How delaware Belgium helps shape the future of Ghent

Tomorrow Ghent concludes the ‘Smart Cities’ project that kicked off with a brainstorming session in May 2016. The session, which delaware facilitated, brought together 300 people – citizens, academics, companies and authorities – to examine the challenges that cities like Ghent are currently struggling with. It resulted in a list of innovative ideas revolving around the seven pillars of a smart city. Several participants went home with tasks: over the last 18 months, they have been working on products and/or services that can help prepare Ghent for a smart future.

‘Smart energy’ and ‘smart mobility’

Energy provider Eandis, for example, elaborated upon a ‘smart energy’ project, with the help of delaware and Fifthplay. The objective: to investigate ways to demonstrate the benefits of aligning energy consumption and production. Eandis used gamification to achieve its aim: staff from the city of Ghent and employees from Eandis competed against each other in a challenge to use as much energy as possible right at the moment when solar panels and wind turbines were producing it. 

TomTom, for its part, initiated a project on mobility. While existing navigation systems calculate travel time from A to B based on the driving time only, the TomTom solution includes the time needed for parking, too.

Illustrating the added value of smart cities

These cases – and many others – will be presented and discussed during Tomorrow Ghent, Smart City of People, which takes place from 22 to 24 September. On Friday (11:00 – 16:00), the citizens of Ghent are welcome to explore the city of the future during the first – free – ‘Smart City of People expo’. From Friday to Sunday evening, all the stakeholders will open a dialogue during the JCI National Convention – two days of workshops, trainings, round table discussions, presentations and more. 

“Today’s cities are facing a series of social, economic and ecological challenges. We believe that innovation and technology can help us address the challenges and accelerate the development of solutions. The Smart City initiative helps us illustrate the added value of smart cities. Last year’s brainstorming session and Tomorrow Ghent are great ways to foster dialogue and inspire people. Ghent is a great starting point for this experience. Its positioning as Smart City of People is unique in the world. We believe that smart cities cannot exist without smart citizens, as they are the ones that instill change,” says Peter Anckaert, chairman of the JCI Gent Artevelde advisory board.

Building a smart Ghent

“delaware develops long-term solutions that help its customers work better, smarter and in more sustainable ways. We are a socially responsible company that truly cares about the environment in which we work,” says Peter Oyserman, partner at delaware. “Our most recent and biggest office is located in Ghent. We love the city and feel welcome here. It is therefore gratifying to build on our experience and expertise to help shape the future of Ghent.”