An initiative by Royal Jaarbeurs in collaboration with Earth Valley and Urban Innovators Global.
Utrecht, February 3, 2025 – In June 2026, Royal Jaarbeurs will host a new annual event dedicated to smart, healthy and livable cities: the European Smart City Expo (ESCE). ESCE is dedicated to bring together all themes that contribute to a sustainable urban environment. The event will cover topics such as living, working, recreation, mobility, climate resilience, social and cultural attractiveness and healthy aging. Jaarbeurs introduces ESCE, as a market leader with its own trade fairs BouwBeurs, VSK, DigiBouw and Future Facade. Jaarbeurs organizes ESCE in collaboration with Earth Valley and Urban Innovators Global. Jaarbeurs launches the new event during the opening of BouwBeurs 2025, the largest business construction event in the Netherlands. BouwBeurs can be visited from February 3 to 7, 2025, at Jaarbeurs in Utrecht.
International knowledge sharing and collaboration for a sustainable living environment is essential
ESCE is the central meeting point where experts share knowledge about the latest developments in smart, healthy and livable cities. The target audience consists of international policymakers, clients, developers, designers, builders and anyone interested in this topic. ESCE is the connection between knowledge and practice and takes the societal context into account. Jeroen van Hooff, CEO of Royal Jaarbeurs: “With its knowledge and experience, the Netherlands is an important player in the development of smart, healthy and livable cities. To make all European cities climate-neutral by 2050, the need for international knowledge sharing and collaboration is significant. I am proud that we are organising this brand-new event together with the most innovative and forward-thinking partners in this field.”
Bas Boorsma, founder and partner of Urban Innovators Global: “The virtualisation of our cities is a significant transition in how we design, manage, and maintain essential functions to create livable, climate-adaptive and circular cities. New Citiverse concepts will enable collaboration between different domains, where digital and green ambitions are closely intertwined. This requires a bold, future-oriented vision and innovation-driven leadership. The Urban Innovators Global Leadership Forum connects participants to explore how cities can deploy and scale Citiverse innovations to achieve a meaningful transition for the improvement of our cities.”
Arjan van den Born, General Director of ROM Utrecht Region: “The Utrecht region has a strong network of companies, knowledge institutions and governments with expertise in sustainable construction, mobility, energy and climate adaptation, connected through Earth Valley. By utilising data and digitisation, we work together on innovative solutions and accelerate the transition to a smart, sustainable and healthy society. We support ESCE and join forces to realise concrete and scalable solutions for the city of the future.”
More information about ESCE: www.esce.eu
Jaarbeurs and the construction and installation sectorJaarbeurs is the center of the construction en installation sector and has been organizing the largest trade fairs BouwBeurs and VSK for many years. In 2024, they introduced DigiBouw. In May 2025, the first edition of the trade event for the facade industry, Future Facade, will take place. Jaarbeurs also hosts many guest events for the construction and installation sector annually. Additionally, in 2023, they launched the online platform the Bouw en Installatie Hub; a content platform for the construction and installation sector aimed at strengthening collaboration, sharing knowledge and accelerating sustainable growth.