- Cutting-edge innovative services and products such as smart home, smart life, and mobility on display

<Prime Minister Deok-soo Han and other notable figures in the opening performance at the opening ceremony of the ‘2022 World Smart City Expo’ held at KINTEX on the 31st of last month | Source - AVING NEWS>

‘2022 World Smart City Expo’, where visitors would see the current and future of smart cities using cutting-edge technology in one place, opened on August 31, for a total of three days until September 2, at Kintex Exhibition Hall 1, Goyang.

The World Smart City Expo, which began in 2017, was held on the largest scale everand face-to-face for the first time in three years, with 300 cities and companies from 20 countries participating. *(2019) 250 companies, (2021) 185 companies (2022) 300 companies participated.

Under the slogan of 'Digital Earth, Connecting Together', the eventwas held under the main themes of carbon neutrality, eco-friendly mobility, and urban resilience. Exhibition halls with six themes were created, including the Future City Hall, Urban Resilience Hall, Carbon Neutral Hall, and Smart Mobility Hall.

At the Sejong National Demonstration City Hall, future life services such as futuristic smart homes, resource recycling recovery robots, and autonomous driving robots, and at the Busan National Demonstration Center, innovative technologies such as smart water management systems, urban administration AR, safety VR, and AI sports centerswere provided and visitors could browse the innovative technologies that will unfold in our daily lives.

In addition, visitorscould experience smart services and products from 15 domestic cities such as Incheon, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, and Jeju, as well as various overseas cities such as the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Israel, and the Czech Republic.

The opening ceremony was held on the 31st, the first day of the event, and various domestic and foreign key figures, including Prime Minister Deok-soo Han participated.

At the opening ceremony, Jason Schenker, the world's leading futurist selected by Bloomberg, gave a keynote speech on future technologies and smart cities.

During the event, 18 conferences covering the latest topics in urban fields such as digital transformation, metaverse, ESG management, eco-friendly energy, and living labs were held with the participation of leading domestic and foreign experts from industry, academia, and research institutes.

Visitors could hearabout the deep insights into urban issues and the future direction of smart cities directly from prominent figures Chris Sheldrick, founder of What3Words, who envisioned a three-word address system for the planet, Alex Edmans, a Professor at London Business School, who emphasized corporate social contribution at the Davos Economic Forum, and Geoffrey West, a scientific authority on complex systems and a Distinguished Professor at the Santa Fe Institute in the United States.

On the Agora stage in the business event exhibition hall, an event was held for SMEs to attract marketing and investments in the smart city field. Buyers from more than 60 organizations in 20 overseas countries and 30 organizations from major domestic ordering companies were invited and held 1:1 purchasing/export consultations with Korean companies, providing valuable opportunities to develop corporate channels.

Innovative companies, cities, experts, and ideas contests that have contributed to the development of smart cities were awarded with Ministerial Prizes and Appreciation Plaques, andthe winners were also given benefits such as exhibiting their winning works in the exhibition hall, supporting promotional videos, and attending the 'WSCE Network Night'.

Visitors to the site were able to participate in autonomous driving rides, personal mobile mobility test drives, XR experiences, and giveaway events, and the(XR Experience) space wasmade up of various realistic contents such as fitness programs using AI smart mirrors, VR experience-type games, and educational sports programs which provided visitors with opportunities to experience.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport expected the expo, which resumed to face-to-face for the first time in three years since 2019, to provide visitors with an opportunity to experience future cities and provide companies with a new way to explore, and they plan to continuously develop the World Smart City Expo into an international event that leads the world smart city/technology.

Meanwhile, the World Smart City Expo (WSCE) is the largest smart city event in the Asia-Pacific region, where governments and business experts from all around the world in the field of smart city gather to create a sustainable and smart future city centered on ‘people’. Various programs such as conferences and side events, G2G programs, business events and exhibitions were held for domestic and foreign industry workers, the government and local governments, and officials from public institutions. △Smart City Construction & Infrastructure, △Smart Transportation, △Smart Energy & Environment, △Smart Life & Healthcare, △Smart Economy, and △Smart Government were the main exhibition items of the exhibition,which was hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Science and ICT and organized by LH, K-water and KINTEX.