IMAGINE
Imagine the citiverse
The imagining doesn’t stop here. What’s next for the Citiverse?
Find out in 2026.
27-28 May 2025
Tampere, Finland,
Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre
City Representatives. Companies. Startups. Investors. Join the transformation.
THANK YOU FOR IMAGINING THE CITIVERSE WITH US!
IMAGINE the Citiverse 2025 brought together cities, companies, and innovators from around the globe
And what a journey it was!
Over two vibrant days in Tampere, we explored real urban challenges, heard bold solutions from startups and companies, and connected with brilliant people who believe in the power of imagination and collaboration.
Relive some of the best moments, check out the winners, and keep the momentum going!
The event wouldn’t have been the same without you – so a big thank you to you!
From participants
The Citiverse Challenge 2025
Bold Solutions for real city challenges
One of the highlights of IMAGINE the Citiverse was the Citiverse Challenge, where startups and companies from around the world pitched their solutions to real-life urban challenges presented by cities.
After two days of inspiring presentations, insightful discussions, and strong collaboration between cities and solution providers, it’s time to celebrate the winning matches – where innovation met urban impact.
Here are the winning teams and their matched cities:
City’s Challenge
The City of Genova, Italy, is committed to ensuring that the benefits of digitalisation are accessible to all, especially its most vulnerable citizens. With an aging population and diverse socio-economic challenges, the city recognises that digital advancements can exacerbate existing inequalities if not implemented inclusively.
Genova’s Total Inclusion Challenge aims to:
- Bridge the Digital Divide: Develop solutions that support digitally excluded groups, including the elderly, disabled, and low-income families.
- Enhance Accessibility: Create technologies that make public services, arts, and cultural experiences accessible to all, regardless of physical or cognitive ability.
- Support Vulnerable Populations: Implement systems to safeguard vulnerable citizens during extreme weather events or natural disasters.
By prioritizing human-centric design and inclusivity, Genova invites innovators to develop social and technical solutions that use the Citiverse as a vehicle for empowerment and equality, ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age.
City’s Challenge
Istanbul faces challenges with fast urban growth, a large population, and complicated transportation. Its varied geography and risk of earthquakes require practical solutions. The city also struggles with air and noise pollution due to heavy traffic and industrial activity. Using smart technologies to manage the city sustainably is essential. It is also important to upgrade infrastructure to meet the growing demands of the population. Addressing pollution, particularly air and noise pollution caused by traffic and industry, is a priority for the city’s health and environment. Additionally, preparing for natural disasters, especially earthquakes, is crucial to protect residents and ensure the city’s resilience in the face of emergencies. Balancing development with environmental and social needs is essential for long-term sustainability and a better quality of life.
City’s Challenge
Las Rozas, Spain, seeks to strengthen its emergency response capacity to ensure the safety and well-being of all its citizens. From extreme weather events to incidents in the urban environment, the city needs innovative solutions that improve prevention, detection, and crisis management in real-time. The challenge aims to:
- Optimize emergency response.
- Leverage data and artificial intelligence.
- Promote citizen participation.
Las Rozas invites innovators, startups, and experts in technology and security to propose solutions that enhance the city’s reaction capacity, ensuring efficient management and a safer, more prepared community in the face of any emergency.
City’s Challenge
Public services must move to a more preventative model of service delivery in order to deliver better outcomes for citizens. This is a significant challenging with the more vulnerable in society who might not be known to local services, these citizens can include:
- People who provide unpaid care for family members or friends.
- People who are socially isolated.
- Migrant communities with different expectations of social support and healthcare.
- Residents with English as a second language, low literacy or are digitally excluded.
- People who are becoming increasingly frail.
How can the citiverse make vulnerable residents more visible to organisations that can provide support? This could be about:
- How can support organisations quickly identify people that need help?
- How can we help people to understand the support on offer, and to access it if they want?
- How can we bring in the community to look out for each other and help each other access support?
Cracking this issue would lead to significant benefits to citizens, more digital public services, a preventative approach to a range of social issues, and financial savings to the state.
City’s Challenge
Advance the existing digital twin created by city partner organizations (Downtown Phoenix Inc. and Arizona State University), or develop a new twin through another technology platform, to identify optimal, digital shaded pathways (existing shade and optimal locations for future shade –connecting “cool corridors”) throughout the city that will come to life through implementation in the physical world – connecting to public transportation, bicycle pathways, rideshares, canal systems, etc.
Additional: Utilizing data sets, existing real-time data (through partners like google), sensor technologies in the streetscape, etc., the digital twin will empower City leadership teams to identify current shade and determine the optimal areas for additional shade (manufactured and natural), where people are biking, walking, using public transportation and ridesharing apps, as well how best to position shade installations for optimal outcomes, and/or mechanical shade to move with the sun. The project will connect “cool corridors” throughout the city, which include access to chilled water and bicycle service hubs.
User Experience: Residents and visitors will have access to a virtual map, with directional options (voice, digital maps, prompts, etc.), with accessibility features, to guide them through shaded areas of the city and access to amenities including chilled water.
City’s Challenge
The City of Rotterdam, Netherlands, is rapidly advancing in its Citiverse strategy, which is powered by a high-end digital twin and the Open Urban Data Platform (OUP). These tools are at the heart of the city’s efforts to address one of its most pressing issues: water management and resilience.
Given that much of the Netherlands lies below sea level, flooding poses a significant risk to citizens, businesses, and infrastructure—including Europe’s largest port. Rotterdam’s Water & Resilience Challenge aims to leverage the Citiverse to:
- Predict: Use advanced data modelling to forecast flooding scenarios.
- Mitigate: Develop solutions that proactively reduce flooding impacts.
- Respond: Enhance response capabilities for faster, more effective action during crises.
This challenge extends beyond flooding to address broader water, resilience, and safety issues. Rotterdam invites innovators worldwide to propose creative solutions that integrate with the city’s digital twin and OUP, ensuring the safety and well-being of its citizens while setting a benchmark for urban resilience.
City’s Challenge
Innovative data-driven solutions for urban safety and business vitality
Urban security is more important than ever. As cities grow and evolve, ensuring safety while fostering a thriving business environment is a pressing challenge. With rapid technological advancements and increasing expectations from residents and businesses, cities must take a proactive, data-driven approach to safety and security. Our vision is to enable the world’s safest city—a place where people and businesses can flourish without concerns about security.
We are looking for solutions that enhance overall urban security and strengthen business vitality by integrating multiple data sources, leveraging advanced analytics and AI methods, and actively engaging both residents and businesses.
To improve safety and the business environment, we seek solutions that:
- Collect and analyze data from various sources, such as sensors, pedestrian and traffic flows, crime statistics, and other urban environment metrics.
- Detect anomalies and anticipate risks, such as potential safety threats, disruptions, or patterns related to crime and public disturbances.
- Actively engage local businesses and residents to ensure the solutions provide value to different user groups and support sustainable urban development.
The solutions should combine technological innovation with community participation, offering a comprehensive, data-driven, and community-inclusive approach to making the city safer, more attractive, and economically vibrant. We are looking for forward-thinking partners whose solutions can enhance security and bring tangible value to the urban environment.
City’s Challenge
Playgrounds need to evolve to address urban challenges such as digital transformation, sustainability, inclusion and community engagement. Traditional playgrounds face challenges such as static design, environmental impact, inaccessibility, lack of connectivity, and limited community participation. Future playgrounds should be flexible, sustainable and digitally integrated, with modular spaces, smart technology and inclusive design. By fostering co-creation and innovation, these playgrounds must enhance the play experience and contribute to resilient, connected communities.
The Cityverse Challenge
Nine Cities. Nine Urban Challenges. Four Themes. Bold companies with innovative solutions wanted.
At IMAGINE the Citiverse, companies showcase their solutions to urban challenges directly to city leaders and engaged audience.
The event’s themes and challenges focus on:
Seamless Solutions for Cities. The Citiverse shapes how we move, connect, and experience urban life.How can growing cities create the future of mobility—respecting the environment while making everyday life smoother for residents?
A resilient city provides its residents with a sense of security. Smart solutions help anticipate different scenarios and plan for a city that remains liveable and pleasant for all. The Citiverse brings new solutions within reach for vibrant and enjoyable urban spaces.
New ways to create an interactive city where everyone has a voice in decision-making—fostering belonging, social connection, and overall well-being. Let’s harness smart solutions to build future cities that are more inclusive, equitable, and participatory.
When harnessed innovatively, smart technologies and data provide cities with solutions to protect our shared planet. Let’s get empowered by the citiverse to strengthen sustainable cities and their vibrant biodiversity. The seeds of solutions are planted here.
The event app
Get Ready for Imagine 2025: Download the Event App for Program and Networking!
To ensure you have the best experience possible, we invite you to download our event app. With the app, you’ll have access to the full program and the ability to connect with fellow attendees.
Stay informed, stay connected, and make the most out of Imagine 2025 with only three easy steps:
- Register for the event
- Check your email
- Download the app using the link in your email
Speakers
Enter the world of Citiverse and explore our exciting line-up of speakers. Keep an eye out for the upcoming schedule, coming soon.
The Digital Shift is Here—Be the One Who Steers It
We are on the edge of a new, digitally infused era that seamlessly integrates into our lives, businesses, and cities. Metaverse, AI, digital twins, immersive tech, citiverse… Do you feel lost in the jungle of all the tech terminology? Or do you already speak this language fluently? Either way, Imagine the Citiverse is the place for you.
This is where cities’ challenges meet the solutions of businesses, with people at the very heartbeat of digital transformation. At this event, you’ll hear the most innovative companies pitch their solutions to smart city challenges, gain insights from cutting-edge talks and network with the right people. IMAGINE the Citiverse is the one you can’t afford to miss!
Blog posts

SmartCity.exe – Update Required
Joe Appleton “We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors.” — Stanisław Lem, Solaris When Stanisław Lem wrote

Pioneering the Unexplored: The Host-City Tampere’s Hands-On Approach to the Citiverse
Outi Valkama Imagine always having a clever but invisible assistant by your side. It would understand your daily needs and

Why does the Citiverse Matter?
Bas Boorsma Several decades of digitally powered change has resulted in a system shift in the way we work, live,
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What’s this frog thing about?
Imagine the frog’s life cycle: It begins with a silent transformation—starting as tiny eggs in water, which hatch into swimming tadpoles. Over time, they lose their tails, sprout legs, and develop the ability to navigate both land and water. By the end of this transformation, the adult frog has reached its full form. With its strong hind legs, it leaps out of the pond, feeling the ground beneath its feet—ready for the world with its flies, ecosystems and adventures.
Amid the digital transformation, just a few years ago we were still in the murky frogspawn, unsure of what might emerge from it. From that uncertain mass has sprung something entirely new: a city where a digital layer runs parallel to the physical one, full of opportunities. We want to understand what’s happening before we end up like frogs in a pot, and leap forward in a smoothly functioning and safe city, while also protecting its delicate ecosystems and our shared planet.

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