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Two-day Smart Living City Dubai starts tomorrow

The event will feature a number of panel discussions on the smart city ecosystem of Dubai and the smart city trend globally.

Dubai: Smart Living City Dubai 2014, the city’s first event that brings together top company executives, high-ranking public officials, academic speakers and startups with a high-rated audience of decision makers, mentors and incubators, will take place in Dubai on September 15 and 16.

The event will feature a number of panel discussions on the smart city ecosystem of Dubai and the smart city trend globally, plus presentations of smart solutions, workshops and a startup competition.

Opening remarks will be made by Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy, followed by keynotes on Dubai’s ambition to become the smartest city of the world by Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality, and Hani Al Hamli, secretary-general of the Dubai Economic Council, or DEC.

Al Hamli said that the DEC’s participation comes in terms of its keenness to support the Smart City initiative launched last year by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Al Hamli’s note will be addressing the significance of public-private partnership, or PPP, paradigm in achieving the stated initiative. “PPP is the most effective tool that could harness the potentials of both public and private sectors in meeting the broader economic aims, including the smart city initiative,” he said.

“It will showcase the best smart products and services, and major opportunities for sectors such as tourism, transportation, environment, education, and telecommunication. It will also reveal effective strategies for the cooperative development and deployment of a smart integrated system between the private and public sectors. Ultimately, it will contribute to the efforts to turn Dubai to be on the top of smartest cities in the world,” Al Hamli added.

Top-notch moderators and speakers on the first day will dive into topics such as “Creating a Smart Ecosystem”, “Big Data and Smart Government Solutions” and “Urban Development, Transport and Utilities”, as well as the “Future of Education”, a panel hosted by the Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University.

Day two puts in the spotlight startups and entrepreneurs that are a crucial part of a smart city ecosystem. Panels will focus on “Creating an Innovation Hub”, “Funding & Scaling Startups” and the “Startup Ecosystem in the Middle East”. The programme also features a competition where startups will be pitching their smart city solutions to a prominent jury.

The event is organised by Inside Investor and Tasweek Real Estate Marketing and Development in partnership with Dubai Municipality. The Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University and the DEC are two main partners in the event.