SCONN 2024 – Smart City Convention in Berlin
SCONN 2024, Messe Berlin
From 15 to 17 October 2024, experts, decision-makers and innovators from government, politics, business and academia gathered at SCONN 2024 (the Smart City Convention) in Berlin. The event centred on the question of how cities and municipalities can successfully navigate their digital transformation, covering topics such as smart infrastructure, innovative citizen services, and sustainable data strategies.
Our DATAROCKET team was also on site and took away many exciting insights and impulses.
Smart City: Between Vision and Practice
Nancy Faeser, Federal Minister of the Interior and patron of SCONN 2024
The discussions at SCONN revealed just how broad and complex the topic of smart cities really is. On the one hand, there are big visions, such as the intelligent networking of transport, energy and administration.
On the other hand, success often hinges on practical considerations:
How can existing IT systems be connected with new platforms?
What standards are needed for data exchange between agencies, municipal companies, and external partners?
How can citizens be engaged in the digital transformation, and how can trust be established?
It has become clear that Smart City projects cannot succeed in the long term without reliable data flows, clear interfaces, and structured processes.
Data Management as a Key Topic
The role of data management was a recurring theme across many sessions. Whether the topic was mobility, energy supply, or administrative services, it was clear that data is the foundation on which smart solutions are built. Similar questions came up time and again:
Who is responsible for data and its quality?
How can heterogeneous sources be consistently consolidated?
Which standards ensure interoperability without creating new silos?
The conclusion was clear: Data Governance and Data Quality are critical success factors for smart city projects.
Digital services can only be operated sustainably when data is structured, reliable, and traceable — whether in public administration, municipal companies, or urban infrastructure.
DATAROCKET specializes in combining data integration with Data Governance, providing transparency across data flows and ensuring long-term data quality. The result is robust data landscapes that enable municipalities to implement digital solutions both technically and organizationally.
Key Focus Areas in 2024
SCONN 2024 placed special emphasis on several themes, which were reflected in discussions and panels.
Climate Protection and Sustainability: Smart technologies as drivers of greater energy efficiency and resource conservation in cities.
Artificial Intelligence: Practical scenarios showing how AI can accelerate administrative processes and improve citizen services.
Digital Administration: Concrete examples of how citizens can access services more easily and how municipalities can establish standards.
Networking and Cooperation: The smart city can only succeed through collaboration between municipalities, businesses, and research institutions.
These focus areas demonstrate the wide range of smart city approaches and the importance of Data Quality and Data Governance for all further developments.
Austausch, Dialog und Besucherrekord
Beyond the content, SCONN 2024 was, above all, a venue for networking and exchange. This year's event set a new attendance record, highlighting the increasing interest in smart city solutions.
Many conversations revealed that cities and municipal companies face similar challenges. How can a consistent data strategy be launched? Which tools help monitor data quality? How can governance be designed so that it becomes a success factor rather than a hurdle?
Conclusion
SCONN 2024 made one thing clear: the smart city is no longer just a vision — it's a reality. Its success depends on data that is structured, high-quality, and transparently usable.
We have come to the same conclusion: Integration and Data Governance must go hand in hand if cities are to grow digitally and sustainably in a way that truly serves their citizens.
