The leading world congress on smart islands will feature 95 speakers, mostly with international profiles, who will discuss how to enhance relations between island territories while addressing challenges such as tourism, climate change, competitiveness and innovation.
The event, organized by Fira de Barcelona will be held for the second time on 23 and 24 April in Calvià (Majorca).
After a successful first edition centered on the needs and opportunities of island territories in a globalized economy, the 2018 edition will move forward and focus on the need to find synergies and to strengthen the links that connect them as they face their major challenges to become the islands of the future. The second edition of the Smart Island World Congress is therefore a meeting place where alliances can be forged and connections made between the key actors in the island ecosystem to tackle the common issues that they face.
The leading speakers will include Doug Lansky, a consultant and international expert on tourism and future trends within the sector. He is the author of a dozen books, and has written articles for publications such as National Geographic Traveler, Reader’s Digest, Esquire, The Guardian and the Huffington Post.
Another leading speaker will be Lauri-Ann Ainsworth, Director of Development and Communications of the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship — Caribbean. Ainsworth has far-reaching experience in the fields of marketing and communications and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, given that she has helped numerous startups to develop.
Another of the main speakers will be Kate Brown, Executive Director of the Global Island Partnership, the UN association grouping island territories together. This is an entity which promotes cooperation among islands in areas such as natural conservation and sustainability.
There will be 15 conferences structured around these three areas (2 keynotes, 3 full sessions and 10 parallel sessions) where 85 speakers will take part, including island leaders, industrial experts and directors of research centers, universities, governments and international organizations who will share their experience and solutions for the current and future running of islands around the world.
The second edition of the Smart Islands World Congress will also have an exhibition space with around 25 companies and a networking space where island representatives, speakers, companies and visitors can make contact before and during the event. Around 2,000 people are expected to attend from a hundred islands around the world.
The second Smart Island World Congress will be attended by prominent international institutional representatives. These will include the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands (New Zealand), the Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, the Mayors of Zanzibar (Tanzania) and Port Louis (Mauritius) and the Deputy Mayors of Ajaccio (Corsica) and Hvar (Croatia).
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