Since bee smart city is a proud supporter of the FIWARE Foundation, we were lucky enough to attend the 2023 FIWARE Global Summit in Vienna, hosted by Stadt Wien at the city’s magnificent rathaus. Together with my colleague, Phil Brüggemann—one of our wonderful Smart City consultants--we headed to Austria to learn more about open-source, data sovereignty, and how to derive real value from data. We also took advantage of this wonderful opportunity to network, catching up with old friends, and forging new and important connections. This is how it unfolded...
FIWARE Global Summit 2023
As one of the leading open-source conferences for entrepreneurs, public entities, startups, and developers in the field of Smart Cities, Smart Energy, Smart Agriculture, Smart Water, and Smart Industry, the event featured a packed program that covered a broad spectrum.
FIWARE members from all over the world gathered to showcase their innovations and progress built using FIWARE technology, highlighting how open-source and open-standards can be deployed for the benefit of all stakeholders.
The key areas of the summit included:
- The role of open-source technology in digital transformation
- The future of Smart Solutions across various sectors (Cities, Industry, Agriculture, Energy, Water)
- The role of digital innovation in the public sector
- Public-Private Partnerships
- Sustainable development and technology
- Trends reshaping the future of data spaces and how to benefit from them
These themes were a large part of the 2023 summit, with a stronger focus on new trends and emerging technologies.
Naturally, it also featured keynote speeches, panel discussions, networking events, hands-on workshops, and developer forums. For me, the keynote speeches and panel discussions were the most valuable part of the conference.
Luckily, I was able to interview many of the speakers, including the esteemed Jonathan Reichental, representatives of the Principality of Monaco, and my old friend Lea Hemetsberger from DKSR.
FIWARE also invited guests to an exclusive dinner and networking experience, sampling Vienna’s famous wines in the city’s vineyards.
Unfortunately, Phil and I were unable to attend due to urgent bee smart city business, but from what we heard, we missed a wonderful time. However, we spent the evening dining with our colleague from the Smart City Expo World Congress, Esther Fuldauer, with great conversation and lively banter.
While we missed the dinner, we were able to experience Vienna and take in the city’s majesty. However, the greatest experience was being hosted in the historic Rathaus (City Hall) in Vienna, Austria. A fitting venue for a summit centered around Smart Cities, the Rathaus is a symbol of a city that successfully merges its rich history with modern technology and innovation.
In Summary:
The FIWARE Global Summit 2023 was a fantastic experience. It was a well-organised event with impressively curated content, with well-known keynote speakers. For those in the open-source world, or those who want to know more about FIWARE, next year’s event is a must-visit.
Personally, I had a great time, and look forward to attending next year.'
Oh, one last point: even though we were in close proximity for the duration of the event, I was able to resist the temptation to interview FIWARE CEO Ulrich Ahle…since I’ve interviewed him so many times this year already, and I’m sure he’s quite sick of me. 😅
