In this episode of the Smart City Podcast I had a great chat with a fellow member of the Future Leaders, Future Cities Delegation, Bronwyn Voyce. Currently a consultant at GWI, she has a wide and varied background which we dive deep into in this episode. We talk about the concept of Smart Councils and how Smart Cities are a way for us to reach our potential. We also cover the sharing economy, policy, data access and some of our reflections on the Smart City space in Japan and Hong Kong. This is a 2-part interview, so stay tuned for the rest of our conversation in Part 2 coming soon!

Listen here:

What we cover:

• Bronwyn’s varied work background and what she’s passionate about
• How a Masters in Economic Development and being elected to local council led to her interest in Smart Cities
• What a Smart City is to Bronwyn and why she advocates for Smart Local Councils
• The importance of addressing today’s problems while still enabling potential to arise
• A pertinent example that demonstrates why we need a planning scheme that thinks about the sharing economy and urban mobility
• The need for collaboration and communication between the community and local government to try to catch up, get off the back-foot and prevent us from getting ‘uberised’ again
• Observations and reflections about how Tokyo and Hong Kong and how they’re embracing the Smart City Concept

Quotes:

“[Being in local council] was one of the most rewarding and one of the most challenging times of my life.”

“[Economic development] is thinking about new ways to enhance the operating environment for businesses to operate, for jobs to be created and ultimately improve the liability, invest-ability and financial sustainability of a region. Smart Cities fits all around that.”

“How do I make my place better? What’s happening in the bigger world out there? What can we learn from what other places are doing? And how can we apply that in a way that is relevant to a rural town or a regional city, or an urban and metropolitan area? There’s not one answer for any of that.”

“With local government being the absolutely fundamental stakeholder in building this thing we call Smart Cities, there needs to be a Smart Council or a Smart Local Government component. And that actually starts with some really simple stuff around digital transformation.”

“[Smart Local Government is] the way that we deliver our services, the way that we use data and information to meet the needs of our citizens and our residents, and in a way that solves problems of the people that are living in our place.”

“Smart Community …is really about how we are thinking about enabling the way that we live our lives, the way we do business, the way we work, the way we access services (future of work, mobility) …it’s about human centred design for me in the first instance.”

“It’s really about how do we use data, how do we use human centred design to make better places for people to live and visit, do business, have jobs, learn and so forth.”

“It’s about addressing today’s problems but it’s also about thinking about the future, which is a very challenging thing to do sometimes when you just have to worry about delivering services today.”

“The Smarts are in using the data that we have access to and the problems that people are telling us that they have now.”

“The best way that I can describe the contrast between Tokyo and Hong Kong was order versus chaos, but both of them were incredibly amazing.”

Connect:

Connect with Bronwyn on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn or Email bronwyn@bronwynvoyce.com.au 

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