Objective for 2022

The IFITT Innovation Challenge aims to generate innovative ideas and conceptual solutions with the theme Smart Cities and human settlement. Interdisciplinary teams of students from all over the globe are invited to engage in an innovation process, encouraged and supported by e-Tourism and smart city experts from academia and the travel and tourism industry. The best ideas and most innovative concepts should show the potential to transform tourism in to a more intelligent, mindful, reflecting and sustainable business domain, which provides well-being and saves resources.

Motivation for 2022

By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. So how we develop the cities of the future will be very decisive for our quality of life. Business, society, governments, civil society organizations and citizens are called upon to work together in cooperative processes to achieve ambitious goals to make cities more competitive, safe, resource-efficient, resilient, and inclusive.

The main themes are affordable and livable housing, connected infrastructure, resource management, accessibility of public spaces, smart transport, and smart buildings. Information systems play a central role here for data-driven smart city and living space development. Examples such as Barcelona – one of the first European cities to adopt smart city technologies – successfully demonstrate this.

Success lies in open data and opportunities for participation. ICT increasingly means not only the use of technologies but also the structure of processes and participation.
Our theme of Smart cities and human settlements is inspired by SDG 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. The ideas should address the key themes of SDG 11.

Concept

This student challenge is implemented by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT) and tourism industry partners from hospitality, transportation, destinations, tour operators, etc.

Participating teams are requested to submit their innovative idea and concept together with a demonstrator, which should be in form of a mock-up, screenplay, or interface prototype. All teams are expected to submit their proposal as a video-recorded pitch. The maximum length of the video recording is 5 minutes.

A jury of e-Tourism and Smart City experts with representatives of industry partners will select the most compelling ideas. The top 5 concepts will be invited to be presented online during the ENTER22@Nankai e-Tourism conference. The winning teams will be selected and announced on www.enter-conference.org and promoted via tourism media and social media channels. A free IFITT membership of one year for the members of the best team will be given as further support.

Registration is free of charge for all student teams. Several teams from one university can participate.

Target Audience

Eligible to participate are student teams of any size (we recommend a team size of 5-7 members). Students of all disciplines are welcome to form interdisciplinary teams. All team members have to be registered at an institution of higher education, certified (or officially confirmed) by their supervising professor.

Industry Sponsorship and Mentoring Program

Tourism industry partners, destinations and organizations, can become part of a sponsoring and mentoring program. As mentors, these partners will help stimulate and coach the idea generation process, based on their experience and knowledge in their respective tourism subdomain. Each team of students is assigned to one mentor and will receive general guidance and early feedback during their innovation process, including the preparation phase of the selected team presentations before ENTER22 e-Tourism conference.

Timeline

• Registration deadline: 1 October 2021 15 October 2021
• Kick-off meeting all teams and mentors: 18 October 2021
• Application deadline: 3 January 2022
• Presentation during ENTER22: 13 January 2022

All deadlines refer to 23:59 (11:59 pm) in the AoE (Anywhere on Earth) time zone. Conference organizers reserve the right to modify the schedule.