CREATING URBAN TECH: INTERNATIONALE EXPERTEN ENTWERFEN STADT DER ZUKUNFT
On September 16 at the Berliner Wirtschaftskonferenz (Berlin Economic Summit), more than 250 guests from Germany and abroad discussed the city of the future. Senator for Economy Cornelia Yzer hosted the event for the first time under the heading “Creating Urban Tech” as an international conference on urban technologies thereby underlining the State of Berlin’s declared goal of positioning Berlin as Europe’s number one smart city.
This claim is not unreasonable. Berlin is not only the Federal Capital, but also a start-up capital, as emphasized by Governing Mayor Michael Müller in his opening address: “Every 20 hours a company is founded in Berlin and it is surprising how many of them are successful”. 60,000 people are now already at work on the start-up scene and the trend is on the increase. A large number of qualified and talented young people from all over the world as well as a diverse scientific landscape make Berlin the ideal location for future-oriented industries. And last but not least, space is also a decisive factor in the German capital’s appeal: Berlin has ample room to bring together economy and knowledge. With this, Müller was also making particular reference to the planned research and industrial park Berlin TXL – The Urban Tech Republic.
Collaboration in what are called “Living Labs”, such as those planned at the Tegel airport site, will become increasingly important in the future. The complex subject of the smart city requires open cooperation between all branches of industry and knowledge, and in this regard the Urban Tech Republic will play a central role for Berlin. “The site is unique in its size and in its location right in the heart of the city. We will be given the possibility to not only develop ideas for the future city, but to cover the entire value chain from testing to production in one single location”, says Philipp Bouteiller, CEO of the developing company Tegel Projekt GmbH.
However, at Creating Urban Tech the participants were also addressing the very practical questions that currently shape the discourse of tomorrow’ smart city. Solutions to the increasing demands for rapid data processing were presented by Bernd Heinrichs of Cisco, among others. Stefan Jenzowsky of Siemens made clear that the digital change requires a radical re-thinking in both companies and governments. After all, everything that can be digitalized, will be digitalized: from production processes and modes of transport to household appliances.
At this moment the Internet of Everything may still seem like science fiction to many people. After all, we have not yet reached the point where our refrigerator can write out a digital shopping list all by itself. However, the share-economy phenomenon proves that digitalization is already taking deeper root in the analog world. Examples such as car-sharing, which has now become widespread, or the accommodation-service platform AirBnB demonstrate that fewer and fewer people own all the things they use. Welcome to the digital village.
To design the livable and attractive city of the future, all participants are asked to play their part. This is why at the conference the “Urban Tech Manifesto” was created outlining the smart city of 2030 and describing what is required of all participants for it to become a reality. You can download the Manifesto from Creating Urban Tech’s webpage.
