Malaga, 2 October 2025. On 16 and 17 October, the city of Linares will become the national meeting point for the automotive, defence and logistics sectors with the celebration of the 2nd City Intelligence Forum, which will bring together representatives from industry, government and academia at the Santana Transport Science and Technology Park.

The event, organised by Linares City Council and the Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Smart City Cluster, was officially presented during this year’s Greencities 2025 Forum in Malaga, one of the leading international events on innovation and urban sustainability. Auxi del Olmo, Mayor of Linares, and Martín Carrillo, President of Smart City Cluster, took part in the presentation.

Under the slogan “Linares: sustainable reinvention”, the forum will address the challenges of reindustrialisation in medium-sized cities in a context marked by the green transition, digitalisation and the need to build territories that attract and retain talent.

The mayor, Auxi del Olmo, expressed her satisfaction that Linares is once again hosting a top-level event such as this, with Santana Park as the backdrop. “This forum will not only be a space for debate, it will be an opportunity to show that Linares has a future, strength and the capacity to reinvent itself. I am convinced that together we will continue to consolidate our city as a benchmark for innovation and business collaboration in Spain, and that every step we take opens new doors for the people of Linares,” she said.

The programme will bring together highly prestigious voices from the business, academic and social spheres. Among the speakers, the presence of mountaineer and communicator Jesús Calleja stands out. He will talk with the mayor of Linares about how large industrial processes impact the daily lives of citizens and the confidence of young people seeking a future in their homeland. Joining him will be experts such as Antonio Jara, CEO of Libelium and international specialist in data economics; Francisco Carmona, Chief Innovation Officer at Grupo Energético de Puerto Real; José Antonio Ondiviela, director of Human Centered Intelligent Cities Research; José María Márquez, CEO of Passion Motorbike Factory and Scoobic Urban Mobility; Sergio González, strategic marketing coordinator at AENOR; and Rafael Myro, professor of Applied Economics at the Complutense University.

The business scene will be represented on the one hand by the automotive (CEAGA), logistics (CITET) and defence (CID) clusters and on the other by four companies that have chosen Linares to expand their industrial horizons: Desay SV, EM&E Group, Novaindef and Santana Motors. In addition, communication will play an important role in the forum with a panel discussion featuring Miguel Ángel Muñoz Encinas, editor-in-chief at Cadena Ser; José María Camarero, economic journalist at ABC and analyst at La Sexta; and Juan Esteban Poveda, representative of El Economista in Andalusia. For her part, illustrator and author of Gazpacho Agridulce, Quan Zhou, will recount the experience of the second generation of Chinese immigrants in Andalusia and how the true “hybrid engine” that drives innovation is based on cultural diversity.

Among the topics highlighted are the relationship between industry and sustainability, public-private collaboration, attracting talent to medium-sized cities, industrialisation networks in the automotive, logistics and defence sectors, and the role of culture and communication in the transformation of a region.

In addition to the professional sessions, the forum will include cultural and networking activities, with the aim of strengthening the relationship between industry and citizens, reinforcing Linares’s profile as a strategic hub for innovation and business collaboration in Spain.

With this second edition, the City Intelligence Forum is consolidating its position as a space for reflection and debate to reinforce the strategic vision of municipalities, providing key insights that can inspire other regions of the country.