30/5/2016
Mirror, mirror… who’s the smartest city of them all?
Make no mistake. It’s my home town Ghent, that is the smartest. And it deserves this title because in May 2016, it hosted the `
JCI Smart City Challenge 2016’. This massive brainstorming session brought together 230 people — citizens, representatives from companies and the midfield — to come up with great ideas to make the city a whole lot smarter. Put all these components together in the mix, and you get strong ideas that will now be realized.
The weather was great, the location was inspiring, the support from the city was heart-warming (Mayor Termont, several aldermen and Ghent’s city strategist Karl-Filip Coenegrachts did the opening statements), all the attendees were very enthusiastic. The setting for creativity was ideal.
For us Delawarians, it was an absolute treat and an honor to be the facilitator and moderator for the day and the 7 smart tracks.
7 tracks were identified, around which smart ideas were collected. At the end of the day, the goal was to present 1 specific idea in each particular area.