MICRO-INVESTING THE FUTURE OF SMART CITIES

I’m excited to launch Azcende’s new white paper on smart cities Habitats for Humans today.

In the paper, we identify some of the key obstacles and opportunities in realising smart cities:

• Micro-investment and an iterative approach are key to delivering cities that work for people
• Government procurement processes need to change to accommodate and encourage innovation
• Private and public sectors must find new ways to work in tandem and share information
• Federal and state governments can empower local level governments to form entrepreneurial partnerships
• Geographically challenged Australia can lead the way in developing solutions for emerging economies

Azcende believes that the most significant innovations around smart cities will come on the micro scale, with everyday Australian innovators proving concepts, bootstrapping them into profitability and scaling to a national or global scale - either with government help or seed funding from the private sector.

The report was distilled from a series of roundtables Azcende hosted recently, which were attended by smart cities experts and leaders in start-ups, construction, technology, fintech, communications, logistics, industry and politics.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who gave generously of their time and ideas and of course Telstra, who kindly hosted the roundtables in Sydney and Melbourne.

The report also concluded that governments must ease procurement practices to allow a flood of private sector capital to begin to innovate at the local level and create scalable solutions for the developing world.

Australia, with its geographic challenges, can solve problems that will transform the developing world – if we do it will because we made the right choices today.

The white paper is available here.