WeGO Champions 2024 – Waterloo Session: Accelerating, Benchmarking and Communicating Smart and Sustainable Cities’ Transitions
On June 26, 2024, the Future Cities Institute at the University of Waterloo’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department hosted the WeGO Champions 2024 event as part of the prestigious TurkstraTalks series. The event drew a dynamic mix of about 25 onsite participants and a similar number online, including undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students, as well as faculty and young enthusiasts of smart and sustainable cities.
The Waterloo session, focusing on “Accelerating, Benchmarking, and Communicating Smart and Sustainable Cities’ Transitions,” provided a critical platform for discussing the evolving nature of urbanization, digitization, and globalization. Participants explored the essential skills that urban leaders must develop to navigate these changes and drive forward sustainable urban solutions.
The TurkstraTalks series, known for bringing cities into the classroom, aims to revitalize urban perspectives and strengthen citizens’ connections to cities. The series invites experts from professional practice, government, and academia to share cutting-edge insights. The WeGO Champions session allowed participants to broaden their understanding of urban engineering while engaging in meaningful discourse on contemporary urban challenges.
The event also welcomed 12 international participants from the University of Waterloo’s Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship. These fellows, hailing from Canada, Brazil, India, and the UAE, contributed diverse global perspectives on urban issues, enhancing the richness of the discussion. For more information on the fellowship, visit University of Waterloo Sustainability Fellowship.
A highlight of the event was a lecture by Mr. Danil Kerimi, Chief WeGO Advisor and WeGO Sustainable Smart City Champions Dean, who provided insights into the WeGO Champions program, and also introduced the broader initiatives of WeGO. His presentation covered topics such as benchmarking, the Seoul Smart City Prize, and capacity-building programs, emphasizing WeGO’s commitment to accelerating smart and sustainable urban solutions.
The WeGO Champions Waterloo session successfully fostered a collaborative environment where young leaders and experts exchanged ideas on the critical intersections of urbanization, digitalization, and sustainability strategies. The event underscored the importance of international dialogue and cooperation in addressing the global challenges facing cities today.
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