Smart Cities Council is the longest-running global smart cities ecosystem, founded in 2012.
Smart Cities Council is a Social Impact Organisation founded in 2012, based in Washington, DC. We have team members on the ground globally in North America, ASEAN, the Subcontinent, Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia/New Zealand, and a direct and indirect global network of around 400,000 Smart Cities practitioners and stakeholders.
What we do
SCC has the trust of government as being independent, such that they reach out to us with their challenges and opportunities. SCC then uses our global the network of private sector and academia to help government address these challenges and opportunities in an open, ethical, professional and innovative manner.
In short, we are uniquely positioned to build capability and capacity in government, collaboration with private sector and academia and accelerate projects that bring about positive outcomes for people and place.
Three Core Values
We promote projects, places and people that embody our three core priorities.
Livability
Cities that provide clean, healthy living conditions without pollution and congestion. With a digital infrastructure that makes city services instantly and conveniently available anytime, anywhere.
Workability
Cities that provide the enabling infrastructure — energy, connectivity, computing, essential services — to compete globally for high-quality jobs.
Sustainability
Cities that provide services without stealing from future generations.
Our Team
Meet the team making the Smart Cities Council vision a reality by facilitating the conversations that matter, hosting events and task forces, and, most importantly, helping our members build smarter cities.
Corey Gray - Global CEO
Connie DeSpirito - City Engagement North America
Alby Bocanegra - Futurist in Residence
Iman Ghaffari - Member Engagement Australia New Zealand
Andrea Winders - Lead: UK
Murat Balcioglu - Lead: Turkey
Andrzej Lis - Lead: Poland
Kok-Chin Tay - Lead: ASEAN
Robyn Francis - Global Engagement
Matt Book - Global Operations
Our Members Include
Globally, we work alongside industry bodies and not-for-profit organizations to further deliver on our goal of accelerating livability, workability and sustainability for projects, people and place.
Our Story
In 2012, Jesse Berst founded the Smart Cities Council to deliver solutions for advancing the livability, workability, and sustainability of cities globally.
Now we want to continue our work with technology and intelligent design and extend our focus to innovative, compassionate outcomes for all communities, wherever located. Since we began on this journey, we have worked with hundreds of cities all at varying stages of their smart cities journey or project.
As we move towards our 11th year, we are embracing a renewed sense of determination to unlock greater benefits for our all communities and their stakeholders wherever located.
Milestones
2012 IBM becomes the first member
2014 First Handbook for Cities Published (Readiness Guide)
2015 Expansion to India
2015 First Smart Cities Week
2015 Publication of India Readiness Guide
2016 SCC Australia & New Zealand launched
2017 First Readiness Challenge Launched in 2016 at the invitation of the US White House
2020 Smart Cities Academy launched
October 2020 First Practitioner Certificate
As of 2022, the Smart Cities Council has produced eight (8) Smart Cities Weeks, five (5) Readiness Challenges with over thirty (30) winners and 80 Readiness Workshops serving over 50 cities with a total population of 1/2 Billion. We have also collected data on over six hundred (600) projects through the Readiness Challenge.
Smart Cities Academy
The Smart Cities Academy helps build the knowledge and capacity to support a city’s success in accelerating great outcomes, offering anyone the opportunity to enhance their knowledge.
Readiness Program
The Readiness Program, offered globally, helps cities build capacity to accelerate outcomes. Cities learn about what they need to do to accelerate their outcomes.
Smart Cities Week
Join our bi-annual conferences convened in Australia, India and the US where cities globally learn from cities participating in the Council’s Readiness Program how to accelerate projects and better cities.
