Successful participation in the 7th Smart Cities Exhibition
Successfully was completed the participation of Cluster Sofia Knowledge City at the 7th Southeast European Smart Cities Exhibition & conference, that took place on 16-18 April 2019 at Inter Expo Center, Sofia. The cluster mobilized some of its members to present themselves to the citizens of Sofia and other exhibitors in the organized by the cluster exhibition space under the Sofia Smart City Marketplace brand.
The cluster stand space was organized in the following three areas - a demonstration of how the triple helix can create smart cities:
- Education for a smart city;
- Science for a smart city;
- Smart City Technologies.
More than 3,000 visitors of the exhibition had the opportunity to get acquainted with some of the scientific, technological, educational and business opportunities in the field of intelligent cities of the following organizations: Telelink, David Holding, ADD Bulgaria, EKJ Bulgaria Consulting Engineers, RISK Electronics, dPlace, CIELA Norma, ULSIT, Institute of Electronics at BAS, Institute of Space Technologies at BAS, Institute of Technology and Development, HIRON - Innovation Management, Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club, Association for regional socio-economic development, Euro-perspectives Foundation.
On April 17, the Sofia Smart City Marketplace conference was held in parallel to the exhibition, where representatives from all the organizations participating in the exhibition - members of the cluster, had attractive presentations. Special guests at this conference were representatives of institutions and organizations with which the cluster has built or is in a process of establishment of strong partnerships:
- Prof. Kostadin Kostadinov - Special Advisor to the Minister of Education and Science and co-founder of GIS Transfer Center,
- Elena Andonova - Directorate-General Joint Research Center of the European Commission,
- Louis Lapidaire - Executive Director of United Academics, Netherlands, and member of the Management Board of Knowledge 4 Innovation, Brussels,
- Massimo Andriolo - Director of the Italian branch of the global consulting practice IXL Center, Boston, and representative for Europe of the Global Institute for Innovation Management (GIMI),
- Luigi Amati - CEO of META and President of the Confederation of European Business Angels,
- Yalmaz Chakir - Founder and manager of Basaksehir Living Lab, Turkey, Member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL),
- Ljubo Georgiev - Head of Vision Sofia 2050,
- Vera Petkanchin - Chief Operating Officer of Junior Achievement Bulgaria.
More than 150 representatives of business, science, and education attended the conference.
The exhibition and the conference were organized with the financial support of the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" 2014-2020, co-funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund under project BG16RFOP002-2.009-0018-C01 "Creating organizational capacity and strategy for the development of Cluster Sofia city of knowledge".
