14. 11. 2025
Author: Zuzana Novotná
HackaTEEN at Smart City Expo Congress
The story of HackaTEEN was presented at the world's largest smart city conference, Smart City Expo Congress, on the official People-First stage by Dagmar Peřinová, who also became the co-patron of the Czech participation in the congress. In her presentation, entitled "How to empower young people to shape the future of their cities," she demonstrated how young people can participate in jointly building smart cities and developing the places where they live.
"In Barcelona, we presented the Czech Republic as a country with an open mind and heart, where innovations based on cooperation, dialogue, and humanity are created," says Dagmar Peřinová, the main organizer of HackaTEEN and head of the participation team at the JINAG agency.
Truly smart cities are not just about technology, data, and infrastructure, but above all about people, cooperation, and trust. Every innovative project only makes sense if it is based on the lives and needs of the people for whom it is created. That is why participation – the involvement of citizens, communities, and the younger generation – is the most valuable source of energy that can transform a city.
That is why we organize HackaTEEN, where young people from elementary and high schools across the Czech Republic learn to collaborate, create, and find solutions to real problems in their cities. The competition connects schools, technology, and public administration, giving young people the opportunity to experiment, create, ask questions, and seek answers to real-world challenges. "The goal is to introduce children to the philosophy of smart cities and give them space to transform their ideas that improve life in the cities where they live and in the schools where they study," added Dagmar Peřinová.
The younger generation is not our future, but our current partner. They inspire us with their courage, empathy, and ability to see things differently. We therefore consider the topics of cooperation, education, and youth involvement to be absolutely key to the development of smart cities. The first two years of HackaTEEN have shown that we need not fear for our future.
More information about the competition: www.hackateen.eu