The Knowledge Cities World Summit (KCWS)
The Knowledge Cities World Summit (KCWS) is the annual conference of the WorldCapital Institute, which brings not only profile and prestige to the hosting city, butenables active engagement with leading global thinkers and practitioners across all aspects of knowledge-based urban development.
The annual summit aims to contribute to these discussions as experienced in the host city’s context. Academics, professional practitioners, civil servants and policy makers from around the world engage in discussions bringing insight from a wide range of disciplines and sharingtheir knowledge and experiences with delegates.

La Rambla, Barcelona. Photo by Ralf Roletschek
The summit also provides opportunities for practical learning in workshops and small group sessions in innovative formats. Summits have been held successfully across the globe for the past 14 years and are shown in the map below.
Global locations of past and upcoming
Knowledge City World Summits

Global locations of past and upcoming Knowledge City World Summits (KCWS)
For elegible candidatures: kcws@worldcaptalinstitute.org
World Capital Institute
Benefits of being a hosting city
Hosting such a summit not only enables the city to showcase its approach to building a successful knowledge city and society, butit promotes the surrounding locality as aplace which: can attract investment and talent, displays its partnerships in actionand builds its links with like-minded, aspirational cities from around the world.
Previous conferences have brought im-mediate benefits to their local hosts and attendees by highlighting, to a wider local audience, the
trends emerging elsewhere in the world. Attendance by global leading thinkers can stimulate and challenge local partners and players to think differently and come together to design new strategies. Hosting the KCWS and the MAKCi awards ceremony offers an outstanding opportunity for formal and informal networking across relevant people and partners in the locality and make new connections.
Being globally recognized, the summit and the awards offer a unique promotional opportunity for the city. In addition to the immediate benefits, hosting cities enter in a number of wider connected networks and activities through the summit:
- The CISC (Comunidad Iberoamericana de Sistemas de Conocimiento) network has been integrated as a regional branch ofthe WCI.
- The Australia-Brazil Smart City Research and Practice Network held its forum as part of the KCWS in Caxias do Sul (Brazil) in 2021.
- Additionally, spin-off activities such as Master courses and topic focused conferences have been under taken jointly by WCI and KCWS host as follow-up activities.
Picture by Amy Bracks
KCWS Editions
The Knowledge Cities World Summit

2022
15th KCWS
🇵🇷 Puerto Rico

2021
14th KCWS
Caxias do Sul, Brazil

2020
13th KCWS
Tijuana, Mexico

2019
12th KCWS
Florianopolis, Sta. Catarina, Brazil

2018
11th KCWS
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

2017
10th KCWS
Arequipa, Peru

2016
9th KCWS
Vienna, Austria

2015
8th KCWS
Daegu, South Korea

2014
7th KCWS
Tallinn, Estonia

2013
6th KCWS
Istanbul, Turkey

2012
5th KCWS
Matera, Italy

2011
4th KCWS
B. Gonçalves, Brazil

2010
3rd KCWS
Melbourne, Australia

2009
3rd KCWS
Shenzhen, China

2008
2nd KCWS
Virtual Premiere

2007