Herne, 26 September, 2023 – Together with FIWARE Foundation e.V., the ruhrvalley Cluster e.V and the IDEASFORUM, the city of Herne encouraged networking beyond the city borders for an exchange on digitalisation, innovation, and smart city aspects.

More than 400 participants, over 30 partners, around 600 square meters of exhibition space and over 20 speakers on several stages: the first Smart City Days in Herne were a complete success.  On 21 and 22 September, guests from business, research, innovation and citizens met in the Mulvany Villa in the Shamrock park in Herne. The two-day event put a spotlight on topics like artificial intelligence, modern mobility or smart energy, making complex challenges tangible and designable for the 21st century. The program included the German-speaking FIWARE network meeting of the DACH region, the “Digital.Herne.Business” event, the “Smart City Summit” of the ruhrvalley innovation network, as well as exhibitions and information for citizens and students on projects and current plans, such as the Smart World by FIWARE built by Lego(c) brics.

The Smart City Days were a meet-up of top-class scientists from all over Germany and the EU. After the welcome by Mayor Dr Frank Dudda and State Secretary Josef Hovenjürgen, Prof. Dr. Sabine Sachweh (FH Dortmund), Prof. Dr. Pohlmann (Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Gelsenkirchen), Prof. Dr. Semih Severengiz (University of Applied Sciences, Bochum) were also present in Herne.

“The Smart City Days prove that Herne is capable of digitalisation: Herne has truly developed a milestone for the Ruhr metropolitan region”, says a delighted Mayor Dr. Frank Dudda. “We will repeat this event in the coming years and happily involve other neighbouring municipalities.”

A new cooperation between ruhrvalley Cluster e.V., IDEASFORUM and FIWARE was also agreed at the event. 

The agreement includes the promotion of technology transfer from science and research into real-world laboratories as well as event cooperations to support this technology transfer and market adoption. In particular, the cooperation partners will be focusing on the further development of open source applications, for example via the citizen science approach, hackathons and accompanying scientific research.

“With the Smart City Days and the high-caliber participation of scientists and start-ups, Herne has impressively demonstrated that coming together in this way in the field of the smart city even plays an important role internationally,” explains Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bock, partnership spokesperson of ruhrvalley Cluster e.V.

With the half-day meeting of the German-speaking FIWARE DACH network, the globally active FIWARE community came together for the first time in the Ruhr area (after latest meetings in Berlin and Vienna). The hot topics this time were built around smart cities, artificial intelligence and data platforms.

“The best ideas are born when people from different backgrounds come together and work on today’s challenges and tomorrow’s innovations,” explains Cristina Brandtstetter, Chief Marketing Officer of FIWARE. “With 39 FIWARE centers worldwide, so-called FIWARE iHubs, we bring open collaboration and open source technologies close to the people who want to work together on digital innovations with startups, universities, medium-sized companies, internationally operating corporations and standardisation institutions. iHubs, such as the IDEASFORUM in Herne, not only become contact points for practical testing and implementation, but also offer a platform for training, mentoring or project work in specific neighborhoods. Powerful participants and partnerships act like the locomotive on the train. The new cooperation between ruhrvalley Cluster e.V., IDEASFORUM and FIWARE will make digitisation more tangible, find answers and solutions to questions in the smart cities sector and bring other important players on board to tackle the major cross-sectional technological issues of tomorrow.”

Pierre Golz, Head of the Digitalisation Department explains: “The strategic cooperation between FIWARE, ruhrvalley and IDEASFORUM goes far beyond the usual Smart City events. The close connection of the players from science, society, art, administration and business has created something unique in our region: a citizen-oriented event that is a real novelty in the Ruhr region.”

The city of Herne would like to thank all visitors, speakers, exhibitors and partners.

Read the complete Press Release