Smart City Expo World Congress 2025: PilotInnCities Showcasing Innovation in Urban Transformation

One year later, we were back in Barcelona 🇪🇸 at the Smart City Expo World Congress – the world’s leading platform for urban transformation – with strong representation from our consortium.

We were once again asked the familiar question: “What fundamental Smart City projects is your country working on?”
Our answer remains clear: “We are leading one.”

PilotInnCities tackles the key bottlenecks in implementing innovation through the Agile Piloting method inspired by Finland. Across the Danube Region, we are currently running 27 pilot experiments connecting startups with municipalities, building the foundations for long-term systemic support.

Our team opened the session “Fresh News from the Czech Smart City Ecosystem”. After an introduction by Miroslav Scheiner, team members Georg Würffel, Dominik Gřešák, Gabriella Simor, and Zuzana Fečová shared insights and lessons learned. And indeed — this journey is full of learning. Our approach challenges comfort zones, bridges disconnected actors, and explores uncharted territory.

A special highlight was the presence of one of our piloting startups, nextdrop s.r.o., exhibiting together with its piloting location Město Plzeň. Their joint presentation made us especially proud and reinforced the international impact we are collectively generating.

Next stop: URBIS – The Smart Cities Meetup in Brno 🇨🇿, taking place 2–4 June 2026.
Join us — the journey continues.

If you'd like, I can also prepare a shortened version, a more formal one, or adapt it for press releases.