Dr Jo Williams presents at the Smart Cities World Congress 2013

Dr Jo Williams was invited to present her work on Zero Carbon Cities at the World Congress for Smart Cities in Barcelona this month. The congress attracted more than 2000 delegates, whilst the exhibition attached to the congress attracted a further few thousand. The congress convened a global audience from industry, commerce, finance, government and academia. It provided a platform for the dissemination of research and the formation of new partnerships between key stake-holders delivering smart cities. The keynote speakers at the congress included: Amory Lovins (Global advisor on energy, Co-Founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute), Richard Florida (Author of several global best sellers, including the award-winning "The Rise of the Creative Class") and Kent Larsen (Principal Research Scientist and Director of the Changing Places Group | MIT Media Lab). In her speech Jo Williams presented the tools she has developed for delivering low carbon cities – detailed in her book Zero Carbon Homes – A Road Map. She also highlighted the key issues facing the future delivery of low carbon, smart cities and avenues for future research. Her presentation generated a lot of interest, catching the imagination of a wide audience including the World Bank, European Commission, the Rocky Mountain Institute, several municipalities, consultants and national technical research laboratories who would like to collaborate on related future work.