The Kyiv Smart City Forum was held in Kyiv for the fifth time. This time, due to the restrictions associated with the pandemic, for the first time the event was held online. This fact allowed to attract twice as many participants as last year – the number of viewers reached 10,000
The organizers for the forum have designed an innovative platform with a variety of options. Thus, in addition to the main stage, there was a virtual exhibition area, where partner companies demonstrated their technological solutions through 3D video tours. In addition, viewers had the opportunity to simultaneously view the video stream, listen to participants, ask questions and chat with each other.
The main event of Kyiv Smart City Forum 2020 was the speech of the famous American entrepreneur, founder of Facebook Live, best-selling author Randi Zuckerberg. Randi spoke at the Ukrainian event for the first time and, regretting for being prevented from visiting the forum personally due to the quarantine, she assured in her visiting Kyiv as soon as quarantine restrictions are lifted.
The main Randi’s message was that despite the fact many of the industries have been hit by the coronavirus crisis, this can be taken as a real gift.
“It would seem, what is the gift? After all, people have lost their jobs! But on the other hand, many industries did not need to change. They worked out of inertia. And then suddenly they have to be updated. Now you can reach thousands of people with your business without leaving your home. In the future, employment will be hybrid, more and more people will work remotely”, – Zuckerberg said.
Speaking about the future of smart cities, Zuckerberg noted that it is necessary to create places where people would willingly share their ideas. After all, even a seemingly crazy idea can unexpectedly work. As an example, Randi cited her own experience, how she came up with the format of the Facebook Live stream, not knowing if someone would need it. She learned that the idea was a good one from President Obama, who, a few months after the implementation, called Randi to arrange an appeal to the nation via Facebook Live.
According to Randi Zuckerberg, countries such as Ukraine now have limitless opportunities, because the Western world is a little “frozen” in its monotony. But in our country, there is a whole variety of cultures, and this should be used.
“Silicon Valley is also going through difficult times now. There is a lack of variety here. And you are in the center of Europe, in the thick of things, and you can do better”, – concluded Randi.
An ultimately high level of the forum was achieved owing to our partners. The title partner – Visa, innovation partner – Vodafone, premium partners – Cisco, ERC, IT-Integrator, technology partner – ELKO Ukraine and Lenovo. Also, among the partners of Kyiv Smart City Forum are Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Caparol Ukraine, Logitech, Asbis, Ideas First, FDI and atene KOM GmbH.
