The Smart Community Podcast

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a great chat with Crissy Ditmore, the Director of Strategy for Cubic Transportation Systems, where she is working on the expansion of Mobility as a Service across the globe. Crissy is also Chair of the Board or the TravelSpirit Foundation North America, Co Chair for the Mobility on Demand Alliance Public Policy Committee, is active with the Coalition for Smarter Transportation and a 2019 MaaS Transit Magazine Top 40 Under 40. It's fair to say she was a perfect guest for our #mobilitymarch series.

In this episode, Crissy and I discuss her background of over 15 years in the mobility industry and why she's so passionate about the opportunity for mobility to be an equaliser and reduce divides within our community. We talk about Digital Equity when it comes to mobility, especially Mobility as a Service, and the importance of real stakeholder engagement in this space. Crissy shares with us her perspective on the future of transport and how mobility is only one part of the value chain of happiness in the Smart Community ecosystem. We talk about the importance of enabling equity through policy decisions, and how emotional intelligence in difficult conversations is what's needed for better integration and fewer silos. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of balancing new innovation with improving on existing solutions, as well as the things that Crissy wishes were trending in mobility.

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 Crissy on LinkedIn, or Twitter and Instagram @fabcitycrissy

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a brilliant chat with Michael Milford, a Professor of Robotics at Queensland University of Technology. You may remember Michael from an earlier episode, way back in Episode 22 when we were still called the Smart City Podcast, which was actually over 18 months ago now. So I wanted to have him back on the show to share what's changed in the AV space in that time, and he's the perfect guest to kick off our Mobility March series.

In this episode, Michael and I discuss some of the projects he's been working on to do with infrastructure and road readiness for driverless cars, and the key problems with automating driving in complex urban environments versus highway driving. He tells us about the use of high resolution maps of the environment for the functioning of AVs, and how Cooperative Vehicles and Connected Vulnerable Road User fit into this space/framework.

We talk about the technology development in the driverless cars space that Michael has seen both overseas and in Australia, and the maturing of the AV dialogue in the Australian context, including how Australia is embracing research and development of the off-road AVs, such as in mining, agriculture, and defence.

Michael and I also cover the different types of data that underpin and spin off from autonomous vehicle technology, the ongoing conversation around ethics of automation, and the emerging trends we need to talk about more such as the implications of AVs intersecting with public transport and ride sharing.

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 Michael via LinkedIn

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a fascinating conversation with Eleanor Carey, a dual world record holding adventurer and successful entrepreneur. In June 2018, she spent 62 days crossing the Pacific Ocean by human power in a 25 foot ocean rowing boat, and prior to this cycled solo across Europe. In this episode she tells us about those two adventures, as well as her passion for getting people out into the outdoors and using physical adventures to improve people's lives. We discuss what a micro-adventure is and how it helps improve psychological fitness in the workplace, as well as creativity and productivity. Eleanor then tells us about the benefits of disconnecting from technology and connecting with nature, as well as her thoughts on the future of work. We talk about the decision making process Eleanor advocates for choosing what is right for you and how we can shift our mindset to overcome overwhelm and confusion, whether that be on an individual adventure or when collectively tackling Smart Community problems. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of entrepreneurship and the opportunities and challenges of both starting a business and having an entrepreneurial mindset in traditional employment. 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 Eleanor on Instagram @eleanorjcarey or LinkedIn, and eleanorcarey.com

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode of the Smart Community podcast, I have a brilliant chat with Zaheer Allam. Zaheer was the co-founder of the 'Platform Citoyenne', and NGO that successfully stopped the proliferation of coal fired plants in Mauritius. He is today an Urban Strategist for the Port Louis Development Initiative where he contributed to the drafting of a 'National Regeneration Scheme' aimed at economically incentivising urban regeneration. The scheme was successfully adopted by the Government of Mauritius in the National Budget of 2018-2019.

In this episode, we discuss Zaheer's background as an Urban Strategist and his interest in looking at how to regenerate cities. Zaheer tells us how he thinks Mauritius is currently embracing Smart concepts and the unique way they are encouraging Urban Regeneration projects. We talk about the importance of democratising not only access to data but also knowledge of data to create more sustainable, more resilient Smart Cities, as well as the challenges of being a small developing state facing the realities of mitigating climate change problems without the economic power to influence global climate change conversation. Zaheer then tells us some of the key things that need to be considered in urban regeneration and smart city projects in developing nations, and Why Westerners need to properly understand the context and priorities of different African places before prescribing Smart solutions. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of autonomous cities and biotechnology in cities. 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 Zaheer on LinkedIn and find him on Facebook

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a great chat with Andrew Funk, international keynote speaker and Impact Activist for homeless people. Andrew believes that work and active citizenship will end homelessness for and with those willing to participate in the process, which is why he created a model to end homelessness that embraces the concept of Smart Cities becoming even Smarter. In this episode, Andrew and I discuss his background from teaching English through to a digital consultancy, and the very personal story of how he started Homeless Entrepreneur. Andrew tells us about the steps he took to get out of homelessness and why inclusive Smart Communities full of active citizens are so important. He tells us how he sees Spain embracing Smart concepts, and about the projects he's working on included Homeless Entrepreneur and Afloat. We then discuss the importance of including people who are affected by the problems you're trying to solve so as to avoid tokenistic approaches, and the three strategic pillars of how to do that: knowledge, recognition and change. We finish our chat talking about the emerging trends of bottom up solutions and citizens taking more of an active role in Smart Cities. 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 Andrew on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter @andrewfunkspain or via WhatsApp +34 697 877 089

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode of the Smart Community podcast, I had a brilliant conversation with Chris Rowlands, the City Innovation Officer at the City of Greater Bendigo in Victoria. Chris and I discuss his background in Town Planning and why he's so passionate about making liveable regions and communities. We talk about why Smart City standards are so powerful as principles that can be applied to communities of any size, and as a great platform to start the conversation with communities about what they want their city or town to be in the future. Chris also covers the importance of having many people involved in the conversation and especially of getting children and school students at the table, because it's their future we're planning.

Chris then tells us about the projects he's been working on at Bendigo, including the Clever Weather IoT project which is a collaboration with La Trobe University. He also shares a great story about how transparent conversations help the City of Bendigo's Garbage Truck IoT project get buy in from the garbage truck drivers, who are now big advocates for the project.

We finish our chat discussing the advantages and opportunities for Bendigo being in the 'Goldilocks zone' for collaboration, and the emerging trend of focusing on the boring, foundational pieces and Smart City standards in order to enable the tech trends. 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 Chris on LinkedIn

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode, I have a great chat with Leanne Kemp, the Founder and CEO of Everledger and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. Leanne's company Everledger uses Blockchain technology to track high-value assets such as diamonds, art and wine with the aim of increasing transparency and trust with technology. As the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, her role is to develop the state's startup ecosystem, attract investment and support job creation.

You may remember Leanne from Episode 33, way back when we were called the Smart City Podcast. In that episode I interviewed her together with Louise Mercer, then Head of Everledger Australia, New Zealand, now Chief Experience Officer of Everledger and spoke to them both about blockchain, how they use it and why it's the next wave of the internet.

In this episode, I asked Leanne about what has happened since she was last on the podcast, and she shared a bit about her work as Queensland's Chief Entrepreneur. We talked about the crucial differences between Smart Cities and Smart or Intelligent Communities, as Leanne calls them, and why the move toward community is so important. Leanne talked about the need to be expanding access to digital skills and technology for those that are otherwise likely to be left out, and her passion for circular economy concepts. We discussed the innovation Leanne is seeing from regional areas in Queensland, as well as having more intrapreneurs in government to be encouraging public-private partnerships. Leanne spoke about the ways we are good at collaborating but so far not so good at coordinating, and that coordination piece is the key to effective integration across disciplines, government, industries and academia. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of recognising that we've so far been too myopic in thinking and the need for systems leadership thinking, as well as the need for more and better public-private partnerships.

Now I need to warn you that in recording this episode we had some tricky technical issues, so there is a bit of background noise in places and some moments where fragments of words drop out, so I apologise for that in advance. We've done the best we can to make it listenable and I really wanted to have Leanne on the podcast again because she has so much valuable insight into Smart Communities and in particular Smart Regions.

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 Leanne on LinkedIn or Twitter @leanne_kemp

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode I have a brilliant chat with Joy Taylor, the Co-Founder and Community Manager of Canvas Coworking Space here in Toowoomba, QLD. She is also a Startup Weekend Global Facilitator and has been recognised as an Advance Queensland Community Digital Champion for her work teaching kids to create with technology at CoderDojo Toowoomba. Joy tells us about her background in finance and agribusiness, and her journey from there to the coworking and startup space. We discuss the various programs and projects Joy works on to support Regional Communities here in Toowoomba and also across Australia, and the three main elements she focuses on when mentoring: skill development, behaviours and connection. We then dive deep into one of the Smart projects Joy champions, which is CoderDojo. You may remember back in Episode 122 Emily Royalle told us about the CoderDojo program and how it has benefited both the children involved and the city of San Antonio, Texas, US. Joy is one of the mentors at CoderDojo Toowoomba and in this episode she shares all the benefits and opportunities this program affords the students who attend, but also their parents and the community, and how some skills can only be learned in community. Joy also tells us about some other programs like METS Ignited and Zero to Startup, which have involved lots of integrating with industry, private enterprise, government and community organisations. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of a 3-pronged approach to sustainability in business: sustainable for the people, planet and profit. This episode is part of our spotlight on the regions and I'm glad to be able to bring you a champion from my own home region, here in Toowoomba and the Darling Downs in QLD. 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 Joy on LinkedIn or Facebook, or via email [email protected]

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode I had a really fascinating conversation with Bruce Winzar, the Executive Director of Innovation & Digital Services and Chief Information Officer responsible for Information Technology, Architectures and Applications, Innovation & Research at Bendigo Health. As part of our spotlight on the regions this month, I wanted to speak with Bruce specifically about his experiences fostering Smart Health initiatives in the Bendigo region of Victoria. In this episode, Bruce and I discuss how as visit to Amsterdam in 2007 sparked his interest in Smart Cities and Smart Community concepts, and why he believes it's so important for the economic and community development in regional areas.

Bruce explains the power of the strengths-based approach to Smart Communities in regional areas, which for Bendigo means a focus on Smart Health initiatives. He shares a bit about the projects he's working on, including the new Bendigo Hospital ICT and ePR project, with its focus on data and innovation via a Startup Centre. He tells us how having a mix of key players and regional champions is important for integration, as is creating an intentional ecosystem and environment of collaboration.

We finish our chat talking bout the emerging trend of refocusing on change management when building Smart Communities, and why glossing over the change management process in the past has been detrimental.

A quick warning that there are a couple of audio glitches in this episode however I think you will find this conversation fascinating and enjoy the insights Bruce shares into Smart Regional Health. 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 Bruce via email [email protected] or @cio_bh on Twitter and follow Bendigo Health via the Facebook Page

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @SmartCommHQ

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

In this episode I had a brilliant chat with Julia Spicer, Founder of two regional businesses based in Goondiwindi, Qld - Engage & Create Consulting and the Goondiwindi Business Hub. Julia and I met recently at the QRRRWN conference where I did a workshop, but actually we know each other from way back when I was living in Roma. Julia's mission is to contribute to the vibrancy and viability of rural and regional Australia by helping businesses grow so she was an obvious choice to interview for our 'Spotlight on the Regions' series.

In this episode Julia tells us about her background in regional Queensland, what sparked her interest Smart concepts and how they can provide real opportunities for small communities in regional areas. We discuss the concepts of resourcefulness and resilience as objectives for Smart Regions, how the social fabric of a small town can be a blessing and a curse, and why it's so important for communities to have a sense of control over their own destiny. Julia shares a bit about the opportunities and challenges that face regional communities to do with leadership, integration, and narrow funding models that can limit the ability to solve problems quickly. We talk about supporting regional employment through drought, and the Townsville Flood Recovery Centre as a great example of effective integration of many different disciplines, industries, governments and community groups. We cover the need for digital connectivity and the divide that still exists between regional and metro areas in accessing it. Julia tells us about the emerging trend of women in agribusiness and their role in regional economic development, and she shares a quote about women changing the world but she can't remember the author. It's actually from the Dalai Lama at the 2009 Vancouver Peace Summit, and the correct quote is that 'The World will be saved by the Western Woman.' So, keep an ear out for that.

We finish our chat with Julia telling us about some of the projects she's currently working on in her own regional community. 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 Julia via email [email protected]

Connect with Engage and Create Consulting on Facebook and Instagram @engageandcreate

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @SmartCommHQ

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.