Cartes Secure Connexions, a global show for smart, sustainable and secure cities will host exhibitors, conferences, an Innovation Playground and more in synergy with the Milipol Paris 2015 Show in the French capital.

The event will run from November 17 to 19 at the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre.

One of the greatest challenges in the years to come will be to turn city centres into smart, connected, secure places. Today, 250 of the world's cities are testing out innovative projects that are optimising their urban services and improving their inhabitants' or users' living conditions. Barcelona, New York, London, Singapore and Nice, France were some of the smartest cities in 2015. They have been pioneers, implementing a new rationalised environmental design concept that is turning out beneficial to all.

1. Technology, Serving Cities

The "Smart Cities" concept is riding high. In it, technologies are put to work for a specific purpose: to turn city centres into connected, smart places, which in turn foster better quality of living, for individuals and for communities at large. "Smart Cities" have set a new standard, providing for consistency between all of the modes that connect citizens up with the rest of the municipal environment and the public authorities.

The massive penetration of new technologies in our everyday lives (Internet, Smartphones, notebooks, computers, mobile applications, NCF - Near Field Communication - or the spread of "contactless" payment) has sparked the public authorities to re-think all of their services to citizens. In this new environment, protecting the security and privacy of citizens remains no less a priority.

1.1 Telecommunications: Building Social Bonds

The mobile telephone sector is also in the throes of expansion: as of late-2014, there were 7.1 billion SIM registered card connections across the world, as well as 243 million machine-to-machine connections (M2M). It is expected that there will be another one billion subscribers by 2020, raising the global penetration rate to approximately 60 per cent.

This level of world-wide coverage offers a number of benefits to society: those living in isolation will enjoy better access to services and mobility, from which they were previously cut off. If, in 2050, 75 per cent of the population will indeed be living in urban areas, the rural areas will be even more reliant on such technologies to bring them out of their isolation.

Receiving care via telemedicine, sharing individual health data or being monitored remotely by a healthcare provider -- all of this is now possible via cell phone, thanks to mobile health, or mHealth.

The Innovation Playground at Cartes Secure Connexions will allow visitors to test:

Connected Temperature Sensor

In the field of healthcare, one of the major challenges in sensitive product transport remains the transfer of liability between players at each stage of the logistics chain. Connected temperature sensors offer proof of product temperature, at any time and in a glance, thanks to ongoing communication between sensor and smartphone.

M2M communications (machine-to-machine) and the Internet of Things are further mega-trends. In 2015, Smart Cities will use 1.1 billion connected objects; by 2020, that figure will reach 9.7 billion3. Smart Homes and Smart Office Buildings will account for 45 per cent of connected objects in 2015. Boosted by investments and service potential, the rate is expected to reach 81 per cent in 2020.

Accounting for 42 per cent of connections world-wide, Asia is now the largest market in terms of M2M systems, followed by Europe (28 per cent), North America (18 per cent), Latin America (8 per cent), Africa (4 per cent) and Oceania (1 per cent).

1.2 Smart electricity grids: managing electricity use more intelligently

Smart electricity grids, a major advance for industry, enable use that is better-suited to electrical resources, all the while trimming expenditure and improving infrastructure efficiency. Homes and public buildings will be both interconnected and smart-"enabled", thanks to their integrated services environment, and will be able to deliver better-tailored services.

By 2019, the annual cost-savings generated by smart grid projects, thanks in particular to lower energy and CO2 emissions will reach $10.7 billion4. Emissions reductions are on par with those generated by annual use, i.e., 130 million barrels of oil.

The Innovation Playground at Cartes Secure Connexions will allow visitors to test:

Gazpar, the Communicating Gas Metre

Gazpar is GrDF's communicating gas metre, set to equip 11 million natural gas customers, including both individual users and businesses. The concept: customers will be addressed a reading of their gas use levels daily, so that they can save energy.

Not only will this usher in a new era in metering, customers will also be able to take concrete action on their power use using data that is accurate to the day.

1.3 Payment: The Central Role of Contactless

Payment systems play a major part in smart cities. They make consumers' lives easier by offering them services that can be directly accessed from their mobile devices. Transparent, simple payment methods mean improved quality of living, whether in terms of liveability, practicability and sustainability.

By 2016, over $2 billion in e-commerce will have been generated by mobile digital assistants. The engagement of American consumers in the mobile sector is so high that M-commerce revenues are expected to amount to 50 per cent of total digital commerce in the United States by 2017.

The major demand for "contactless" will be heightened by the arrival of new players on the market, such as Apple Pay (in the United States), Samsung Pay, or Android Pay, which use NFC paired up a Magnetic Secure Technology, or Host Card Emulation.

1.4 e-Government

Many of Europe's countries have become pioneers in creating secure identification. Governments have invested millions in building highly-secure, reliable identification systems, both physical and electronic, based on biometrics. According to a report on the e-identification market, by 2018, 127 countries will have rolled out nationwide e-identification systems, delivering over 740 million e-identifications annually, generating over €49.1 billion in revenue between 2013 and 2018.

The identity-related projects run by governments help them better pinpoint their populations' characteristics in order to provide them with improved services. Secure identification is guaranteed by smart card, which issues electronic certificates, to be used during on-line identification. As a result, citizens can access government services, such as tax payments, document signature or document access; meanwhile, governments can make their services more efficient and better manage their resources.

Digital or electronic identification help narrow the gap between citizens and their government, and are a key component in society's move toward greater environmental friendliness.

A selection of e-identification projects across the world will be featured at Cartes Secure Connexions:

ESTONIA: e-Identification in Estonia is one of the country's key public infrastructures, making it possible for citizens to use secured services on-line. Estonia has also opened up a mobile ID which uses the same PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) as for the eID card, except that the data are stored on a secure SIM card inside the telephone.

EUROPE: The European Union has created eIDAS, which includes electronic identification recognition and covers all trusted electronic services between its 28 member states.

INDIA: The Aadhaar Card, authorised by the UIDAI (The Indian Identification Authority), provides each of the country's residents with a unique identification number. This is a major tool that makes it possible to avoid misappropriation of subsidies and successfully add new financial programmes.

UAE: The United Arab Emirates' identification card has become the standard in authenticating transactions that are run via the departments of government websites and different private organisations. – TradeArabia News Service