Smart Country Convention 2023

Smart Country Convention 2023: OWL and Fraunhofer well positioned for the future

Berlin, [24.11.2023] - The sixth edition of the Smart Country Convention (SCCON) in Berlin was a great success, bringing together over 15,000 participants and more than 350 partners on an exhibition area of around 15,500 m2.

From 07 to 09 November, participants exchanged ideas with each other and with over 600 speakers on four stages.

Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) presented itself in Berlin as a pioneer for innovative smart city projects: Model projects in Detmold, Gütersloh, Paderborn and Lemgo/Kalletal as well as the Smart City initiatives in the districts of Lippe, Bielefeld, Herford and Bad Salzuflen were represented at SCCON with a high level of commitment. Many of these projects received significant scientific support from the Fraunhofer Institute in Lemgo.

The convention's core topics this year were environmental protection, sustainability, climate adaptation and mobility. The event reflected how smart infrastructures and city administration are increasingly merging. The IoT-based smart city is increasingly becoming a tool for administration, making work easier and providing a fact-based basis for decision-making - in a wide variety of use cases.

The trade fair presented numerous smart city use cases from practice, including 3D simulations of the impact of construction measures in neighbourhoods or in traffic, evaluations of environmental sensors and traffic data with an impact on the urban area, as well as the recording of pedestrian movement patterns. These examples show how urban planning and development measures can become more well-founded, as more specific decisions can be made based on data and facts. A special focus was also placed on digitally supported measures for climate impact adaptation, such as flood warning systems and smart drainage systems. Fraunhofer IOSB-INA was active in all of these areas.

SCCON 2023 proved to be a pioneering platform for the digitalisation of administration. Under the motto "OWL and Fraunhofer - Well positioned for the future", the trade fair presented developments in areas such as the secure cloud, digitalisation of administrative processes, low-code programming and the advancing Online Access Act.

One important trend was the increased focus on cybersecurity. From end devices to data centres, this area took on greater significance. The trade fair also presented innovative approaches such as the digital twin for more efficient urban planning and administration. Participation and proximity to citizens remained top themes, with 3D models and video presentations driving the involvement of citizens in planning processes.

Project manager Jens-Peter Seick from the Fraunhofer Institute in Lemgo drew a positive conclusion for the OWL region: "Overall, SCCON 2023 once again proved to be a forward-looking platform for the exchange of ideas and innovations in the field of digital administration. And we in OWL are doing well in a national comparison: with our research infrastructures in real environments such as our Lemgo Digital real-world laboratory, we have created a solid basis of expertise and experience for the topics that are important today and in the future."