CC042: Jordan Davis of Smart Columbus // Looking into the future of smart cities (from CES 2020)

Summary: Interview starts: 6:24 Debrief starts: 58:09 Jordan Davis is the Director of Smart Columbus for the Columbus Partnership, leading strategy and public-private partnerships for the Central Ohio region’s $550 million smart cities initiative. She was instrumental in Columbus becoming the sole winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart Cities Challenge in 2016 and since has managed the upstart of a new joint venture for the region focused on realizing a connected, autonomous, shared, and electric transportation ecosystem that improves people’s lives. Jordan facilitates collaboration between the public and private sector, secures new private investment in the Acceleration Fund, oversees public affairs, and supports the long-term strategy to sustain the Smart Columbus Initiative. Additionally, she oversees an aggressive electric vehicle adoption program, shared mobility growth plan, autonomous vehicle deployment, and a dynamic corporate engagement portfolio. We discuss: - AD: Finding experienced employees for your new business with Integrity Power Search (4:58) - "Smart" trends currently happening in cities (7:03) - Initial focus when the grant started (9:16) - Other forward thinking cities at the time of winning the grant (11:06) - Why did Columbus win? (14:57) - Research process (18:50) - Choosing technology vendors (20:13) - Evaluating successful adoption (25:08) - New structural (vs. iterative) changes (27:30) - EVs in Columbus (31:37) - Replicable Columbus (36:31) Learn more about Smart Columbus: https://smart.columbus.gov/ Follow Jordan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDLead Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm Advertise with an upside classified: https://upside.fm/classifieds -- This episode is sponsored by Integrity Power Search, the #1 full stack high growth startup recruiting firm between the coasts. They partner with venture capitalists, private equity groups and CEOs to build amazing teams for the world’s most disrupting companies. Learn more about or get in touch with Integrity Power Search: https://upside.fm/integrity