The third Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (the Guangzhou Award) and 2016 Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference is going to held in Guangzhou from Dec 5 to 8. 

The third Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (the Guangzhou Award) and 2016 Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference will be held in Guangzhou from Dec 5 to 8.

The event is co-hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the World Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis) and Guangzhou Municipal Government. The Guangzhou International Innovation Festival will be held at the same time. Together, the events are known as One Award, One Conference and One Festival.

Centering on the theme of global wisdom for local solutions, the series of events will be attended by some 800 guests, including about 500 from China and about 300 from other countries. The guests will include state, provincial and municipal leaders, as well as representatives from international organizations such as UCLG and the Metropolis, participating cities, sister cities, the Jury of the Guangzhou Award, Consulate Generals in Guangzhou and prestigious multinationals and Chinese enterprises.

About 1,400 guests will be present at the City of Innovation Awarding Ceremony of the 3rd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation. Special guests include Dr. Yossi Vardi, Co-chairman of Israel's Digital Living Design, founder of the Tel Aviv Innovation Festival and Israel's "Father of Hi-Tech Innovation", Mpho Parks Tau, UCLG President and President of the the South African Local Government Association (SALGA); Josep Riog, Secretary General of UCLG; Felip Roca, Secretary General of Metropolises; Bernadia  Irawati  Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG Asia Pacific (UCLG-ASPAC), and Peter Woods, ambassador of UCLG-ASPAC, the governors or mayor/vice mayors from countries of the 15 shortlisted cities, such as Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Denmark, and South Korea, as well as mayors of sister cities like Bristol (UK), Linköping (Sweden) and Genoa (Italy).

The main events of One Award, One Conference and One Festival comprise of six parts, namely One Award (review and award ceremony of the Third Guangzhou Award), One Conference (2016 Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference), One Festival (Guangzhou International Innovation Festival), One Keynote Forum (Urban Governance Innovation: From Idea to Action), Six Forums (Forum: 2016 Guangzhou - Hong Kong - Macao - Taiwan Science and Technology Innovation Forum and Project Matchmaking, International Engineers’ Forum: Craftsmanship and Innovation, New Development Concepts and Urban Innovation, Regeneration and Transformation of Historic and Cultural Cities, Innovation on Urban Development, The Belt and Road Initiative & International Innovative Urban Development), and One Exhibition ( Urban Innovation and Corporate Innovation Exhibition). The master agenda covers more than 60 activities, including welcome cocktails, high-level talks, Plenary Session, Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Seminar, voting for Online Popular City, City of Innovation Awarding Ceremony of the 3rd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation, the Opening Ceremony of 2016 Guangzhou International Innovation Festival, various workshops, seminars, dialogues and meetings, as well as Tianhe Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference and Final of THero Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. The main venue of Guangzhou International Innovation Conference is Guangzhou Library, where the events, exhibitions and forums of Guangzhou International Innovation Festival will also take place. The Plenary Session and the Keynote Forum of 2016 Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference and Guangzhou International Innovation Festival are arranged in the Four Seasons Hotel Guangzhou, and City of Innovation Awarding Ceremony of the 3rd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation will be held at the Auditorium of Guangdong Zhudao Guest House Guangzhou.

During the series of events, Guangzhou will enter Supplementary Intent on a Sino-Europe Cooperative City Program on Urbanization with Bristol (UK), and Agreement on a Sister Port with Genoa (Italy). Meanwhile, there will be various ceremonies such as the gift presenting ceremony of Sculpture Shaun the Sheep from Bristol (UK), the inauguration ceremony of Guangzhou University – University of Linköping Sustainable Urban Research Center.    

The concept of Guangzhou International Innovation Festival was firstly proposed by Dr. Yossi Vardi, Co-chairman of Israel's Digital Living Design, the founder of the Tel Aviv Innovation Festival and Israel's "Father of the Entrepreneur". He has been the chairman of DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival for six years, aiming to bring together startups, founders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, universities and multinationals, investors and angels from around the world so as to create an open and interactive platform. He has brought the idea to many places all over the world, and this time, to Guangzhou. The Tianhe District of Guangzhou is the venue for Guangzhou International Innovation Festival. As the core area that supports Guangzhou as a national center city, Tianhe District is the No. 1 district in terms of economic strength with well-established modern service industry and hi-tech industry. It is also renowned for its superior S&T resources in South China. It is a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship thanks to the aggregation of various innovation elements and hi-tech companies, the abundant talent pool, active VCs and strong innovation and entrepreneurship atmosphere. The festival includes opening ceremonies, seminars, sub-forums, speeches by guest speakers, workshops and corporate innovation exhibitions; meanwhile, there will be various talks on electronics, smart city, urban innovation, finance, telecom, internet, healthy food and biotechnology. Dr. Yossi Vardi will be present at some events in person.

To create a world-class engineer communication platform and facilitate the development of an international innovation hub in Guangzhou, Guangzhou Science, Technology and Innovation Commission will host the International Engineers' Forum: Craftsmanship and Innovation and 2016 Guangzhou – Hong Kong – Macao – Taiwan Science and Technology Innovation Forum and Project Matchmaking on Dec 6 (Tuesday) during the Festival respectively at the Canton Tower and Guangzhou Library. At Guangzhou International Engineers' Forum, there will be keynote speeches by Dr. Yossi Vardi, Israel's "Father of the Entrepreneur" and some other world-class engineers from the developed countries and regions including the US, Germany, Ukraine and Hong Kong SAR. The forum attracts more than 200 S&T innovation entrepreneurs and engineers from home and abroad to offer their insight on S&T innovation in Guangzhou. By then, the Guangzhou Science, Technology and Innovation Commission will announce two important decisions. 2016 Guangzhou – Hong Kong – Macao – Taiwan S&T Innovation Forum and Project Matchmaking has attracted attendance registration of nearly 100 S&T innovative talents from Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea. By then, over 130 promising S&T innovation projects will be presented for matchmaking, covering the city's key industrial fields of biomedicine, new material, smart manufacturing and energy efficiency and environmental protection.     

The City of Innovation Awarding Ceremony of the 3rd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation will be held on Dec 7 at the Auditorium of Guangdong Zhudao Guest House. By then, the present guests from home and abroad will witness the opening of the five winning cities, one Online Popular City, and one Recommended Project by the Organizing Committee.       

Voting for the Online Popular City will close on Dec 5. Please visit the official website of the Guangzhou Award www.guangzhouaward.org for voting. People are welcome to visit the Urban Innovation and Corporate Innovation Exhibition in Guangzhou Library during the Conference.