The Smart Community Podcast

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I had a great conversation with Frank Burns, President and Co-Founder of Apana, a technology company that is currently applying its IoT and Prescriptive Analytics suites to solve problems with water use inside the built environment. Frank shares his background in waste water management, his passion for eliminating water waste and contamination in the commercial, industrial and institutional sector, and how it sparked his interest in the Smart Cities/Smart Communities space. We discuss the way Apana uses technology and data for Smart Water Management, and why it's so important not only in individual companies but at the city level. Frank shares his thoughts on how this is currently happening in the US, the tug of war between the tech-focused approach and the bottom-up approach to Smart cities and why meaningful measurement is the key to integration and collaboration across sectors and disciplines. We finish our chat talking about water being the emerging trend that we're not talking about enough, and how using IOT measurement and data analysis can be a security system against mechanical failure and human error in the Smart Water space. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes as: www.mysmart.community Connect with Frank via the Apana website Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I had a fascinating conversation with Jonathan Reichental, the Chief Information Officer for the City of Palo Alto, California. Jonathan shared a bit about his background in technology, why he loves the way technology can make positive things happen for individuals and the world. He talks about what it's been like being, in his words, a bit of a maverick from the private sector, now being a public servant and working for local government. Jonathan shares how the City of Palo Alto is working on digitisation and the high degree of importance they place on collaboration with the community. We talk about what a Smart City or Smart Community means to Jonathan, why it's so important and how being in the opening chapters of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating a lot of change for all of us. Jonathan also explains why cities or urban locations are the future, not only in terms of where most humans will live going forwards, but also in terms of solving the big problems facing our planet, such as climate change. We talk about some of the projects Palo Alto is currently working on and why decision making and leadership is key to better integrating across disciplines, industries, governments and academia. We finish off discussing emerging trends, including the human trends of the digital divide and human rights, and tech trends such as blockchain, AI and data. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes as: www.mysmart.community Don't forget to check out the Urban Motion Conference in Brisbane https://www.apchexpo.com Connect with Jonathan on Twitter @reichental Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have an awesome conversation with Kerry Anderson, the founder of Operation NextGen and the author of Entrepreneurship: It's everybody's business. Kerry is passionate about sharing stories from rural and regional Australia. Kerry tells us a little secret to start with, and also the importance of having new conversations with new people in new places. Kerry and I discuss the concept of Smart Towns and Smart Communities, and how these towns and communities have to embrace change and be willing to experiment. Kerry then talks about the value of entrepreneurs in the region, and how complacency can affect the growth of a regional area. Kerry then shares about some of the regional conferences and events that are happening, shares some stories and tells us about Operation NextGen. Kerry tells us about the research she completed overseas and the importance of collaboration and champions to better integrate across the different disciplines, government and industries. We talk about improving connectivity so we can embrace the gig economy in regional Australia. As always, I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes as: www.mysmart.community Connect with Kerry on LinkedIn, as @kerrywords on Twitter, as @RuralEntrepreneurs on Facebook or at her website kerryanderson.com.au Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod

In this episode of the Smart Community podcast, I have a great chat with Stephen Coulter from Localift. Stephen tells us about his background in financial services, banking and later startups, and how the two have now combined in his interest in the Smart Mobility space. We talk about Smart Cities being made up of a series of hyper-local communities, and why it's not just technology but also psychology that we need to be looking at when preparing for and encouraging the changes that are coming, whether they happen cooperatively or disruptively. Stephen then shares with us some of the projects he's currently working on, including Local Lift, and why trust and seamless payment processes are so important in the Smart Mobility space. We discuss the concept of shared mobility and why it's an emerging trend not being talked about enough, despite the fact that it's an important part of the 21st Century solution to the 20th Century problem of congestion. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes as: www.mysmart.community Connect with Stephen via Email Stephen@localift.net or on LinkedIn Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod

Hello #smartfriends and welcome to the first interview episode of the Smart Community Podcast. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back and listen to yesterday's episode which is all about why I've rebranded to expand the conversation away from just cities. As you probably know by now, the conversations always come back to the human beings at the centre anyway, so broadening the conversation to be about Smart Communities is important. Having said all of that, we will still be using the term Smart Cities, because it is a common industry term and because most people are quite familiar with it. This episode is no different, and although the first part of the conversation is very much around Smart Cities, you will see that we do shift focus to me more inclusive of the Smart Community focus about halfway. So, in this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I interview Monica Wulff, Cofounder of Startup Muster, a data-focused company that measures and publishes the progress, challenges, and opportunities within the Australian startup ecosystem. Their 2018 report is out now and you can find it at www.startupmuster.com In this episode, Monica shares her passion for the future economic and social wellbeing of Australians, how childhood travel and her background in economics sparked her interest in the Smart City space, and she tells us about some of the projects she's involved in. We do talk a lot about technology, because that is where Monica spends a lot of her time, but we also talk about the relationship we have with our technology, the evolution of our places and how they can serve us as a community. Monica talks about the need for courage for all of us as we are experiencing a lot of change and will continue to do so going forward, and the emerging trends of coworking spaces, the sharing economy, better use of dead space and why, amidst all this tech talk, we must include the Arts in our Smart conversation. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes as: www.mysmart.community Connect with Monica on LinkedIn, or as @monwulff on Twitter and Instagram. You can also head to Startup Muster to read the report or take part. Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Ellen Ronalds Keene.

On The Smart City Podcast, what I've realised is, we're not actually talking Smart Cities per se, we're talking Smart Communities and Smart Regions. The term Smart City is not as inclusive as it could be, because we also want to talk to people, or talk about things that are happening in our regional areas and across borders. I want to shift my language from Smart City to Smart Community, and under Smart Community, encompass Smart City, Smart Town and Smart Region. Then extending on that, Smart People, because we need Smart Citizens to know that they're Smart Citizens in order to enact their Smart Community and Smart Lives. Find the full show notes as: www.mysmart.community Email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod The Smart City Podcast is produced by Ellen Ronalds Keene.

In this episode of the Smart City Podcast, I had a fascinating conversation with Tom Muller, an Economic Geographer and one of the cofounders of Bee Smart City. He shares with us how Bee Smart City came to be, what they do and a bit about their database connecting Smart City providers with people seeking their services. We also discuss the fact that Smart Cities really needs to be acknowledging that it's not always about the big cities, but municipalities of any size, which you might have noticed is an increasingly common conversation on the podcast, so watch this space.... Tom also shares his perspective on how Germany is embracing Smart concepts and the opportunities and challenges of this new paradigm globally, as well as the emerging trend of bottom-up initiatives and empowering Smart Citizens, who Tom calls Smartivists. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Tom and Bee Smart City at www.beesmart.city or find them socials @beesmartcity Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

In this episode of the Smart City Podcast, I interview Stephanie Piper, 3D printing enthusiast, and the Community Engagement Coordinator at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, where she runs their Maker Space. In this episode we discuss Steph's journey from studying biomedicine and vaccine development, to being involved in the 3D printing space and why she's so passionate about the possibilities and opportunities 3D printing technology provides for Smart Cities. Steph explains what 3D printing actually is, and what kind of people and projects are happening at her Maker Space, as well as some of the ways 3D printing can be used to help recycle and reuse plastics, and implications for the circular economy in these particular areas. Steph shares her passion for educating people about this technology, and her views about integrating across disciplines, governments and academia, as well as some of the emerging trends in the 3D printing and maker space arena. What we don't discuss in this episode is something exciting that has happened for Stephanie since we recorded this interview back in September. Along with a team she formed at the Toowoomba Startup Weekend Women, Steph has started a business to help engage girls in STEM and to teach electronics in primary schools. It's called Spark Girls and they were the winning team at the Toowoomba Startup Weekend Women, which then saw them head to the Asia Pacific Start Up Weekend Women finals in Bali a couple of weeks ago. Very excitingly, Spark Girls emerged the winner in Bali as well, so that is a wonderful achievement and just the beginning for this fledgling business. We'll post some links in the show notes if you want to know more about it and hopefully we can catch up with Steph again in the new year to hear more about how she's educating the next generation and encouraging girls to be engaged in STEM. But in the meantime, this is a great conversation about the possibilities of 3D printing. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Steph at her blog or on Twitter @sjpiper145 and find out more about her new business Spark Girlz at their website. Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

In this episode of the Smart City podcast, I have a great chat with Geof Heyden, Associate at data-sharing company CreatorTech and Co-Founder of the IOT Alliance in Australia. Geof shares his background in the telecommunications industry, and how that sparked his interest in the Smart City space. He is passionate about helping all levels of government to really understand the importance of data and data sharing in a digital economy, and how we all need to be on the same page with protecting and sharing appropriately sometimes quite sensitive data. We also discuss the importance of councils and state governments, taking stock of what's happening internally first in order to make Smart decisions about what Smart applications are needed, and the interesting evolution in thinking going on about what makes a liveable city or community. Geof shares his thoughts on the patchiness of Australia's adoption of Smart concepts, and explains how the IoT Alliance came to be. We also discuss why collaboration across industries and disciplines is critical for us to actually be solving the problems we have today, with or without IOT. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Geof via email geof@creatortech.com and find the IOT alliance via their website. Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

In this episode of the Smart City Podcast, I had a really interesting conversation with Nicole Stephenson, a Privacy Consultant originally from Canada but now based in Ipswich, Queensland. Nicole shares why privacy is such an important part of the Smart City conversation, and one that currently isn't being embraced enough across the board. We discuss how Australia is currently embracing the Smart City concept and how we could still have a data driven and tech-enabled community that balances the privacy and security of citizen data. Nicole explains some of the projects she's currently working on, including her role with the Internet of Things Security Institute, an Australian Not-For-Profit organisation in the privacy space. We also talk about privacy legislation in Australia and across the world, such as GDPR - Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, and what that means for the Smart City space here and abroad. Nicole explains the biggest mistakes a Smart City project or agency can make when it comes to privacy and why open data isn't actually in opposition but can be enabled by privacy policy. We finish our conversation discussing the emerging trend of the changing views about privacy across different groups and generations in this Smart City space and the context of the 2018 digital world. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Nicole at groundupprivacy.com.au Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

Hello #smartfriends, welcome to Smart Cities Week! This week we are going to release one episode every day Monday to Friday to celebrate Smart Cities Week. This first episode of the Smart City Podcast this week is with Mayer Khal Asfour, who is the Mayor of City of Canterbury-Bankstown. I had a really great conversation with the mayor about what the Smart City concept means to him, which is about solving real problems for the community and also about making government processes more efficient and providing savings to the community. The mayor shares insights on the trip he recently took to the US to look at Smart Cities, and what he's brought back to Australia, as well as the Canterbury-Bankstown roadmap that has just been released and the importance of having a strategy. We also talk about some of the other projects and initiatives the council is working on as well as emerging trends, including foundational processes and opening up the data. The mayor is also very keen to collaborate across the different disciplines and with other councils as well. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Mayor Khal Asfour on Facebook or via email at khal.asfour@cbcity.nsw.gov.au Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

In this episode of the Smart City Podcast, I had a fantastic conversation with Amelia Loye. Amelia is a Community and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist who and the Founder of engage2, a public participation and stakeholder engagement consultancy. We begin by discussing the concept of Smart Government and Amelia explains why she's so passionate about balancing the interests of different groups. We also discuss the upcoming Smart Cities Week events in Sydney from the 29th of October to the 2nd of November, including the EngageTech Forum at the NSW State Library on the 1st of November which Amelia's team have deliberately designed to provide a participatory experience and to facilitate connections and collaborations amongst attendees. Amelia then dives into a favourite technique of hers to integrate across different disciplines, industries and governments and given this is her area of specialty, her answer digs right down, which is great. We finish by discussing the emerging trends Amelia thinks we should be talking about more, including the opportunity to leverage "invited data" and the importance of continual and mutual dialogue and education to create an informed community and skilful workforce. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Amelia via her website engage2.com.au or on LinkedIn Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

In this episode of the Smart City Podcast, I had a really great conversation with Mateusz Jarosiewicz from Poland. He is the Program Coordinator for Smart City Polska. We talk about collaborating so we don't have to reinvent the wheel, and he talks about how Smart City can be an ideology, a movement and a community. He also talks about making the Smart City concept more understandable for the greater audience, particularly starting in schools. Mat then shares some of the things he's working on at the moment, including Road Map and Vision Poland, and Do Tanks rather than just thinking. He also talks about the importance of having visionaries and facilitators to integrate across the different disciplines, industries and government. The last thing we talk about is going from the internet to real places as an emerging trend. As always, I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Mat on LinkedIn Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

In this episode of the Smart City Podcast, I had a really great conversation with Carola Jonas. Carola is the CEO and Co-Founder of Everty, who build software for electric vehicle charging. She has a background in logistics and freight, and has moved into green tech. She is very passionate about keeping our planet clean and green. We talk about some of the impacts of energy infrastructure and transport coming together in a digital sense, and Carola then talks about some of the leading initiatives happening in Australia. She shares what Everty does and what they are doing in the Smart City Space. She also shares some learnings from around the world, including how to increase uptake and also getting the infrastructure ready. We have a little bit of a chat about demand on the energy grid, and finish talking about connected and automated vehicles integrating into our public infrastructure, and then some examples of emerging trends from overseas. As always, I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Carola via LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook or check out the Everty website everty.com.au Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod

In this bonus episode of the Smart City Podcast, I had a really great conversation with Dean Madison, the founder and CEO of T. D. Madison and Associates. Dean has a background in broadband and we first start talking bout IOT and the next generation of services, and how we need to start applying 21st century solutions to our current day problems. Dean is passionate about empowering cities to manage their own complex services and resources, and we also talk about the idea of buying back time and setting up the right foundational infrastructure for a Smart City. Dean shares some of the things he's currently working on, which includes setting up this foundational infrastructure and he also talks about setting up a Smart City Ecosystem of open data to allow integration. We talk about some of the emerging trends, particularly the economic and environmental impacts of not implementing Smart city practices and finish talking about using technology instead of trying to build our way out of congestion. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes: thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect with Dean via his website tdmaddison.com Connect with me via email: zoe@thesmartcitypodcast.com Connect via Twitter and Facebook @smartcitypod