Smart Cities” are based on advanced digitalization to foster sustainable development and improve the quality of life of residents. It utilizes the technology in areas such as energy use, mobility, security, and governance.
In the past, technological innovation has been mainly driven by large global technology providers. However, “Smart Cities” create opportunities for innovation, calling for new approaches in business sectors. Startups are emerging as new providers of smart urban services for smart cities, and also creators of jobs.
Our session aims to assess the challenges and opportunities that startups are facing and discuss strategies to create enabling ecosystems where startups can thrive, by tackling the following questions. What regulatory framework needs to be made to make startups survive and scale up later? What would be the role of city government and what policies/regulations should be implemented to support business innovation of startups? What would be the strategies for startups to harness a new ecosystem and become a Unicorn? How can we draw a line between freedom to innovate and freedom to privacy in the use of open data?