Valencia's Challenge: Playground of the Future Challenge
Playgrounds need to evolve to address urban challenges such as digital transformation, sustainability, inclusion and community engagement. Traditional playgrounds face challenges such as static design, environmental impact, inaccessibility, lack of connectivity, and limited community participation. Future playgrounds should be flexible, sustainable and digitally integrated, with modular spaces, smart technology and inclusive design. By fostering co-creation and innovation, these playgrounds must enhance the play experience and contribute to resilient, connected communities.
Companies pitching for solutions:
Blokgarden
Placenet Internet of Places S.L.
Genova's Challenge: Total Inclusion
The City of Genova, Italy, is committed to ensuring that the benefits of digitalisation are accessible to all, especially its most vulnerable citizens. With an aging population and diverse socio-economic challenges, the city recognises that digital advancements can exacerbate existing inequalities if not implemented inclusively.
Genova’s Total Inclusion Challenge aims to:
- Bridge the Digital Divide: Develop solutions that support digitally excluded groups, including the elderly, disabled, and low-income families.
- Enhance Accessibility: Create technologies that make public services, arts, and cultural experiences accessible to all, regardless of physical or cognitive ability.
- Support Vulnerable Populations: Implement systems to safeguard vulnerable citizens during extreme weather events or natural disasters.
By prioritizing human-centric design and inclusivity, Genova invites innovators to develop social and technical solutions that use the Citiverse as a vehicle for empowerment and equality, ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age.
Companies pitching for solutions:
Citynomadi
Dembrane
Hapday
Thames Freeport's Challenge: Preventative Care & Social Inclusion Challenge
Public services must move to a more preventative model of service delivery in order to deliver better outcomes for citizens. This is a significant challenging with the more vulnerable in society who might not be known to local services, these citizens can include:
- People who provide unpaid care for family members or friends.
- People who are socially isolated.
- Migrant communities with different expectations of social support and healthcare.
- Residents with English as a second language, low literacy or are digitally excluded.
- People who are becoming increasingly frail.
How can the citiverse make vulnerable residents more visible to organisations that can provide support? This could be about:
- How can support organisations quickly identify people that need help?
- How can we help people to understand the support on offer, and to access it if they want?
- How can we bring in the community to look out for each other and help each other access support?
Cracking this issue would lead to significant benefits to citizens, more digital public services, a preventative approach to a range of social issues, and financial savings to the state.
Companies pitching for solutions:
Commu App
Dembrane
Hapday
