The Smart Community Podcast

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:

Some themes that come through in the guest answers are around corridor concepts in our cities, breaking down silos and nurturing the culture of innovation, regional partnerships and keeping and retaining skill sets.

We talk a lot about embedding the Smart Communities approach, which is important to break down silos and barriers so we can move forward with our Smart Communities initiatives. We need to continue to think differently and creatively to really gain traction and start seeing some of the benefits Smart Communities can bring.

Another theme our guests are commonly finding is skills shortages in their particular regions, and really want to work on keeping and retaining those skill sets. It really is time to start uplifting our regions and showcasing regional capacity and capabilities, and educating school leavers on the many career paths of STEM to either attract those needed skill sets or retain the current talent in our regions.

As Tim Neale says, “Trying to educate early stage school leavers to the potential of what opportunities lie ahead, for the region's I think that's a massive thing we've got to do right now. And hopefully, people coming out of the cities back into regional areas, is going to drive some of those incredible skill sets that we need back in the regions to solve these big problems that we've got.”

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! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a wonderful conversation with Gaya Gounder. Gaya is the Chief Information Officer at Camden City Council and has several years of experience leading data, technology, and innovation teams at multiple levels of government including state and local. In this episode Gaya begins by telling us about her background in the IT industry in both local and state government and her passion for implementing solutions that make an impact on the community. Gaya then tells us how she got into the Smart Communities space and what a Smart Community means to her. Gaya then takes us through some of the projects she has been working on, some use cases for the use of digital twins, and the Camden Council Smart Community journey. Gaya then discusses the Camden approach to integrating across different disciplines, the different skill sets she has seen coming through the council and the challenges that go with attracting those skill sets, as well as some of the challenges she has faced developing strategies for local government. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of more emphasis on the ethics, privacy and use of data for AI and machine learning. 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 Gaya via LinkedIn

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! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a great conversation with Ryan McManus. Ryan is a mobility entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of SHARE Mobility, a technology company based in Columbus, Ohio that helps organisations solve complex transportation problems with mobility-as-a-service. I last spoke with Ryan in 2020 so it was great to catch up on what he has been up to since then. Ryan begins by telling us about his background in mobility and current work in mobility-as-a-service, what a Smart Community means to him, and we catch up on what Ryan has been up to since we last spoke in 2020. Ryan then tells us about the changes he has seen in the mobility-as-a-service space due to the pandemic, he discusses the benefits to shared mobility and also how shared mobility can unlock the employment market. Ryan then takes us through the journey he has been on with his company SHARE Mobility. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of companies offering commuter benefits and mandating commuter policies. 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 Ryan via LinkedIn or sharemobility.com

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! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a very interesting conversation with Tim Neale. Tim, who was named Australian agricultural consultant of the year 2018, has over 25 years’ experience across Australia and internationally, 20 of which has been running his own agtech businesses. He is co-founder and Managing Director of DataFarming, a five-year old agtech business out of Queensland. In this episode, Tim begins by telling us about his background in agtech and current work, his passion for helping farmers to up-skill and use tech to enhance their farming, and Tim tells us what a Smart Community means to him. Tim then tells us what led him to work in the agtech space, we discuss how technology can help in this space, and Tim tells us a bit about his company DataFarming and what they do. Tim then discusses some of the positive impacts his work has had for his clients, the changes he has seen in the agtech space over time, and we discuss the role of data in the future of the agriculture industry. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of tackling data connectivity and data processing sustainably to unlock the possibilities that data can provide. 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 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 #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a wonderful conversation with Russell Bennett. Russell has been the Manager of Business Systems at Southern Grampians Shire Council since April 2015. Prior to his current role he has 13+ years’ experience working as IT Project Manager and Business Analyst across a number of industries both in the private and public sector. In this episode Russell tells us about his background in business, IT and Project Management, what sparked his interest in the Smart Communities space, and what has driven the Southern Grampians Shire’s Smart Community approach. Russell then talks about the Digital Innovation and Smart Agriculture (DISA) festival the council has started to help educate the community, before he takes us through some use cases for the use of LoRaWAN and IoT in Southern Grampians. We then discuss the importance of embedding data into our decision making and educating the community about the use of data, as well as the importance of embedding the Smart Community approach across our organisations, and Russell tells us about his favourite project he has been working on. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of leveraging data to improve emergency services decision making. 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 Russell via LinkedIn or via email: [email protected]

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! And hello to our listeners in Irbid, Jordan, you are amongst this month's top cities for 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:

Some themes that come through in the guest answers are around collaboration and more integrated thinking to becoming more resilient, getting the maximum value out of data and more accessibility to data.

Smart Communities are about thinking differently to get the most out of everything we have including data and resources. It is so important to draw the maximum value out of data, to have the greatest impact on our communities and organisations.

As Elisabeth L’Orange says, “having training data sets that are accessible for everyone and democratising data, I think is [where] we should all begin, so it's easier for Smart Cities and Communities [and] startups to actually build something to have an impact.”

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! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a great conversation with Elisabeth L’Orange. Elisabeth is the co-founder of Oxolo, a Hamburg based company that specialises in virtualizing people by creating AI-powered chatbot avatars indistinguishable from reality, and ready to engage and communicate. In this episode Elisabeth starts by telling us about her background in law and startups, her passion for the planet, ethics and human rights as well as her passion for her kids and the outdoors. Elisabeth then shares with us what a Smart Community means to her, we discuss how certain biases can affect data sets and Elisabeth explains what synthetic data is. Elisabeth then tells us a bit about her company Oxolo and the work they do, what inspired her to get into the AI space and shares with us some use cases where AI benefits society and can improve the community. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of synthetic media. 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 Elisabeth via LinkedIn

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