More than 33.000 took part in Nordic Edge China 2021, May 26-27. The international sharing of smart city initiatives and innovative technologies between the Nordics and China garnered interest on both continents. Recordings of full two-day conference programme is now available at your leisure.

Nordic Edge China Forum

Keynote talks from Nordic and Chinese representatives showcasing large-scale projects from both sides. The Nordic Edge China Forum includes talks about the Nordic vision for smart and sustainable cities and societies, as well as the Beijing Olympics, and more:

  • Opening Remark
    Svein Berg, Managing Director of Nordic Innovation
    Shi DingHuan, Chairman, World Green Design Organisation
    Signe Brudeset, Ambassador of Norway to China
    Kari Nessa Nordtun, Mayor of Stavanger, Norway
    Mu Shuqing, Deputy Mayor, City of Yantai
    Wang Youguo, Mayor, People’s government of Daxing District
  • Nordic Smart City Network
    Presented by Kim Spiegelberg Stelzer, Chairman of the Board, Nordic Smart City Network
  • Two Slopes, Two Approaches to Sustainability: the designs of National Ski Jumping Centre and Shougang Big Air for Beijing 2022
    Presented by Zhang Li, Dean/Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture and Vice Principal at Tsinghua University, China
  • Nordic Smart City Roadmap
    Presented by Malin Kock Hansen, Senior Advisor and Project Manager at Design and Architecture Norway, DOGA, and Bjarne Uldal, Chief Innovation Officer, Nordic Edge
  • The New Era Driven by AI
    Presented by Zhang Fan, Chairman and CEO of Inspur Zhuoshu Big Data Industry Development Co. Ltd.

Parallel Sessions 27 May:

Collaborative Intelligent Manufacturing Forum

Nowadays, the world’s industrial economy presents a trend of new technologies, new formats and new models. At the same time, consumer demands are more diversified, personalized and refined. Under this new environment, a large number of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises are facing difficulties due to lack of scientific research, design ability and resources.

Future Cities in a Post-COVID-19 World

Cities and communities in a post-COVID-19 world should be climate-neutral, resilient, and socially innovative. Artistic, cultural and creative industries will play an important role in engaging and empowering both civil society and professional stakeholders. The opportunities generated by these industries will be further boosted by digitalisation.

In this session, experts from the Nordic countries and China will share their latest projects to achieve these goals and exchange ideas on how these countries can cooperate to further support this development.

Green Smart City – Concerns with Places and Spaces

Nordic cities and companies have developed through experimentation and strong public-private-people-partnership model solutions to issues like urban emissions, occupied urban space and winter sports venues. The key question to discover in this workshop is if and how these models can be scaled to the Chinese cities to solve challenges related to pollution, carbon emission and occupation of the urban space, especially to the “300 million People to Winter Sport” as a result of the Winter Olympic in Beijing in the coming year.

NextEW: Smart City Forum – and Mini Expo Shape Smart Cities in 2021 and Future

More than half of the world’s population is now living in urban areas, and the proportion is expected to reach almost 69 percent by 2050 on a global level, placing city infrastructures under increasing pressure. Smart city technologies can make city management more effective and efficient, which is necessary given the projected rapid growth in urban populations over the next few decades. The adoption of ICT solutions and intelligent use of other modern technologies, can make the critical infrastructure components and services of a city — administration, education, healthcare, public safety, industrial park, transportation and utilities — more efficient and humanitarian for a sustainable development.

Currently, Europe and China are working together to build smart cities and their development will certainly have profound consequences on the outcomes of millions of people. In order to promote the construction of smart cities and contribute to sustainable development worldwide, we sincerely invite you to participate in the “Next EW: Smart City Forum & Mini Expo” jointly held by on May 27th. These events aim to foster Smart City cooperation and knowledge exchange between tech-based companies, industry park operators, and local governments in Europe and China for common development.

Thank you to all our wonderful partners for making Nordic Edge China 2021 a success: