10.01.2024

What a year it's been! - Summary of 2023 in Smart City Poznań

Another year of new challenges and initiatives related to our activities has passed. We invite you to relive selected moments once again!

The photo shows two men. One is handing an award to the other. - grafika artykułu — Michał Łakomski, Director of the Office of Digitalisation and Cyber Security, received the award for the City of Poznań in the category of smart cities with over 300,000 inhabitants during the Smart City Forum gala in Wrocław.

The photo shows two men. One is handing an award to the other.

Two pictures side by side show a woman speaking and a man listening

The photo shows a group of smiling women and two men among them

The photo shows four people smiling. A man holds an ipad in his hand and shows it to the camera

The image shows a computer game screen. The figure's back is turned

Pictured here is a Hop&Go parking area where you can leave your bike or electric scooter

Poznań City Lab

Poznań City Lab is a new initiative resulting from the evolution of the Smart City Poznań idea. It puts citizens and residentsat the centre of innovation and aims to develop the city and the region through the collaboration of the local ecosystem, resulting from the city's proactive attitude. For the time being, activities are carried out virtually and where there is a need, but we hope that in some time CityLab will invite you into its doors. In the past 2023, we had the pleasure of co-founding the Success University* initiative with the Digital University Foundation. This venture is designed to enable a career in IT for girls entering adulthood from underprivileged backgrounds who cannot afford university or programming courses.

A step to improve communication in public spaces and the order liness of the city's pavements is the introduction of micromobility points. More than 270 places are being created throughout the city where you can park your bicycle, shared electric scooter or other device - such as a unicycle. This is an example of very good interdisciplinary cooperation between Poznan City Hall departments, municipal organisational units, associations and private entities.

Almost 23,000 residents are already using the Smart City Poznań app. This is an increase of around 100% compared to last year! Such a large increase is the result of the implementation of improvements and many new functionalities, such as the waste schedule, Infotech and the cemetery search engine. More about the Smart City Poznań application coming soon!

For another consecutive year, Poznań has been shortlisted for the 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge, one of the European Commission's largest initiatives supporting European cities in their ecological and digital transformation. As part of preparations for the next stages of the project, representatives of Poznań took part in a strategic conference during which we were supported by the project's partners: Capgemini and the Poznań Science and Technology Park.

One of the tasks of Poznan CityLab is to support other city departments/units and conduct technology projects. Therefore, in recent months we have carried out, in cooperation with Smart Factor for the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, a spherical photo-registration project for the subsequent enforcement of the Landscape Resolution.

In addition, the Office of Digitalisation and Cyber Security of the Poznan City Hall has been running the educational series Cyber Fridays for almost a year. It is a series of articles about online safety. The publications introduce the methods criminals use and good practices to follow in everyday life. The articles are published on poznan.pl/smartcity every Friday. The office also cooperates with the ISSA association, which trains IT teachers in Poznań educational institutions in the Cyber Scout programme so that they can have modern methods of educating children and young people about online safety.

Not to forget that at the end of the year, the City of Poznan and Poznan CityLab, found themselves in the metaverse! Thanks to a collaboration between the Poznań-based TATO studio and the Realtime Squad group, a project has been created in the Fortnite game called 'StoryHunt: Poznan', where players will be able to experience Poznan from the inside out, delving into the city's history, local legends and a world of traditional delights.

We have also established a partnership with the In_Spire Foundation, signing a letter of intent, which is a key step in the creation of CityLab, with the aim of developing the city and the region through cooperation between the public, private and academic sectors.

Smart projects

In the past year, Poznań residents have been given the option of paying by card on city trams. At the end of November, after just over seven months since the facility was introduced, more than 400,000 tickets had been purchased using the payment card. In addition, the PEKA application was created, allowing even more convenient use of public transport. The modernity of the public transport fleet is gradually increasing, but so is the type of vehicles. Hydrogen buses have joined the fleet of hybrid or electric vehicles.

Everyday the city is changing to become more friendly and functional. This is confirmed by the pilot introduction of a device called the Clerk. In addition, without leaving home, it is also possible to fill in Friendly Declarations, a tool with which one can quickly, easily and efficiently settle taxes such as vehicle tax or agricultural tax.

Based on the Sustainable Development Goals, Poznań is gradually trying to become a greener city. These include the so-called 'zoning of greenery', which means less frequent grass mowing, emerging greenery corridors, thanks to which movement between housing estates and city parks or forests will take place mostly in natural surroundings, regular unplowing and new planting, as well as subsidy programmes proving how the people of Poznań want to take care of small-scale retention, green roofs and vertical gardens.

Once again, the City of Poznań is emerging as a role model when it comes to inclusivity. This is evidenced by a number of city activities, such as the Poznań Equality Week, or the facilitation of services for people with disabilities through translations into Polish sign language and correspondence in Braille. The event of the signing of the Declaration of Simple Language by the Poznań City Hall should not be overlooked, which is proof that the capital of Wielkopolska is becoming an important centre spreading the idea of simple communication.

Cooperation and conferences

In the past year, representatives of Smart City Poznań had the pleasure of participating in an exchange of experience and good practice with colleagues from Kielce, Kołobrzeg, Warsaw, Wrocław and organisers from Sopot. The aim of the coastal visit was to build structures and mechanisms in offices for the development of a smart city by, among other things, introducing appropriate procedures.

In addition, our representatives took part in a number of conferences devoted to smart city issues, sustainable development, strategies and action plans for cities in the context of digitally-supported Local Green Deal partnerships, and other solutions that can be implemented to improve the quality of life for Poznań residents. Conferences we were pleased to attend include:

And... ourconference! Smart City Poznań CEE Congress & Metropolitan IT Summit

On 24 May, we organised the fourth edition of a conference focusing on topics related to the development of smart cities, among which the one related to Poznań as potentially the next quantum 'valley' stood out.... The congress attracted over 400 participants, more than 40 speakers, 27 partners and exhibitors, 9 patrons. This translated into 20 keynote speeches and panel discussions accessible to English speakers and the deaf, two stages, an exhibition space and a Start-up. The event was accompanied by: IT Directors' Summit of the Union of Polish Metropolises, a summary of the Gov Tech Inno Lab programme and a hackathon organised with Softswiss. Read more about the conference in the summary article.

Speeches, interviews, articles

At the invitations of various institutions, associations or other entities, we had the opportunity to take part in meetings, events and interviews, during which we introduced ongoing projects, technologies and various innovative applications for the city. Representatives of Smart City Poznań met students, as evidenced by the following lectures:

Awards

It should also be mentioned that our activities and daily work for the city have been reflected in competitions. During the gala of the Smart City Forum in Wrocław, we received an award for the City of Poznań in the category of smart cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants. The capital city of Wielkopolska was appreciated for the successive implementation of the Poznan Smart City model.

What is more, Poznań won first place in an ecological competition organised by UNEP/GRID-Warsaw and the French Embassy - it turned out to be the best in waste management among cities with over 100,000 inhabitants. In addition, the capital of Wielkopolska was also awarded an honourable mention in the green-blue infrastructure category, for its project to protect the 'Traszki Ratajskie' ecological site.

In addition, Poznan's "Stop on Time" project won the competition of the Polish Development Fund and the Institute for Urban and Regional Development for building urban data management skills.

Moreover, Poznan's"Internet Assistant for Neighbourhood Councillors" was recognised in this year's edition of the "Innovative Local Government" competition. The jury appreciated the modern tool, which helps estate councils to operate efficiently.

In addition, the monthly magazine "IT in Administration" awarded the Poznań City Hall in the "Wings of IT in Administration" competition. The winner in the category 'Tools for communication with citizens' was the City'sproject of the PoznańContact Office - 'Voicebots in the service of Poznań residents'.

Thank you all for following along, but also to many of you for being actively involved in our activities, initiatives and endeavours throughout 2023! We are looking forward to the upcoming year 2024, full of challenges that are posed to us - Citizens and Citizens of the World, especially in the context of the rushing digital transformation or the climate catastrophe. We believe that through even these small steps, Poznań is becoming a smart city, increasingly green and resident-friendly!

Together we arecreating a modern city!

*Most of the linked articles are in Polish