How can your innovations achieve greater impact in shaping the sustainable and intelligent cities of the future? The Fraunhofer “Urban Futures” congress, held on November 25 and 26, 2015, in Berlin, brought together key players from Germany and Europe in local authorities, politics, business, and science. Visionary minds showcased what will become standard practice in the next five or ten years when municipal strategies for the future, urban technologies, urban living labs, and novel forms of collaboration converge.

The panel discussion “Urban Innovations for Sustainable Development,” organized in cooperation with the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), delved into the success factors for developing innovations at the municipal level, opportunities for disseminating innovations, and the contribution of municipal innovations to achieving the United Nations’ global sustainability goals. The panel, held during the congress, explored the relevance of urban innovations for the grand vision up to the year 2050, featuring a high-level discussion with thought leaders, including Lord Mayor Werner Spec from Ludwigsburg, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuster (Chairman of the Deutsche Telekom Foundation, former Lord Mayor of the state capital Stuttgart), and Norbert Brüning (Sustainable Norderstedt).

I played a role in preparing this panel in collaboration with the RNE office and moderated the discussion, actively involving the audience.