In this episode of the Smart City Podcast we have part 2 of my conversation with Bronwyn Voice. In Part 1 we talk about the Future Leaders, Future Cities delegation, Bronwyn’s background, the sharing economy and karaoke. In this episode, we continue our conversation and start it by talking about Bronwyn’s observations of the Smart City space in Hong Kong and Japan. We also cover disaster resilience, which both countries are facing, in different aspects, and the future of mobility and emerging trends, and how there’s lots of challenges coming such as facial recognition technology.

Listen Here:

What we cover:

• Observations and reflections about how Tokyo and Hong Kong are embracing the Smart City Concept
• Zoe and Bronwyn’s takeaways from the Future Cities, Future Leaders trip to Japan
• Disaster resilience in Australia and what we can learn from Japan
• Japan’s population challenges and the similar challenge in rural and regional communities in Australia
• Other projects Bronwyn is working on at the moment
• The importance of getting together on the big emerging trends across all disciplines
• Why governments, industry and academia need to be engaging with the community to bring everybody on the journey
• A great example of thinking outside the boundaries of metropolitan areas for Smart initiatives
• The emerging trend of facial and gaze recognition technology and the new challenges that creates

Quotes:

“It’ll be interesting to see how they manage to transform the whole island [of Hong Kong] into a Smart global hub. But they’ve got the talent which is really critical.”

“We have world-leading experts in disaster preparedness and recovery. I think our communities are becoming more resilient. And we have to…we’re not going to ever stop Mother Nature, so we do have to think about that.”

“Building things back better, using technology to better design roads or drainage systems, or whatever infrastructure is all impacted. We can start to think about that in a different light when we think about the Smarts of a Smart City in disaster preparedness and resilience.” 

“There’s a lot of opportunity from an economic development and a regional development [perspective] for Japan and Australia to connect.”

“I don’t think there’s a perfect solution. I think there’s a role for leaders and influencers to do just that: to step up and lead, and bring people together around tables and have really important discussions, and then also do the same with the community.”

“As businesses we need to be more responsible in terms of our contribution, our impact to society and the local economy, and just more broadly, the people’s lives who we impact by the work that we do and who we employ.”

“It’s all about responsibility, collaboration and using dialogue and data to understand the real issues and make better decisions.”

“Let’s get together on the big issues that we know are emerging, and the big opportunities.”

“I know people are talking about [facial recognition technology] but I just don’t think we are advanced enough in the conversation. What does that mean for individual privacy and… what does that mean for what we as consumers, we as citizens, getting access to based on the algorithms, the biases and all those kind of things that are a little bit beyond the every day citizens’s reach and touch in terms of understanding what technology is being used to influence what they see, how they are influenced to try and behave and act. We need a lot more transparency around that and we need to build capacity around what that means for individuals, what that means for government and what that means for the private sector.”

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