Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Smart People
Published on Industrial IoT 5G
The Smart Cities Innovation Summit in Austin, Texas brought together a broad spectrum of professionals, each with their own experiences and perspectives. The result was a fascinating menagerie of conversations that spanned lessons from the past and provided speculation on the future of Smart Cities.
On the first evening of the Summit, a smaller dialogue took place offsite at RCR atx Studios between a unique group of people with one thing in common: a deep knowledge about what it takes to make things “Smart.” Present were:
Darlene Pope who was instrumental in adding Internet connectivity to thousands of commercial buildings in New York City. She is currently Senior Vice President, Energy and Sustainability Services for JLL.
Mark Parr who was the technical architect (CTO) on a project to bring Internet to the New York City Subway along with many other wireless smart building and city wide wireless network projects. He is currently President and CEO of Bandwidth Logic.
Brandon Knicely who helped fund the deal and did intensive due diligence on the technology. He is currently Co-Founder of Third Drive, a business development and marketing company located in Austin.
Here are a few videos from that evening which highlight lessons from the past applied to the modern challenges of connected cities, city wireless networks and public/private infrastructure.
Let’s Just Admit That It’s Complicated
Early in the conversation, it became pretty clear that while the origin of wiring a city is not a new one, it is still one with considerable challenges. Darlene Pope makes the excellent point that whenever there is an intersection between the public and private sector, it can get… well, complicated.
Key Elements to Help a City get “Smart”?
The conversation quickly shifted with Brandon Knicely asking the question, “How can a city be smarter when it comes to implementing the right infrastructure to support the required technology?” Mark Parr provides some practical and very real-world insight as he describes three important steps that need to take place to create the right foundation to enable smart city innovation.
- Creating alignment between the city manager/staff/directors and private sector providers so they can “move forward and move forward fast”
- Securing rights of way
- Securing attachment rights
Video available. To view and read more, click here.