The agreement will see the two groups, who between them represent the major parties involved in this emerging field, working together on programs designed to provide education, advice and coordinated advocacy on behalf of their members.
Under the terms of the agreement the two groups will undertake a range of mutually beneficial activities in areas such as education, research, industry engagement, capacity building and advocacy.
Executive Director of SCCANZ Adam Beck said, “This partnership comes at a critical time in Australia’s smart cities journey, as it seeks to choose the path of world leader and net exporter in smart cities services”. Mr Beck continued, “With the combined resources of ASCA and SCCANZ we strongly believe our ability to catalyse opportunity and investment in smart cities will be enhanced”.
Laurie Patton, who was appointed inaugural CEO of ASCA late last year, sees the agreement as a positive move towards Australia developing a bipartisan and broadly agreed national strategy to promote the smart use of technology.
“Australia invented Wi-Fi, the Heart Pacemaker and the Black Box Flight recorder, just to name a few things that have changed our lives. So we certainly have the track record to be fast-movers and to undertake a wide range of locally initiated smart cities and communities initiatives”.
A major factor leading to the decision to create this agreement is the desire of the organisations to present a united front in their efforts to encourage all levels of government and industry to collaborate. While each has a broad range of members and partners ASCA is a “demand side” organisation primarily representing local government, which is where most of the smart cities and communities work is expected to be carried out in Australia.
SCCANZ is part of a global “supply side” network representing the interests of the companies planning, designing and delivering smart cities solutions around the world. It has a strong record of leadership in the development of policies and practices to support the deployment of smart city technology and data solutions.
