Third Smart Tehran Conference: Too Much Hoopla About Nothing

On Monday, Tehran Municipality gathered urbanists, tech aficionados and communication policymakers for a two-day event dubbed Smart Tehran Confab that was certainly not smart, as what was spotlighted was neither innovative nor promising.

With close to a thousand people gathered at Milad Tower and nationalist music playing in the background, Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi, ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi and Tehran City Council Chairman Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani went on stage to unveil the Iranian capital’s latest projects to make it a smart city.

However, what they unveiled, in reality, was a few low-key schemes with little to no impact, including a website allowing people to buy subway tickets.

Jahromi appeared unaccompanied by senior ICT Ministry officials—who used to be treated like rock stars at tech gatherings over the past few years—and refused to take questions from reporters about the elephant in the room.

It was Jahromi’s first public appearance after the weeklong internet shutdown that went underway on Nov. 16, following widespread violent protests over the government’s unexpected decision to impose a threefold hike in fuel price. He did not mention the shutdown even once and spoke about his ministry’s efforts for transforming Iranian metropolises into smart cities.

Hashemi took the stage but stuck to generalities, sloganizing how smart solutions can help curb bureaucracy et al. He also called on the government to facilitate data-sharing projects between state agencies and public institutions.

The First Smart Tehran Congress was held in 2017 and during Mohammad Ali Najafi’s tenure as Tehran mayor. The previous two editions of the event offered more substance and less rhetoric. For instance, during the second round, an open API portal was launched by the city council.