Innovative metropolises: second life for brownfield sites

"When technology companies are looking for a location, they consider a range of factors such as the cost and quality of life, whether transport infrastructure is saturated or not, and so on.says Xavier Mesnard, a partner in AT Kearney's Paris office. As a result, there is a real dynamic for medium-sized towns.While global megacities have the attraction of world cities, the cultural ferment, the economic power and the flood of investment that go with them, the major continental metropolises, for their part, emit a "cultural and economic" bias. real creative energyA taste for experimentation and lower set-up costs.

This trend can be seen in AT Kearney's Global Cities Outlook 2019, which lists cities offering the best prospects for the future. In addition to the heavyweights of London, Paris and Tokyo, the top 10 include San FranciscoSilicon Valley, thatAmsterdam and Boston or Munich, Stockholm and Dublin. "Cities like Boston and Dublin are playing in a different league to New York and London. They are competing with more selective positioning.says Vincent Raufast, senior manager at EY France. Dublin, even before Brexit, specialised in financial services and IT development, for example."

Dublin, then. Where, as is often the case, former industrial estates, in this case the docks, have been rehabilitated to provide a home for the a wealth of innovation. Accenture, Airbnb, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter: they have all made the Irish capital their European headquarters, bringing with them a host of start-ups. The number of people working in the Silicon Docks is expected to double by 2022, to 80,000.

At the end of the day, old Europe may not be not so old school than it looks. When the consultancy firm PwC identifies three key tools for adapting to current changes - intellectual capital, high-tech and openness to the world - Amsterdam, for one, can look to the future with confidence. As the world leader in terms of Internet access at school, second in terms of bandwidth speed, and third in terms of use of information technology, the city is a magnet for innovative companies, thanks to the boom in its Zuidas business district. All the more so as the synergies between the public and private sectors and university research are working remarkably well.

On good terms

Creating a stimulating ecosystem supports growth strategies. In this context, in North America, Toronto is making the most of artificial intelligence to establish itself as one of the leading innovation hubs in the world. As a result, Canada's largest metropolis can congratulate itself on having created more 'technology' jobs last year than San Francisco and New York put together. No more, no less. And the stars of the sector are flocking here. Uber and General Motors have chosen Toronto to continue their research into autonomous vehicles, while Samsung has opened an R&D office on the shores of Lake Ontario. A Google subsidiary, Sidewalk Labs, is planning to transform a brownfield site into a "smart city", a large-scale laboratory for the city of the future, packed with sensors, autonomous cars and debugging robots.

In a 2016 study published by the consultancy firm PwC, Toronto was ranked second behind London among the "cities of opportunity". How would it fare today, in the wake of Brexit? Especially as its dynamics is supported by the excellence of its university and the aura of one of its former professors, Geoffrey Hinton. Considered the 'godfather' of artificial intelligence, he now advises the Vector Institute, which acts as a link between researchers and a host of corporate sponsors.

Because knowledge is shared, intelligence is not just artificial. San Francisco and Boston have built their success on the proximity between businesses and major university centres. While Stanford and Berkeley provide Silicon Valley with a wealth of talented graduates and entrepreneurs, the heart of the Californian city is home to a business district dedicated to innovation, SOMA, which stands for South of Market Street. This once decrepit area of warehouses is now home to start-ups and coworking spaces.

There is a real dynamic for medium-sized towns thanks to their attractive quality of life for technology companies.

Xavier Mesnardpartner in AT Kearney's Paris office

By renovating its waterfront, Boston has also given itself a new look. new home port both business and trendy. Seaport's Innovation District conveys the spirit that appeals so much to the younger generation, with around sixty bars and restaurants, a host of shops, seven hotels and, of course, numerous office buildings. Still in its infancy, the district now employs 40,000 people, compared with less than 5,000 in 2016. Among the 1,500 companies located here are start-ups specialising in artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality and the Internet of Things, as well as health and consultancy giants such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals, PwC and the Boston Consulting Group.

However, the attractiveness of both San Francisco and Boston has been significantly diminished by the fact that, along with New York, they form the trio of most expensive cities in the United States. For this reason, San Francisco has even lost the top spot in AT Kearney's Global Cities Outlook. Vladislava Iovkova, director of PwC's Strategy& consulting practice, notes that "the problems linked to density, which are more prevalent in global cities, can very well be transposed to the cities that are the darlings of the younger generation". With property prices soaring in Dublin and rents doubling in ten years in Berlin, the phenomenon is also spreading across Europe.

However, it is hard to ignore the fact that the heart of innovation is increasingly moving towards the East. Last year, KPMG questioned 750 start-up and large company executives about the leading technology hubs in the next four years. The result was that of the 15 most frequently cited cities outside Silicon Valley, nine were in the Asia-Pacific region, including Shanghai, Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore and Seoul. The Korean capital, with its centres of excellenceWith the support of major conglomerates such as Samsung, the city's innovative and ultra-positive energy is particularly evident in the ongoing expansion of Pangyo Techno Valley, to the south of the city.

The major cities of South-East Asia have a willingness to experiment that is less evident in more mature markets.

Vladislava IovkovaDirector of PwC's strategy consulting business.

"Investors are interested in new hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and the major cities of South-East Asia.says Vladislava Iovkova. This is a willingness to experiment that are less common in some more mature markets."While relying on the stability of its financial centre, a city like Singapore is now dreaming of becoming a smart nation, offering sustainable solutions in all areas: everyday life, transport, personal assistance and security. And to achieve this, the City-State has no hesitation in attracting foreign companies and talent to innovate, whether in smart energy, cleantech or biotech. An opening onto the world, but above all onto the world of tomorrow.