SCWS2026-Agenda

09:00 - 09:10

Climate ActionWelcome

Speakers

Chris Cooke

Founder & CEO

SmartCitiesWorld

Sandra Baer

USA Brand Ambassador

SmartCitiesWorld

09:10 - 09:30

Climate ActionKeynote: City of Kranj – reinventing the city: green, smart, future-ready

Speakers

Matjaž Rakovec

Mayor

City of Kranj

Johanna Sutton

Associate Director

Resilient Cities Catalyst

09:30 - 09:50

Climate ActionKeynote: Climate change – can we afford not to adapt?

Speakers

Julia King

The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS

House of Lords

09:50 - 10:10

Climate ActionKeynote: Sustainable urban mobility and transport in Limerick, a green city

Speakers

John Moran

Mayor

Limerick City and County Council

Johanna Sutton

Associate Director

Resilient Cities Catalyst

10:10 - 11:00

Climate ActionPanel discussion: Portfolio financing for climate action – building investable pipelines across sectors

Speakers

Eileen Higgins

Mayor

City of Miami

Mary Kerr

Climate Finance Manager

Glasgow City Council

Caroline Haas

Head of Sustainable Finance Advisory

NatWest

+2

11:00 - 11:30

Climate ActionNetworking break

11:30 - 11:45

Climate ActionPresentation: Decarbonising mobility systems – from data to coordinated urban transport

Speakers

Willem-Frederik Metzelaar

Regional Director, West & North

EIT Urban Mobility

11:45 - 12:35

Climate ActionPanel discussion: Digital twins for climate-aware urban planning

Speakers

Deirdre Ferguson

City Innovation Programme Lead

Belfast City Council

Dr. Nuha Eltinay

Principal Advisor, Resilience and Climate Adaptation

ICLEI Europe

Andrew Clark

Business Lead, Place

Energy Systems Catapult

Deborah Colville

National Director of Place, Strategy, Insights and Partnerships | Professor of Practice (Hon)

Digital Catapult | Queen's University, Belfast

11:55 - 12:15

Digital InnovationKeynote: Closing the green finance gap – how agentic AI is creating a faster path to net zero for cities

Speakers

Lord Marvin Rees OBE

Former Mayor

Bristol City Council

Paul Wilson

Advisory Board Chair

SmartCitiesWorld

11:55 - 12:45

Urban ResiliencePanel discussion: Building resilient cities – integrating climate, social, and infrastructure risks

Speakers

Mete Coban MBE

Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy

Julie Foley OBE

Director of Flood Risk Strategy & Adaptation

Environment Agency

Cllr Susan Aitken

Leader

Glasgow City Council

+2

12:15 - 12:50

Digital InnovationFireside chat: The citiverse initiative – deploying AI-powered virtual worlds to solve real city challenges

Speakers

Karl-Filip Coenegrachts

Chair of the Governing Body and Executive Director

Open & Agile Smart Cities

Paul Wilson

Advisory Board Chair

SmartCitiesWorld

12:35 - 13:15

Climate ActionPanel discussion: Clean air cities – data, technology and policy pathways to healthier urban environments

Speakers

Daniela Vilar

Minister of Environment

Province of Buenos Aires

Andreea Szántó

Climate Resilience Expert

European Environmental Agency (EEA)

Mike Saxton

Project Director

Breathe Cities

Guilherme Johnston

Senior Specialist

Interact EU Programme

12:45 - 13:10

Urban ResilienceFireside chat: City as a product – lessons from running Guatemala’s Cayalá urban development like a high-performance organisation

Speakers

Juan Carlos López

Chief Value Management Officer & CTO

Grupo Cayalá, City of Cayalá

Matthew Jacobs

Chief Product Officer

Scrum Inc

12:50 - 13:15

Digital InnovationFireside chat: Digital public services 2.0 – automated workflows, resident-first design and insight-driven delivery

Speakers

Liz St Louis

Smart City Director

Sunderland City Council

Paul Wilson

Advisory Board Chair

SmartCitiesWorld

13:10 - 13:55

Urban ResilienceLunch

13:15 - 14:00

Climate ActionLunch

13:15 - 14:20

Digital InnovationLunch

13:55 - 14:10

Urban ResilienceFireside chat: Adapting to heat as the new UK norm

Speakers

Emma Howard Boyd CBE

Chair

National Heat Risk Commission

Hélène Chartier

Director of Urban Planning and Design

C40 Cities

14:00 - 14:30

Climate ActionFireside chat: Climate-ready development – embedding adaptation into urban growth strategies

Speakers

Katarzyna Szymczak-Pomianowska

Director of Strategy and Sustainable Development Department

Municipality of Wroclaw

Clare Wildfire

Global Cities Lead, Mott MacDonald Fellow

Mott MacDonald

14:10 - 14:30

Urban ResiliencePresentation: Psychology as a tool for civic innovation

Speakers

Chris Murray

Founder

Urban Psyche

14:20 - 15:20

Digital InnovationFireside chat: Unlocking the value of systems thinking in the built environment

Speakers

Alexandra Bolton OBE

Founder

Built Environment Connective

Anna Bowskill

Strategic Advisor

Built Environment Collective | Allora

14:30 - 15:20

Urban ResiliencePanel discussion: Community-centred resilience – protecting vulnerable populations

Speakers

Dr. Nuha Eltinay

Principal Advisor, Resilience and Climate Adaptation

ICLEI Europe

Millie Williamson

Senior Resilience Officer – Communities, London Resilience Unit

Greater London Authority

Konstantina Karydi

Managing Director | VP, Climate Change Hub, Greece

Resilient Cities Catalyst | MCAP Secretariat

+2

14:30 - 15:10

Climate ActionPanel discussion: Scaling building retrofits: driving delivery, data accuracy and performance assurance

Speakers

Jack Ostrofsky

Warmer Homes London Partnerships and Programmes Director

London Councils

Sara Edmonds

Co-Director

National Retrofit Hub

Nigel Banks

Technical Director – Zero Bills & Low Carbon Homes

Octopus Energy

Pete McNeill

Head of Retrofit

Centre for Sustainable Energy

15:10 - 16:00

Climate ActionPanel discussion: Smarter energy for smarter cities

Speakers

Brian McGuigan

Director, Smart Cities EMEA

Itron

William Edge

Head of EIS Ventures

E.ON UK

Matt Neal

Global Energy & Resources and Public Sector Lead

Endava

+2

15:20 - 15:40

Urban ResilienceFireside chat: Financing resilience – unlocking long-term investment for adaptation

Speakers

Kellie Beirne

Chief Executive

Cardiff Capital Region

Sam Markey

Managing Director

Recurve

15:20 - 15:40

Digital InnovationFireside chat: Data-driven operations and personalised experiences for mixed-use developments

Speakers

Alton Hassan

Former Digital Director | Co-Founder

Battersea Power Station | Jaway AI

Luke Antoniou

Senior Editor

SmartCitiesWorld

15:40 - 16:20

Digital InnovationNetworking break

15:40 - 16:20

Urban ResilienceNetworking break

15:40 - 16:20

Digital InnovationNetworking break

15:40 - 16:20

Networking break

15:40 - 16:10

Urban ResilienceNetworking break

16:00 - 16:25

Climate ActionNetworking break

16:10 - 16:25

Urban ResiliencePresentation: Whole-system transitions towards climate resilience – Mission Adaptation to Climate Change and the New European Bauhaus

Speakers

Dr Barbara Widera PhD

Member of Mission Board EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change

Wrocław University of Technology

16:20 - 16:40

Digital InnovationPresentation: The resilient city of the future – digital innovation meeting community needs

Speakers

Sherelle Fairweather

Digital Strategy Lead

Manchester City Council

16:25 - 16:40

Urban ResilienceFireside chat: Rethinking innovation financing principles in energy

Speakers

Nick Telford-Reed

Advisory Board Member and Executive Partner

Endava

Sam Markey

Managing Director

Recurve

16:25 - 16:45

Climate ActionFireside chat: Data foundations for climate delivery – from collection to integrated decision support

Speakers

Jason Lowe OBE

Met Office Principal Fellow and Head of Climate Services

Met Office

Clare Wildfire

Global Cities Lead, Mott MacDonald Fellow

Mott MacDonald

16:40 - 16:50

Urban ResiliencePresentation: State of procurement report – is your city leaving its most powerful resilience tool on the table?

Speakers

Sam Markey

Managing Director

Recurve

16:40 - 17:20

Digital InnovationPanel discussion: From pilot to platform – scaling digital innovation citywide

Speakers

Raj Mack

Head of Digital City & Innovation

Birmingham City Council

Sophie Naue

Urban Innovation Specialist

UNITAC-Hamburg (United Nations Innovations Technology Accelerator for Cities)

Warren Smith

Director of Insight, Innovation and Impact

Posterity Global

Sadaf Mozaffarian

Worldwide Public Sector Solution Sales Lead

Microsoft

16:45 - 17:15

Climate ActionFireside chat: From strategy to action – practitioner-led energy planning in South East London

Speakers

Akos Revesz

Senior Manager, Cities & Regions

The Carbon Trust

Cassidy Travis

Head of Climate Change & Sustainability

London Borough of Lambeth

16:50 - 17:20

Urban ResiliencePresentation: Greater Muscat Structure Plan – Oman's data-driven approach to urban resilience and rapid urbanisation

Speakers

Phil Bonds

Director of Urban Design

Broadway Malyan

17:15 - 17:25

Climate ActionClosing remarks

Speakers

Sandra Baer

USA Brand Ambassador

SmartCitiesWorld

17:20 - 17:30

Urban ResilienceClosing remarks

Speakers

Sam Markey

Managing Director

Recurve

17:20 - 17:30

Digital InnovationClosing remarks

Speakers

Luke Antoniou

Senior Editor

SmartCitiesWorld

SCWS2026-Agenda

Cities Climate Action theatre compered by:

Urban Resilience theatre compered by:

Smart City Innovation theatre compered by:

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