Smart City Leaders Talk at WSIS+20 & AI for Good Summit

Smart City Leaders Talk at WSIS+20 & AI for Good Summit

The Smart City Leaders’ Talk on ‘Safe smart cities and Climate Frustration’ at the WSIS+20 High-level Events week, on 8 July 2025 at 2.00-3.00pm, discusses the paradox of smart cities facing challenges of climate change. This high-level debate co-organized by GCH, WeGO, and ITU will enlighten opportunities Smart Cities bring to development and ways to overcome the limitations local leaders continue to face in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The High-level Talks will focus on people-centered approaches to smart cities, with the participation of leaders of international organizations, mayors, and representatives of city networks.

The discussion on the ‘AI & virtual worlds: Building the cities and governments of tomorrow’, on 9 July 2025 at 9.00-12.00am, brings together governments, cities, and experts to explore how AI-powered virtual worlds can empower communities and tackle global challenges. Speakers are invited to highlight different aspects of using digital tools and AI in their cities, including but not limited to for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and their expectations towards the development and regulation of a Citiverse.

Both the AI for Good Summit and the WSIS+20 High-Level Events are taking place from 7-11 July 2025 in Geneva with the participation of heads of international organizations, ministers, experts, and c-suite executives. It is the very place for mayors and city leaders to discuss emerging urban challenges of digitalization, including the Citiverse and share expectations on regulatory needs and policy development.

Be part of the global conversation on these high-potential issues through participation at these events to foster collaborative solutions for Local and Regional Governments. Your contribution will advance the multistakeholder discussion and feed into the relevant inter-governmental policy-making processes.

Registration

For further information on participation (in person or online) and on the programme, visit the WSIS+20 website or the AI for Good website.

Are you ready to share best practices and engage as a speaker?

Do not hesitate to contact us at info@globalcitieshub.org.

Background information

What is WSIS+20?

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a 2 phased summit organized in 2003 in Geneva, and in 2005 in Tunisia designed to tackle the challenges raised by information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the national, regional, and international levels. Since then, the goal is to build a people-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented information society where everyone can create, access, use, and share information. The summit’s mandate has been followed up by High-Level Forums organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in different instances like multi-stakeholder segments, and other pivotal events on the mentioned grounds.

This year it will have both WSIS+20 High-Level Event in July 2025, and a high-level meeting in December 2025 at the General Assembly following Resolution A/70/125. This will ensure the input and participation of all stakeholders to identify both successes and remaining challenges on ICTs.

What is AI for Good summit?

AI for Good is the UN leading platform to leverage the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to drive progress toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was established in 2017 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) with the Government of Switzerland and in partnership with over 40 UN agencies. Its flagship annual Global Summit is held in Geneva, along with regional impact events across the globe.

The summit is a platform for advancing AI in service of sustainable development.  The goal is to identify practical applications of AI, scale solutions for global impact, and accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs. The topics discussed at the summit are also influential to global standard setting processes led by ITU.