In this episode we hear from one of Australia's award winning smart cities - Newcastle, NSW - on how their smart cities underpinnings have facilitated the successful deployment of a creative new app to help catalyse economic stimulus and social engagement. Dr Nathaniel Bavinton (Newcastle City Council) and David Catalovski (GreenBe) join the Chronicles to share the story behind the 'Lean in Newy' app. Part community engagement tool, part challenge platform, and part economic stimulus vehicle, th...
Jun 30, 2020•46 min
In this episode of the Chronicles Smart Cities Council CEO Philip Bane chats with Carlos Rivero, Chief Data Officer at the Commonwealth of Virginia. Their discussion tracks the origins of the CDO Office, early challenges and the quick wins. Carlos outlines the multitude of efforts put in place to build greater data leadership via data sharing, analytics, stronger governance and a series of data trusts. Carlos also shares his reflections on the work the Office of the CDO implemented in response t...
Jun 23, 2020•58 min
Welcome to the "Data Dialogues" - an online engagement series as part of Smart Cities Week Australia New Zealand 2020. This dialogue will focus on unpacking the 'civic data trust' - what are they, what can they offer and the pathway for building one. While few data trusts have been deployed and lessons learned shared, much thought leadership does exist, citing the 'tool' as a means to enable better governance around the use of data, and ensuring that its benefits are distributed in an equitable ...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Welcome to the "Data Dialogues" - an online engagement series as part of Smart Cities Week Australia New Zealand 2020 and hosted by the Centre for Data Leadership. This dialogue will focus on unpacking 'city analytics' as a capability for local government - why you would do it, what is the scope and how might you get there. Our guests were: // Chris Isles | Manager Economic Development, Brisbane City Council // Chris Pettit | Professor of Urban Science, University of New South Wales // Libby Har...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 28 min
In conversation with Emily Yates, Director of Smart Cities with the City of Philadelphia, we explore the City's newly launched SmartCityPHL and the programs and partnerships driving the adoption of technology and data to realise better community outcomes. Often described as America's largest poorest city, and the birthplace of democracy, Philadelphia's journey in smart cities started back in 2017 and has resulted in an endorsed program of investments that cover bridging the digital divide, enhan...
Jun 04, 2020•42 min
Over the years there have been waves of 'growth frameworks' - green buildings, sustainable communities, resilient neighbourhoods... In this episode of the Chronicles we sit down with Niall Cunningham - WSP's City Advisory Lead - who takes shares with us his views on the current and emerging models of urban development, including innovation districts, smart communities and other urban and suburban growth models. At a time when our experience and relationship with our cities, their public spaces a...
May 24, 2020•45 min
With all the promise and excitement around 5G there is an equal amount of concern and hesitation. In March 2020 the Australian Government published its report ("The Next Gen Future") of findings of the inquiry into the deployment, adoption and application of 5G in Australia. To break it down for us and help highlight the key points, Geof Heydon of Astrolabe Group joined us. We covered communication and citizen engagement, health, infrastructure sharing and the level of 5G literacy across Austral...
May 19, 2020•46 min
For the new Mayor of the City of Ipswich, Teresa Harding, there is no mincing of her words when it comes to data, transparency and trust. From open data to open government, Mayor Harding takes her career in technology and data into the realm of local government and sets the bold vision for establishing the nation's first integrity and transparency hub.
May 04, 2020•32 min
This episode of the Chronicles takes us to Atlanta, GA in the United States, where we sit down with Debra Lam who is Managing Director for Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at the Georgia Institute of Technology. We discuss the work of the University and its unique approach to external partnerships, and its focus on community outcomes and impact. Leveraging partnership funding to disperse grants to cities across the state is one example, and another is the 'Smart Cities Corps', whereby stude...
Apr 19, 2020•37 min
Our guest on this episode of the Chronicles, Kate Isles of Infinitum Partners, is an urban planner who has both worked in disaster response, and digital transformation. In her previous role at the Queensland Reconstruction Authority Kate was part of the long term response to one of the State of Queensland's most devastating series of natural disasters. And now, she is deep in the world of e-planning, potentially one of the most significant opportunities to accelerate city development and transfo...
Apr 08, 2020•54 min
Never before has the role of data come into the spotlight. As we are glued to our screens watching the models, bar charts and dashboard refresh, there is data behind the scenes feeding the insights we are so hungry for. In this episode of the Chronicles Neil Glentworth - Director of Community Data - shares insights on how cities can underpin their social and economic rebuild with a data driven approach in the months and years ahead.
Apr 08, 2020•45 min
This episode of the Chronicles takes us to Seattle WA in the USA, where we sit down with Kelsey Finch who is Senior Counsel with the Future of Privacy Forum. During this discussion we explore key elements of the 'city data governance' - what it means, what are its key elements and how we can approach our work to ensure that we build greater governance around our management and use of data.
Apr 08, 2020•47 min
With more than 6 years of global resilience thought leadership, city engagement and strategy development in her back pocket, Lauren Sorkin of the Global Resilient Cities Network (GRCN) is indeed working overtime right now. As Executive Director of the GRCN, and previously Managing Director at 100 Resilient Cities - Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, Lauren shares with us in this session how cities around the world right now are adapting and building resilience to the global pandemic brough...
Apr 01, 2020•42 min
As we continue to discuss the role of data in accelerating sustainable outcomes in our cities, this episode of The Week In Data features a discussion with Don Sharples, Managing Director of Altometer Business Intelligence, appropriately covers data in the world of a global pandemic. Our discussion covers small business recovery, real-time data as a tool and how the values and behaviours of our communities is a more critical data set than ever. And what about innovation? How will this be differen...
Apr 01, 2020•35 min
In this episode we unpack the work being led by Dominic Papa, Vice President of Smart State at the Arizona Commerce Authority. For over seven years Dominic has been helping lead the efforts in building the conditions for scaling smart cities success in the State of Arizona. First with the City of Phoenix, then with the Institute of Digital Progress and now with a collaborative public/private/academic partnership at the Arizona Commerce Authority. We talk tech, we talk data and we talk governance...
Mar 26, 2020•47 min
The timing, unfortunately, is perfect for this conversation. A summer bushfire crises, a global health pandemic..... Community resilience has never been as topical as right here and right now. So what is the relationship between smart cities and resilience? What could it be? Well, we explore the connective tissue between these two agenda's in this episode of the Chronicles, with our guest, Kieran Power - National Lead for Resilience and Climate Adaptation at WSP.
Mar 16, 2020•44 min
Well, there has never been a better time for this discussion! In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have Robert Linsdell from Vertiv join us for this episode of The Week in Data. With Vertiv's brand standing for 'Architects of Continuity', we have a very pointed discussion around resilience, data and what the world might look like when we come through the end of this major global disruption. We dig deep into business continuity, data storage trends and the interface with green building trend...
Mar 15, 2020•37 min
Do cities value data? Well, this is one of the many questions we unpacked on 'The Week in Data' with Andrea Di Giovanni, the Strategic Projects Lead for our member company Neighbourlytics. In this conversation we also talk about current topical issues such as COVID-19 and how its bringing data insights into our daily lives, as well as social wellbeing as a framework for national decision making, and the data that powers our understanding of how people's quality of life manifests.
Mar 13, 2020•33 min
Media headlines fill our feed with those multi-billion dollar estimates of the smart cities market, while cities relentlessly promote their latest ranking in yet another smart cities ranking. But what happens when you look peek behind the curtain, and compare the methodologies, metrics and outcomes? In this Episode on the Chronicles we sit down with Charles Reed-Anderson from Charles Reed-Anderson and Associates who took the time to compare the rankings and market valuations and as a result came...
Mar 05, 2020•44 min
For this episode of 'the week in data' we invited Dr Vanessa Savage-Douglas from GWI onto the Chronicles. We start the conversation by going back, and reflecting a little on data back in the 90's. We then cover a range of data topics including the 'why' of data, how we move beyond the 'cool' of data, scrutiny of government data management practices and misuse of data, as well as political decisions and the role of data insights.
Mar 05, 2020•30 min
In this second episode of 'the week in data' we sit down with Priscilla Short from Deloitte to discuss what we heard, saw and read on everything on data over the past week. We discuss business intelligence in the context of smart cities, what data fabric is, and investment in 'small' smart cities. We reflect on why cities are not making decisions on smart cities solutions based on data, and why a business case is still an underutilised tool for guiding actions.
Mar 05, 2020•36 min
We kick off our first episode in a new series called 'the week in data', with Director of Data Analytics at Aurecon, Eric Louw. We discuss data and its role in the digital transformation in the built environment, where data processing happens and its comparison to human systems and the market demand for AI. We share mutual concerns and observations around privacy and facial recognition, yet agree the benefits of 'sensing' and 'tracking' can have significant benefits when appropriately deployed.
Mar 05, 2020•33 min
What tried and tested methods from other sectors can we use for our smart cities projects? In this episode we sit down with Deloitte's Steven Hamilton from Boston MA to explore further their work on bringing 'alliancing' approaches from the infrastructure world into the smart cities agenda. Governance, partnerships, financing and procurement can't be 'unstuck'. Lets embrace that and catalyse more action and investment in smart cities.
Dec 19, 2019•49 min
One of Australia's leading privacy experts - Nicole Stevensen - introduces us to the Privacy Impact Assessment, and why its your best friend when it comes to your smart cities work. In this episode Nicole gives us the essentials on privacy impact assessment - why, what and how. It is critical listening at a time when privacy is such an important topic for policy makers and the community alike.
Dec 13, 2019•46 min
In Part 3 of our 'Where it all began' series we go back to 2006 (and a little further) to unearth the urban informatics agenda, with one of the research sectors greatest contributors to smart cities, Professor Marcus Foth from the Queensland University of Technology Design Lab. In this discussion we talk about the 'connective tissue' between technology, people and place, and how the complexities and opportunities of this convergence have changed over the years, and what it means to 'be digital' ...
Oct 28, 2019•40 min
We sit down with Amy Baxendale, Regional Human Resources Director for consulting firm Acadis, to chat about building the workforce of the future. From culture and recruitment to capacity building and new partnership models, Amy gives us a glimpse into what a global 27,000 person consulting firm does to keep up with digital transformation.
Oct 27, 2019•32 min
In this, our 50th episode of the Chronicles, we talk IoT deployment. A problem, an idea, and a partnership. That's what it took for the City of Marion in South Australia to successfully execute on an IoT pilot project that would provide the learning to scale solutions for their 160+ public park assets across the city. Join us as we sit down with Fiona Harvey (Manager of Innovation and Strategy) and Georgie Johnson (Smart Cities Project Officer) from the City of Marion, and Ashby Martin (Smart Ci...
Oct 27, 2019•44 min
In this second interview in our multi-part series on "Where it all began", I sit down with the Founder and Chairman of the Smart Cities Council, Jesse Berst, to explore the organisations eight year journey, and where it all started. Jesse provides the context to why he founded the organisation, and what was happening in the market at the time. We touch on the major advancements for the smart cities movement in the last five years, and muse on the hills we are still yet to climb. Jesse reflects o...
Oct 21, 2019•41 min
In some way's this is a milestone episode for the Chronicles. In this interview we speak with Yasser Helmy, Smart Cities Lead for Asia Pacific with Cisco, one of the global titans in smart cities history. Yasser reflects in this episode where it all started for the company, takes us on a journey through the first decade of the smart cities movement and shares his thoughts on what's next for the agenda.
Oct 17, 2019•51 min
You have probably heard about the $50M smart cities grant awarded to the City of Columbus OH. But have you heard what then happened? In this episode we chat with Jordan Davis from the Columbus Partnership, who is leading the partnership work for this significant smart cities program of work.
Sep 25, 2019•33 min
