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The winner of this third edition of the competition was Lisboa Horizontal, an app designed for city cyclists which offers all the information they need day to day: all the cycle routes (from the fastest to the least steep, or even those that are only downhill) and the locations of specialist cycle shops.

There were 15 finalists in this edition of the Smart Cities technology competition r, who submitted projects in the categories of Smart Energy, Smart Mobility, Smart Living and Smart Tourism, at this event taking place at the conference on Human Smart Cities – Beyond 2020.

On a day when the spotlight was on innovation and entrepreneurship, this event was attended by Martin Ratcliffe, Vodafone’s Senior Manager for Strategy & Innovation. In his presentation he addressed the innovation and development opportunities, challenges and strategies associated with the Smart Cities theme and emphasised Vodafone’s Machine-to-Machine vision: “Connecting machines to transform lives and businesses”.

In addition to the prize of 10,000 euros, three honourable mentions were also awarded:

• Archpaths project – Audience Award: project voted best by the audience;
• CoolFarm project – Next Generation Networks: for the project that best exploits the potential of Vodafone’s Next Generation networks;
• Visualfy project – the Internet of Things: for the project that best embodies this trend.

The concept of BIG Smart Cities by Vodafone Power Lab was born in 2013 under the title Lisbon BIG Apps. Vodafone Power Lab is a programme designed to encourage innovation and to support entrepreneurship, whose aim is to encourage the creation of technology projects through mentoring, workshops and training, among other possibilities promoting the development of new companies.

Further information about the competition is available at www.bigsmartcities.com.

Information about the projects submitted in the competition

1. Smart Energy

Brain-e

Brain-e is a digital platform (WEB and APPs) enabling users to monitor their energy costs.

CoolFarm

CoolFarm is positioned in the market as a highly flexible, high quality product for agriculture. It aims to develop new means of production, thereby improving the quality of the product that reaches the consumer as well as the performance of agricultural enterprises.

Hotelytics

Technology that provides support data for hoteliers to optimise comfort, quality and costs.

Impact Profiles

A new system for measuring individual energy consumption performance indicators in order to improve collective results.

2. Smart Mobility

CrowdPlanners

The Crowdplanner is a GPS app that tracks cyclists’ routes in order to use the information to plan future cycle lanes in towns.

Lisboa Horizontal

An application designed for city cyclists. With this app, cyclists can access all the information they need day to day: all the cycle routes (from the fastest to the least steep, or even those that are only downhill) and the locations of specialist cycle shops.

3. Smart Living

My Easy Renting

MyEasyRenting.com is a platform that connects people who want to rent their possessions for extra income to people who need to borrow items.

Boldplaces

Boldplaces seeks to create a reliable online marketplace connecting owners of commercial premises for lease to investors and people with good ideas who need premises for their business.

Visualfy

Technological solutions that collect audio information from the surrounding environment and mobile devices and convert them into sensory and visual signals. It also includes video messages in sign language.

CitizenO

Online platform/application that allows citizens and municipal services to report incidents to the local authority, leading to better coordination between it and the community in addressing them.

Agendo

Application that facilitates reservations at any time in the wellness sector. Companies receive bookings and payments 24/7 while users visit online anytime, anywhere. 

4. Smart Tourism

archPaths

A product centred on the cultural tourism potential of architecture. The idea is to gather together, select and produce highly valuable architectural content, presenting it in a mobile app aimed at a target audience willing to discover and learn about local architecture.

Cool World

An app presenting the best there is in Lisbon, indicating when it is time to go and when it is time to stay.

Happiness GPS

Technology to enhance the experience of visitors to cities and increase their enjoyment.

Rewind Cities

Development of an app for smartphones and tablets that, with the use of augmented reality technology, offers unforgettable 2D and 3D experiences transporting the user into the past of cities and places to witness past events and even meet historical figures. Rewind Cities is not just a tourist application, but rather a ticket to fun and a magical journey into the past of a city.