In this episode, recorded live at Smart City Expo World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, we are joined by Eddie Copeland, Director, and Genta Hajri, Digital Innovation Delivery Lead at the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI).

London consists of 33 separate administrative areas, which can often lead to fragmented public services. Eddie and Genta explain how LOTI acts as a collaborative layer, helping boroughs use data, technology, and innovation to solve shared challenges together.

The conversation covers impactful initiatives such as 'Get Online London', the city's digital inclusion service, and how improved data sharing is ensuring vulnerable children are auto-enrolled for free school meals. We also explore the practical application of AI in social care to support workflows while maintaining human accountability, and the team's unique use of immersive theatre to build empathy and better partnerships between the public and private sectors.

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In this episode, recorded live at Smart City Expo World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, we sit down with Darío Moreno, Mayor of the Municipality of Sagunto, Spain. He shares the story of how his city secured a historic €3 billion investment for a Volkswagen battery gigafactory, positioning Sagunto as a key player in Europe's reindustrialisation.

Our guest explains the "leap of faith" required to develop 5 million square meters of industrial land in record time and how this project is transforming the local economy. He also discusses the unique challenge of governing a city with two distinct souls, the 3,000 year old historic centre and the industrial port, while managing housing pressures and mobility.

We also dive into his background as a United Nations lawyer, his call for stronger multilateralism, and why he compares Sagunto's bright future to a blooming orchid.

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Dans cet épisode, Guillaume Ruet, maire de Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur et conseiller départemental de la Côte-d’Or, partage sa vision d’une ville à taille humaine qui refuse d’être une simple cité-dortoir en périphérie de Dijon. La conversation aborde ses quatre grandes priorités : sécurité et tranquillité du quotidien, transition écologique ambitieuse (écoles rénovées, patrimoine décarboné, milliers d’arbres plantés), soutien aux familles et aux aînés avec la démarche « ville amie des aînés », et lutte contre le décrochage civique l’incivisme par une « démocratie implicative » où chacun contribue. Il revient aussi sur l’aide aux commerces locaux en temps de crise, le rôle du sport comme politique de santé et de cohésion, et sa définition très humaine de la Smart City : anticiper les besoins de demain, impliquer les habitants et refuser le « ce n’est pas possible ».

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In this episode, Isaac Silveira, Municipal Director of the Department of Communication, Technology and Image at the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, paints for us the portrait of Cascais as a “human” Smart City, where technology is a tool to strengthen relationships, build trust and improve daily life for residents, workers, students and visitors.

Our guest explains how the Cascais Operations Centre and Cascais BI enable real-time, data-driven decisions, while the open GeoCascais platform empowers citizens with transparent spatial information. He also discusses tourism management, sustainability on the Atlantic coast, breaking silos inside the municipality, and his vision of being “smart with a soul” – combining digital intelligence, social inclusion and environmental resilience for future generations.

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In this episode recorded live at the RethinkCities Summit 2025, Allan Pilgaard-Jensen, Managing Director of ProjectZero for the City of Sønderborg, Denmark, and Drew Turner, Director of Global Decarbonisation Solutions at Danfoss, share how Sønderborg is working towards carbon neutrality by 2029 through a long-standing public-private partnership.

The conversation explores why successful energy transitions are “80% people and 20% technology,” highlighting the importance of governance “hotspots,” stakeholder ownership and clear business cases for every project. They discuss Sønderborg’s “lighthouse” initiatives that link hospitals, data centres and industries through district energy and heat recovery systems, showing how concept designs and shared master plans avoid silos and build momentum.

Allan and Drew also reflect on replicating this model in larger cities, the economics of the final 10% of decarbonisation, including carbon capture, and why collaboration and realistic payback are crucial to scaling climate action. Throughout, they stress that Smart Cities thrive when plans turn into projects with shared benefits for people and business alike.

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In this episode recorded live at the ReThink Cities Summit 2025, Markus Paulsson, Energy Strategist at the City of Lund, Sweden, walks us through how Lund couples visible delivery with system change. District heating supplies around 90% of demand and went fossil-free two years early, helping halve emissions from 1990 to 2020.

We unpack EnergyNet, a bottom-up, digitally controlled, self-steering architecture that links building to building and pushes capability to the edge. We also explore CoAction Lund, an ecosystem model bringing property owners, employers, infrastructure operators and solution providers into shared action beyond the city’s formal mandate.

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In this episode recorded live at the ReThink Cities Summit 2025, we hear from Deputy Mayor Adam Pustelnik about the next moves of the city of Łódź, Poland: uncovering a historic river segment in the city centre to catalyse place-making, with works already underway, and visible momentum on reindustrialisation as factories and industrial parks rise on large sites. At the same time, the team confronts urban sprawl: an area where benefits are long term while the near-term impacts are often political and socially sensitive. The discussion also tackles the green transformation head-on, arguing that the greatest obstacles are political and that leaders must reach beyond their familiar bubbles to build broader support.

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In this episode recorded live at the RethinkCities Summit 2025, Sunniva Fossen Haugen, Climate Advisor at the Municipality of Trondheim, Norway, shares their journey from offshore oil and gas into climate policy and city logistics. The discussion tackles why commercial fleets lag behind passenger EVs (touching on incentives, payload limits, charging logistics and grid constraints) and how consolidation hubs guided by the ABC localisation principle can cut urban mileage. Sunniva outlines Trondheim’s six focus areas for zero-emission logistics, explains new procurement requirements (zero-emission/biogas vehicles in municipal contracts), and stresses the need for shared data platforms and co-operation with industry. A municipal pilot combining local food purchasing with low-emission deliveries shows how to align multiple sustainability goals. Throughout, they argue for fairness, predictability, and holistic Avoid-Shift-Improve planning to embed freight into mainstream mobility strategy. 

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Bu podcast bölümümüzde, Şanlıurfa’nın iklim dirençli kent olma yolculuğunu Şanlıurfa Büyükşehir Belediyesi İklim Değişikliği ve Sıfır Atık Daire Başkanı Mehmet Demir Bey ile konuşuyoruz. Genç nüfus yapısından  hareketle şehrin fırsatlarını ve kırılganlıklarını masaya yatırıyor; Pathways2Resilience ve paralelinde ilerleyen CLIMAAX projelerinde yürütülen çalıştaylar, paydaşlarla ortak vizyon kurma, öncelikli temaların belirlenmesi ve raporlama adımlarını ele alıyoruz. Sohbetimiz; kuraklık gibi öne çıkan risklere karşı uygulanabilir çözümleri, dışarıdan gelen fikirlerin yerel kapasiteyi nasıl güçlendirdiğini ve bilgi/paylaşım pratiklerinin karar alma süreçlerine etkisini irdeliyor. Bölümün sonunda “akıllı şehir” kavramını teknoloji merkezli değil, insan hayatını kolaylaştıran ve kapsayıcı bir yaklaşım olarak yorumlayan bir çerçeve sunuyoruz. 

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In this episode, Sherelle Fairweather, Digital Strategy Lead at Manchester City Council, UK, and Minu Tegethoff, Senior Expert Digital Services & Technologies at Drees & Sommer, unpack how Manchester is moving from digital strategy to delivery.

They outline the city’s four pillars (people & inclusion, “what’s in the ground” connectivity, tech for good, and sustainability & resilience) then explain how a recent digital maturity assessment shifted focus from glossy plans to building a deployable network. You’ll hear why aligning definitions across departments matters, why governance, ownership and budgets are the real unblockers, and how a small advisory “front door” can speed fit-for-purpose projects.

They also dig into data stewardship and discovery as the backbone for impact, the often-overlooked risk of operations and maintenance, and partnership models that help cities learn beyond pilots.

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