smart City Expo in Barcelona, perhaps the world’s biggest event on urban digitalization with way over 20,000 attendees and 1000+ exhibitors. The ISCN shared keynotes on comparing German and international smart city projects, organized a little "Meet the German Cities" session, and brought back many impressions and contacts for its network in Germany and the world over.

As the host city Freiburg included a marked international perspective to its regional conference for Germany's Model Projects Smart Cities (MPSC), the ISCN and #connectedinEurope shared experiences, keynotes and a workshop session on how to enhance smart city development with regional and international integration.

On 16 September 2024, a day before the 4th OECD Roundtable on Smart Cities and Inclusive Growth, the participating cities of the #connectedinEurope programme of the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building met in Paris for their final on-site meeting. A packed agenda encompassed specific discussion points on datasets and digital twins, the summary of exchange activities and a collection of next steps for after the programme.

The cities of Basel, Freiburg and Mulhouse in the border triangle of Germany, France and Switzerland have come together in the project #connectedinEurope to work on a joint cross-border data exchange - the ‘Triregio Dataspace’.

The cities of the #connectedinEurope programme came together for an online-workshop on 30 July that focused on the very fundament of each smart city: Datasets.

The International Smart Cities Network (ISCN) and the OECD were jointly organizing the 4th Roundtable on Smart Cities and Inclusive Growth on 17 September 2024 in Paris. Under the title of "Shaping smart cities of all sizes", an international group of experts came together to discuss and showcase strategies and solutions.