Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Tamlyn Shimizu: Welcome to the City the BABLEPodcast where we bring together top actors in the smart city arena, sparking dialogues and interactions around the stakeholders and themes most prevalent for today's citizens and tomorrow's generations.
I am your host Tamlyn Shimizu and I hope you will enjoy this episode and gain knowledge and connections to accelerate the change for a better urban life.
Smart in the City is brought to you by BABLE Smart Cities. We enable processes from research and strategy development to co creation and implementation. To learn more about us, please visit the BABLE platform at BABLE-smartcities eu.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode. So today we have a very special episode. I know I say that a lot, but it is always true also, I have to say.
And we're exploring how metropolitan areas can act as open air laboratories for urban innovation. And specifically we'll dive into the QMI program, which is one of the largest urban experimentation initiatives in Europe, driven by the Greater Paris Metropolitan region. So I know that sounds like a mouthful and I'm excited to dig in a little bit more.
With me today to talk all about it are two experts on the topic that know all about the program.
With me today is none other than David Monteau. He's the Director of Economic Development, Attractiveness and Digital affairs at the Greater Paris Metropolitan Region. Welcome David.
[00:01:38] David Monteau: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:41] Tamlyn Shimizu: Absolutely my pleasure. And with him today, to accompany him and to bring vitality to the episode as well, I have with me Francesco Trivagli. He's the Director of Investment Promotion and Facilitation at Choose Paris Region. Welcome Francesco.
[00:02:02] Francesco Travagli: Hi Tamlyn. Hi everyone. Thank you for having me here with you today.
[00:02:06] Tamlyn Shimizu: Really excited to have you both here. Thanks so much for joining me.
I'm also super curious to learn more about this program myself.
Before we get into that, I always like to start with a little bit of a teaser warm up question.
For that I'd like to ask you, if you had to describe the greater Paris region in only three words, what would those words be and why?
Now I'm going to say Francesco, you can go first. And David, if you want to build upon that with your own three words, you can.
Francesco, do you have three words?
[00:02:42] Francesco Travagli: Yeah, sure. I will start by saying that it's international and I'm a kind of a representation of it because I'm Italian originally and I live in the metropolis of Paris.
It's also international because I'm not the only one international living in Paris. 14% of its population is non French is really at the heart of Europe. In the art of Europe, there is the biggest concentration of Fortune 500s. There are 15,000 international companies and incredibly, one job out of six is in an international company.
So it's really an international city and metropolis and regional.
So that would be my first word, my first objective to describe the city, to describe the metropolis. Then I would say that is innovative, is really innovative.
Since 2008, there are multiple smart city initiatives in smart lighting, mobility management, real time water and water quality monitoring. So it's extremely innovative as a city. And there is a huge concentration of startups, accelerators, incubators in all verticals that are represented in Paris.
And then I would also say that is strong, is a very strong metropolis.
I would say that is strong because it is a metropolis that has been capable of overcoming crisis. The debt crisis in 2009, the COVID crisis, the small real estate slowdown, the recent one, and is resilient on that. And that is because there are millions of tourists coming every year, 15 million visitors, is a top financial center, is a leading business hub in Europe and is the number one destination in the European Union for foreign direct industry.
And I think all these makes it, that is a unique global city which is own character and its own path. So that makes it very strong as a metropolis.
[00:05:10] Tamlyn Shimizu: Okay, good, good. Three words. Now, David, what do you think? I'm assuming you agree, but can you build upon that with your own three words?
[00:05:23] David Monteau: Of course I agree. I would maybe add something about the city itself. I mean, the greater Paris Metropole, it's more than 7 million inhabitants and it's a very dense city, you know, the densest city in Europe.
And it's so it's, as Francesco said, it's a vibrant city, a lot of innovation and it's 500 billion euros GDP. So it's a huge city and a huge area, of course.
And I would say, but as all the big metropolises in Europe and in the world, it's facing a lot of big challenges, including of course climate change, of course the digital transformation, and also disparities between parts of the metropolis. So I would say a word that comes to my mind is the commitment. I mean, the cities and all of the stakeholders, I mean, they are committed to addressing, tackling those challenges, including through innovation. So there is a kind of openness and commitment to find solution, experiment solutions, and we'll get back to that, of course. But I think that's something interesting that of course there are a lot of capabilities, but there's also this movement towards finding solution because we have no choice but because we have big resources, financial of course, talents. But Francesco told us about that.
[00:06:46] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, very good. Okay, now we have lots of words and a good picture about Paris and the greater Paris region.
I want to learn a little bit more about you though, as people too.
Maybe. David, can you start and tell us about yourself, Tell us about your background and your journey leading you into your role today.
[00:07:08] David Monteau: Yes, in a few words. I have a tech background. I've worked for more than 10 years in a research organization in MEA, which is the largest research institute in Europe for the digital science, including artificial intelligence, et cetera, networks, etc. And after that I worked with the French government where I was the co founder. I helped to launch a national initiative which is still called La French Tech, which is a national movement to support the growth of French startups and of course internationally, but also locally in various parts of France. So I ran this program for five years and launched it and ran it and after that where I worked with also I launched a company, I worked with a company. But the reason why I joined also the greater Paris metropolis is also how innovation is a way also to, as I said, address big challenges at a big scale, because it's a big scale. And also how can innovation change the everyday life of everybody? And that's interesting when you're working for a city, it's really our everyday environment and the environment of also of company of businesses and I think how you can work on that through tech, but also with other kind of public policy also it's very, very interesting and that's what I've been trying to do in the last five years.
[00:08:33] Tamlyn Shimizu: Really interesting. I'm curious, are you originally from Paris or.
[00:08:38] Francesco Travagli: Yes.
[00:08:39] Tamlyn Shimizu: Oh, very nice. Okay, so you're local? Parisian.
Very good.
Then with Francesco. I would also love to know a little bit more about your background and where you came from. How did you end up? I know you're Italian, but how did you end in Paris? And what's your, what's your technical or professional background as well?
[00:09:02] Francesco Travagli: Interestingly and enough, I came here in Paris with the French tech in 2016 and I met David at the time in 2016. So it's been a long that we know each other.
My before I've been working and living in other countries has been half of my life that I'm not in, in, in in Italy. But it was a great journey here to Paris and my background is I have a background of business developer and project developer.
I created three profitable companies in the past and had one good Exit, successful one, not a huge one, but a successful exit. And I always worked in innovation consulting for large corporate.
I contributed to the creation of 100 roughly tech venture and I helped company to get international to develop in Europe, in Panama, in Brazil, in China, in the United Arab Emirates.
And I worked also for a while in marketing and sales for large corporate in various sectors from tech to finance, fast moving customer goods. And my real passion is really to help companies to develop, to expand, especially to develop internationally. And that's why today I do this job of investment promotion and facilitation to help foreign companies to expand in France, in the Paris region and in Europe.
[00:10:39] Tamlyn Shimizu: Okay, really interesting background too. Thank you.
Okay, great.
And David, I want to ask you a little bit more now about the QMI program.
What is it? What does that mean? What motivated its launch and what goal did Greater Paris Metropolis have in mind for it?
[00:11:01] David Monteau: So well, QMI is Cartier Metropolitan dinovation as everybody knows. So it's.
[00:11:07] Tamlyn Shimizu: Don't make me say that, please.
[00:11:09] David Monteau: I won't.
So it's. There are metropolitan innovation districts, I'll get back to that and explain what it's about. But as I say, as said earlier, the urban area, the metropolitan area faces major challenges, you know, social inequalities, climate adaptation. And we see here that there's a big opportunity to build a more resilient and balanced inclusive region and urban area.
And that's in a way that's in that framework that we launch and imagine the qmi.
So it's about leveraging, experiment, innovation and experimentation to try to identify the most relevant innovation that could help us face those challenges.
So we launched a program which is quite big. So it's an experimentation program designed actually to connect the region dynamic innovation ecosystem. The startups also the larger company that develop an innovation and would like to experiment it to see how it works and the solution it brings in real life, I would say. But to do that, to do this experimentation you have to be well connected with the local public authorities and that's that, that's the main challenge that we, that we face and that's actually what QMI was designed at. It's really how to have these two worlds work together because in fact they rarely collaborate effectively. That's, that's the, that the, that we said of course on the one hand, entrepreneurs, you know, they struggle to understand how those curious public institutions works and function, how budgets are voted, how procurement works, how to launch a pilot. So you know, we don't share the same expectation. It's really about how we work. And on the other hand, you know, the municipalities, they don't always know how also, you know, startups and businesses works, but also they're not always familiar to how to engage with startups. They want to do it, but also they know not always understand the same language and get also the pace of innovation and how to stay aligned to your mission when you're a public organization and to experiment a product and how to after that, scale it. And that's also the second challenge. But I guess we'll get back to it later. So this is kmi. It's a framework and to do concrete joint projects, experimentation with local authorities in real life and startups and innovative companies in general.
[00:13:58] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, this is such a challenge in every city, let's say, is really bridging this divide.
I want to.
We'll dig into that a little bit more in a second. But also from Francesco, from your point of view as Choose Paris region, what made you decide to get involved? And can you explain a little bit more your involvement there?
[00:14:20] Francesco Travagli: Sure.
When the greater metropolis and David pitched us the metropolitan districts of innovation, we got right away attracted and convinced of the fact that we want to support it. Because for us there is a real sandbox where the city of tomorrow is built, is a testing ground for ecological and social transition.
We believe that thanks to this program, we contribute to improve the quality of life of the citizens in the urban area, of our region and of the metropolis.
This is why we decided to commit to this project and to bring it an international dimension. This is really the role of Choose Paris region, is to bring it an international dimension. We help to identify foreign companies that could contribute positively to the local ecosystem, to the local districts of innovation, and we support them in the context of their pilot project to implement their pilot project in the region.
We believe that foreign direct investments are very important for the metropolis.
And it's is the most attractive metropolis in the European Union for foreign direct investments. And those investments are crucial for our territories. Because while of course, each areas around Europe and the world have specific characteristics, there are often shared challenges.
So foreign investors might have already faced those similar challenges elsewhere and developed effective solutions for those challenges. And this solution could rapidly be adapted, tested and deployed in the Paris metropolis, ultimately benefiting our residents.
Moreover, today some companies are built since the beginning to be international.
So actually the fact of coming in the Paris metropolis from elsewhere is not slowing them down or is not something that will make them difficult to deploy their projects.
[00:16:47] Tamlyn Shimizu: Makes a lot of sense, Francesco.
I'm always Interested to understand how the international companies can get really integrated into local ecosystems and really implement successful pilots that can be scaled up. So I think these programs are definitely a great stepping stone into that.
David, I want to understand a bit more from your perspective practically, how does this all work? So how does the QMI program integrate startups and municipalities? How do you help them collaborate more effectively? Yeah, can you walk us through kind of that process?
[00:17:29] David Monteau: Yes, of course.
First of all, a few figures. So now where they are, we have, within this program we have 10 cities, so 10 municipalities and 10 districts all across the urban area, the metropolis. And so it's 18 months, I'll get back to that. And within the program we have in total 75 parallel projects all about transforming, about transforming the city. So it's 75. Not all of them will succeed, of course.
Maybe some would fail, of course, because it's innovation, by the way, so that we don't know. So there is a kind of you have to fail, have to fail. And yes, and we're taking risk and it's all about that. Sharing the framework is also how we share risk and we take risks together between the public part and the entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur part.
So 10 cities, 10 districts, but the same process. And the process is basically, it's really a method. It's about building trust about the people, of course, accelerating innovation starting from the needs and the vision of the local authority. What does this city, what do they want? What do they need? What's the vision of the mayor also and all the staff of the city? So what do they need? What are the problems you're facing? Very local, depending really on your ecosystem.
And based on that, we also after that well identified the use cases and work including with choose price region to source and identify the best innovation that could bring a solution to these problems. So it's kind of big contest and call for proposal if you want global. And we try to source and attract companies of course from the price reach, but also for the rest of France and from the international level.
And after that we really organized the project and put it in place with the local mayor and with the company and we help manage the project itself. And there's also a methodology to accompany the project and have it being deployed.
And so there's a framework, we have experts from our. We have an agency called Paris and Co. And they are, you know, bringing resources, people that go on site and work and do this also in kind of, in a way, translation work between the company, the entrepreneurs and the, the and the Municipality and they deploy together the, the. The. The pilot. It's an 18 month project, usually with a big evaluation phase at the, at the end that takes a lot of time. We have designed with peri senecu methodology to evaluate and assess the impacts of the solution.
And after that of course we accompany to help the company sometimes find fundings.
And although the legal framework is very carefully designed and after the experimentation, the challenge is, well, what's next? It's important for the company because of course it's a test.
So Greater Paris is a huge market for such companies.
And having a first pilot in first test, first reference is very interesting. But after that the promise is also how to either duplicate, because not all innovation can be scaled up totally, but they can be duplicated because the local conditions are very appropriate for such an innovation. And maybe in another city, in another part of the metropolis can be very useful.
So we encourage that how to duplicate an innovation. And we have, for example, we have a dedicated fund and we accompany, we help also other cities to take pilots and duplicate them. And we co found this to duplicate.
This means when you enter for a company, the QMI program, after that you can have other references in other clients.
That's the first thing. So it's really about testing and duplicating. And in some other cases, when there is a high potential for scalability of the solution, we also work on that.
So this means that the question is not about duplicating at some different places, it's also about scaling it up at the level. We have 130 municipalities within the greater Paris metropolis. So as I said, it's a huge network, it's a huge market and we can help scaling up. And in this case what we do, one of the solutions that we do is that we ourselves do it. I mean, we have the contract with the company and we propose the municipalities to deploy the solution in their city.
We have just a few examples and we've done that, for example, with this. It's not all the time, but it's of course when you work in the digital sector and with data scalability, it's easier and it goes quicker. And we've done that just to give you an example.
How do you observe the pedestrian flows in city center to know how you can improve the flow into the city centers or school to promote the local shops and the local business?
And we use tech to monitor that. So we've scaled that. It's now more than 80 city centers within the metropolis that use this technology. So we've Scaled it up and other examples in, for example Last mine, logistics, et cetera. So you see, it's a big, it's a process really establishing the good conditions for an experimentation, having everybody, including the local authority ready for it, you know, sharing the same vision, alignment of vision, bringing the technology, experimenting, evaluating and if successful and interest, if interesting, trying to either duplicate or scale it up at the larger level. That's the program.
[00:24:02] Tamlyn Shimizu: I really love your focus on scaling because I think a lot, I mean there's a lot of different pilot programs or whatever there might be out there.
But of course the main goal is to not just do one off project, but really to see which ones are effective and give the companies the ability to scale these if they're successful. So really like your focus on that.
Francesco.
Of course this is a great opportunity for local, local companies, but your focus is on attracting international companies, making them aware of this program and the opportunities that it provides. Can you talk a little bit more about what strategies used to promote the program globally and also call out to all the startups who are listening or any other innovative companies, how should they get involved?
[00:24:53] Francesco Travagli: Yeah, sure.
We use a combination of target communication and more international or broader outreach to promote the program.
So when it comes to direct reach out, we have opportunities.
We have companies that we know already, that we know are interested in investing and experimenting their solution in the Paris region. And they're just waiting for the right opportunity to invest or to get involved.
So that's how we do direct reach out. So we present this opportunity, the metropolitan district of innovation to those companies because we know that they are just there in the starting blocks and ready to come.
And in addition to that, we also organize dedicated webinars to present the initiative to foreign companies and investors.
We regularly share news in our social media channels.
Each year in the Paris region, we receive dozens of international delegation.
So we introduce to them also the program.
And during their visit in the Paris region, we expose them to what the program is and to some accomplishment of the program and what the program realized for those companies that are already here.
And we also use to do a broader reach out. We also use high visibility international events where we present the program, such as Viva Tech that happened here in the Paris region in a couple of weeks and Change now, but also Smart City Expo that happened in Barcelona. We promoted the event worldwide and especially in Europe, but worldwide to try to attract those companies and connect those companies to the opportunity that they could come and to make them understand that actually this initiative is a real getaway to the French and European markets, so they could exploit it to the maximum of its potential. And the results are quite there because we have, each time on each cohort, we have a good international response, between around 20%, I would say between 20 and 25% of applicants are international companies.
So we see a real interest worthwhile for this initiative.
[00:27:40] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, it's incredibly interesting, I can imagine, for the startups and a great opportunity. I also, though, want to talk a little bit about the challenges.
So obviously with programs like this, or just in general with scaling innovation, there are some big challenges.
I want to hear from both of you. Maybe, David, you want to start.
What do you think is the biggest challenge today for Greater Paris?
It comes to attracting and scaling these innovations and what would really help you accelerate the change that you want.
[00:28:18] David Monteau: So here we're speaking, of course, about really innovation in terms of transforming the city, not innovation in general. But for us, again, it's about leveraging innovation to transform the city, to adapt it to climate change and et cetera, I think, as I said. So for Greater Paris, as I said, it's a huge market market, but a fragmented market.
So that's first thing from the US and from China, they say the same about the European market. The European market's a big market, but a very fragmented market. So in a way, it's kind of.
That's also something. And that's also. That's one point we try to address with qmi. So we know that it's organized this way because in urban innovation, it's the local, the municipality, the local authority is always key. It's not always the client, it's always key, it's always there. And that's a very strong characteristics and feature of this kind of innovation, urban innovation or public innovation in general.
So that's our part.
It's about sharing the culture, having them take risks, take risk with them, so that the local municipalities, they share the risk and the trust. So it's really about. About building trust, develop this culture of risk taking, also enhance the reputation of the public sector in France, I think it's also a challenge because it doesn't always have big reputation. Whereas I see, I mean, although the mayors in these cities, even very local cities, not the richest one, not in central metropolis, in the center of the metropolis, really experimenting, very interesting things.
And it's an urban environment which is quite different from, for example, the center of Paris. So it's very important also to address these parts of the metropolis. So I think fragmentation of the market and sharing the Culture and well, that's what we are trying to do. And well, later if you want I can give you also examples of concrete projects that we experimented. But to answer your question, that's my conclusion.
[00:30:34] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, please.
Actually, please go ahead. I would love actually some examples if you want to give any. That sounds exciting. So please go ahead.
[00:30:44] Francesco Travagli: Sure.
[00:30:44] David Monteau: Well, okay, let's go. I chose two actually.
The first one is very tech with AI and the second is not tech, that's on purpose but just to give you an idea of what kind of project we work with with. So the first I would mention is called Istia.
It's the mission of the product, this company is to improve indoor air quality through AI solutions.
So there are sensors and a digital platform dashboard to monitor the pollutants inside indoors, you know, in offices, buildings and public facilities. So it's about measuring, measuring air pollution.
So we did a deployment from September 2024, three public buildings in, in a local city called in the suburb of Paris. And the reliability of the system has been demonstrated and there's good data quality.
And on top of that also there is an oncoming new regulation for building management system which is coming in France so which will encourage developing such solutions. So it's been tested in Holness and we are currently assessing the health impacts with e.g. insurance providers, et cetera of such solutions. And we'll see. So we're in the evolution, evaluation, assessment phase and we'll see after that. Whereas if there is a possibility to scale such a system.
So that's the first thing. That's the first thing we have another example I have in mind also to quite connected to that is about managing the energy consumption in public building. How do you monitor the consumption of energy in public buildings? And we are with a company working to develop solutions, AI powered solutions to do that. So it saves money and of course it's more resilience.
And so we are expanding that for example presently in three cities but we plan to deploy it up to more 60 cities which will represent more than 1000 buildings. So it's quite a big project.
That's the first thing it's really about leveraging data AI for improving the monitoring and for example fighting in that instance against air pollution.
Another example maybe it's with purple alternative surface which is.
So this company develops an eco friendly permeable pavers which is made from recycled plastic to support rainwater infiltration which is a big problem of course, as you know. So this has been tested and with in parking spaces within a QMI and with a partnership with a larger company called Colas. And it's been trained and it appears to be quite effective. And the municipalities is very interested and. Well, it appears that the company has raised money recently and from Suez, the French larger company, and they did a series a round of 10 million euros investment. So this means that this experiment also allows to validate the technology.
And after that we'll see. I mean, if they raise money, so now they're going to deploy it at the larger scale. So this is where we are now. I don't know where we're going, but it's a lie. It's a first reference and a validation of the technology. And also the fact that the industrial ecosystem sways in this case is interested in it, so brings light to the interest of the solution.
[00:34:48] Tamlyn Shimizu: Really interesting examples. Thanks for those.
I'm really quite curious to dig into also other companies that you've worked with. I'm going to have to get a full list from you, I think afterwards, because they're quite interesting.
Francesca, I want to ask you also to talk a little bit about, from your perspective, the challenge that you see or challenges. I'm sure there's many, of course, that you see when you're looking at bringing in these companies. You're getting the pilots, you're trying to scale them.
What are the challenges there that you encounter?
[00:35:21] Francesco Travagli: I think that first there are the.
I would like also to mention at least the challenges of the destination. It was mentioning it before also a little bit, David, at the beginning of our conversation.
Paris is the most densely populated city in Europe.
There are 40 million trips that are made each day by the residents, by the workers and by the visitors.
The area hosts very large infrastructure. There are approximately 120,000 construction projects that are initiated every year. And also of the buildings have been built before 1974 and did renovation. So the destination is really an intense use area that foster the emergency of new, more resilient and more efficient urban economic models. So there is really. There are the opportunities for those companies to come and to solve the challenges that we face here in Paris region and locally.
If I can give them some advices to succeed, I would say that they have to combine first maybe three things.
First is that they have to combine a global validation with local credibility.
The example that was giving David about rising money and building partnership, this is really what shows that there is a work with the local ecosystem from day one.
They land quickly, local reference and they show that involved and credible for what they want to build, to be credible. They also have to put leaders on the ground fast. And that's what I would give as an advice to have a founders to come or a C level executive to stay here for 12, 18 months for international company. It's very good relocation, if possible, or if it is not possible, at least come twice a month to visit and to be very connected to the teams that he puts here on the ground to implement and actually to recruit bilingual teams quickly and to be here what could play a real difference.
And last but not least, I think they have to leverage the local ecosystem so industry, trade shows, joining into incubators and accelerators, or joining clusters, sectors, associations and actually build partnership, also innovation, partnership, whatever, but with the local ecosystem to so to think globally, but really to act locally here in the Paris region that I think what they need to do to succeed.
And these are the challenges that they have. And then locally apart from the challenges that we want to solve. Well, there is the European highest concentration of corporate, the highest concentration of French policymakers.
Key institutions are here. Paris Metropolis is where the decisions are made, where ambitious projects are realized, where we set ambitious goals, such as getting rid of thermal vehicles or more in general carbon neutrality.
There are really the opportunities, all the opportunities for international companies to succeed. They can find them here. So it's not just on them, but most of it is on them and we are here to help.
[00:39:10] Tamlyn Shimizu: Good.
That's really great tips, I think for the international companies.
Before we wrap up the main interview, I also have to ask you a little bit more about Viva Tech. It's one of your big events coming up in Paris.
Maybe Francesco, you want to give us the lay of the land. What are you expecting for Viva Tech? Why should people come?
Just very briefly, tell us about it.
[00:39:37] Francesco Travagli: Sure.
Viva Tech is a great event. It's a primary event to connect with European thriving tech ecosystem is a major event for the Paris region, is a gateway to business success in the Paris region and more largely in Europe.
In 2025, just in a couple of weeks we are putting again exclusive discovery programs for international companies to come and we give them key insights, influential connections and we try to present them game changing business opportunities.
So we organized just the day before what we call tech meeting about generative AI Tech meeting is a large open innovation event where we connect international startup with large corporate of the Paris region.
Then we have something that we call the Exposition Tour.
Starting on the 11th of June, the first day of Viva 20.
They are basically one hour tour with three stops, at least three stops to local stakeholder Booths to build connection again between international companies that come to U of Tech and the local player that might be territories, but also large corporates. And we are organizing three exposition tour. One on Aztec, one on artificial Intelligence and one on Energy Transition.
And then we have many other side events like a tech night on the Seine river on a boat just to give an example.
But also to be more more business oriented that the tech night. It will be one to one business meeting with our sector expert on smart city, mobility, energy transition, life science and all the company that want to be part of program they can go on our website which is chooseparisregion.org in the menu on top of the website there is written Viva Tech. They cannot miss it. You guys cannot miss it. And you just click there and register to some of the events and activities that we organize during. During Viva Tech.
[00:42:04] Tamlyn Shimizu: Okay, you had me at boat.
I love it when I go on the boats and everything during the bit. So yes, I'm in.
David, I think he covered it pretty well. Did you want to add anything quickly to that?
[00:42:20] David Monteau: No, the find that we are the greater Paris Metropolitan. We have a booth where we want to showcase and then we will have 20 demos, you know, companies that we within QMI that we turn pilots and 20 will go and showcase their solution and show insight the evaluation of these of this test. So it's going to be and the major topics AI for urban transition. So it's a good way to learn also from other companies and experiments that have been launched in the greater metropolis.
[00:42:53] Tamlyn Shimizu: Okay, sounds good.
So now we've talked about all the topics I believe but now we get to go into our fun segment. And the segment I have for you today is be to going called Flip the Script. Flip the Script.
You are the one asking the questions and I'll be the one answering them.
And that's when I get to sit back when I have two guests. And basically I've learned that you guys are actually asking the best questions to each other.
So now is your opportunity. Francesco, do you have a question for David?
[00:43:32] Francesco Travagli: What will happen next? We had already to court and what would be the next. What are coming next for a qmi?
[00:43:43] David Monteau: Well, I would say in the. The philosophy behind QMI is about experimenting and I think we're still learning. It's also an experiment itself.
It's an experiment in terms of policy, as you said. We have two cohorts, 75 Atlas that are being run.
We will see the results and we will see. Should we scale it a little bit? The program itself I Don't know yet.
We also have, you know, since it takes time, we have developed the pilots and we have. The scaling phase is not out at its end. So we have to do all these big efforts to scale few of them. So this is still, this is still coming.
Please. Maybe one point that we have and we'll work on DICE together I guess is also how can we internationalize the QMI itself. And I think with. Although they have contacts with other metropolis and big cities and Europe. Europe and try to have, you know, maybe run in two different cities together. It's also interesting because first it sources the markets. So it's you, you can start by being in Paris and then go to, I don't know, Vienna, Berlin or go to Rome. And having a European network of, of experimentation district could be interesting. And so it's. We, we are establishing links with, with our, with other big cities and we're working in on that.
[00:45:19] David Monteau: We don't know what there.
[00:45:21] David Monteau: Where this will lead us. But that, that's something so interesting including for non European companies at some point because you can enter the European market through different cities.
So it's also, it could be also a way to address the, the question of fragmentation of the market. So that's an idea. We'll see.
[00:45:38] Tamlyn Shimizu: Sounds interesting.
Now I have to ask you, I'm excited to see what happens next. So I, I'm excited for that.
So David, I would like to ask you if you have a question for Francesco.
[00:45:53] David Monteau: Yeah, General. Because we, we have the figures a few days ago. I think the, of course the. Well, the global situation is quite complicated and difficult. That, and we see that in Europe the level of international investment is slowing down in a way. So, so the question frankly, how do you, how can we, what can we do? What are we doing now on that, on that topic, and especially for the Paris region, I think it's, it's a challenge, but we have really, you know, good assets to address. Especially of course we spoke about urban innovation and urban business as such. But more generally, how, what's your, what are your insight on that?
[00:46:36] Francesco Travagli: It's good, it's good. I will have 20 minutes to answer that question.
No, it's okay. Very good. I'll try to be as brief as possible, but. Very good.
As you were definitely saying, we are experimenting a worldwide slowing down of foreign direct investments.
And in Europe we see it particularly. But generally speaking, the number of companies that move around is slowing down.
They are all waiting, there is instability. So they are all waiting.
And what we saw, what I can Say is that even if there is this situation, I can say that the Paris region still stay very attractive.
It's still the most attractive region in the European Union. And we have a very slight slowdown in 2024 and we are positive for 2025.
I believe that between these geopolitical instability and situation with the usa, with China, what is very important for us right now is also to strengthen, to build on what you were saying, to strengthen our partnerships with the European actors, with the other European metropolis, with the other European countries.
Because today roughly 54% of the investment in the Paris region comes from Europe.
And I believe we could go much higher.
So it will be very important to strengthen the connection with them, with the other countries, with the other metropolis, to have a win win situation, to have them to make their project expand in the Paris region and also the other way around to help our project to go there and build technological partners, build research and innovation partnership.
And another key to answer what you are saying is that as we were always very attractive and there was a huge dynamic and traction in foreign direct investments, we also benefit of a flow of investment that came all alone in the Paris region. And I think now is the good moment to understand clearly what we need and go very specific on the needs that we have locally to start from there, to build our offer and go as soon as possible to go out and reach out, to go to those investors and propose our offer and to go to those investors that have a real added value for the local ecosystem.
I will try to answer your very difficult question.
[00:49:35] Tamlyn Shimizu: Good questions. Yeah, good questions and good answers too. Now we come to our final part and that's our recurring question. We ask every single guest briefly, if you can just say to you, what is a smart city?
Also a difficult question for you, Francesco?
[00:49:55] Francesco Travagli: Yeah, smart city. For me, when I think of smart city, I still sometimes think of science fiction. I imagine the science fiction movie, that's what the first thing that comes in my mind. But to be more concrete and to be more realistic to me is when innovative technologies improve the quality of life of citizens and have a positive environmental, social and ethical impact.
For me, a smart city is a city that is intelligent and is built for its inhabitants.
[00:50:35] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very good definition. I like it.
David, what's your take?
[00:50:42] David Monteau: Yeah, I think the smart city is a marketing concept at the start.
And I think that from fundamental, a city is a smart, smart body. It's an intelligent living organism. It's also a concentration of intelligence, of course, because of density, but also a concentration of problem.
[00:51:04] David Monteau: And difficulties.
[00:51:06] David Monteau: And I think the definition of intelligence is how do you adapt to your environment?
And I think a smart city is not about technology or no technology. I mean, low tech or no tech could be very smart. For example, planting trees or designing planes are very polar and intelligent. To adapt the city to, you know, major and to the environmental challenges. So I think it's really about adapting because adapting to the environment, when the city, it's a very strong infrastructure, it's very difficult and costly to move and the smartness, it's in between, it's how you adapt. It's also about resilience. How do you adapt through tech? I think innovation is key through tech, other kinds of innovation also. And to adapt, of course, to fit and meet needs of the people and the companies that live there. And the needs are changing. And of course tech is changing the way we live and where we work in the city, it's changing, it's going to change, it's going to accelerate. And how this huge infrastructure is adapting to that, that's the change. And to me, smartest intelligence, it's about this adaptation.
[00:52:30] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very good definition too. I'll take it with that.
I have to thank both of you for your time. It was lovely to speak to you. Really interesting for me to learn more about Paris and the Q.
The. Sorry, the qmi.
The QMI program. I'll get my acronyms correct.
Exactly.
So thank you so much for speaking to me. I really appreciate your time.
[00:52:55] Francesco Travagli: Thank you very much, Tamlyn, for having us.
[00:52:57] David Monteau: Thank you very much for inviting us.
[00:53:00] Tamlyn Shimizu: Absolutely. And thank you of course, to all of our listeners. Doesn't happen without you either. Don't forget, you can always create a free account on BABLESmart Cities eu and you can find out more about smart city projects, initiatives, solutions, implementations and more. Thank you very much.
Thank you all for listening. I'll see you at the next stop on the journey to a better urban life.
[00:53:32] David Monteau: It.
