4GKD2026
Fourth-Generation Knowledge Districts 2026
17-21 August 2026, São Paulo Innovation District
Keynote speakers
Director of La Salle Technova Barcelona, the innovation park of La Salle–URL. She also served as CEO of the Network of Science and Technology Parks of Catalonia (XPCAT) until 2017, where she currently sits on the Board of Directors. She has over 20 years of experience in innovation management, entrepreneurship, and knowledge transfer across various sectors, including PropTech and ConTech.
Carmen Adán will participate via videoconference due to scheduling constraints.
Senior Lecturer/Researcher at the School of Surveying and Lands at PNGUOT, Head of Property Studies, and Acting Director of the Melanesian Land Studies Research Centre. She is internationally recognized for her pioneering research on the classification and performance assessment of innovation districts. From 2019 to 2022, she was a researcher at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, where she developed a multidimensional classification framework to assess the performance of existing innovation districts and categorize them into typologies to inform policymakers and urban planners for better decision-making regarding the planning, development, and management of these districts.
Associate Professor at EAFIT University and member of the Improving Inclusive Innovations Outcomes (i3O) research team, focusing on the study of innovation districts from an inclusion perspective. He currently serves as Ambassador of the Regional Studies Association (RSA) in Colombia and has lived and studied in the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. An award-winning sustainability expert, he is the former Transport Commissioner of Medellín, Colombia; a full member of the Scientific Committee for the Climate Crisis of the State of Antioquia; and a former consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and UN-Habitat.
Victor Eskinazi is an Associate Architect at the international firm Sasaki. He has experience in urban regeneration projects, waterfront developments, university campuses, mixed-use districts, and innovation districts. His work has received national and international awards, including from the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Society for College and University Planning. He holds a Master’s degree in Urban Design and Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo, Brazil. He is affiliated with the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.
Adrian Smith is a Professor in Technology and Society at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) since 1997. He is also a Visiting Researcher at the Centro de Innovación en Tecnología para el Desarrollo Humano at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. His research considers the politics and governance of innovation for sustainability, drawing upon ideas, insights and methods from sociology, political science, innovation studies, and science and technology studies. He has participated in studies both in and across so-called global Northern and Southern contexts, covering local through national to international scales in a variety of sectors. These projects have been funded by a variety of academic, government and civil society organisations in the UK and overseas (e.g., UK Research Councils, the European Commission, Friends of the Earth, the German and UK Environment Ministries, the Norwegian Research Council, the Mexican Council on Science and Technology, the Colombian Minnistry of Science, International Development Research Centre, Madrid Regional Government, the European Joint Research Centre).