D4.2 GDC Awards & Roadshows

Green Digital Charter
Roadshows & Awards

Green Digital Charter Roadshows & Awards (D4.2)

January 2018
Deliverable D4.2

Authors:
Rebecca Portail, EUROCITIES
Nikolaos Kontinakis, EUROCITIES

This publication has been produced within the GuiDanCe – Support the coordination of cities’
activities via the Green Digital Charter project. The GuiDanCe project is financed by the
Horizon2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (grant agreement no
653640). For more information on the GuiDanCe project and the Green Digital Charter:
www.greendigitalcharter.eu.
The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not
necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. The European Commission is not
responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Page 2

CONTENTS
1 Introduction .........................................................................................5

1.1 Communication and dissemination in GuiDanCe project.................................5
1.2 Showcase events & GDC Awards .............................................................5
2 Barcelona smart city expo – November 2016 ...................................................7
2.1 Building a strong community of smart cities in Europe ..................................7
2.2 GDC reception cocktail........................................................................8
3 “Cities in transition” – January 2017 & the 2nd GDC Awards..................................9
3.1 Cities in transition .............................................................................9
3.2 Meet the finalists ............................................................................ 10
3.3 The ceremony ................................................................................ 11

3.3.1 Citizen participation and impact on society ........................................ 11
3.3.2 Creation of European added value ................................................... 12
3.3.3 Promoting open and interoperable solutions ....................................... 12
3.4 Aftermath: a positive impact on cities’ communication ............................... 12
3.4.1 Providing extra visibility to local achievements.................................... 12
3.4.2 Opening for new activities............................................................. 14
4 Hannover CeBit – March 2017 ................................................................... 15
5 Barcelona smart city expo – November 2017 ................................................. 16
5.1 The European ‘Lighthouse’ networking area............................................. 16
5.2 Shedding light on exhibiting signatories: filmed interviews, promotional video and
social media posters ................................................................................ 17
6 “Imagine the urban future” – January 2018 & the 3rd GDC Awards........................ 19
6.1 Imagine the urban future ................................................................... 19
6.2 Meet the finalists ............................................................................ 20
6.3 The ceremony ................................................................................ 23
6.4 Aftermath: the positive communication impact ........................................ 24
6.4.1 GDC communication .................................................................... 24
6.4.2 Websites articles ........................................................................ 25
7 Annex I: Agenda of the Barcelona smart city expo 2016 speaking sessions (Lighthouse
projects stand) ......................................................................................... 27
8 Annex II: Barcelona smart city expo 2016 GDC poster ...................................... 30

Page 3

9 Annex III: Barcelona smart city expo 2016 photos ........................................... 31
10 Annex IV: “Cities in transition” programme ................................................ 34
11 Annex V: “Cities in transition” list of registrations ....................................... 36
12 Annex VI: “Cities in transition” photos...................................................... 43
13 Annex VII: 2016 GDC awards – jury report .................................................. 47
14 Annex VIII: Hannover CeBit 2017 photos .................................................... 54
15 Annex IX: Agenda of the Barcelona smart city expo 2017 speaking sessions (Lighthouse
projects stand) ......................................................................................... 56
16 Annex X: Barcelona smart city expo 2017 photos.......................................... 57
17 Annex XI: “Imagine the urban future” programme ........................................ 59
18 Annex XII: “Imagine the urban future” list of registrations .............................. 61
19 Annex XIII: “Imagine the urban future” photos ............................................ 68
20 Annex XIV: 2017 GDC awards – jury report ................................................. 76

Page 4

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Communication and dissemination in GuiDanCe project

The fourth work package of GuiDanCe is dedicated to the promotion of the Green Digital
Charter (GDC) to cities and third stakeholders, essentially helping and supporting the
activities undertaken in the rest of the project. Outreach activities are undertaken to foster
better and more efficient synergies and cooperation possibilities between the community of
urban practitioners and decision-makers and stakeholder communities such as national and
EU policy-makers, relevant industry and research in related fields, including energy,
transport, buildings & construction, eGovernment, ICT, etc.

Participation in external events – well-known European ICT and sustainable development
conferences, EU major events, etc. – and the development of a number of well-targeted
communication activities allows GDC to participate in the wider dialogues and showcase the
achievements of GDC and its signatory cities as a whole.

The main target groups of the communication and dissemination work package includes local
authorities and its politicians and administration, regional, national and EU institutions and
ICT industry and NGOs. Citizens are foreseen to be addressed, mainly indirectly, in the effort
to promote cities as organisations that “lead by example”.

1.2 Showcase events & GDC Awards

Two large showcase events (roadshows) were foreseen to support the branding of GDC and
provide wide visibility and profiling partnerships between GDC cities, EUROCITIES and third
stakeholders.

On the course of the project, it was decided that GuiDanCe would follow a mixed strategy
of organising showcase events and participating in flagship events relevant to smart cities.

For the first part of the strategy, two events were organised in Brussels back-to-back with
the EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum meetings:

 “Cities in transition: The role of digital in shaping our future cities” on 25 January
2017;

 “Imagine the urban future: Innovation, Collaboration, Trust” on 23 January 2018.

In both events, high-level speaker relevant to GDC and its objectives were invited to
participate and contribute to the plenary discussions. In total, 14 workshops were organised,
some of them as part of the training activities of the Green Digital Charter. Each event lasted
a full day and used an interactive format consisting of workshops, roundtables or panel
debates. They were successful in reaching the target of 100 participants each.

Aiming at the best synergies possible, the two events were organised in parallel to the
preparation of the second and third collections of GDC case studies distributed on the day
of the event. During the events, the winners of the Green Digital Charter awards were also

Page 5

announced.
In general, award competitions are an opportunity for local authorities to showcase to a
wider audience their projects and the hard work being undertaken at the local level. They
provide extra visibility to the finalists in the weeks preceding and following the ceremony,
both at city and project levels. In addition to these objectives, GDC awards have been used
as an extra incentive for signatory cities to contribute to the project’s annual collection of
case-studies.
For the second part of the strategy, the Green Digital Charter and GuiDanCe participated in
joint stands and activities with the EIP SCC1 and the lighthouse projects2 in three different
occasions:

 “Smart city world expo congress”3, Barcelona, 15-17 November 20164;
 “CeBIT”5, Hannover, 20-14 March 2017;
 “Smart city world expo congress”, Barcelona, 14-16 November 20176.

1 http://eu-smartcities.eu/
2 https://www.smartcities-infosystem.eu/scc-lighthouse-projects
3 http://www.smartcityexpo.com/en/
4 https://smartcities-infosystem.eu/newsroom/news/2016-smart-city-expo-world-congress-empowering-
citizens-barcelona
5 https://www.cebit.de/en/
6 http://www.smartcityexpo.com/en/event-2017

Page 6

2 BARCELONA SMART CITY EXPO – NOVEMBER 2016

GuiDanCe’ active participation in the annual Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in
Barcelona was conceived as a way to promote GDC and its signatory cities to the broadest
possible audience. By means of speaking slots and contribution in exhibition stands,
GuiDanCe was positioning itself as EUROCITIES’ contribution to the European Commission’s
presence at the Expo.
2.1 Building a strong community of smart cities in Europe
From 15 to 17 November 2016, GuiDanCe teamed up with six Horizon 2020 ‘lighthouse’
projects and two other initiatives under the umbrella of the European Innovation Partnership
on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) to showcase their achievements in building a
strong community of smart cities in Europe. Alongside GDC were gathered representatives
and partners from the following projects: GrowSmarter, REMOURBAN, Triangulum,
REPLICATE, Sharing Cities and SmartEnCity, as well as supporting actions CITYkeys and
ESPRESSO.

Figure 1: Nikolaos Kontinakis presenting the ‘Green Digital Charter: Smart cities with and for the
citizens’ (16 November, 16:00 – 16:30)

The speaking sessions hosted by the project partners – city representatives, business

Page 7

partners, NGOs – proved to be particularly popular. They covered most of the hot topics
within the smart cities context, including: smart city development; performance
measurement; sustainable urban mobility; citizen engagement; business models; and finance
and procurement. The speakers represented Cologne and Stockholm (GrowSmarter), Milan
and Greenwich (Sharing Cities), Vienna (Smarter Together), Rotterdam (CITYkeys and
ESPRESSO), Ghent, Valencia and Turin (GDC), San Sebastian (Replicate), and Sabadell
(Triangulum), among others.
GDC signatories contributed to the different sessions held on the three days. In particular,
the Bristol approach to citizen sensing and Valencia’s urban participatory planning to social
innovation fed the debate ‘Citizen Focus’ on 15 November afternoon session. The agenda of
speaking sessions can be found in the Annexes.
2.2 GDC reception cocktail
The GDC team hosted a reception cocktail in the evening of the 16th, which was a huge hit
with participants. Nikolaos Kontinakis, Green Digital Charter coordinator, introduced the
short addresses by Paola Pisano, deputy mayor of Turin in charge of innovation and smart
city, Mathias Reddmann (EC, DG CONNECT) and Bart Rosseau, chief data officer for the City
of Ghent.

Figure 2: GDC cocktail at the Smart City Expo on 16 November 2017 (18:00)

More information: http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/our-participation-in-barcelona-
smart-city-expo-world-congress-2016

Page 8

3 “CITIES IN TRANSITION” – JANUARY 2017 & THE 2ND
GDC AWARDS

The Green Digital Charter (GDC) second awards ceremony for smart city projects took place
during the conference ‘Cities in Transition – The role of digital in shaping our future cities’,
jointly organised by EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum (KSF) and the GuiDanCe project
on 25 January 2017 in Brussels7.

3.1 Cities in transition

The first roadshow happened in Brussels on 25 January 2017 alongside EUROCITIES’
Knowledge Society Forum winter meeting. Hosted by the Microsoft Innovation Centre located
nearby the European Parliament, the event brought together over 100 participants, including
civil servants, smart city experts, delegates from the EU institutions and partners from the
private sector.

After MEP Kaja Kallas’ keynote speech on the
digital economy, the morning’s plenary
session enables local politicians to share their
visions and expectations of the Urban Agenda
Partnership on Digital Transition. The
conference approaches other EU policies and
initiatives, including the European Innovation
Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities
(EIP-SCC).

The political debate was followed by two series
of technical workshops held in parallel. Each
workshop addressed opportunities and
challenges, examples from cities and open
challenges discussed during interactive sessions
focusing on the following eight themes: data, e-
government, IoT and the future city, standards,
urban platforms, performance measurement of
smart city project, connectivity and
procurement for innovation.

More information about the event can be found also at:

 http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/cities-in-transition-the-role-of-digital-in-

7 http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/cities-in-transition-the-role-of-digital-in-shaping-our-future-cities

Page 9

shaping-our-future-cities
 http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/cities-in-transition-resume-of-the-day-and-

take-aways-from-8-parallel-sessions
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/eurocities/31803751074/in/album-

72157676251093873/

3.2 Meet the finalists

For this first edition8, three award categories have
been defined. Twenty-one projects from 14 cities
competed in one or several categories. Three
projects were shortlisted and one awarded per
category.

Members of the jury were Miimu Airaksinen (VTT,
Finland); Peter Bosch (TNO, Netherlands); Jan
Dictus (GOJA Consulting, Austria); and Cristobal
Irazoqui (European Commission, DG CNECT).

The jury’s report can be found in the Annexes.

Category Citizen participation Creation of European Promoting open and
Criteria and impact on added-value interoperable
society solutions

 The project has  The project has been in  The project has
actively involved line with EU policies adopted and
citizens and/or and/or targets implemented open
other civil society data and/or interfaces
stakeholders  The project has involved
in its implementation a  The project has
 The project has a number of cities across deployed and/or
strong bottom-up Europe promoted
approach and/or has interoperable
developed tools to  The project has been solutions
be used in a bottom-
up approach replicated (or has the  The project has tried
potential to be
 The project is replicated) in a number to promote ‘urban
of European cities, platforms’ or the
expected to tackle, preferably in different better use/re-use of
or has already countries infrastructure,
tackled, societal services, tools, etc.
challenges in the
city

8 A first award competition was already organised in 2013 under the NiCE project, the previous project supporting
the implementation of the Green Digital Charter.

Page 10

Category Citizen participation Creation of European Promoting open and
and impact on added-value interoperable
society solutions

Shortlisted Reykjavik (Better Bristol (REPLICATE) Amsterdam (Open Data –
Reykjavik and My Smart Neighbourhoods)
Neighbourhood) Lisbon (BESOS) Rijeka (iURBAN smart
Decision Support System)
Utrecht (Traffic Lights Zagreb (Zagreb Energy Valencia (Valencia Smart
Hotline) Week) City Platform)

Zaragoza (Zaragoza Rijeka
Citizen Card)

Winner Zaragoza Lisbon

3.3 The ceremony

The Awards ceremony closed the day of conference. Members of the jury welcomed on stage
all shortlisted and progressively announced the winners in each category.

Figure 3: Family photo of winners and runners-up

3.3.1 Citizen participation and impact on society
Carlos Alocen, Daniel Sarasa and Gerardo Lahuerta received the award on behalf of Zaragoza
in this category, in recognition of the impact of the ‘Zaragoza Citizen Card’. This multi-
purpose smart (RFID) card is part of Zaragoza’s collaborative approach to facilitate citizens’
access to public services. - http://bit.ly/2jv37BE

Page 11

3.3.2 Creation of European added value
Lisbon’s integrated management system for energy efficiency developed under the FP7-
funded BESOS project was recognised in the ‘European added-value’ category. Implemented
in Lisbon and Barcelona, the project is a perfect example of how digital technologies can
help in the global fight against climate change. The project’s coordinator, Francisco
Goncalves, received the award on behalf of the city of Lisbon. - http://bit.ly/2iZxvVn
3.3.3 Promoting open and interoperable solutions
Finally, Tatjana Perse from the city of Rijeka received the award on ‘Promoting open and
interoperable solutions’ for the iURBAN smart Decision Support System (DSS) project. This
integrated, multilevel and scalable tool has been designed for cities’ administration to
critically analyse energy consumption patterns and increase energy efficiency in public
buildings - http://bit.ly/2iZxvVn
An article has also been published on EUROCITIES website and communicated to the whole
network: http://eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/-Cities-in-transition-conference-GDC-
awards-winners-WSPO-AHYLLL.
3.4 Aftermath: a positive impact on cities’ communication
3.4.1 Providing extra visibility to local achievements
Two videos, one documenting the roadshow event while the other focused on the Green
Digital Charter award ceremony, as well as a series of short individual interviews have been
realised and published on our YouTube channel9.

Figure 4: Overview of GDC YouTube playlist dedicated to the ‘Cities in Transition’ roadshow

Communication on the GDC 2016 Awards following the event was spread to cities’ and

9 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbATprtqEvVHSPgctO7v8bRTlTc0p6br8

Page 12

projects’ websites and local blogs as well European initiatives websites.

# News title Date Language URL

What does http://www.epnconsulting.eu/blog/2017/01/25/what-
1 European mean 25/01/2017 English does-europe-mean-to-europe/

to Europe? http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/-Cities-in-
transition-conference-GDC-awards-winners-WSPO-AHYLLL
‘Cities in 26/01/2017 English
transition’ https://www.rijeka.hr/prestizna-nagrada-green-digital-
2 conference & charter-gradu-rijeci-projekt-iurban/
GDC awards
winners https://eblnews.com/news/croatia/rijeka-wins-european-
award-promoting-energy-efficiency-53826
Prestižna
nagrada Green
3 Digital Charter 26/01/2017 Croatian
Gradu Rijeci za
projekt iURBAN

Rijeka wins 27/01/2017 English
European
award for
4 promoting
energy
efficiency

Rijeka’s

implementation

of iURBAN

awarded best http://www.iurban-project.eu/hr/vijesti/novosti/407-
rijeka%E2%80%99s-implementation-of-iurban-awarded-
5 GDC smart city 27/01/2017 English best-gdc-smart-city-project-on-%E2%80%98promoting-open-
project on interoperable-solutions%E2%80%99-2.html

‘Promoting http://eu-smartcities.eu/conversation/cities-transition-
role-digital-shaping-our-future-think-local-act-european
open &

interoperable

solutions’

CITIES IN

TRANSITION –

The role of

6 digital in 28/01/2017 English
shaping our

future ‘Think

Local, Act

European’

Page 13

# News title Date Language URL

Zaragoza

Citizen Card https://openyourcity.com/2017/01/zaragoza-citizen-card-
best-green-digital-charter-project-for-citizen-
7 wins the 31/01/2017 English participation-and-societal-impact/

‘Green Digital

Charter’ Award

The city of https://www.iesve.com/discoveries/article/6522/the-
Rijeka wins city-of-rijeka-wins-green-digital-charter-award-2016-for-
Green Digital its-implementation-of-iurban
8 Charter Award 03/02/2017 English
2016 for its
implementation
of iURBAN

Projecto BESOS

e a cidade de http://lisboaenova.org/pt/noticias/item/3338-projecto-
07/02/2017 Portuguese besos-e-a-cidade-de-lisboa-vencem-o-green-digital-
9 Lisboa vencem
o Green Digital charter-awards-2016

Charter Awards

2016

Data sharing

and co-creation https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-sharing-co-
creation-boost-urban-innovation-daniel-sarasa-funes/
10 will boost 19/02/2017 English

urban

innovation

Zaragoza Smart

Citizen Card: a https://openyourcity.com/2017/03/zaragoza-smart-
citizen-card-tiny-plastic-card-that-fits-100-ideas/
11 tiny plastic 09/03/2017 English (including video)

card that fits

100 ideas

3.4.2 Opening for new activities

Two webinars held in the first semester of 2016 involved best practices selected for the
Award competition:

 Joint GDC and Sharing Cities webinar on ‘citizen participation and co-creation in
smart cities’, 14 March 2017. Better Reykjavik was presented by Magnus Josefsson -
http://bit.ly/2mcJf4X

 Data management and citizens’ privacy in smart cities’ open governance, 26 April
2017. Daniel Sarasa, smart city program manager for Zaragoza City Council presented
‘Guidelines for urban data sharing’ - http://bit.ly/2omBDO1

Page 14

4 HANNOVER CEBIT – MARCH 2017

From 20 to 24 March 2017, GuiDanCe was
exhibiting at the CeBIT, the world’s largest
digital fair annually held in Hannover. From
cloud technology and cybersecurity to
robotics, drones and the Internet of Things,
this gigantic fair showcased the latest and
best products and services in the digital
market.
The Smart City Forum’s stand was located in
one corner of the Public Sector Parc (Halle 7
– A14).
Coordinated by the Urban Software Institute
[ui!], the whole area was dedicated to smart
city projects being developed in collaboration
with German cities, universities, and/or
companies. Also represented were private
partners from Horizon 2020 lighthouse
projects.
Under the ‘EUROPA’ banner, GuiDanCe, altogether with the CITYkeys and ESPRESSO
projects, represented the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities
(EIP-SCC). Over five days, visitors could obtain information on the EIP-SCC action cluster
focusing on urban platforms and get more insights on European standardisation efforts in the
sector of smart cities and best practices collected from the Charter’s signatories.

More information : http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/cebit17-gdcguidance-and-citykeys-
showcased-at-the-worlds-largest-digital-trade-fair

Page 15

5 BARCELONA SMART CITY EXPO – NOVEMBER 2017

Under the theme ‘Empower Cities, Empower People’, twelve ‘smart city’ project covering
almost 60 cities across Europe came together at the seventh edition of the Smart City World
Expo Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona from 14 to 16 November 2017. Just as for the previous
edition, GuiDanCe was part of the European Pavilion, a stand shared with all on-going smart
cities ‘lighthouse’ projects funded under the Horizon 2020 programme and the EIP-SCC.
Ahead of the Expo, GuiDanCe offered to cities a limited number of visitor passes to signatory
cities. Three persons, respectively from Bordeaux and Valencia, benefited from the extra
tickets granted to GuiDanCe as part of its exhibition to the fair.

5.1 The European ‘Lighthouse’
networking area
Throughout the three days, the European stand
hosted a number of debates where different city
representatives came together to showcase their
achievements. Visitors at the booth were invited
to thematic debates on common opportunities
and challenges met by all city involved in such
projects. 15 cities involved in lighthouse
projects and related initiatives (Smart Cities
Information System, European Innovation Partnership, ESPRESSO project) have signed the
Green Digital Charter.
The session themes ranged from concrete solutions such as electric mobility, district heating,
waste collection to horizontal issues such as business models, replication and governance.

Page 16

The full agenda can be found in the Annexes.
In addition to the sessions, the GDC team was present at the booth to answer visitors’
questions, promote the publications and consolidate synergies with the different projects.

5.2 Shedding light on exhibiting signatories: filmed interviews,
promotional video and social media posters

In collaboration with Vision Communication, the
GDC team offered to signatory cities exhibiting at
the Fira the opportunity to give an interview, thus
providing extra visibility to their presence at the
Expo.
Representatives from the cities of Bordeaux,
Barcelona, Ghent, Nantes, Tampere and Valencia
responded to our call and were included in the
video.

The full video can be watched on GDC
YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/3c9RQw5LZjo.
Nine individual interviews are also
available on the dedicated Smart City
Expo World Congress playlist
(http://bit.ly/2rWhlRF).
Each interviewee was asked to speak
about the reason for his/her presence at
the Expo, the benefits of collaborating
with GDC and why their respective cities
can be considered as ‘smart’. All videos
were disseminated through the Smart City
Expo account, amplifying the voice of
cities.
As part of our communication effort around the event, Vision Communication created social
media posters to be disseminated on Twitter (@GDCharter). Some were even animated gif.
The idea behind these posters was to spread the word on cities’ tangible measures
implemented to improve citizens’ life.

Page 17

Figure 5: Social media poster for Bordeaux

More information:
 Lighthouse projects lead the way to a smarter Europe at Smart City EXPO -
http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/lighthouse-projects-lead-the-way-to-a-smarter-
europe-at-smart-city-expo
 ‘Citizens and cities centre stage as EUROCITIES amplifies its members’ voice at the
Barcelona Smart City Expo - http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/Citizens-
and-cities-centre-stage-as-EUROCITIES-amplifies-its-members-voices-at-the-
Barcelona-Smart-City-Expo-WSPO-AU8LA9
 VIDEO: Meet GDC signatories in Barcelona for the Smart City Expo -
http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/video-meet-gdc-signatories-in-barcelona-for-
the-smart-city-expo
 Meet EUROCITIES team at Barcelona Smart City Expo (14-16 November 2017)
http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/meet-eurocities-team-at-barcelona-smart-city-
expo-14-16-november-2017
 EUROCITIES at Barcelona Smart City Expo -
http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/allcontent/EUROCITIES-at-Barcelona-Smart-
City-Expo-WSPO-ASJH6M

Page 18

6 “IMAGINE THE URBAN FUTURE” – JANUARY 2018 &
THE 3RD GDC AWARDS

The third edition of the Green Digital
Charter (GDC) award ceremony for
smart city projects took place during
the conference ‘Imagine the Urban
Future – Innovation, Collaboration,
Innovation’ jointly organised by
EUROCITIES Knowledge Society
Forum (KSF) and the GuiDanCe
project on 23 January 2018 in
Brussels10.
6.1 Imagine the urban future
Untitled ‘Imagine the Urban Future’, the final event of the GuiDanCe project intended to
open up the horizon beyond the issues usually tackled within EUROCITIES’ Knowledge Society
Forum. This full-day conference gathered city representatives, policy makers and experts to
debate over expectations, opportunities and the impact of digital technologies in co-creating
future cities and societies, altogether with citizens.

Figure 6: Mary-Ann Schreurs, vice-mayor for innovation, city of Eindhoven

10 http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/imagining-an-urban-future-of-technology-in-service-of-people-highlights-
from-gdc-ksf-joint-conference

Page 19

After a series of speeches to set the scene, the morning panel discussion broadened the
debate on the societal transformation directly related to the digitalisation trend. Jobs and
skills were at the heart of the exchanges, especially following the intervention of Claire
Courteille, director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Brussels office.

The debate was followed by two rounds of parallel technical workshops in which participants
were called to bring their specific needs, challenges, concerns and examples in six different
themes: standard management frameworks, business models and procurement, knowledge
management (in the morning) and cities as planners or cities as platforms, technological
innovation and connectivity (in the afternoon).

Each session benefited from an expert’s initial input, followed by a moderated discussion.
Outcomes were presented during a last plenary session.

More information : http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/imagining-an-urban-future-of-
technology-in-service-of-people-highlights-from-gdc-ksf-joint-conference

6.2 Meet the finalists

For this last edition11, only one award category was defined. Projects from eight different
cities competed in this last edition. All submitted projects were included in the 2017
collection of GDC case-studies (http://bit.ly/GDC-2017-case-studies-flipbook). Three
projects were shortlisted and one finally awarded on the day of the conference.

The selection criteria were designed to encompass the holistic approach promoted at the EU
level. To hope being awarded ‘best GDC project for 2017’, each application had to explain
how the project:

 involves the use of ICT;
 helps the city deliver its objectives and targets (improving quality of life, supporting

sustainable climate change action, innovation, etc.);
 actively involves citizens and/or other civil society stakeholders;
 has the potential to be replicated in other European cities.

More details are included in the jury’s report that can be found in the Annexes. Members of
the jury were Miimu Airaksinen (VTT, Finland); Jan Dictus (GOJA Consulting, Austria); and
Cristobal Irazoqui (smart city expert). The three shortlisted projects were:

City & Amsterdam Bristol Dublin
project CITY-zen virtual power plant REPLICATE iSCAPE

Project
title

11 A first award competition was already organised in 2013 under the NiCE project, the previous project supporting
the implementation of the Green Digital Charter.

Page 20

Descriptio The virtual power plant Piloted through Through a Living Lab
n consists in an online ICT- 150 ‘smart approach, the project
platform which aggregates homes’, promotes the use of low-cost
Image production and consumption Bristol’s energy sensors and engaging
of solar energy and stores demand citizens in the use of
the surplus locally of around management alternative solution
40 households in Amsterdam system can processes to environmental
Nieuw-West district. The holistically problems. iScape tackles the
project combines the monitor and problem of reducing air
possibility for individual control energy pollution impacts, focusing
users to trade on the energy use in order to on the use of ‘Passive
market and to support the level out peak Control Systems’ in urban
local grid at peak moments demand. spaces, on policy
thanks to a new battery intervention and behavioural
system. http://replicat changes of citizens lifestyle.
http://www.cityzen- e-project.eu/ https://www.iscapeproject.
smartcity.eu/ressources/sm eu/
art-grids/virtual-power-
plant/

Shortlisted projects contributed to making a very active social media campaign ahead of the
ceremony on Twitter (@GDCharter).

Page 21

Page 22

More information : http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/gdc-2017-awards-shortlisted-cities-
announced

6.3 The ceremony

The 2017 GDC Award ceremony closed the conference. After
screening to the public, the video made at the occasion of the
Barcelona Smart City Expo, two members of the jury came on stage
and started announcing the two runners-up. Unfortunately, Dublin’s
iSCAPE project did not managed to find a representative and only
two delegates could receive their price.
The certificate and award were shipped altogether to Dublin in the
following weeks.

Page 23

Figure 7: Jan Willem Eising (project coordinator of the CityZEN virtual power plant) with Miimu
Airaksinen and Jan Dictus

6.4 Aftermath: the positive communication impact
6.4.1 GDC communication
As part of our communication effort around the event, we collaborated with Vision
Communication to realise one video documenting the conference as well as a series of short
individual interviews. All videos are expected to be published soon on our YouTube channel.
As in Barcelona, Vision Communication created social media posters to be disseminated on
Twitter (@GDCharter). The idea behind these posters was to sum up how key speakers from
the conference envision the urban future.

Figure 8: Social media poster designed for the Twitter follow-up campaign

Page 24

6.4.2 Websites articles

Communication on the GDC 2017 Awards prior and following the event was spread to cities’
and projects’ websites.

# Title Date Languag URL
e

GDC 2017

Awards – http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/GDC-2017-
Awards-shortlisted-cities-have-been-announced-WSPO-
1 shortlisted 12/01/201 English AUXMUM
cities have 8
https://www.amsterdameconomicboard.com/nieuws/city
been -zen-virtual-power-plant-genomineerd-green-digital-
charter-award
announced
http://www.connectingbristol.org/the-replicate-project-
City-zen 15/01/201 Dutch has-been-shortlisted-for-the-gdc-2017-awards/
Virtual 8
Power Plant http://www.connectingbristol.org/bristol-wins-runner-
genomineer 14/01/201 English up-award/
2 d voor de 8
Green
Digital
Charter
Award

The
REPLICATE
project has
been
3 shortlisted
for the GDC
2017
Awards!

Innovative 23/01/201 English
Bristol 8
energy
4 initiative
wins award/
wins runner
up award

GDC 2017 24/01/201 English http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/gdc-2017-award-the-
5 Award – the 8 winner-is

winner is…!

Page 25

# Title Date Languag URL
e

City-zen

Virtual

Power Plant

6 wins the English http://www.cityzen-smartcity.eu/city-zen-virtual-power-
Green plant-wins-the-green-digital-charter-award-2017/

Digital https://www.amsterdameconomicboard.com/nieuws/city
-zen-virtual-power-plant-wint-green-digital-charter-
Charter award-2017

Award 2017 https://www.alliander.com/nl/media/nieuws/award-
voor-virtual-power-plant
City-zen
https://amsterdamsmartcity.com/posts/city-zen-virtual-
Virtual power-plant-wins-the-green-digita

Power Plant https://exe.energy/nieuws/city-zen-virtual-power-plant-
wint-green-digital-charter-award-2017/
7 wint de 24/01/201 Dutch
Green 8

Digital

Charter

Award 2017

Award voor 24/01/201 Dutch
8 Virtual 8

Power Plan

City-zen

Virtual

Power Plant

9 wins the 25/01/201 English
Green 8

Digital

Charter

Award 2017

City-zen

virtual

1 power plant 26/01/201 Dutch
0 wint Green 8
Digital

Charter

Award 2017!

Page 26

7 ANNEX I: AGENDA OF THE BARCELONA SMART CITY
EXPO 2016 SPEAKING SESSIONS (LIGHTHOUSE
P ROJECTS STAND)

Page 27

Page 28

Page 29

8 ANNEX II: BARCELONA SMART CITY EXPO 2016 GDC
POSTER

Page 30

9 ANNEX III: BARCELONA SMART CITY EXPO 2016
PHOTOS

Figure 9: Mathias Reddmann (EC-DG CNECT) presenting the EIP SCC

Figure 10: Mathias Reddmann (EC-DG CNECT) talking about the Green Digital Charter
Page 31

Figure 11: Nikolaos Kontinakis (GDC, EUROCITIES) presenting the Green Digital Charter

Figure 12: The Green Digital Charter reception
Page 32

Figure 13: The Green Digital Charter reception

Figure 14: The Green Digital Charter reception
Page 33

10 ANNEX IV: “CITIES IN TRANSITION” PROGRAMME

Page 34

Page 35

11 ANNEX V: “CITIES IN TRANSITION” LIST OF
REGIST RATI ONS

Page 36

Page 37

Page 38

Page 39

Page 40

Page 41

Page 42

12 ANNEX VI: “CITIES IN TRANSITION” PHOTOS

Figure 15: The debate panel

Figure 16: Morning plenary

Page 43

Figure 17: MEP Maja Kallas

Figure 18: The GDC awards 2016 jury
Page 44

Figure 19: Family photos of all winners
Figure 20: Reporting back from the workshops

Page 45

Figure 21: Reporting back from the workshops

Figure 22: The Zaragoza delegation after the awards’ ceremony
Page 46

13 ANNEX VII: 2016 GDC AWARDS – JURY REPORT

Page 47

Page 48

Page 49

Page 50