Smart in the City – The BABLE Podcast

In this episode, recorded live at Smart City Expo World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, we sit down with Darío Moreno , Mayor of the Municipality of Sagunto, Spain . He shares the story of how his city secured a historic €3 billion investment for a Volkswagen battery gigafactory, positioning Sagunto as a key player in Europe's reindustrialisation. Our guest explains the "leap of faith" required to dev...

Dans cet épisode, Guillaume Ruet, maire de Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur et conseiller départemental de la Côte-d’Or, partage sa vision d’une ville à taille humaine qui refuse d’être une simple cité-dortoir en périphérie de Dijon. La conversation aborde ses quatre grandes priorités : sécurité et tranquillité du quotidien, transition écologique ambitieuse (écoles rénovées, patrimoine décarboné, milliers d...

In this episode,  Isaac Silveira , Municipal Director of the Department of Communication, Technology and Image at the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, paints for us the portrait of Cascais as a “human” Smart City, where technology is a tool to strengthen relationships, build trust and improve daily life for residents, workers, students and visitors. Our guest explains how the Cascais Operations...

In this episode recorded live at the RethinkCities Summit 2025, Allan Pilgaard-Jensen , Managing Director of ProjectZero for the City of Sønderborg, Denmark , and Drew Turner , Director of Global Decarbonisation Solutions at Danfoss , share how Sønderborg is working towards carbon neutrality by 2029 through a long-standing public-private partnership. The conversation explores why successful energy...

In this episode recorded live at the ReThink Cities Summit 2025, Markus Paulsson , Energy Strategist at the City of Lund, Sweden , walks us through how Lund couples visible delivery with system change. District heating supplies around 90% of demand and went fossil-free two years early, helping halve emissions from 1990 to 2020. We unpack EnergyNet, a bottom-up, digitally controlled, self-steering ...

In this episode recorded live at the ReThink Cities Summit 2025, we hear from Deputy Mayor  Adam Pustelnik about the next moves of the city of Łódź, Poland : uncovering a historic river segment in the city centre to catalyse place-making, with works already underway, and visible momentum on reindustrialisation as factories and industrial parks rise on large sites. At the same time, the team confro...

In this episode recorded live at the RethinkCities Summit 2025,  Sunniva Fossen Haugen , Climate Advisor at the Municipality of Trondheim, Norway, shares their journey from offshore oil and gas into climate policy and city logistics. The discussion tackles why commercial fleets lag behind passenger EVs (touching on incentives, payload limits, charging logistics and grid constraints) and how consol...

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In this episode, Sherelle Fairweather , Digital Strategy Lead at Manchester City Council, UK , and Minu Tegethoff , Senior Expert Digital Services & Technologies at Drees & Sommer , unpack how Manchester is moving from digital strategy to delivery. They outline the city’s four pillars (people & inclusion, “what’s in the ground” connectivity, tech for good, and sustainability & resi...

In this episode of our mayoral series, Zartoshte Bakhtiari, Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne, France , and Vice President of the Greater Paris Grand East administration, explores citizen-centred municipal leadership, directing investment to improve daily life and long-term resilience. Themes include ROI-minded energy renovations, tree-planting and greening to reduce bills and mitigate flooding, alongsid...

In this episode, Aaron Brockett , Mayor of the City of Boulder, Colorado, USA , explores how the city is tackling the pressures of being a highly desirable, outdoors-oriented university city. Topics include practical housing affordability tools alongside nature-based climate resilience and wildfire mitigation that prioritise healthy forests and restored ecosystems. The discussion looks at inclusiv...

In this episode, Belal Aftab , Mayor of the City of Saratoga, California, USA , explores how data-driven leadership can shape more resilient and connected communities. The conversation covers traffic safety and neighbourhood priorities, breaking down data silos for better decision-making, and preparing a hillside city for wildfires, earthquakes, and other climate-related risks. Our guest reflects...

In this episode, Anton Nikitin , Chief Sustainability Officer at the City of Vilnius,  Lithuania , shares how a “greenest city in the making” mindset guides practical climate action. The conversation traces Anton’s path from cycling officer to city-wide sustainability lead, and dives into people-centred policy: citizen assemblies, street redesigns, and reframing mobility around real choices. We ex...

In this episode, Jakub Mazur , Deputy Mayor of Wroclaw, Poland , maps how the city is moving from pilots to performance: using nanosatellite imagery to enrich property data and support flood readiness, pairing AI with sensors to predict water-pipe leaks, and shifting from hundreds of disconnected systems toward an e-office standard that cities can share. He reflects on data gaps around newcomers a...

In this episode, Linda Alksne , IT Project Manager at Liepāja City Council, Latvia , shares a practitioner’s view of citizen-centred digital services—from a mobile app and e-service portal co-designed with residents to pilots that surface surprising. The conversation tracks lessons from an Interact Europe open-data project, early steps toward a digital-twin starting with energy consumption visuali...

In this episode, Art Pearce , Deputy Director of Planning, Projects and Programs at the Bureau of Transportation for the City of Portland, shares how a city’s internal culture can either hinder or propel urban transformation. Drawing from nearly three decades of public service, he discusses Portland’s deep-rooted legacy in sustainable transport and land use, and the strategic shift to viewing civi...

In this episode, Natalie Weiss, Climate Resilience Coordinator for the City of Olympia, shares her path from environmental economics to landscape architecture and into public service. The conversation unpacks how cross-disciplinary insights inform Olympia’s proactive approach to climate adaptation—from downtown flood barriers to heat pump programmes for low-income households. Natalie explains the...

In this episode, David Michalička , Mayor of Říčany in the Czech Republic, shares how his town has embraced participatory budgeting as a transformative tool for civic engagement. Drawing from a background in civil engineering and renewable energy, David outlines his unexpected path into politics and the decade-long evolution of participatory approaches in Říčany. He highlights the impact of empowe...

Gravado ao vivo em Las Rozas durante o evento ICF Top7 Intelligent Communities e produzido no âmbito do projeto CIVINET Iberia, este episódio apresenta Sofia Pires , Coordenadora da Estratégia Nacional para a Mobilidade Ativa do Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes (IMT) de Portugal. Sofia traça o seu percurso, passando desde a geografia e o desenvolvimento rural até liderar o impulso naciona...

Recorded live during Las Rozas’ hosting of the ICF Top7 Intelligent Communities event and produced within the CIVINET Iberia project, this episode features Cristina Álvarez Requena , CEO, and Nuria Blanco , Mobility Manager at Las Rozas Innova. They trace their journeys from multinational engineering and regional transport planning into public service, showing how the four-year-old municipal innov...

In dieser Episode teilt Robert Thomann , Geschäftsführer von Smart City Mannheim und Leiter Produktentwicklung und Innovation Smart Cities bei MVV Energie, seinen Weg von der Energieinfrastruktur hin zur Gestaltung eines digitalen, nachhaltigen Stadtmodells für Mannheim. Das Gespräch beleuchtet, wie lokaler Kontext und starke Partnerschaften effektive Smart-City-Strategien ermöglichen – mit besond...

In our final episode of our IMAGINE the Citiverse series, Marko Teräs , Project Manager for the x-CITE Project at the City of Tampere, and Arnaud Verstraete , Project Manager at Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC), share their insights into reshaping civic participation in the digital age. The conversation explores how emerging technologies like local digital twins and immersive virtual environme...

In this episode, co-branded and recorded live at Urban Future 2025 in Łódź, Marco Buemi , Senior Expert and Project Manager at Verona Municipality, Italy, shares his journey from human rights advocacy in Sweden to driving inclusive urban regeneration in Italy. The conversation explores how lived experience shapes inclusive leadership, highlighting the importance of empathy, visibility, and grassro...

In this episode, Remigijus Šimašius , former Mayor of Vilnius and Minister of Justice of Lithuania, shares his journey from legal academia and policy advocacy to leading one of Europe’s most progressive cities. The conversation explores how data transparency and lived urban experience shape inclusive, practical leadership, highlighting the importance of open governance, civic dialogue, and regulat...

Recorded live at the ChangeNOW event in Paris, in this last episode of this series, Éric Fournier, Mayor of Chamonix, shares his journey from political consultancy to nearly two decades of local leadership in the French Alps. The conversation explores how lived experience shapes inclusive leadership, highlighting the importance of empathy, visibility, and grassroots engagement in public service. É...