Business Opportunities at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona

In the Nordic pavilion at the Smart City Expo World Congress Barcelona 2017, visitors were attracted to the exhibition stand of North Sweden Cleantech and Cleantech Kvarken. The approximately 20,000 fair visitors received information about the region and companies in northern Sweden and Vaasa.

On-site, there were also regional business representatives who took the chance to pitch their sustainable corporate ideas to interested audience. "Attending the exhibition opened a door for us that would not otherwise have been possible for a start-up company and the arrangement to participate in the joint assembly and not having our own has given us the freedom to participate in more important business meetings. It has also created many new contacts, says Pontus Kressner from Service Node.

In addition to Service Node, representatives from Aquaductus, Skellefteå Kraft and Umeå Energi were in place together with Linnéa Egnor Byström from Cleantech Kvarken and Helena Näsström and Jeanette Holmlund from North Sweden Cleantech.

The exhibition has over 675 exhibitors from more than 700 countries. North Sweden Cleantech’s stand was found in the Nordic pavilion along with many other cities and organizations from the Nordic region, which created new contacts and rewarding conversations with both neighboring countries and delegations interested in Nordic sustainable solutions.

The interest in the stand was great and even the speed meetings arranged were popular. The Europe Enterprise Networks’ Match Making event generated many requests to the region and several meetings resulted in requests for technical and business visits.

In summary, new business opportunities were created in smart cities during the Smart City Expo World Congress and several of the upcoming visits have the potential to lead international cooperation for the region.