4YFN boosts visibility of entrepreneurial talent at the Smart City Expo

• The 4YFN Smart City Village, an exhibition space within the SCEWC, is showcasing 40 national and international startup projects that centre around the sustainable development of smart cities
• The startups participating in the event have their own exhibition space, business areas and a programme of activities to promote their projects and boost connections with potential investors and clients
• The 4YFN programme includes speakers such as Jeremy Goldberg, CTO at NYCx (the New York municipal programme dedicated to technological development); Francesca Bria, CTO at Barcelona City Hall; Emmanuel Léger, Managing Director of DataCity; and Frederico Augusto Munhoz, President of Curitiba Innovation Agency, among others

November 14, 2017

4 Years From Now (4YFN), the Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital) global business platform for the growing community of tech startups, will be present at the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) ‑ the most important smart cities conference in the world ‑ for the third year running, from today until 16 November.

4YFN has its own space, the 4YFN Smart City Village, which has been created to boost the visibility of entrepreneurs in the field and give them the opportunity to create synergies with the industry, investors and major institutions in the sector.

The 4YFN Smart City Village, which has grown this year with 500 m² of exhibition floorspace, will see the participation of more than 40 startups from 14 different countries. The entrepreneurs have their own exhibition space, business areas and a programme of activities to promote their projects and boost connections with potential investors and clients. Among the activities, the pitching sessions on the Agora Stage stand out. The stage is located at the very heart of the exhibition hall and is where participants will present their projects to the congress visitors.

This year, 4YFN has the support of GSMA, who are joining the event with 8 startups that focus on IoT solutions, a delegation from Holland formed of 12 startups, the IMPACT Growth European startup acceleration programme ‑ promoted by ISDI, Accelerace and with 4YFN as a partner and Kickstart Accelerator, spearheaded by Digitalswitzerland and operated by Impact Hub Zurich.

Esteban Redolfi, Director at 4YFN, highlights Barcelona’s consolidation as “one of the main hubs of the technology industry in southern Europe, attracting talent and investment and becoming a leading city in the smart city sector.” Redolfi adds that this is the reason why “4YFN continues to promote the startup community in this ever-growing sector.”

Among the startups participating in this edition, the following stand out:

• Mr-Bubo (Argentina): A platform that provides efficient event management, improving processes and the interaction between public organisations, citizens, users and communities.
• Watchity (Barcelona): A collaborative platform that allows an event video to be created using a live multicam video feed, providing the user with a wider perspective on an event.
• Live Cities (Barcelona): A platform that connects people to share resources, data and technology to nourish ideas and create projects in a digital collaboration environment.
• Terabee (France): A company that designs and manufactures 2D and 3D sensors in addition to other solutions related to robotics, automation, monitoring and IoT.
• Vocita (Liechtenstein): A company that creates online communities for local councils and public authorities to facilitate citizen participation in local decision-making processes in order to make direct democracy more tangible.

4YFN encourages reflection on smart cities

4YFN has also organised a series of round tables and workshops aimed at sector professionals, in which the transformational potential of entrepreneurs and startups within the field of smart cities will be analysed.

The programme includes the following sessions, among others:

• Round table: How startups are innovating cities. With the participation of: Shana Krakowsky, Director at The Platform; Jeremy Goldberg, CTO at NYCx (the New York municipal programme dedicated to technological development); Denys Bornauw, Director of Corporate Relations at Digital Attraxion; Emmanuel Léger, Managing Director at DataCity; and Frederico Augusto Munhoz, President of Curitiba Innovation Agency.
• Round table: Fresh ideas on privacy, trust and data lake management. With the participation of: Francesca Bria, CTO at Barcelona City Hall; Luis Sánchez, the mind behind Smart Santander; Chris Massot, Partner at Claro; Marc Pous, CEO at thethings.iO; Antonio Skarmeta, International and Strategic Research Projects Coordinator at Murcia University; and Mara Balestrini, CEO at Ideas for Change.
• Workshop: “Making garbage smarter” led by Shlomy Ashkenazi, CEO at GreenQ.