Smart City Expo World Congress 2025 Insights: North Texas Global Smart Cities Takeover
Each year, Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona gets better and better, and 2025’s conference was no different. This year, NTXIA was thrilled to have our own pavilion presence with North Texas cities and economic development corporations, Frisco and McKinney, startup accelerator Plug and Play, AI corporate partner AMSYS Innovative Solutions, Dallas Innovation Alliance, Utsun Law Group, and Toyota Mobility Foundation. A hub for business development and NTXIA events, we brought together partners, friends, and experts across the smart city space for an incredible schedule of panels in our pavilion each day. In addition, we had the honor of hosting the second annual SCEWC Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge with our partners at Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, where our five finalists from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Canada and the US pitched in person to win funding, travel, and piloting opportunities in the U.S. Of course, we capped off the finals with a toast of Texas Whisky Tasting!
This year was no different when it came to packed schedules, including NTXIA members and partners speaking across multiple panels, being interviewed by international media outlets, meeting with international startups with intriguing technology, and so much more. Each year, we are humbled and honored to see the world-wide connections, learnings, passions, and innovations from across the globe.
Thank you to our wonderful team, partners, and members for your ongoing support and hard work through this action-packed week! Your effort and dedication do not go unnoticed!
For the third year NTXIA had a pavilion, enabling our incredible members and partners to have an even stronger presence than in years past. Our pavilion was filled with press meetings, meetings with international innovators, and panels. NTXIA Executive Director and Co-Founder Jennifer Sanders and Director of Strategic Partnerships Yumna Bham managed the NTXIA pavilion, meetings, and panels, ensuring all of our partners and members had a fully packed schedule to get the most out of the conference. The team had memorable conversations with innovators, corporate leaders, and more, as we continued to spread the word about NTXIA and North Texas as a whole. Overall, NTXIA members and partners participated in over 10 panels, including two mainstage panels, increasing North Texas’ presence and sharing insights across global audiences.
Day one of the conference was full of seeing new and friendly international connections, meeting new innovators, and three packed panels at the NTXIA pavilion across preparation for global events, how smaller, fast growing cities punch above their weight class in innovation, and global Living Lab lifecycles with Jacobs, Amsys and NVIDIA global leadership. Each panel showcased North Texas’ insights paired with global perspectives, for unique learning opportunities for the audience.
Day two continued with powerhouse panels in the NTXIA pavilion and the big event, the SCEWC Global Startup Challenge. Five global startups were chosen from dozens of applicants to attend SCEWC 2025 in person for the final pitch competition. This year’s competitors included: Omniflow, Advanced Services in Mobility, Helpful Places, Latitude 40, and Tiami Networks, Inc. Our distinguished judges for this year’s competition included NTXIA Executive Director Jennifer Sanders, Frisco Economic Development Corporation Director of Innovation Jeremiah Anderson, McKinney Economic Development Corporation Senior Vice President Michael Talley, Plug and Play Director David Steele, Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners Managing Director Valerie Chang, and Toyota Mobility Foundation Program Manager Trey Ingram.
Each of the startups did a fantastic job meeting the problem statement requirements and pitching their solutions. After a tough deliberation, NTXIA and partners were excited to announce Omniflow as the winner of the 2025 SCEWC Global Startup Challenge. This Portuguese-based startup provides carbon neutral smart IoT applications powered by wind and solar with integrated energy storage and grid connection that enables multiple integrated applications. Thank you to each of the startups who attended the event and pitched their hearts out - each of you did a wonderful job, and we thank all of you for making the trip to SCEWC Barcelona. We are looking forward to working with Omniflow and seeing how their solutions can benefit the U.S. market.
After the competition, NTXIA hosted a Texas Whiskey-Tasting where we also made a toast to our finalists and the winner. This was a fun and interactive networking event that continued to support all five startups and NTXIA members and partners in expanding their international presence.
NTXIA wrapped up the last day of the conference with a partnerships panel with Georgia’s PIN Institute and Kansas City’s KC Digital Drive, a Cowboys & Caffeine networking happy hour, and a panel on the People First Mainstage highlighting our winners, Omniflow, and the importance of international economic development and innovation.
We want to thank our entire team, our members, and our partners again for another incredible SCEWC Barcelona. This would not be possible without you all, and we cannot wait to see how our presence will continue to grow in 2026.
