The development of cities as big as Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Constanta or Timisoara is no longer only about road infrastructure, new buildings and bigger shopping malls. The new workers are no longer the employees of the construction sector but the young programmers doing the "9 to 5" in IT companies. With every application that controls the urban transportation and each software that allows online payments they are shaping the future of every town. While cities like Vienna already have a "Smart City Framework Strategy" in Romania the concept is still at the very beginning.
This is the main reason why Junior Chamber International (JCI) is dedicating this year's convention and also its Danube conference to the development of cities. During the four days of the JCI Danube Conference and The Annual National JCI Convention 2015 hosted in Cluj-Napoca between 15 - 18 October the participants will create an international framework - a common base that will serve as a model of good practice for our communities in the next 20 to 50 years.
An app that will change the way we find parking places, another one that lets us pay for the parking services via SMS, a few that make urban transportation much easier and more than one software that controls the street lighting. And this is only the beginning. Cluj-Napoca, the second town in Romania and the heart of Transylvania is practically turning into a "Smart City" without even knowing it. But the concept behind the "Smart Cities" is much more complicated and from this point forward Cluj-Napoca and frankly every city in Romania and Europe needs a master plan for the future.
Michael Haupl, the mayor of Vienna put everything into perspective since 2011 when the city made a "roadmap" for the next 35 years: "A Smart City is a city that meets the challenges posed by dual challenge of reduced energy consumption coupled with growing demands. The required changes in the energy, transportation and building sector, many of which are fundamental to the process, cannot be made overnight".
We have a daring proposal for you: debate with us, young entrepreneurs, companies that innovate in IT and the local authorities already pioneering in this field the importance of the ways cities will develop in years to come. All of the ideas will be presented and analyzed during the SMART Cities Forum.
With the help of some of the 300 IT&C companies based in the city we intend to take the debate further to a more practical approach. The SMART Cities Forum will be supported by the SMART & Innovative Expo. For two days, the representatives of the local communities in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Moldavia will have the opportunity of meeting people that build "smart cities" solutions, from apps to full functional environment systems and none the less visit the biggest IT companies in this field from Cluj-Napoca. This approach will generate real solutions for the future and with the help of the national and international speakers, the vision of every participant and the workshops at the end of the four days a common base for the development of the cities of the future will be created.
We are proud to announce that the SHARE Federation, the main organizer of the European Youth Capital, title achieved by Cluj-Napoca for 2015 is supporting the JCI Danube Conference and The Annual National JCI Convention 2015.
JCI is a nonprofit organization of young and active citizens aged 18 to 40 who are engaged and committed to creating a better way of living for their communities. In 2015 the organization is celebrating its 100 anniversary nation wide and the 12th in Romania.
All members have the courage to address the critical challenges of our time and to find targeted solutions to local issues. This is why we consider that the best way to celebrate 100 years of existence is to act and build our future. JCI Romania reunites nine local organizations from all over the country and it already has 300 members and three action groups. The dedication and the experience of all its members made JCI Romania an important voice in the east-central Europe in a short time.
This year we wanted to bring an international JCI event to Cluj-Napoca. It's the year of the European Youth Capital and we invite you along us in this four day journey of the JCI Danube Conference and The Annual National JCI Conference 2015. We want to develop with your help new collaborations between cities so real and efficient solutions for the next years are created. Basically we want to shape the communities of the future - Stelian Burduhos, COC Director Danube Conference
Through this double event we want to bring together the local authorities, the community and the young entrepreneurs so a public and open space for innovation is created. This is the reason why we decided to take this unique opportunity and organize the JCI Danube Conference and The Annual National JCI Conference 2015 - Florin Somodi, COC Director National Convention