Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a great chat with Renato De Castro a Smart City Expert and author of the book City SmartUp: a new era of smarter cities. He is currently located in the Middle East region, working as a Smart City Senior Advisor at RMA, advising local government entities and developers in Smart City planning. Renato tells us about his background in and passion for Smart Cities, the changes Renato has noticed in this space since 2009, we discuss the natural process of Smart Cities before Renato tells us what a Smart Community is to him. Renato then tells us about the task force he helped start with his children’s school and other parents which set up their region for digital schooling when the Covid-19 pandemic hit Italy, and the personal benefit he got from this experience as well as the benefit to his region and community. We then discuss the importance of resilience in communities especially since the Covid-19 pandemic and Renato tells us all about his dissertation and guide to building Smart Cities through ‘SmartUp’ and the 4 p’s; people, public, private and partnerships. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of localisation in our communities, more investments and efforts into tech and more focus on human-centric communities. As always, we hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! 

Listen here: 

What we cover in this episode:

• Renato’s background in Smart Cities
• His passion for Smart Cities and his work all around the world with Smart Cities 
• How the Smart Cities space has changed since 2009 to now and the natural process of Smart Cities
• What a Smart Community is to Renato and his 5 pillars to defining a Smart City
• The task force Renato started with his children’s school and other parents to set up their region for digital schooling when the Covid-19 pandemic hit Italy
• The importance of having resilient communities, especially since the Covid-19 Pandemic 
• Renato’s dissertation and guideline to building Smart Cities through ‘City SmartUp’ and the 4 p’s; people, public, private and partnerships 
• The emerging trend of localisation in our communities, more investments and efforts into technologies and more focus on human-centric communities 

Quotes: 

“I have been dreaming of and living the concept of Smart Cities since 2008 2009. And I totally deeply love the concept.”

“The concept [of Smart Cities] got a little bit more mature (since 2009). And I think that the world started understanding that there is no ‘Smart City’, the concept of ‘Smart City’ is just a way to frame a big change in the mindset.”

“We are part of this process. We can be drivers of this process. But [Smart Cities] is a natural process.”

“Smart Cities are places where everything conspires to make your life better. What it means is that, under the perspective of a system, they don’t need to understand what is behind a Smart City or the technology, they just must understand that life now is better than yesterday.”

“I think [the Covid task force] probably was one of the most well paid jobs that I have done in my life, because it was community duty, it was using my skills, something that I was always very well paid to do, in something that I was collecting the benefits, my family was feeling the benefits.” 

“Smart Cities is about resilience. So there is no smart strategy without a resilience strategy being developed at the same time. So [resilience] for me, is the pillar of a Smart City.”

“I love the concept of the four p’s; people, public, private, and partnerships, [those together] bring citizens inside the process of co-creating the city.”

“I think the pandemic brought us this possibility and this opportunity to refocus our priorities. And I’m very excited about the future. But now we are still in a very painful and very complicated, bad situation for the world but I think that we are moving faster for a better future.”

Links: 

Renato’s Website  

Connect:

Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community 

Connect with Renato via LinkedIn 

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community  

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The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital