What is the idea behind the '20 Minute City', and how might it become a key opportunity for post-crisis economic recovery? Well, lets find out! Joining us for this discussion is Jen Baird (General Manager, City Growth) and Iain White (Professor of Environmental Planning). We talk about COVID-19 related economic stimulus, and how the 20 Minute City concept is shovel ready for the City of Hamilton and the Waikato region, among other ideas to ensure smart and sustainable growth within the community.

In this episode we hear from one of Australia's award winning smart cities - Newcastle, NSW - on how their smart cities underpinnings have facilitated the successful deployment of a creative new app to help catalyse economic stimulus and social engagement. Dr Nathaniel Bavinton (Newcastle City Council) and David Catalovski (GreenBe) join the Chronicles to share the story behind the 'Lean in Newy' app. Part community engagement tool, part challenge platform, and part economic stimulus vehicle, the Lean in Newy app is set to deliver some meaningful outcomes in this innovation-led city.

In this episode of the Chronicles Smart Cities Council CEO Philip Bane chats with Carlos Rivero, Chief Data Officer at the Commonwealth of Virginia. Their discussion tracks the origins of the CDO Office, early challenges and the quick wins. Carlos outlines the multitude of efforts put in place to build greater data leadership via data sharing, analytics, stronger governance and a series of data trusts. Carlos also shares his reflections on the work the Office of the CDO implemented in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Welcome to the "Data Dialogues" - an online engagement series as part of Smart Cities Week Australia New Zealand 2020.

This dialogue will focus on unpacking the 'civic data trust' - what are they, what can they offer and the pathway for building one.

While few data trusts have been deployed and lessons learned shared, much thought leadership does exist, citing the 'tool' as a means to enable better governance around the use of data, and ensuring that its benefits are distributed in an equitable way.

Join our dialogue guests - Aimee Whitcroft (data 4d), Jessica Christiansen-Franks (Neighbourlytics) and Dorotea Baljevic (Lendlease) - as we explore the what, why and how of civic data trusts.

Welcome to the "Data Dialogues" - an online engagement series as part of Smart Cities Week Australia New Zealand 2020 and hosted by the Centre for Data Leadership.

This dialogue will focus on unpacking 'city analytics' as a capability for local government - why you would do it, what is the scope and how might you get there.

Our guests were:

// Chris Isles | Manager Economic Development, Brisbane City Council

// Chris Pettit | Professor of Urban Science, University of New South Wales

// Libby Harris | Night Time City Manager, City of Sydney

// Craig Lawton | Principal Solution Architect - Cloud and IoT, AWS

// Keri Niven | Global Digital Collaboration Leader, Aurecon

In conversation with Emily Yates, Director of Smart Cities with the City of Philadelphia, we explore the City's newly launched SmartCityPHL and the programs and partnerships driving the adoption of technology and data to realise better community outcomes. Often described as America's largest poorest city, and the birthplace of democracy, Philadelphia's journey in smart cities started back in 2017 and has resulted in an endorsed program of investments that cover bridging the digital divide, enhanced urban infrastructure, sweating existing assets and establishing a master data strategy.

Over the years there have been waves of 'growth frameworks' - green buildings, sustainable communities, resilient neighbourhoods... In this episode of the Chronicles we sit down with Niall Cunningham - WSP's City Advisory Lead - who takes shares with us his views on the current and emerging models of urban development, including innovation districts, smart communities and other urban and suburban growth models. At a time when our experience and relationship with our cities, their public spaces and shared services have been tested in new ways, we need to ensure we remain outcomes focused and that we measure our impact.

With all the promise and excitement around 5G there is an equal amount of concern and hesitation. In March 2020 the Australian Government published its report ("The Next Gen Future") of findings of the inquiry into the deployment, adoption and application of 5G in Australia. To break it down for us and help highlight the key points, Geof Heydon of Astrolabe Group joined us. We covered communication and citizen engagement, health, infrastructure sharing and the level of 5G literacy across Australia's local government landscape.

For the new Mayor of the City of Ipswich, Teresa Harding, there is no mincing of her words when it comes to data, transparency and trust. From open data to open government, Mayor Harding takes her career in technology and data into the realm of local government and sets the bold vision for establishing the nation's first integrity and transparency hub.

This episode of the Chronicles takes us to Atlanta, GA in the United States, where we sit down with Debra Lam who is Managing Director for Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at the Georgia Institute of Technology. We discuss the work of the University and its unique approach to external partnerships, and its focus on community outcomes and impact. Leveraging partnership funding to disperse grants to cities across the state is one example, and another is the 'Smart Cities Corps', whereby students are deployed into community to both gain experience while supporting local governments that are resource constrained when it comes to their smart cities work.