Where tech meets the built world

Session: Cities are competing for capital. Not all of them will win.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Abdulrahmaan Al Ansaari has helped deploy billions of dollars across industries, infrastructure and long-term investment projects, while playing a key role in transactions exceeding USD 20 billion.
At CityShift, he will share what investors look for before committing capital, why resilience has become an economic necessity rather than a sustainability goal, and what separates cities that attract long-term investment from those that get left behind.

Session: The Honest Smart City: Lessons from 8 Years of Digital London

For the past eight years, Theo Blackwell has led London's digital and AI transformation across a city of nearly nine million residents.
During that time, he helped build city-wide data platforms, digital infrastructure programmes and new ways for public institutions to work together across one of the world's most complex urban environments.
At CityShift, Theo will share the lessons, mistakes and shortcuts learned along the way - and what it really takes to modernise a city when technology, politics and public expectations are constantly changing.

Session: Capital Flows: Who Wins Next?

Not every PropTech company will survive the AI era.

As artificial intelligence reshapes entire software categories, investors are becoming far more selective about where they deploy capital. Business models that looked promising two years ago are already facing new questions about their long-term value.

Working across Europe's PropTech ecosystem, Dirk Paelinck has a front-row seat to these changes.
At CityShift, he will share where investors are placing bets, which sectors are attracting capital, which are losing momentum, and what separates companies that remain investable from those that risk becoming obsolete.

Session: Global Lessons in Real Estate Innovation

Few people have watched the global real estate technology revolution unfold from as close as James Dearsley. One of the most recognised voices in PropTech, he has spent years travelling the world, interviewing founders, challenging investors, and separating genuine transformation from expensive noise. In this session, James brings back the most honest, surprising, and actionable lessons from real estate innovation across continents - what the best markets are getting right, and what the rest of us can stop pretending to do.

Session: From Innovation to Revenue

Every week, construction and real estate companies are pitched new AI tools, new technologies and new ways to transform their business. Most will never create meaningful value.
As AI and technology reshape the industry, the real challenge is knowing where to focus time, attention and capital.
Vladimir Vlahovic helps startups enter new markets, position their solutions, secure their first customers and build commercial traction, while helping corporates identify technologies worth adopting and avoid costly distractions.
At CityShift, we will discuss how successful companies separate signal from noise, choose the right opportunities, win their first serious clients and build momentum in a market changing faster than ever.

Session: The End of Demolish and Rebuild

Every year, millions of tonnes of valuable construction materials end up as waste.
Dominik Campanella is challenging that model. Through Concular, he helps developers, investors and construction companies turn existing materials into assets rather than demolition costs.
At CityShift, Dominik will share how circular construction is moving from sustainability ambition to business reality — reducing waste, cutting costs and creating new value from buildings that already exist.

Session: Why Spend Years Building Infrastructure When You Can Deploy It or Repurpose in Months?

At any given moment, around 250,000 people across Europe live, work, study or receive healthcare in Adapteo buildings - many of which have already been relocated, repurposed or rebuilt in a different location.
This is a new construction reality. Buildings are no longer designed for a single purpose or a single location.
At CityShift, Dr. Lina K. Wiles will share practical lessons from Nordic and Baltic cities on where modular works, where it doesn't, and how developers and public-sector leaders can move faster when reality changes faster than their plans.

Session: From Square Metres to Systems: The New Business of City-Making

More than 700 companies. More than 18,000 people. One district. One business case.
Most real estate projects generate value through buildings. Ülemiste City creates additional value through an ecosystem that attracts talent, businesses, innovation and investment.
At CityShift, Silver Kelk will share how a former industrial area became one of the Baltic region's leading business hubs - and how developers can create value beyond square metres by building ecosystems, not just real estate.

Session: AI Reads What Investors Don't Have Time To Read

The world's largest real estate investors don't have a data problem. They have a time problem.
Fifth Dimension helps investment teams analyse leases, due diligence reports and financial models in a fraction of the time traditionally required. Some clients now evaluate opportunities in days instead of weeks and deploy up to five times more capital with the same team.
At CityShift, we'll explore how AI is changing the way investment decisions are made — and why the companies that learn to move faster will define the next decade of real estate.