The International Conference on SMART CITY Innovation returned in 2019 in Semarang; this time organized by SMART CITY CCR's affiliate Universitas Diponegoro. Semarang Mayor and the City Government are fully supportive of the initiative and held a welcoming dinner for the participants the night before the conference. There are 82 interested participants (55 of which are females) from universities across Indonesia and abroad, as well as 16 City/Regency Development Planning Agency representatives in Central Java. A total of 78 full papers on smart city themes were submitted to the conference and 45 of them are set to be published on SCOPUS-indexed journal and proceeding such as IOP, with the rest of them published on other journals.
Attending the conference is the mayor of Semarang City Hendrar Prihadi, who delivers a keynote speech on Smart City progress in Semarang. There are also four speakers invited to speak for the plenary session: Dr. Manisa Pipattanasomporn (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and Virginia Tech, US) on Smart City concept in university, Dr. Devisari Tunas (ETH Zurich, Swiss) on the readiness of Smart City, Prof. Noel Scott (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia) on Smart Tourism, and Prof. Imam Buchori (Universitas Diponegoro) on spatial planning in the development of Smart City.
On this occasion, UNDIP announces to have launched its own Smart City Research Center, and in response to this initiative, UNDIP invites heads of Semarang City agencies to discuss further coordination. Next year, UNDIP's graduate program in Regional and Urban Planning will also have a specialization on Smart City study, supported by a scholarship program by the Ministry of National Development Planning in order to improve the quality and quantity of Human Resources in Smart City.
