The organisation of the conference, which takes place in the Tomás Vilarroya room (1st floor, 20) of the Faculty of Law, will also involve the Faculty itself and the Regional Ministry of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality. The Faculty of Economics, the Comité Económico y Social de la Comunidad Valenciana, CIRIEC and the Confederación de Cooperativas Comunidad Valenciana have also collaborated. The conference opens on Thursday 17th October at at 9:30 a.m. by Rosa Pérez Garijo, regional councillor of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality of the Comunitat Valenciana; Javier Palao, Dean of the Faculty of Law; and María José Vañó, Director of IUDESCOOP and coordinator of the conference.

The conference analyses the difficulties faced by the rural world from a technological perspective. “The gap is widening in the rural world, access to networks, technology, the financial sector, are services that are scarce in rural areas, and that the digital transformation can alleviate with appropriate public policies”, explains Professor María José Vañó. “We want to reflect, from a technical and legal point of view, on the threats faced by rural populations and what solutions we can offer.”

It is also intended to address measures to promote the so-called ‘Smart Rural Town’, public-private collaboration projects that allow the implementation of technology, environmental sustainability, transparency in management and energy challenges in rural areas and facilitate the incorporation of these municipalities into society 4.0, as well as contributing to their modernization and the generalization of employment opportunities and wealth. An analysis, as Vañó explains, “that will have a social perspective to the extent that the focus of the day will be based on the perspective of the social economy, since, a priori, the entities of this sector are more favourable to people, the environment and local development than capitalist societies. This combination of features is the formula that, in her opinion, will allow rural areas to become intelligent areas, or what she calls “Smart Rural Town”.