Australia - where the bloody hell were you?

The recent Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona was a huge event. The world’s best leaders, speakers and practitioners in the smart city space were there – sharing knowledge, debating issues and doing the kind of ‘out of the box’ thinking that leads to big changes.

Since its first edition in 2011 the Smart Cities World Congress has become the global epicentre of ideas on the future of cities. This year, the organisers claimed it was the biggest ever with 500 cities, 450 exhibitors and 400 speakers.

Australia has bold ambitions for its own smart cities – we even have a Smart Cities Plan stamped with the imprimatur of the Prime Minister.

So looking around the Barcelona Conference a question struck me: where was Australia?

No Australian cities, just one Aussie company

I thought I’d start with the three-page list of participating cities and the countries they are from. Like watching an Olympics opening ceremony, I ran through the roll call of nations: Albania, Andora, Angola, Argentina, Austria right on to Belgium. Nope – nothing from Australia.

Maybe I was looking in the wrong place. Maybe Australian business was flying the flag for us. Australia prides itself on being a place of innovation and there are many successful tech companies doing great things here, and an even greater number with promising ideas.

So again I read through a list of the hundreds of exhibitors. And at last I found what I was looking for. There was an Australian company. Just the one - video analytics company iOmniscient, and I congratulate them for being there.

So why so little representation and participation from Australia – either at a government or corporate level?

Why weren’t we there?

The first reason could be a lack of resources. It costs money to send a team halfway around the world to establish and staff an exhibition booth. In the “age of austerity”, government agencies and local councils may have feared being accused of taking a Spanish junket. But that is a false economy. Learning from the mistakes of others and adapting successful programs to Australian conditions instead of starting from scratch is cheap compared to the alternatives.

A second and far worse reason is that Australia’s corporate and political leaders don’t think they need to be there. That somehow our island nation can generate and implement smart city policies and initiatives that are better than anyone else can come up with.  Of course, this is a hugely arrogant fantasy. The very premise of smart cities is underpinned by collaboration and the sharing of data, so surely this should extend to the sharing ideas.

Another reason could be that when it comes to smart cities, Australia cares more about the talk than the walk. While glossy publications and PR campaigns serve to promote the existence of a Smart Cities Plan, they won’t make your city any smarter. We have to get engaged with what is happening around the world and find the solutions that work for us.

My hope is that this is a one off, that at the next conference we will be there and be ready to share. It is my belief that Australia has ideas that the world will take notice of, and that at future World Congresses we will not only be seen, but be seen as a global leader.

Alok Patel leads Azcende, a multinational Venture Capital fund, investing in Urban Innovation for the Future of Cities. For more articles like this follow Azcende.