« 2017 will be the year of the Smart Citizen engagement in the City » says Espinosa, VP of Sales, North America

What are your perspectives on how cities in the US prepare themselves to become Smart Cities ?

Cities in the US are taking an aggressive approach toward becoming smarter with great strides being made in the areas of energy conservation and traffic congestion relief.  Deep research around Autonomous Vehicles and the necessary infrastructure to support them is leading to projects which will change public transportation (and eventually private transportation).  What is not getting the right amount of coverage is the engagement of the Smart Citizen.

When you meet with City Innovation Directors, what ambitions do they have for their city ?

City Innovation Officers are looking to move their cities forward faster than the city can support in many cases.  They all want what is best for their constituents- equity, sustainability, innovation, new services, etc- but struggle to find the funding.  In many cases, they are looking to P3 arrangements and are attempting to get the Procurement divisions on board.

What are the 3 (or 4…) steps cities need to embrace to become Smart Cities ?

  1.  The only thing constant is change.  The current paradigm of analyze, discover, analyze, measure, analyze, RFP, review, analyze, pilot, analyze, etc. is simply not going to move the needle fast enough for cities to keep up with their citizens.
  2. Technology is your friend.  It is not the enemy.  While those in the city on the technology side of the house know this, their counterparts are all too worried about how the apple cart might be upset.  The ironic thing is the longer they block innovation, the more they encourage the apple cart to be tipped.  The public demands instant information, immediate services and the ability to connect in the public space as they do privately.
  3. Learn from each other.  This goes deeper than conferences and mixers.  Look to each other for guidance even as centers of excellence.  If Barcelona has a public transportation solution that works, look seriously at how to adopt it.  If Paris has figured out energy conservation, ask how they did it and adopt the solution.  We can always get better and this starts with learning from our peers.
  4. Take some (calculated) risks.  NOW.  Not in 6 months after you have had a chance to review what someone else has reviewed.  If the Mayor can free the technology people to explore real solutions which have proven to deliver results across the world, cities could deploy meaningful solutions delivering real results right away.  While what was good for Barcelona does not guarantee a similar result in San Francisco, trying the solution should be an expectation rather than a consideration.  We live in a world where sharing information is the norm for the general public.  It is time for the governments to do the same.

Your wishes for 2017 ?

Well, since wishing for World Peace is covered by so many, I will humbly wish for a greater focus on people within these Smart Cities.  The Smart Citizen has so many tools at her disposal, tools traditionally provided by the government, that she can self govern in many ways.  I hope our leaders realize this and come up with aggressive strategies to connect the Smart Citizen to the Smart City. (Of course, I am happy to help).

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