The second edition of the LBS-Terragon Breakfast Forum titled: ‘Smart cities: Strategic Positioning in the Time of Recession’ held today at Lagos Business School. The three hour event was anchored by LBS Faculty and Human Resource expert, Dr Eugene Ohu.
Notable speakers at the event were: Mr Ramon Ferrer, Former Deputy CIO and Former Smart City Director of the Barcelona City Council (2012-2015); Professor Joan Enric Ricart, Professor of Strategic Management and Chairman of the Strategic Management Department at IESE Business School and Mr Elo Umeh, CEO, Terragon Group.
Discussions at the forum were centered around the prevalent importance of technology, in developing and building smart cities for businesses to thrive. The first session titled: ‘Barcelona, A Roman City Becoming a Smart City’ was delivered by Professor Joan Enric Ricart, Professor of Strategic Management and Chairman of the Strategic Management Department at IESE Business School. “Technology plays a role of being the driver and element of transformation. The goal of building a smart city is to improve the quality of life by using technology to improve the efficiency of the services and meet resident’s needs” he said.
Mr Ramon Ferrer, Former Deputy CIO and Former Smart City Director of the Barcelona City Council (2012-2015) delivered the second session titled: ‘Smart City vision: An Opportunity for Transformation’. He further reiterated the importance of technology in building a smart city, using Barcelona as a key example of a technologically advanced smart city. “Technology is a drive to transform all areas in the city; it is the framework in the city which works in building future cities. The cities that embrace technology will surface as the winners, Barcelona is utilising technology and the internet. Barcelona is a social dream and technology is able to make the social dream possible” he said.
The event came to a close with a cocktail networking session.
