Stay Connected“Making Smart Communities that are Accessible, Liveable and Sustainable for All”
The Smart Community Podcast is a hub where Smart and exciting people from all around the world come to discuss all things Smart City, Smart Town, Smart Region – anything that makes a place more liveable. Together we can create the Smart Community Collective.
Disclaimer: All content is representative of personal opinion only and is not associated with any company, organisation or government agency.
Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome back to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we're taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. This week we're sharing my interview with Sean Audain from way back in episode 124, which was released in August of 2019. In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I had a great chat with Sean, the City Innovation Lead at Wellington City Council in New Zealand. Sean and I discuss the way the public service role of government shapes how decisions are made, and that this comes with both opportunities and challenges for the government that can differ significantly from the responsibilities and operations of private companies. Sean then tells us how he sees New Zealand embracing Smart concepts, and a bit about the digital twin projects that he is working on in Wellington. We talk about the benefits of using digital twin technology and how it's being used to build a new call centre and a new library. We finish our conversation discussing the need for indigenous voices in the Smart Cities discourse and the ways different worldviews shape our Smart Communities. We will be sure to get Sean back on the show in future to get a full update about what he has been up to since we recorded this episode and also to how our thinking has progressed since this conversation. But in the meantime, as always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Sean via LinkedIn or on Twitter @sean_audain Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.
Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome back to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we're taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. This week we're sharing my interview with Zaheer Allam, from way back in episode 180, which was released in July of 2020. In this episode of the Smart Community podcast, I have a great conversation with Urban Strategist Zaheer Allam. You might remember I spoke with Zaheer earlier in 2020 in Episode 158 and when COVID-19 broke out I knew I wanted to catch up with him again. So this podcast episode is an audio from the YouTube series I did catching up with previous podcast guests during the pandemic and we recorded this chat on the 4th of May 2020. In this conversation, Zaheer tells us what the situation is like in Mauritius at the time of recording, what's changed such as working from home, flexible work options in general and the disruptions for Zaheer personally. We cover a big range of things all along the themes of how COVID has impacted every industry and brought to the forefront a lot of Smart concepts, such as the importance of data, digital literacy, community engagement and cross-disciplinary approaches. Zaheer tells us why systems thinking is so important in Smart Communities, always but now especially as we move into a post-COVID world. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of transitioning to a digital economy, of localising supply chains, investing in resilient infrastructure and the democratisation of data. We finish our chat discussing the ways Smart Cities and Communities, including the 15 minute city concept, can help us build more sustainable, resilient, human-centred places to work, live and play. I also have an update from Zaheer, he says he has been involved in a research project on Smart Cities and Green New Deals. He has also had a few papers published on those themes, and is currently collaborating with the Sorbonne University (France) on the theme of '15-Minute Cities'. We'll be sure to get Zaheer back on the show in the future for a full update about what he's been up to and also how our thinking has progressed since this conversation. But in the meantime, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Zaheer on LinkedIn and find him on Facebook Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.
Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome back to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we're taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of your all time favourite episodes. This week we're sharing my interview with Jennifer Sanders from Episode 170 which was recorded pre Covid-19 Pandemic, in February of 2020. In this episode of the Smart Community podcast I have a great conversation with Jennifer Sanders, the Co-Founder and Executive Director at the Dallas Innovation Alliance or DIA as she refers to it a lot in this episode. Jennifer tells us about the DIA, how it came to be and the needs-based, neighbourhood-centric approach that they take. We cover the importance of educating and empowering citizens, especially young people and people from underserved neighbourhoods, on how they can engage with their communities and Jennifer shares a great story about the benefits of giving kids a seat at the table when discussing solutions to community problems. We discuss how Dallas is embracing the Smart City concept and the real impacts and benefits of the openness, transparency and knowledge-sharing that goes on between individuals and organisations in the Smart City space. Jennifer tells us about the projects she's working on with the DIA, including their focus on equity, digital inclusion and having a regional focus through the North Texas Innovation Alliance. We have a great chat about how the regional approach is the natural next step from the city-centric focus and how it helps with efficiencies and economies of scale for smaller towns with fewer resources. Now the DIA has dozens of partner organisations from all sectors and Jennifer tells us about how they approach integration and collaboration with so many stakeholders. We finish our chat talking about the emerging trends of data privacy and ownership in public data-driven projects, and we have an interesting chat about telemedicine too. As I mentioned previously, this episode was recorded before Covid-19 brought travel restrictions and lockdowns to the world and so it will be interesting to see what the innovations in that space are once we get through this pandemic. We will be sure to get Jennifer back on the show in future for a full update about what she has been up to and how our thinking has progressed since this conversation. But in the meantime, as always we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn or Twitter @dallassmartcity Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.
Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome back to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we're taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of your all time favourite episodes. This week we're sharing my interview with Calum Cameron, from way back in episode 185 which was released in August of 2020. In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a really interesting conversation with Calum, an Aussie based in Estonia, which is the world's first digital society and Europe's favourite startup ecosystem. Responding to the COVID-19 lockdown in Estonia he helped trigger the Hack the Crisis movement and was an organiser of The Global Hackathon which combined, connected more than 250k people from over 100 countries to develop and implement immediate solutions to the crises, which we talk about in this episode. We start by discussing Calum's background in IT helping the financial services digitalise, and how he came to be in Estonia. Calum then shares with us a history of Estonia, why they focused heavily on digitalisation in the 1990s, plus some of the interesting ways that manifests, like their digital citizen or e-residency program. Calum tells us how he got into this Smart Community space and why a diverse cross section from society is so important in getting different perspectives and different skill sets to best leverage the technology that's out there to solve community problems. We talk about how Smart concepts are understood by the general public in Estonia, including how data sharing works between agencies to make renewing your drivers licence a smooth process. Calum and I talk about the importance of trust and the social license to operate in digital societies, and how both public and private sectors in Estonia have intentionally invested in the affordability and reliability of digital infrastructure, as well as dedicated digital education and engagement programs to improve digital literacy in the whole population. We finish our chat discussing the opportunities and challenges of e-learning and digital collaboration, including his work with the recent digital hackathons, plus Calum's favourite resources in the Smart Community space. At one point we also mention Smart Community festivals and I say in the interview that I discussed it with Martin Tomitsch in his episode but no, it was actually Heath Raftery who I spoke to in Episode 113 about Smart Regions, so we've linked all those episodes up in the show notes too. We'll be sure to get Calum back on the show in the future for a full update about what he's been up to and also how our thinking has progressed since this conversation. But in the meantime, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Calum on LinkedIn or via calum@digitalpath.ee Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.
Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. We're taking a little break from new content over The Australian summer holidays, but with more than 260 episodes in the bank, we've got plenty for you to catch up on. During this Summer Series, we'll be sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. And this week, i'm very excited to share with you a very powerful conversation I had with Dr. Emma Lee from episode 211, and actually we started 2021 off with this episode. Emma is a trawlwulwuy woman of tebrakunna country in north east Tasmania, and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University of Technology. Her research fields over the last 25 years have focused on Indigenous affairs, land and sea management, policy and governance of Australian regulatory environments. In this episode Emma tells us about her background in Indigenous archeology and land management, and passion for First Nations social impact and regional development. I flip the script a little bit from our usual question order and in this episode we start with discussing the emerging trend of Smart Country that people definitely aren't talking about enough. Emma explains what country is and the connection to country that First Nations people have, some of the things we can learn from Smart Country like fire management, a broader concept of conservation, and a reciprocal relationship with the land and environment. Emma shares with us the power of language and the way it has been and is used to position Indigenous and First Nations ways of knowing as less than the coloniser's knowledge, the decolonising and grieving work we all need to be doing, and the balance we need to strike between the global focus that is prioritised in academia and our modern world, with the deep local knowledge that is so important to Smart Country and Community. Emma tells us how this played out in her work with the Reset the Relationship Government Strategy that she helped create, and the doors that were opened and the shift that was created through a statement of love amongst the hate. We then touch on how social media creates and fuels division and how important inclusion is in our Smart Communities, as well as the concept of individual responsibility within a community and the big mindset shift that is for so many of us. We finish our chat discussing where to next for Smart Country and Smart Communities. Since the recording of the episode back in 2020, Emma has been busier than ever. She has moved homes, began a part time job in government whilst moving to part time with Swinburne University, there's also a big Treaty document tabled in parliament that she has been involved in. Amongst this and many other things, Emma has also published two articles in The Age, the first article is an in-depth profile of her and her work and the second an Opinion Piece on Indigenous Voice, both are exceptional reads that really showcase Emma's passion and the incredible work she does. We'll be sure to invite Emma back on the show in the future for a full update about what she's been up to. But in the meantime, as always we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Emma via email ejlee@swin.edu.au Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or
Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a fabulous conversation with Simon Hunter, the Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation, at the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE). This group is leading the implementation of the NSW Smart Places Strategy to embed Smart Cities into the planning or urban and regional areas across NSW. We have a great talk about what New South Wales is up to in regards to Smart Communities and Smart Places Initiatives, and the exciting future ahead. In this episode, Simon tells us about his background in transport and infrastructure, mainly in State Government, and what a Smart Community is to him. Simon shares with us the importance of the term 'Smart Places' and its use when discussing this space, as well as how he got into this space and how he has driven this concept over time with DPIE and in his other roles. We talk about the polarising risks associated with data and privacy protection and how to balance them, before Simon tells us about the Smart Places Acceleration Program and what is involved, as well as the benefits realisation of the program. We then discuss the importance of efficiency and value of time and how that contributes to people's quality of life, as well as the value that remote working and remote staff can bring to an organisation. We finish our chat with Simon telling us what is happening over the next few years with his work and what he is most excited about. Now this is the last episode for the year before we go into our Summer series, so as always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Simon via LinkedIn or via email: Simon.Hunter@planning.nsw.gov.au Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital
Hello #smartcommunityfriends and hello to our listeners in Israel, you are amongst this month's top Countries for most episode downloads. I'm back with another bonus episode of the Smart Community Podcast sharing various guests answers to the question, 'Where to next with Smart Cities and Communities?" And this time I'm sharing with you the answers from these guests: •Emma Weston from Episode 260 •Ghazaleh Ghoreishi from Episode 261 •Nicci Rossouw from Episode 262 •And finally Laila Al Hadhrami from Episode 263 Some themes that come through in the guest answers are around fluidity between rural and urban areas, embracing the differences in our rural communities, placing people at the centre of our communities and increasing the quality of life for people. More diversity and fluidity in communities allows for better connection between rural and urban areas, starting these conversations now about bridging the gaps between the two is so important. We also don't want to see any communities miss opportunities to improve the quality of life for people, and placing people at the centre of Smart Communities to make decisions about what they need to improve their quality of life is crucial. As Emma Weston says, "When it comes to rural and regional, what we don't want is, this re-ignition that Covid has given to our rural and regional areas to be a passing blip, we want to be able to see this as a launching pad to an integration point between urban and rural." As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.
Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a very interesting conversation with Laila Al Hadhrami. Laila is the Smart Cities Development Manager at the National Energy Centre in Oman and ready to talk about her favourite topic, Smart Cities. Laila begins by telling us about her background and her passion for the digital world and Smart Cities, how sustainability drew her into the Smart Communities space and we discuss the importance of knowledge sharing in Smart Communities. Laila then shares with us how she is working to build Smart Communities in Oman, what a Smart Community is to her and we discuss the importance of investing in people's skills and empowering people. Laila then tells us about her current work leading Smart City projects at the National Energy Centre, before she discusses how Oman has embraced the Smart Community concept and its evolution over the last 5 years. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of serving the basic needs first in communities before looking to the future, and the changes the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to our working and online learning lives. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Laila via LinkedIn Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital
Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a fabulous chat with Nicci Rossouw who is the CEO and founder of Exaptec, a robotics company that specialises in telepresence, social and educational robots. Nicci starts off by telling us about her professional background in sales and her passion for robotics, she tells us what a Smart Community is to her before she tells us how she got into the robotics space. Nicci then tells us a bit more about her company and the work they do as well as her Podcast, 'Let's Talk Robotics' and how she showcases and celebrates people and their businesses in the robotics and AI space. We discuss the value in different expertise and the importance of harnessing those expertise in Smart Communities before we discuss how automation can enhance businesses and how technology is changing our society. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of AI and robotics and the positive impacts they are having on communities. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Nicci via LinkedIn Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital
Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a great conversation with Ghazaleh Sadat Ghoreishi. Ghazaleh is currently an urban planner and PhD researcher of urban planning at the university of Tehran, Iran. Ghazaleh starts by telling us about her background in Geomatics engineering and surveying, her transition into urban planning and her current work as a PhD scholar at the University of Tehran. She then tells us what sparked her interest in the Smart Communities space, her fascination for how technology can change peoples lives, what a Smart Community is to her and we then discuss how Iran has embraced the Smart Community concept. We talk about the importance of community intelligence in Smart Communities before Ghazaleh tells us about some of the projects she has been working on recently. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of autonomous technology and how it can affect people's lives, and the co-creation of cities by empowering citizens more. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Ghazaleh via LinkedIn or via email: gh.ghorashi@gmail.com Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital
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