The 2026 ICF Smart21 Conference and Announcement will take place this March at the second annual Smart City Expo in Curitiba, Brazil, the 2024 Intelligent Community of the Year!
The selection of the Smart21 Communities of the Year begins the semi-finalist phase in ICF’s annual Awards Program. Hundreds of communities that submit data to ICF are analyzed each year, and ICF In June, ICF will announce the Top7 Intelligent Communities as finalists in the Awards program at the Top7 Conference & Announcement in Brightlands-Limburg, Netherlands. The program will conclude when ICF names the 2026 Intelligent Community of the Year at the ICF Global Summit in Columbus, Ohio, USA in October. One of these twenty-one communities named today will succeed Durham Region, Ontario, Canada, the 2025 Intelligent Community of the Year.
Tentative Agenda:
Tuesday, March 24th (Pinhão Hub – 1732 Engenheiros Rebouças St.)
- 9h00 – Registration Opens
- 10h – Opening Presentation
- 10h20 – Host City Address from Curitiba, 2024 Intelligent Community of the Year
- 10h40 – Intelligent Community Presentation
- 11h00 – Coffee and Networking Break
- 11h30 – Curitiba Agency, winner GIMI Awards 2025 – Paulo Krauss/Agência Curitiba
- 12h00 – Presentation: Assaí (2-time Top7 Community)
- 12h30 – Lunch Break
- 13h30 – Presentation: Ponta Grossa (3-time Smart21 Community)
- 14h00 – Presentation: Atech – Air Mobility – EVTOL/Drone Delivery
- 14h30 – Presentation: Ligga Telecom – Connectivity, IA, IoT
- 15h – Coffee and Networking Break
- 15h30 – Intelligent Community Presentation (to be confirmed)
- 16h00 – Panel Discussion
- 17h00 – Happy Hour and Networking
Wednesday, March 25th (Arena Stadium (1.260 Buenos Aires St.)
- 8h00 to 12h00 – Smart City Expo Curitiba Attendance
- 12h – Lunch for Smart21 Conference Attendees
- 13h00 – Site Visit Program Departs Expo
- 13h30 – Site Visit – IPPUC (Curitiba Institute for Research and Urban Planning)
- 14h30 – Site Visit – Urban Hypervisor
- 15h30 – Site Visit – Digital Wall
- 16h30 – Site Visit – Urban Farm
- 19h00 - Smart21 Announcement Dinner
Thursday, March 26th (Arena Stadium (1.260 Buenos Aires St.)
- 9h00 to 17h00 – Smart City Expo Curitiba Attendance
- 19h – Brazilian Awards - Smart City Expo Curitiba
Friday, March 27th (Arena Stadium (1.260 Buenos Aires St.)
- 9h00 to 17h00 – Smart City Expo Curitiba Attendance
- 17h – Smart City Expo Curitiba – Closing Happy Hour
A Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil: Host of the 2026 Smart21 Announcement and 2024 Intelligent Community of the Year
Urban planning works. That is the lesson of Curitiba, which has engaged in proactive planning for its future for nearly 40 years. While other Brazilian cities welcomed heavy industry, Curitiba accepted only non-polluters and developed an industrial district with so much green space that it was derided as a “golf course” until it filled up with more than 3,500 companies. Beginning in the 1970s, the master plan laid out streets, public transportation, shopping, industrial and residential areas. Today, clean water reaches 100% and sanitation 93% of the population, and the city offers a range of services still rare in emerging market nations: municipal healthcare, education and daycare networks, neighborhood libraries, and sports and culture facilities near mass transport terminals.
Curitiba has become one of the first Brazilian cities to offer TIM 5G based on approving decree 989, which simplified the process to acquire an installation and operation license for radio base stations and antennas in the city. The decree also made small antennas and building-top equipment exempt from licensing requirements in their entirety. The city implemented EmpregoTech, a program to train young people ages 16 to 22 for a future in high-tech jobs. Curitiba developed an innovation ecosystem in Pinhão Valley. When COVID-19 reached Brazil in 2020, the Curitiba Agency for Development and Innovation worked with local startups and other companies to help entrepreneurs, local street market workers and artisans to create a virtual shop where they could exhibit and sell their goods, as they had previously had no online stores. The Agency also created a variety of online training courses for these businesses to help with their transition to online activities. The city also focused on multiple studies and projects to produce and implement clean energy in public buildings and public transportation. The city has installed a small hydroelectric plant in Barigui park to supply energy to the park, a project that will be replicated in other parks across the city. Read more about Curitiba.
About the Smart City Expo
Smart City Expo Curitiba has been the largest smart city event in Latin America since 2023, connecting governments, companies and organizations to transform innovative ideas into urban realities that improve people's lives. Visit smartcityexpocuritiba.com to learn more.