GoingToMeet

Our urban world is instrumented, interconnected and intelligent where information is translated into action. Smart infrastructure is becoming the basis of competition between nations, regions and cities. In this context, new conditions of use of public and private spaces are emerging, with highly competitive infrastructure adapted to new urban, economic, social, and environmental issues.

The role of territories in fostering the social and economic success is changing and is no longer linked simply with invention, but with a capacity to flexibly adopt new technologies, to deepen the social learning process, and to broaden the participation in dynamic business ecosystems. Successful systems of innovation are increasingly characterised by mobility, inclusivity, sustainability, and the robust adaptability of productive networks.

As a consequence, planning for creative territories has become less a matter simply of providing modern technical spaces, but of harnessing the investment in the innovation economy to an integrated approach to forward-looking urban development process. This shift is calling for new development instruments, new concepts for workspace, new synergies between living and working, and fresh approaches to the sustainable infrastructure of urban regions. In short, there is newly emerging urban development process in the knowledge-based economy.

As part of its programme ‘Objective 2030’ on the future of urban development, the Congress INTA34 will explore ways of bringing hard and soft development factors together with urban governance in pursuit of integrated approaches to smart development.