Reader Mihir Pandya was invited to World Cities Summit 2010 (WCS). In this post, he blogs about his experiences and impressions of the event.
Disclaimer: This article is not an advertising platform and the comments in this article are not to be taken as a professional guidance. The purpose of the article is only to share the happenings at WCS 2010 with the rest of the community.
Before I share my experiences, let’s have a little background.
This is the second World Cities Summit (WCS). It is an event that provides a platform for trade and corporate professionals to network and share their solutions regarding the development of cities. This year’s theme is “Liveable and Sustainable Cities for the Future”.
Companies from around the world came to WCS to walk the talk of “saving the earth”, this year. Many showcased their technology-based ideas and solutions to achieve sustainability in several sectors of our life. Singapore played a key role in WCS by showcasing its top-notch projects at the summit.
There were many ideas being showcased: ideas that were as small as a Pocket Projector to as large as replacing the entire power grid with a ‘smart’ grid.
I will talk about the ideas that intrigued me.
Chargers for Electric Vehicles
Greenlots’ booth greeted me as I entered the ballroom. They were showcasing their proficiency in providing consumers with chargers for electric vehicles. Greenlots was smart to show a live demonstration of its charging capabilities with an electric motorcycle on the booth as its marketing ploy. I think it worked as its neighbouring booths did not have business models that allowed them to do it!
Efficient Air Conditioning
Opposite Greenlots was Trane, which showed off its efficient air conditioning systems. They claimed to halve the power usage of most air conditioning systems from 1.2 kiloton/hour to 0.6 kiloton/hour. Their target audience at WSC were estate developers, as the systems being showcased there were dedicated to maintaining a large scale of air conditioning, though the exhibitor told me that they are also in the consumer business.
Smart Grids
IBM and Siemens seemed to be competing against each other. A Smart Grid is a power grid which understands consumers’ power usage in townships and cities, and distributes power according to what is needed. This prevents power wastage and fosters a green environment.
Personally, I have great faith in this idea, not only because I’m intrigued by the idea of an electric car powering a house at night and the house powering the car in the day, but also because it helps appreciate the power of technology.
From what I understand, with a smart grid, campaigns on “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” would be obsolete as technology does that for us. And there’s a high chance that technology would do it better than us.
Interactive Displays
I was bowled over by Siemens’ interactive display. What seemed to be like a normal LCD screen on first glance, was in fact, a projection of images from a wall behind the screen. I realised that as one of the exhibitors’ heads blocked the projection and I turned around to see who threw such a long shadow!
The screen, implanted on a glass panel also had sensors imbued along its frame so that it would sense your fingers and allow you to interact with that projected display. This meant that the only limitation to size was the array of sensors and not the display itself, for interactive displays. I wanted to ask how it worked but thought that the exhibitor would soon lose interest upon not seeing any business opportunity in me, naturally.
Smart Mobility
Technology will give us time in future. Siemens showed a video that introduced a new modern-age world where the smart grid and electric car has prevailed. Essentially, the electric car is shown to be a medium of smart power usage. The car can recharge itself in a surprisingly short amount of time at recharging kiosks (similar to today’s petrol pumps), and it can also act as a power source to homes and residential buildings at night. Similarly, the car can be charged at home during the day. The video ends by showing the car in constant communication with power stations, probably so that the power station can keep track of the car’s power consumption.
Future Ready Singapore
The most interesting booth, however, promoted Future Ready Singapore – a collaboration between EDB and JTC. They had the most interactive interface which instantly made you a part of their community!
The middle of their booth held a large interactive screen that had 14 case studies to choose from. Each case study showed what the Future Ready Programme was contributing in that sector. Some of the interesting issues revolved around the global water crisis, future healthcare, development of urban cities and carbon footprints, each done up in the context of sustainability. Detailed coverage of these issues can also be found on their website.
What was most unique about their booth was that they managed to foster a community within it. They had a couple of iPad kiosks which allowed visitors to pen down their thoughts on each of the 14 issues. Questions such as: solutions for reducing power consumption to half that of today’s consumption, and innovative solutions for water sources seemed to be popular questions.
Each comment would appear on a large curved screen where they were arranged in a spiral. Visitors stood in front of the screen and moved their arms (above the sensor) to browse through the comments.
Final Thoughts
In WCS 2010, technology was aptly used to bring forward the message of sustainable development clearly. For a technology enthusiast like me, this expo did much to incorporate sustainable development when looking into the future.
By Mihir Pandya
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