The 1st SmartCitiesCouncil® - Europe Stakeholders’ Assembly recently took place in Dublin, Ireland on the 9th of November. The day’s theme was Accelerating your innovation economy and focused on how smart city solutions can advance innovation and economic development.
SmartCitiesCouncil® is the sector's largest consortium of smart city providers, including many of the world's largest firms. The SmartCitiesCouncil is an industry coalition involving some of the world's top companies; CISCO, Deloitte, IBM, Itron, Microsoft, Oracle, SAS and many others. Its goal is to accelerate the move to smart, sustainable cities. Its motto is "Livability, Workability, Sustainability."
Honored by the attendance of the most reputable names in the Smart Cities industry, the stakeholder assembly quickly gained attention from all around Europe.
The event’s attendees comprised of representatives from the Smart City eco-system of stakeholders, including partners of the SmartCitiesCouncil®, a SmartCitiesCouncil® Readiness Challenge Award Winner, innovation companies, aspiring Smart CitiesCouncil® - Europe partners and city staffers interested in smart cities, modernisation, economic development, and related topics.
Europe’s top innovation experts had a lot of knowledge to share amongst the attendees. Information was shared around the table about current projects and good practice strategies in modernising cities in synch alongside innovation companies providing the latest “smart” solutions.
Speakers pumped up with more than enough content
Bruno De Man, Executive Director, SmartCitiesCouncil® - Europe, based in Brussels, Capital of the European Union, launched the kick-off with an interactive presentation. Bruno demonstrated the Council’s desire to improve livability, workability, and sustainability of cities across the globe.
A special thank you towards Don Jacobsen, for his captivating presentation! Don is the IT Business Partner for Innovation, City of Las Vegas, USA. As a winner of the 2018 Readiness Challenge and hence an acclaimed Ambassador of the SmartCitiesCouncil®, he was able to demonstrate the power of our challenge program and the subsequent workshops as well as testifying on the success of working with the Council.
With more than 25 years’ experience in the ICT industry consulting and delivering enterprise solutions to communications and technology companies, Kevin McCaffrey left the audience fascinated by his solution, The Project Activator. The Activator is a tool recently customized for the Council to manage and accelerate a city's projects at a faster pace than ever and with more accuracy – creating highly valuable datasets on Cities and their projects – a great benefit and “accelerator” for all stakeholders.
Corey Gray, CEO of LVX Global, shared his profound knowledge and extensive experience on how to select the most suitable project and begin the implementation stage. Corey explained that his main focus on key topics such as: Cybersecurity, Procurement, Governance, Organisational Change & Business Rules.
Using “smart” technology, web-streaming from Eindhoven, John Baekelmans, Vice President of IMEC, shared his experience in guiding and advising the region of Flanders in Belgium and its cities in making the most appropriate choices in moving their “smart” projects forward.
John Soden, heading the Smart Cities arm of FutureStreet, Dublin, Ireland contributed to the event in a brilliant fashion. His presentation on how the waste management arm of his company operates was mindboggling. What got the attendee's talking was how the top few inches of Bigbelly (their solar powered, rubbish-compacting bin) is being re-engineered into multiple IT applications which can serve and benefit citizens.
As the day came to a close – one the field’s top thought leaders in smart cities and smart grids, Jesse Berst, Chairman of the SmartCitiesCouncil®, joined by live feed from Oregon, USA – supporting the kick-off of European activities, bringing to the table his knowledge, expertise and vision in this vibrant environment, which are Smart Cities.
Concluding the event we sensed all attendees wished the event could be extended: the energy, intellectual curiosity and engaging connections brought to the assembly created a learning environment for us all. We extended our utmost gratitude to all those who created time for this special moment! And clearly – an event which will have many to follow – look out for “Save the dates” in the Opportunity Calendar on www.smartcitiescouncil.com.
