For years, the “smart city” pitch was largely about technology: sensors, data, connected infrastructure, and increasingly sophisticated software.
Smart City Expo Miami wants to broaden that conversation.
The event returns to Miami October 5 and 6 for its seventh edition, bringing together urban leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, architects, academics, and policymakers from more than 50 countries. This year’s theme, “Urban Intelligence for a Regenerative Future,” will focus on how cities can use technology, finance, design, and policy to improve urban life while restoring the communities and environments around them.
“Being a smart city today means much more than adopting the latest technology,” Bernardo Scheinkman [pictured above], founder of Smart Cities Americas and curator of Smart City Expo Miami, told Refresh Miami. “The real question is how we use all the intelligence available to us, from data and AI to human creativity and local knowledge, to build cities that leave people and places better than we found them.”
The conference, which will take place at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus, will feature around 60 speakers, with a focus on real-world case studies from projects that have already been put into practice.
Its program is divided into six tracks, spanning topics that range from climate adaptation to the future of financial districts. One track will examine how major sporting events can leave a lasting urban legacy, while another will focus on “neuro-urbanism,” or how the design of city centers can affect behavior and well-being.
Other sessions will explore governance, coastal regeneration, regenerative finance, culture, health, and biophilic cities.
The scope reflects a wider shift in how cities are thinking about innovation. Artificial intelligence, digital twins, and connected infrastructure remain part of the equation, but the Expo is also asking what those tools are ultimately supposed to accomplish.
That question carries particular weight in South Florida, where rapid growth, major infrastructure needs, real estate development, and climate risks are all reshaping our region.
The main conference and exhibition will take place October 5 and 6, but this year’s programming stretches across four days. An October 4 wellness event for speakers will kick things off, while October 7 will feature side events including masterclasses, workshops, roundtables, and an AI Summit.
The Expo will also host an awards ceremony on October 5 and a celebration of local music and art the following evening.
For Scheinkman, bringing people from dozens of countries to Miami is as much about sharing what hasn’t worked as showcasing what has.
“Cities around the world are testing solutions to many of the same problems, often in very different ways,” he said. “If we can bring those experiences into one room and have an open conversation about the successes and the failures, everyone leaves with something they can apply back home.”
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