The Smart Community Podcast

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! 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: 

Some themes that come through in the guest answers are around regionalisation and continued growth and investment in our regional areas, but also in the way we can continue to use technology and data to inform planning and analysis and decision making at all levels: local, state, national and even global. 

The other theme that comes through in these snippets is around the opportunity for people to get involved in the Smart Community, whether it’s at the leadership level of business, industry or government, or just in the new job types and skillsets needed for the continued growth and development of our modern communities. 

As Michaela says, “Even helping community on a small scale, if it's your neighbourhood or whatever it is, it’s still going to make that a better place and it's still going to make a difference.”

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: [email protected] 

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 Smart Community podcast. In this episode, I have a great conversation with Samuel Austin. Sam is an Urban Planner, Community Engagement Specialist and Placemaker, and also the NSW Young Planner of the Year 2022. In this episode, Sam tells us about his background in urban city planning, and his interest and passion for the relationship between people and place. We talk about the role data plays in planning and analysis of how people are using spaces, and Sam tells us about his work on the neon grid and nighttime economy strategy for Sydney.

Sam and I discuss the importance of breaking down barriers and silos within cities and communities to foster an integrated approach for a seamless experience for customers, as well as what the nighttime economy and neon grid looks like in semi urban and regional or rural settings. Sam tells us about community engagement projects he’s worked on in Sydney and we finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of live data allowing for appropriate and timely responses to community requirements. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Sam on LinkedIn 

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! Welcome back to another episode of the Smart Community Podcast. In this episode I have a fascinating conversation with Dr. Michaela Musilova, an astrobiologist, speaker, analog astronaut and author. Michaela has been conducting space-related research at institutions around the world and was the Director of HI-SEAS and Commander of over 30 simulated missions to the Moon and Mars, in collaboration with NASA, ESA and many international organizations. She is currently a visiting Professor at the Slovak University of Technology, Global Faculty at the International Space University and Head of Research of the space technology company NEEDRONIX. She also writes articles for Space.com and co-authored her biography, A Woman from Mars.

In this episode, Michaela tells us about her passion for space and for life on earth, how she got into this Space space, and some of the challenges she has overcome to pursue this dream. She tells us about why it’s so important to share with the public how science is helping humanity and how diversity and also food have both been key to the success of the missions she’s been involved with. 

Michaela then tells us about the projects she’s worked on, including the Astro Seven Summits, which is focused on performing research related to life in space and also on extreme environments on earth. Michaela and I talk about how to link space exploration science with climate change, as well as what she thinks will happen on the first missions of humans living on Mars. 

We then discuss the emerging trend of commercial investment in space and especially in things like rockets, but why it’s not just rockets that make successful missions. Michaela shares with us her concerns about the commercial space race potentially taking unnecessary risks for the sake of meeting goals and boosting egos. 

We finish our chat talking about whether there really is life on other planets, and Michaela tells us what she thinks about the likelihood of finding it. As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect:
Follow her on LinkedIn and Facebook, or on Instagram and Twitter @astro_michaela 

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity friends, welcome back to the Smart Community Podcast. This month we are highlighting Smart Regions with two fantastic guests. If you haven’t yet listened to our interview with Tim Neale in the last episode, I definitely recommend listening to it after this one. In this episode, I have a wonderful chat with repeat guest and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, Julia Spicer. We first had Julia on the podcast way back in Episode 152, which was in January 2020. (The beforetimes!)

In this episode, Julia and I discuss what a Smart Community means for her and what has changed for Queensland regions since January 2020. We talk about the COVID experience and how it can teach us about what rural communities experience in prolonged drought and other parallel type experiences. Julia tells us about the generosity of spirit that she sees coming through in regional Queensland, and what COVID has taught us in terms of regional and industry level resilience. 

Julia and I explore the role of technology and data when responding to crisis, and the role of government in supporting people and businesses to modernise. We talk about the absolute necessity of internet connectivity and the challenges and opportunities for Smart Communities in regional areas. Julia then tells us about the projects she’s involved in as part of her role with the Office of the Chief Entrepreneur in Queensland, as well as the emerging trends of global workforce shortages and the need for sovereign capability in Australia to support supply chains and industries.

We finish our chat discussing how everyone in Queensland can leverage the opportunity of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, even if you think it doesn’t apply to you. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it. 

Connect with Julia via LinkedIn or with Engage and Create Consulting on Facebook and Instagram @engageandcreate

Connect with me via email: [email protected] 

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 Smart Community Podcast and this month we are highlighting Smart Regions with two fantastic guests. First up is Tim Neale, the co-founder and Managing Director of agtech company DataFarming. We first had Tim on the podcast in Episode 308 in August 2022. Then we featured Tim again in our recent Summer Series so we knew we had to get him back on the podcast.

In this episode, we get a little update from Tim about what he’s been up to since we last spoke. We talk about how much and how fast satellite technology is improving and the many ways the data can support farmers in making better decisions and increasing yield, efficiency and sustainability on farms. Tim shares how a number of macroeconomic factors globally are having big impacts regionally for farmers in Australia, and we discuss the opportunities and challenges of our interconnected and interdependent world. Tim then tells us about some of the new projects his team is working on, including using data to help farmers demonstrate the sustainability of their operations, and an investigation into the long term performance of Australian farms. We talk about the impacts of weather and climate change not only on farm production but also the mental health of farmers and rural communities, as well as the big problem with connectivity and access to communication technologies in regional and remote areas.

We finish this episode discussing the emerging trend of robots and automation being used on farms and how technological innovation can solve agricultural problems. 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 Tim via LinkedIn or Twitter 

Connect with me via email: [email protected]  

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital

Hi #smartcommunityfriends! 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: 

Being the end of our Mobility March series, there’s a strong mobility theme, particularly with ideas for transport and town planning and policy decisions that impact all our communities.
But the main theme that comes through in the guest answers is around getting communities engaged and building their literacy in how they can play a role in shaping the communities they are a part of. This includes getting involved ourselves in our own local groups, using data to make better decisions and also making sure policies and resources are there to support our bottom-up community design ambitions.
As Dan Barr says, “We'll be able to use technology in the future to help us build more democratic places that have community input to how we live.”
As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!
Connect:
Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community 
Connect with me via email: [email protected] 
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, and welcome to our second Mobility March episode! In this episode of the Smart Community podcast, I have a brilliant conversation with Michael Wanyama. Michael and I met at Smart City World Expo in Barcelona in November 2022 where his company Auto Safety Uganda won the Innovation Category of the World Smart City Award. In this episode Michael and I discuss his background in IT and automatic technology and why he’s so passionate about happy, healthy and inclusive communities. Michael tells us about the context in Kampala, Uganda, why it’s the best tourist destination in Africa and also about some of the challenges Uganda faces with traffic safety, vehicle reliability and air pollution due to lack of systems, skills, infrastructure and regulation. We talk about the many different areas of the community that transport impacts and the importance of supporting the community in the process of transitions to new and cleaner mobility options. 

Michael tells us about the projects they are working on, including upskilling mechanics, promoting gender inclusivity in the automotive industry and collecting data to support policy change in Uganda. We also discuss the problem of African nations having to ‘copy and paste’ solutions from other countries but finding they don’t work in the African context. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of great ideas and policies being stymied by the lack of resources and skillsets to implement the changes, as well as the need for community engagement, leadership and education to work together to solve these problems. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!

Connect with Michael on Twitter or LinkedIn

Follow AutoSafety Uganda on Twitter, LinkedIn or their website www.autosafety-ug.org  

Connect with me via email: [email protected] 

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 and welcome to Mobility March! This month I have 2 great episodes for you all about the theme of mobility. In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a great chat with Mike Day from integrated planning, design and placemaking practice Hatch RobertsDay. Mike tells us about his background in town planning and why he is so passionate about shaping neighbourhoods and making better places for humans and nature.

We have a great discussion about his aversion to the term Smart and the importance of long-term thinking in building sustainable, connected and liveable cities. Mike shares a great example of this regarding putting a train line in a new suburb, and how some governments don’t do it because they are caught up in short term thinking.

Mike and I explore how we can make more accessible neighbourhoods that privilege the transport modes of walking and cycling over cars, and why it’s town planning and design to blame for our current car dependence. We talk about the decline of kids walking to school and the importance of planning places and cities for children. Mike then tells us a bit about the history of Copenhagen’s intentional creation of a culture of active transport and what we can learn from precedents like that.

We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of the distributed or hybrid workplace, the future of mobility in our neighbourhoods, plus the new dual mandate for Transport Departments of both movement AND place. As always we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn and Twitter @walkplace

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity friends, welcome to this bonus episode of the podcast! We will be kicking off Mobility March next week but this week I wanted to share this fantastic conversation I had with Bonnie Shaw. Bonnie is co-founder of Place Intelligence, a geo-AI startup focused on democratising access to big data to support evidence based design, policy and decision making. She has a varied background in landscape architecture, urban design and game design and in her role as the Smart City Practice Lead at the City of Melbourne, Bonnie helped to establish and lead Australia’s first (and multi-award winning) Smart Cities team.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of building literacy and critical thinking around Smart concepts in our Smart Communities, and Bonnie’s framework for meaningful change that looks at toolset, skill set, and mindset. Bonnie tells us about Place Intelligence and some of the projects they’ve been working on, including the Data Informed Design conference which will be held in Melbourne on the 23rd and 24th of March 2023. Tickets are out now so click the link to get yours now! Bonnie and I finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of opportunities for engagement to help people understand the things that are influencing our lives, plus how game design helps us approach community engagement! As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Bonnie on LinkedIn or PlaceIntelligence.ai

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! In this episode I have a great chat with return guest Jess Coldrey. Now we first had Jess on the podcast back in Episode 258, which was released in October 2021. But more recently we re-shared that episode as part of our Summer Series and promised to have her back for an update, so here it is!

In this episode Jess and I talk about what she’s been up to in the last 18 months, including doing her Masters of Humanitarian Engineering in the UK. She tells us what Humanitarian Engineering is, and what a Smart Community means to her. We discuss the power of having different experiences and disciplines involved in projects because it leads to asking a different set of questions, and why we should be shifting to a more community-led project design approach. Jess then tells us about her work in endometriosis advocacy, including becoming a Laureat of The Australian French Association for Innovation and Research. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of the role of AI and machine learning in art, and how that influences work more broadly, including what we do with our time as more and more is automated. As always we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Jess on LinkedIn and art website jesscoldrey.com

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital