WeGO Champions expands further this 2024
Seoul, May 9th – Marking its third year, the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) is expanding its youth capacity building program – WeGO Sustainable Smart City Champions. WeGO Sustainable Smart City Champions or ‘WeGO Champions’ is WeGO’s initiative to build on the capacity of young people in the field of smart city development.
In addition to a foundational yet enriched online course about smart city transitions, the program is now adding new lectures with the theme Frameworks, Technologies, and Solutions for Urban Sustainable Infrastructures in www.cityresiliencetraining.com. The WeGO Champions program will also expand the in-person workshops conducted in more cities globally in 2024: Abu Dhabi, Almaty, Athens, Baku, Brescia, Geneva, Seoul, and Toronto.
Bringing in more than 300 students last year, the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) will continue to expand the program and publish a new online course series as well as collaborating with more cities around the world to the line-up of in-person workshops. This year’s new online lectures will explore and take on the topic: Frameworks, Technologies, and Solutions for Urban Sustainable Infrastructures. The in-person workshops are to be conducted in Abu Dhabi, Almaty, Athens, Baku, Brescia, Geneva, Seoul, and Toronto and will tackle topics such as urban planning and design, infrastructure development, and technology and innovation in cities undergoing smart city development.
The previous year marked the program’s pivot to hybrid learning–the online course had eight lectures centered on the theme “Accelerating, Benchmarking, and Communicating Smart and Sustainable Cities’ Transitions” and was supported by offline workshops held in five cities: Baku, Munich, Geneva, Athens, and Milan. Both the online and offline engagements delved into the international framework of smart city development, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), meaningful data use for improving resilience, social cohesion and inclusivity, and managing and engaging with multi-stakeholders and communities in cities.
To encourage participation, a certificate signed by the WeGO Secretary General will be issued to WeGO Champions aged 18-35 who have successfully completed the course. Apart from this, the videos on the theme “Accelerating, Benchmarking, and Communicating Smart and Sustainable Cities’ Transitions” are now equipped with subtitles to ensure maximum learning capacities. The languages available are English, Italian, German, Arabic, and French, while also having machine translated subtitles for Korean and Chinese. The lectures are accessible and offered to all youth globally, free upon sign up and enrolment at www.cityresiliencetraining.com.
Lectures for Part 1: Accelerating, Benchmarking, and Communicating Smart and Sustainable Cities’ Transitions
- Global Context and Local Conditions of Sustainability.
- The Metropolitan Century
- Tools and Cases for the Ecological Transition in Cities
- Data for Urban Inclusion
- Communicating Smart and Sustainable Cities
- Measuring and Benchmarking Sustainable Smart Cities
- Digital Twins and MetaCities
- Integrative, Inclusive, Resilient Cities
Lectures for Part 2: Frameworks, Technologies, and Solutions for Urban Sustainable Infrastructures
- Introduction to Urban Sustainable Infrastructures
- Infrastructure Sustainability Assessment Frameworks
- Nature-based Solutions for Urban Sustainability
- IoT, Data, and Sensors for Sustainable Infrastructures
- Emerging Technologies in Urban Planning
- Interdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Urban Operations
Young urban leaders, sustainable and resilient
WeGO’s core principle remains centered on human-centric urban development. WeGO has directed programs towards capacity building and knowledge dissemination for government officials from member cities and professionals. The youth is at the heart of smart city development, and thus, WeGO recognizes the invaluable role of youth in our society as drivers of sustainability and resilience. We’re committed to including them in our capacity-building initiatives, acknowledging their potential as future leaders.
The inaugural hybrid run of WeGO Champions last year underscored the remarkable resilience of youth in the face of the pandemic. Their determination to overcome challenges fueled their drive to pursue higher levels of learning, directly addressing the issues they encountered firsthand. With over 300 students enrolling to WeGO Champions, WeGO is on the way to equip more and more students with the knowledge necessary to have informed innovations and decisions, thereby cultivating them as prospective urban leaders.
More topics, more cities
WeGO is committed to continual improvement, learning, and expansion through strategic networking. In the upcoming WeGO Champions program, we will not only leverage international events pertinent to smart city development within the cities hosting WeGO Champions sessions, but we will also integrate the WeGO Regional Offices (RO). This initiative aims to extend our outreach to a broader spectrum of students and future leaders.
The WeGO Central Asia Regional Office, situated in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and the WeGO Middle East & North Africa Regional Office, located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, will play pivotal roles in hosting a special WeGO Champions workshop in Q3 and Q4, respectively. In addition, the main in-person workshops for WeGO Champions called “Young Urban Leadership: Perspectives in Dialogue” will be joined by Mr. Danil Kerimi, WeGO Champion’s Dean, together with the program’s advisors: Dr. Alexandre Hedjazi and Dr. Matteo Tarantino.
Mr. Kerimi boasts a proven track record in successfully delivering impactful projects in the realms of national, urban, and corporate digital transformation, as well as emerging technologies, economic strategies, and municipal diplomacy. Dr. Hedjazi, on the other hand, has 25 years of experience and specializes in Urban and Regional Development, Urban Sustainability Transitions, Nature-based Solutions, Urban Governance, Public Policy, and Public-Private Partnerships. Lastly, Dr. Tarantino’s primary focus lies in optimizing the relationship between data, individuals, organizations, and their impact on the world.
This WeGO Champions 2024, the journey of aspiring smart city leaders promises to be exhilarating, particularly with the steadfast support of WeGO. As these emerging leaders embark on their journey, guided by WeGO’s backing, the year ahead holds boundless opportunities for growth, innovation, and impactful contributions to the advancement of smart urban development.
About WeGO
The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), is a membership-based international association of local governments, smart tech solution providers, and institutions committed to the transformation of cities into smart sustainable cities through facilitating public-private partnerships (PPP). WeGO was founded by 50 member cities in 2010 as the World e-Governments Organization, hence our acronym. In response to the evolving concept of smart cities, WeGO expanded its vision and mandate at the 7th General Assembly (2017) and its name to the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization. WeGO’s Secretariat is based in Seoul, Korea, and has regional offices in East Asia (Chengdu, China), the Mediterranean (Beyoglu, Turkey), Africa (Abuja, Nigeria), Middle East & North Africa (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Latin America (Cuenca, Ecuador), and Central Asia (Almaty, Kazakhstan). As the leading platform on smart city development, WeGO’s mission is to share knowledge and good practices in e-Governance; strengthen administrative efficiency and transparency; advance digital capacity; facilitate civic involvement; bridge the digital divide and inequality; and promote cooperation solidarity among cities and local governments around the world.
WeGO serves for its members as their international platform to improve the quality of life, innovate in the delivery of public services, and strengthen regional competitiveness.
Press Contact:
Name: Kakim Danabayev
E-mail: kakim@we-gov.org
Phone: +82-70-4202-9169