Smart City Day in Biel/Bienne Switzerland
Bringing together Smart City initiatives in the largest bilingual city in Switzerland
30 September 2021 at the Palais des Congrès in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. As the sun came up in the largest bilingual city in Switzerland, the hustle and bustle of Smart City Day were on the horizon.
Switzerland is home to over 2,000 municipalities, speaking four different languages and many of which are looking to Smart City solutions as a key component of their upcoming goals regarding climate, economy, liveability and more. Smart City Day 2021 (organised by Innobridge SA) was composed of conferences, booths, round table discussions and an award presentation. The full programme can be found here.
Implementing Smart City Solutions in Switzerland and Europe
Alexander Schmidt (CEO/Founder) and Anja Verena Kranz (Global Strategic Partnerships Lead) of BABLE introduced Smart Cities and the most current challenges facing municipalities in Europe. Because funding is an overarching cited challenge, the topic around how to match challenges and objectives to existing funding opportunities for Smart City projects was a focal point.
Public-Private Partnerships
Which new models of co-creation and co-financing align the objectives and priorities of the different actors?
Xavier Arreguit (Managing Director, Innobridge) opened the panel with the following introduction —
The pandemic has put pressure on the financial resources of most cities and municipalities. In the face of ever-increasing challenges, collaboration is essential to better design our cities and finance a sustainable future. Partnerships between the public and private sectors allow for the sharing of skills and resources, especially when it comes to purchasing and developing digital tools for our cities and municipalities or investing in solutions that can benefit from a scale factor. Many possibilities are emerging around new business models, but just as many questions arise: How to choose the right partners? What organisation, what governance ensures cohesion between the parties? Which business models allow all parties to reach a win-win situation? These themes will be addressed and illustrated by current projects and exchanges between participants in this round table.
The panel, including Fermino Cecchini (Municipality of Yverdon-les-Bains), Gérald Pittet (Municipality of Pully), Anja Verena Kranz (BABLE GmbH), Christophe Andrae (OFISA Informatique) and Olivier Ferrari (One Creation) discussed the topic and gave examples of current and past projects.
Some highlights of the discussion:
In the framework of a partnership, the municipalities of Yverdon and Pully financed part of a new investment, providing part of the business knowledge and being part of a common project so that the product could develop according to their needs. The private company provided product development and marketing skills, and took a financial risk, as the municipalities did not cover the full cost of development or marketing and the product was not yet well defined at the start of the project. The product will live and evolve afterwards while leaving the private partners with the possibility of exploiting the solution commercially afterwards.
Anja Verena Kranz (BABLE) gave some insights into collaboration and co-financing projects in Europe, between multiple cities and private partners. Several of these examples can be found on the BABLE Smart City platform, such as Coordinating Freight Movements in Antwerp and Reduction of Inner-City Traffic Load in Reutlingen.
For more examples of PPP Smart City projects, browse Use Cases and Projects on the BABLE platform.
The success of public-private projects is determined by the willingness of the partners to work together and respect from all parties.
Mobility Roundtable
What is the relevant data and how can it be used to improve the experience of those on the move and of residents?
While every city and region varies in status-quo, many challenges the cities face in regards to mobility are similar. To progress with tackling mobility challenges, cities must first understand their status-quo to then make the subsequent steps. Tools such as the UMAM tool on the BABLE platform, help cities to analyse where they are at and then define the measures. For example, what they should avoid/reduce, shift/maintain and improve upon.
Alexander Schmidt (CEO/Founder at BABLE) —
As transport engineers we have now more data available than ever for planning — and not just for specific modes of transport but for the whole trips across all modes. However, it is not enough to only measure the amount of traffic — we have to understand social, environmental and governance factors to decide how we should change a mobility system.
SMAVARD Award — Startups
A Special Edition of the SMAVARD Award (Smart City Implementation Award) for startups in Switzerland was given to Neolec, Pindex and Uzufly.
Barthélémy Rochat, Chief Digital Officer of Biel/Bienne presented the award to the contestants.
More information about the award can be found here.
Conclusion
Guest international speakers from BABLE’s community (Tartu, Estonia and Helsingborg, Sweden) also presented their initiatives and learnings to the broader audience virtually.
As the cocktails were poured at the closing of the 8th annual Smart City Day in Switzerland, industry and public partners alike shook hands and took away the learnings and connections that form the internal infrastructure to tackle the most pressing challenges facing our cities today.
More information can be found also in the SCD’21 Newsletter (in French)!
