/ Town Hall
Monday 25th April 2018
It stands out the participation of 175 international delegations
SMART ISLAND WORLD CONGRESS CLOSES ITS SECOND EDITION AND IT CONSOLIDATES AS THE REFERENCE EVENT
Great participation success of the second edition of the Smart Island World Congress. During two days, the event gathered 95 national and international speakers, as well as institutional representatives of more than a hundred islands around the world, such as Zanzibar (Mauritania), Paros, Milos or Tilos (Greece), Wight and Orkney (Great Britain), Bahrain, Cozumel (Mexico), or Port Louis (Mauritius), amongst others.
The second edition of the Smart Island World Congress, organised by Fira de Barcelona, with the support of the Government of the Balearic Islands, the Consell de Mallorca and the Calvià Town Hall, closes with a great participation success, consolidating the event as the main discussion forum between islands and positioning itself as a platform of reference in the strengthening of its relations.
The summit brought together more than 1,200 professionals and 175 international delegations from more than 100 islands. It also has to be highlighted the participation of some of the main international associations, such as Dafni, which gathers 44 island municipalities of Greece; Coe, representing some of the smallest islands in the Caribbean; Global Island Partnership, with more than 30 islands represented. In this sense, within the framework of the B2B Island2Island platform, more than 150 meetings have been held between companies and delegations.
15 lectures were given during the two days of the summit, where the challenges and opportunities daily faced by islands around the world, such as climate change, economic competitiveness, technological innovation and tourism, were discussed.
The lectures of the main speakers, Mónica Araya, director of Costa Rica Limpia and driver of the decarbonisation of the Central American country, and Doug Lansky, consultant and defender of tourist decongestion, have aroused great interest amongst attendees. As well as the interventions of Cristopher Jones, CEO of Energy of the European Commission, and José María Lassalle, secretary of State for Information Society and Digital Agenda.
Wight, Smart Island 2018 Award
The smart island award-giving event took place in the evening of 23rd April that crowned Wight (England) as Smart Island of the year. The Mexican island of Cozumel was designated as the best Smart Destination and the city of La Possession, pertaining to the island of La Reunión, prize to the best Sustainable Development initiative.
