2024 “Mieux Vivre en Ville” Symposium and MCDecaux related activities

On June 12th, MCDecaux attended the 2024 “Mieux Vivre en Ville Symposium” at Tokyo University, an inspiring event that presented innovative projects aimed at improving urban living spaces. This article will introduce the event and present MCDecaux’s connection to this sustainable objective with the contribution, in the form of an interview, of Yuto Inotsume, Business Development General Manager in charge of City Relations. 

Today, cities represent 50% of the world population. Tomorrow it will be up to 80%. These numbers raise questions about the future of our urban living spaces, particularly in the context of climate emergency. Based on these facts, the Mieux Vivre en Ville Symposium was created in 2013 to initiate an international cooperation regarding cities’ transition. This Franco-Japanese yearly event, organized by the French Foreign Trade Advisors, is defined as a work group, for both public and private organizations, to think together on cities’ future priorities by sharing innovative ideas and good practices as well as initiating successful partnerships. The 2024 edition was composed of 4 sessions:  

1. Collective intelligence and international complementarities  
2. Sharing public spaces  
3. SMART & SEXY in all its Diversity  
4. France-Japan dialogues: international careers, opportunities and challenges (session held in France at Inalco for local audience) 

Multiple speakers, working for cities, countries or companies, presented their innovative projects. Amongst them, in the 2nd session, the Urban Designer Patrick Jouin, talked about his work for JCDecaux in France and presented the concept of green street furniture while explaining how design can support urban biodiversity.  

As a matter of fact, vegetation can be reintroduced in many ways into urban spaces and this type of initiative benefits ecosystems on multiple levels. In a much more general manner, JCDecaux as a Group have always been aligned with this idea of developing better living spaces:

1. Through the business model first, by providing practical street furniture to cities financed by advertising. For example, bus shelters or information panels are installed across Japan to enhance people’s everyday lives.  
2. Secondly by proposing a range of premium services to complete this offer. The equipment, besides improving citizens’ lives with its primary purpose, comes with complementary features from cleaning to maintenance or even tailor-made security functions that enable to facilitate the work of public organizations.  
3. Third, by always innovating to meet user’s needs and proposing original services such as: panels equipped with Wi-Fi, charging platforms, digital interactive screens…  
4. Fourth, by designing street furniture that fit into cities landscapes and bring positive animation into neighborhoods.  
5. Fifth, by developing an advanced ESG strategy to accompany the progression toward a more sustainable society, on international and local levels. This program, designed by JCDecaux teams, is composed of three main themes:  
    

Interview of Yuto INOTSUME
Business Development General Manager
MCDecaux

1. COULD YOU PRESENT YOURSELF AND THE WORK OF YOUR DEPARTMENT?
   I joined MCD in 2006 and am currently the General Manager of the Business Development Department. The mission of my department can be summed up in one sentence: "To get everyone to understand and support our services." For this reason, our department is called City Relations at the French headquarters, but because this is a little difficult to understand, in Japan, the department is called Business Development, which is one of our specific activities. For example, B-Stop® (bus stops with advertising), one of our advertising businesses in public spaces, are installed on roads where advertising was initially prohibited. The installation of this street furniture could therefore not have been carried out without the understanding and support of many people involved, including not only our business partners or the bus operators, but also the road managers, traffic managers, outdoor advertising managers, residents, and others. The important thing to us is to provide the services needed in a city in a way that suits it. In order to confirm the needs, functionality, and safety of the service, we hold many discussions with various stakeholders, and sometimes obtain deregulation through demonstration experiments.
   
   Ndlr: When MCD was established in 2000, it was not permitted to put up large advertisements on roadside facilities such as bus stop sheds, but the company persistently advocated for the benefits brought by the B-Stop® business model to stakeholders and succeeded in obtaining deregulation. This enabled MCD to install street furniture and provide services not only to citizens but also to public institutions and private organizations.
    

2. WHY DID YOU ATTEND THE MVV 2024 SYMPOSIUM EVENT?
   We are always interested in the latest innovations and ideas for urban living, as they can help us solve various challenges that our partners face and provide solutions that meet the needs of their cities. As interest in ESG is growing among local governments or partners and that the MVV Symposium is a great opportunity to learn more about this topic, we have been participating since 2018.
    

3. HOW WOULD YOU CONNECT THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS EVENT AND MCDECAUX'S ACTIVITY? 
   Interest in the richness of urban spaces and ESG is growing year by year, so we will be able to share the knowledge gained at this event with our partners, and we may even be able to incorporate new technologies and ideas into street furniture or offer them as new services.
    

4. DOES MCDECAUX CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONCEPTION OF BETTER LIVING SPACES? IF YES, HOW SO? 
   Yes, I think MCDecaux's services contribute to improving the quality of living spaces in various aspects. First, I think advertisements, with their regularly changed content, bring a sense of the seasons and liveliness into the city. Outdoor advertisements are sometimes seen as enemies that spoil the scenery, but if they are properly managed to maintain a certain quality in terms of content and size, I think they can blend into the cityscape and be enjoyed by everyone. Advertising is a very primitive economic activity that has existed for a long time, so if all advertisements disappeared, wouldn't life become dull and boring? Recently, we often hear people say, "I'm happy to see my favorite idol at the bus stop every morning." Advertisers are happy, our partners are happy, and so are we. I believe that advertising can have a positive impact on someone's life.

   I think our street furniture itself also contributes to improving the quality of living spaces. Having a bench to take a break when you're tired or a roof to escape the hot summer sun are some evident examples. It's difficult to quantify these things and show the degree of contribution but if the richness of life is the result of an accumulation of comfort and pleasant experiences at any given time, then surely it can be said that having an always clean and comfortable bus stop contributes to improve life quality and therefore urban living spaces.
    

To allow anyone to connect to the internet, which can now be considered as a lifeline, we equip street furniture with USB chargers and free Wi-Fi. We also use advertising fees to pick up trash on the roads or install and operate security cameras. We will continue to provide services that make people's lives just that little bit more fun and enriching, in line with the needs of the times.

MCDecaux regularly develops its network in Japan to provide premium street furniture that answers the needs of all stakeholders.

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