In this episode of The Smart City Podcast, I had an awesome conversation with Chelsea Collier. Chelsea shares some really interesting insights from her Eisenhower Fellowship where she explored Smart Cities across America and China. This led to her to launching Digi.City so that she could share what she was learning in real-time. Digi.City is now a platform for the exploration of Smart City technology and Policy. Chelsea talks about why she kept Digi.City as a brand and didn’t “expand” it to a full-blown company, which was super interesting for me as I’m going through some of the same thinking right now with this podcast. Chelsea and I also have some great conversations about tech, collaboration and how Smart Cities have to be a long term investment.

Listen Here:

Quotes:

“there’s such an awesome opportunity to leverage technology right now and let technology do what it does best so that we can expand the human experience and solve some of the most systemic challenges that our communities have faced for decades, if not, centuries”

“this is the new way of being a city government, being responsive and connected, there is no time to waste”

“the pace and acceleration of technology and innovation is so much faster [now] and policy just simply can’t keep pace…the job right now is just to streamline as much as possible…and get as open as you possible can”

“it’s no longer silos and different groups, it’s a collaborative process and the cities who are already thinking like that and who are already rolling out projects in that same spirit, they are the ones who are getting to the head of the pack very quickly”

“becoming a Smart City is not a short term play…it’s a much deeper commitment”

What we covered:

• Chelsea’s broad reaching background and how it relates to Smart Cities
• Chelsea’s Eisenhower Fellowship looking at Smart Cities across America and China
• Launching Digi.City and how the Smart Cities conversation has changed
• Smart Cities Connect conferences
• Keeping Digi.City as a brand and being nimble and of service in a non-biased way
• Creating easy-to-follow policy checklists for Smart Cities
• Looking at best practice in China and depending on technology in the megacities
• Collaborative approach and how leadership means working together
• Investment in the infrastructure of being a Smart City
• 5G being a game-changer and economic impacts of being left behind
• Are we really talking about blockchain?

Links:

Eisenhower Fellowship https://www.efworld.org

Digi.City http://www.digi.city

Smart Cities Connect https://spring.smartcitiesconnect.org

Connect:

You can connect with Chelsea via Digi.City or Twitter @digi_city

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community

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

Podcast Production by Perk Digital