URBIS SMART CITY FAIR
2.-4.9. 2020

In the course of 2 days URBIS 2020 has brought more than 50 speakers, experts on Smart City topic to the Brno exhibition grounds. The third day local companies have opened their gates to the visitors and showed them how they applied the smart solutions in practice! With this URBIS has introduced the biggest conference on the Smart City topic in the Czech Republic.

Among other important points was also the presentation on outcomes and experiences from Lighthouse projects supported by Horizon 2020. Meeting on the C-Roads project was held in the Exhibition Center as well and was led by Martin Böhm from AustriaTech and Martin Pichl from the Ministry of Transport. This project will be leading the intelligent transportation in following years. How? You can come to check that out next year, in June 2021, in Brno, where international event “C-ITS Road Show” will be part of the URBIS event and it will present, how vehicles communicate among themselves and with the transport infrastructure.

What was said about URBIS Fair

Markéta Vaňková, Brno Mayor

I am very grateful for this year’s URBIS SMART CITY FAIR. Nowadays, most events like this are being cancelled, so I am glad that this event could be held – even though in limited range; also that representatives of cities, municipalities as well as universities and business subjects had the chance meet and exchange their experiences. It means that they will have something to continue with and I believe that next year’s event will be held in fuller range and that there will be even more news and information.

Jiří Kuliš, CEO of Trade Fairs Brno Co.

URBIS SMART CITY FAIR is an important conference and exhibition, which supports new technologies for cities and municipalities. Current limitations of traveling prohibited foreign guests and speakers to attend this event, however we reacted to the situation and therefore kept the overall format of this professional conference. We are glad, that this event could happen despite the current limitations of COVID situation in such range.

František Kubeš, Brno city Municipality

URBIS is unique in combining attractive conference program with possibility to visit stands, where you can see particular projects of exhibiting companies. I see this year’s event in a very positive way. I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout; many representatives from other cities have also attended.   

David Koppitz, Deputy Minister for Regional Development

As I came only for the lecture I cannot evaluate the event as a whole. Besides, we notice, that URBIS was held in unusual conditions. Therefore we are glad to be here this year together. It is important to meet and talk about the topics from different points of view and explain and be willing to invest into the smart city projects. For us it is crucial to ensure the State’s greater ability to act and support cities and municipalities.

Vladimír Jurik, Smart Cities Club Slovakia

I attend URBIS every year. For me, it is the only platform in Central Europe, where representatives of cities, municipalities, national level representatives, and technology suppliers meet all together. They can exchange their experiences together and informally as well as discuss hot topics. I believe that this concept will also continue in the future.

Tomáš Apeltauer, Brno University of Technology

URBIS is absolutely crucial project for the Smart Cities area. Brno is trying to be the leader in this area; therefore it’s the ideal place to host such event. Attendees can draw a lot of inspiration here, which is more important in this field, rather than in others. Smart city as such does not have fixed definition – everyone sees something different under this keyword – so without exchanging the experiences this could not work at all.

Vít Prýgl, Brno Public Transport Authority

Brno Public Transport Authority and I personally attend URBIS event every year. Actually, we even sign up some of our solutions in Golden URBIS competition, and so far we are very successful. I think that it is very important that people involved in this field meet. This year excursions into companies are very inspirational, as attendees can see the smart solutions applied in practice. URBIS brings hope for us – after half a year we finally all met face to face. I must say this year’s event was smaller, however, I feel like all the right people, who really wanted to be here, came.

Roman Nekula, Management Director at Brno Road Co.

I highly appreciate, that URBIS SMART CITY FAIR conference holds discussion among academics, research facilities and business as well. I would appreciate, if next year event had more practical showcases, so that we could draw some inspiration from realized projects of foreign partners, which are useful for the cities themselves.

Soňa Jonášová, founder of INCIEN (Institute of Circular Economy)

I see URBIS as an opportunity for discussion across individual sectors of experts; it’s called connecting the bubbles. Each and every one of us specializes in something different, but very specific; nevertheless, if we connect those solutions with the word “smart”, there is a room for synergy. For me URBIS and similar events are opportunities to understand new technological solutions, which we need to implement into our projects that are based on visions from the beginning. Due to communication with other visitors of the conference we can see, that our visions are realistic. It is an interesting and pleasant clash with technological practice.