Smart cities and communities is an interesting topic when it comes to future and digitalization because smart city technology is a key tool to handling the challenges that most cities are facing with increasing urbanisation. The interest in smart cities was reflected at this year’s Digitale Woche in Kiel: A full day was dedicated to the Smart Cities Conference on 11 September to focus only on digital transformation of cities and communities. Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC), was co-organising the event led by Olaf Gerd-Gemein, who coordinates the German OASC chapter.

OASC marked the agenda throughout the day starting with the CEO, Davor Meersman, giving a presentation on the Role of common standards to build a Smart City at scale. In his talk, he highlighted the role of OASC as European initiative with global ambition. The day ended with an official ceremony, where the Lord Mayor of Kiel, Ulf Kämpfer, signed the letter of intent to join the OASC network.

The City of Kiel joins OASC

The chair of OASC, Martin Brynskov, and the Lord Mayor of Kiel, Ulf Kämpfer, were both invited to the official ceremony, where the City of Kiel signed the letter of intent to join the OASC. The ceremony started off with a short presentation from Martin Brynskov who then passed on the word to Ulf Kämpfer.

"OASC Germany continues to grow: This development emphasises the significance of digital transformation for municipalities and that cities like Kiel are eager to shape digitalisation,” Martin Brynskov said and continued: "By having the citizens needs and problems in focus we can co-develop the best solutions based on a common technical ground, and we are looking forward to our future collaboration."

"We will bring not only citizens’ problems but also some solutions to the Open & Agile Smart Cities network," Ulf Kämpfer assured when signing the document and the City of Kiel officially became part of OASC. He continued: "The opportunities and challenges of digitalisation are concerning all municipalities regardless of size and location. Therefore, the exchange with and learning from other cities is a central aspect for Kiel to shape the digital transformation of the city successfully."

Kiel is the fifth German city to join the Open & Agile Smart Cities network after Heidelberg, Wolfsburg, Paderborn and Delbrück.

Digitale Woche Kiel took place from 7-14 September. You can see the full programme for Smart City Conference on 11 September here.