Esade Business & Law School

During the next few days, Barcelona will host the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022. In this framing, Esteve Almirall, head of the Esade Center for Innovation in Cities, presents a new episode of his podcast ‘Innovate or die’. Today’s guest is Jeff Merrit, Head of Urban Transformation at the World Economic Forum and a member of its Executive Committee. Jeff is also the former New York City’s first-ever Director of Innovation. He will be a keynote speaker in this year’s Congress in high-level conferences about inclusive technologies and collaborative governance. In this conversation, Jeff reflects on different topics like the meaning of innovation beyond technology, how analytics can improve the allocation of resources, or why the next big-hit innovative improvements will be born in fast-growing cities of the global south.