The Partnership for Urban Innovation: Global Conference 2010 brought together 276 invited participants from 27 countries to Shanghai, China to explore the nature of urban partnerships. At the conference, many projects were highlighted from mobility, urban planning, real estate, social innovation, technology platforms, applications and decision enabling spaces to illustrate the great innovations that are taking place in cities across the world.

A number of successful presentations were provided throughout the two days, followed by five breakout sessions and by an executive dinner hosted by Cisco, Metropolis and The Climate Group. Mayor Ge Hong Lin (Chengdu City, China), John Chambers (Cisco), Steve Howard (The Climate Group), Josep Roig (Metropolis), and other global leaders in urban innovation provided keynote speeches to explore the themes of:

o    How cities are responding to the Better City, Better Life theme of the World Expo

o    The launch and progress of urban transformation partnerships

o    Urban innovation in China

o    Global cities of the future

These themes were also explored in more detail in five breakout sessions (chaired by Cisco and knowledge partners):

1.     Urban Design and Networked Development - co-chaired with Urban Land Institute

2.     Smart and Connected Urban Mobility - co-chaired with Metropolis

3.     Sustainable Cities: Challenges and Solutions - co-chaired with The Climate Group

4.     Economic Growth in Cities - co-chaired with The World Bank

5.     Social Life of Cities - co-chaired with The Young Foundation

On the second day, a guided tour for delegates was provided to the World Expo site. The itinerary included a tour of leading urban innovation pavilions from Cisco (including executive reception showcase), SAIC/GM (including Connected Vehicle theatre show), The Expo Future Pavilion and to global city pavilions in the Urban Best Practices Area.

There are six main takeaways from the conference:

1. The nature of urban innovation partnerships is progressing to an inclusive, multi stakeholder network of networks to really scale and accelerate adoption of Smart+Connected urban innovation solutions. During the conference John Chambers handed over the Connected Urban Development program governance to Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group. Steve will bring the program forward under the new name Smart 2020: Cities and Regions initiative.

2. Urban partnerships have clearly moved progressively from what was exclusively a thought leadership discussion, through an operational stage, to the enabling of integrated decision making solutions for multiple communities, from individuals to governments and industries. Conference partners have made huge progress with multiple projects in cities globally.

3. The discussion within this and other urban innovation communities is clearly shifting towards the creation of an integrated urban approach to IT deployment across key program domains. This is very much in line with the urban services platform visions presented by the cities, Cisco and other speakers throughout the conference.

4. A number of speakers and discussions in the breakout sessions highlighted the need for cities to develop organically, beyond any grand master planning. Serendipitous, social, vibrant, inclusive communities can only develop full sustainability over the long term through the participation, innovation and drive from the many actors making up our complex systems of cities.

5. The Smart+Connected Community story has come of age, but there is much work to do to enable social innovation, governance frameworks and robust business models

6. Cities from all continents are extremely keen to engage with public-private partnerships in the deployment of innovative projects, based on the principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability. The opportunity for the partners at the conference is to engage on high impact transformational engagements, through a truly global community of cities focused on urban and technology innovation.

Please refer to presentations, briefings papers and video coverage from the conference at;

http://www.connectedurbandevelopment.org/conferences/shanghai_2010