An influx of funding for broadband and smart city initiatives has communities looking for guidance on how to pursue new opportunities for federal support. Not only are the options overwhelming, but municipalities are also wrestling with how best to put this funding to work to address critical issues like improving education, stimulating the local economy, and managing government services with limited resources in the wake of the pandemic. Join US Ignite and federal agency leaders for a practical discussion on national funding programs, and the types of funded projects that are proving successful for smart and connected communities.

More and more city service providers are embracing the digital realm to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic. When programmed thoughtfully, govtech solutions can enhance service delivery, increase two-way communication and boost goodwill between the government and residents/citizens. But there are still many questions. What types of new services offered during the pandemic will continue? How do we shift to a much more flexible model of service delivery taking into account digital equity issues? Join us as we explore these critical issues as well as the elements required to establish Digital Trust including data ethics and governance protocols.

Every CIO knows that when it comes to cybersecurity attacks, it’s a matter of when, not if. The stakes are especially high for the public sector, as securing interconnected digital systems is as critical to maintaining citizen/resident trust as it is to ensuring resilient city operations. In this panel experts focus on best practices on how to plan and prepare your organization with purpose-based cyber solutions.

Not all crisis calls are equal. In Washington, DC, public safety and municipal agencies are partnering to provide a rapid response to mental health-related emergencies and dispatch accordingly. By providing specialized units for mental health-related, residents will receive necessary care while police resources are freed up to respond to situations in which a law enforcement presence is necessary. In this panel discussion, we’ll share the design and early results of this pilot program.

The success of smart cities is dependent on collaboration, partnership and innovation between government and solution providers, which each of the regional coalitions facilitate every day. The mission of the National Smart Coalitions Partnership is to broaden partnerships, resources ando initiatives that are currently helping individual communities in their respective areas to deploy smart city technologies. As a multi-state organization, the partnership aims to bridge gaps between local and regional technology efforts within specific states and transform them into multi-state collaborative endeavors. Join us to learn directly from the founding members in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas City and North Texas on the journey to the NSCP and what's next on the horizon.

This panel of city leaders and innovators will discuss their mobility priorities and the biggest challenges they are facing in transforming urban mobility. The moderated panel will look at best practices and lessons the cities have learned as they cope with a changing mobility landscape, industry disruptions, and the complexities of implementing new services.

Gregory F.X. Daly, the St. Louis Collector of Revenue, and his office are responsible for collecting city-wide property taxes, earnings taxes and utilities. With a diverse population of over 300,000 people, the Collector of Revenue's office recognized that providing a simple-to-use and mobile-friendly payment system was essential. The year-over-year increases in adoption and revenue collection are a testament to that, with over $150M in online revenue collected. Join IT Manager Amir Softic, Assistant Collector of Revenue Rachel McClure and Collector of Revenue Gregory F.X. Daly as they walk through how implementing this innovative technology has helped with revenue collection and disbursement, IT efficiency, operations and constituent satisfaction.

This panel will provide an enhanced discussion around why resiliency is required and key elements of resiliency in a city, territory or similar ecosystem. These elements will include the definition of resiliency/resilient cities, describe resilience challenges, highlight tools designed to implement resilient solutions and share examples of deployed resiliency solutions. With such knowledge, tools and solutions, cities can begin to identify their shortcomings regarding resiliency and implement specific programs and plans to become more resilient cities

If home is where the heart is, the heart of a Smart City is Multifamily. With urban populations doubling in the next few decades, there’s only one way to build our living spaces and that’s UP! Multifamily! Often the most significant footprint of a city, the Smart City conversations can’t continue without the inclusion of these complex buildings. The good news is that the recent PropTech revolution means there are opportunities to optimize benefits for municipalities and utility partners alike. Industry experts discuss the unprecedented opportunity to harness the Internet of Things innovations in energy, water, and waste management, and automation to transform our urban infrastructure. ess Internet of Things innovations in energy, water, and waste management and automation to transform our urban infrastructure.

We all share the responsibility to prioritize, build, and improve mobility for all users with safety at its core. During this session, our panelists, will address imperative use cases for today and the opportunities that technology will help to facilitate in realizing transportation systems that safely enhances mobility for all. This session will touch on the real-world examples across roadways, transit modalities, urban centers, and more that are advancing transportation technology toward the future of smart mobility. Through the different perspectives that each presenter brings, attendees will gain deeper insight for how access to safer, smarter, more connected transportation outcomes is essential to our communities.

The opportunity to have one’s voice heard is fundamental to democracy itself. Despite that, most governments today only hear from the most advantaged, empowered people in our society -- those with the time, resources and confidence to show up — most often in person, after work, and sit around for the chance to be heard. The result? At best, a biased picture of the truth. At worst, the people we most need to hear from are excluded from the process. In the 21st century, we can’t only rely on making people come to us, we’ve got to meet them where they are. The panel will hear from local government leaders on strategies and technologies they have used to ensure that every voice has the opportunity to be heard in the halls of power on the issues that matter to them, lowering the barriers and closing the gap between government and the people that they serve.

The world of work is changing in every way. Covid-19 caused major shifts in where and how we work, while at the same time the need for a digital workforce outpaced other areas for job growth. The rise of robotics and AI-automated tools will further escalate the need for new thinking for cities to optimize their workforce and the work environments to support them. Join us to learn how to better create hybrid environments, how to enhance digital skills building and how to better prepare your community for a future filled with change.

The effects of climate change are evident as floods, famine and fires grab headlines around the world. Smart city tech has the potential to help mitigate the impact of these disasters by helping to better anticipate, mitigate and communicate. Learn from these leaders what tools are required to plan and prepare and what next-generation technologies are being introduced to hopefully halt the effects of global warming.

People often view the future of mobility as having three distinct components: (1) autonomous vehicles, (2) electric vehicles and (3) shared mobility. While technology advances, infrastructure investments and personal security and safety are key drivers in terms of adoption and acceptance, how has the future of mobility changed given lessons learned from the global pandemic? Our panel of city and technology leaders will share their insights into how mobility is being transformed in their cities and what we can expect next.

Cities share what it means to remain relevant, safe, and invested in a time of digital transformation. Hear about the unique challenges and opportunities facing city leaders and what the future may hold for connected communities.

Join IDC as we celebrate the award winners from 2021 and 2020 IDC Smart Cities North America Awards. This session will shine a spotlight on the winners of our 3rd and 4th annual SCNAA. All the winning projects are from forward-thinking state, local and/ or educational institutions and founded on strong leadership and the innovative use of technology to serve the public and deliver outcomes. These awards are especially important as these organization executed and sustained successful smart city initiatives amid challenging times. Moderated by Ruthbea Yesner, Vice President, IDC Government Insights and Smart Cities and Communities Strategies, this awards session will focus on best practices for successful project implementations. Join us to gain insight into the critical success factors of these award-winning initiatives that made more sustainable and livable cities with new services and economic opportunities. To learn more about the 2021 award winners visit: https://www.idc.com/prodserv/insights#government-smart_cities_awards

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology is playing a critical role in the development of smart cities around the world. Known for its 3D visual guiding sensor for autonomous vehicles, LiDAR is transforming the future of smart cities and smart spaces to enable more intelligent transport systems, mobility and smart infrastructure to make road safety safer, assist with people flow and social distancing in and around buildings. LiDAR is quickly becoming a critical sensor to power dynamic multi-modal traffic flow optimization solutions like TNL’s MobiMaestro. By understanding in real-time what vehicles and pedestrians are at the intersections, schedule and position of public transit vehicles, and the priority between roads and modes, MobiMaestro achieved dramatic improvements in San Francisco (i.e., 73.5% red light reduction of light rail vehicles, 26.1% CO2 emission reduction), Portland, and other main cities across Europe. Quanergy’s Becker will moderate a panel to discuss new sensor technologies such as LiDAR that are becoming an integral part of the infrastructure for our cities’ transportation systems and urban mobility. He will start by discuss how LiDAR works, its benefits over other traditional radar, video and monitoring methods, and the different applications where LiDAR can be implemented to create more intelligent and smart cities, buildings and large venues like stadiums in and around our cities. TNL’s Paul Hoekstra will elaborate how this data turns in to real benefits for the citizens and business in our most innovative cities.

‘Cipher’ is a visitor experience platform for museums, galleries and cultural institutions that allow for personalized content to be delivered to each visitor, triggering audio and visual artifacts from the collection. IT can also be tailored based on visitor engagement before, during and after their visit and expanded to enhance other digital humanity collections in Australia and internationally.

As communities work to recover from the pandemic, now is the moment to rethink how we live, work, and consume. The common conception of “infrastructure” as “roads and bridges” has evolved to include a vast range of digital technologies. And local governments recognize the vital role of the Cloud and IoT in helping their cities become more sustainable, more fiscally responsible, and less wasteful going forward. The best smart city technologies will be those that assist cities in transitioning to remote and agile work environments as part of a renewed or reimagined push towards resilience in the age of public health crises. What can the humble garbage truck contribute to this larger technology and data-driven shift? Moving from responding to citizen complaints to anticipating citizen needs is the mantra of a smart city at all times but especially during challenging times. And city leaders are now leveraging new technologies within public works operations to reshape how municipalities serve their customers and to map a more circular economy for the future. Exploring the topic of smart city innovation and digital transformation through the lens of waste and recycling operations, this panel will explore the digital trends and technologies that are supporting essential services in times of crisis, improving efficiency, driving sustainability and enabling long term resiliency.

The Transit Tech Lab works with New York-metro area transit agencies to evaluate innovative technologies that address pressing challenges through a collaborative and symbiotic process. During the session, the audience will learn how the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) worked with two innovative companies to address safety during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and accessibility priorities in their facilities. This session will provide a template for public agencies interested in piloting new technologies, implementing lasting solutions, and building new partnerships with the global innovation community.

Public, private, academic and non-profit partners are coming together in Memphis to invest $100M+ in the city’s Central Business District through real estate, infrastructure and technology while using entrepreneurship as the galvanizing agent. The result will be the creation of a Digital City enabled by a consortium of members with aligned values and problem sets working together in vertical-specific task forces. This work is fueling an Emerging Innovation District in Memphis rooted in a strategy called The Smart Entrepreneurship Engine. “The Engine” combines smart, foundational technologies with an ‘entrepreneurship for everyone’ approach, inviting talent to co-create solutions in the areas of climate, equity, and community revitalization. Learn about Memphis’ smart city approach to community-wide problem solving and how you can plug in.

The physical and operational foundation of any municipality is its infrastructure. The fastest path for a municipality to become ever Safer, Healthier, and Efficient is to gain more value from this core foundation. The panel will focus on how the advent of 5G Wide Area connectivity can accelerate the further value creation of both legacy and envisioned infrastructure, with tangible examples from City and Solution Innovators.

Cities around the world are increasing their investments in smart IoT technologies like street lighting, utility metering, traffic sensors and much more to improve the efficiency, security, and sustainability of their infrastructure as well as quality of life for residents. The scale of the investment and resources necessary to implement smart city systems coupled with the need to update hardware and software infrastructure at any time underscores the importance of interoperability and future-proofing within any smart city implementation. Learn how an open standards-driven Wi-SUN FAN (Field Area Networks) provides a communications infrastructure for very large-scale networks enabling devices such as smart meters and streetlights to interconnect onto one common network. You’ll also learn how the Wi-SUN FAN specification is future-proofed to easily enable the addition of future generation smart technology into existing networks.

With financial markets and policy moving to net-zero and climate resilience, how will cities change? What role will mobility play in this process? And how can global mobility leaders, startups, and OEMS tap into the potential of new developments? In this panel discussion with experts on city development, sustainability and mobility innovation, attendees will be offered insights into the future of mobility and of city development.

The NIST Global City Teams Challenge, or GCTC, provides a forum where communities can work together to create smart cities – cities where advanced technologies are used to make neighborhoods safer, more secure, livable, and workable for residents. Each GCTC project is an action cluster – a team of community leaders working with innovators from industry and academia for progress. Groups of action clusters – organized around shared project goals – are superclusters; multi-city, multi-stakeholder, multi-technology collaborations organized around common project objectives and shared solutions. This panel will describe community-based best practice guides emerging from superclusters in the areas of cybersecurity and privacy, smart buildings, community resilience, precision agricultural and rural communities, and beyond.

Smart cities offer the promise of greener, prosperous, more livable and safe communities for all of their citizens. Robust, proven technologies like 5G, Optical Networking, Industrial IOT and machine learning allow for the creation of intelligent and integrated city platforms that can provide a foundation for true city innovation. Smart cities and communities can benefit from a high-performance network foundation and robust city-grade platforms to bring together the intelligence within their smart city applications and services to fuel the continued economic and social growth of their city. Many cities, who are in the midst of their smart city transformation, are realizing that to capture the full benefits of their initiatives, a new and more cohesive approach is needed. In this session, we will review a few use cases on how to finance and operationalize this digital transformation.

Hear from a group of members who formed a Regional Smart Cities Data Sharing group of municipal, corporations, startups and nonprofits players who have identified the value of sharing data to make smarter, more informed decisions. By focusing on a ubiquitous use case this group has proven not only that it can be done, but it can shape the way communities predict real time events.

The recent release of the IPCC 2021 Climate Change Report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science. This report details that measures must be taken in order to meet the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Before this report was released The White House was also making big moves to tackle climate change. Recently, a $3.5 trillion budget was put forward by top politicians in Congress to address areas such as: clean energy standards for power grids, fees on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, and increased incentives for electric cars. Houston employs nearly a third of the nation's jobs in oil and gas extraction. In January of this year, Houston's Mayor Sylvester Turner was named the Chair of Climate Mayors. Where he will help catalyze climate-forward actions taken at the local level, provide an example of climate action for leaders at all levels of government, and advocate for an economic recovery grounded in equity and environmental stewardship. This makes Houston the best city to pilot and implement new technologies in cleantech. But the real question is, is the market ready for real change? Join us as we talk with Experts and Founders in Cleantech, Climatetech, Resiliency and Smart City technology and hear where they predict the market is going.

Lively panel discussion with subject matter experts discussing international standards and available solutions for addressing and mitigating cybersecurity breaches. Session moderator will lob questions from a pre-written proposed list to keep the panelists on their toes. Will include an actual smart city/entity/utility company which was once breached by hackers who is now utilizing state of the art technology to thwart further cybersecurity breaches. A case in point panel discussion illustrating how driving smart cities into stealth mode protects multiple entities of emergency responders, utilities, hospitals, academia, transportation, communications, factories, banks...all under one smart city roof.

Come learn how the City of Clearwater Florida (population 118,190) Solid Waste Department is improving efficiency, and aesthetics of its public beachfront solid waste collection by deploying the unique and innovative Underground Solid Waste Containment and collection system. With greater capacity, smart sensors and a smaller visible footprint. This technology has been in use 20+ years internationally in Barcelona, Milan, Disneyland Paris, Lima, Buenos Aires, etc. Partnering with the exclusive USA licensee for this patented technology Underground Refuse Systems, we are revolutionizing public area waste collection.

There is a growing demand for using drones for public safety and emergency management. Many cities and counties are experimenting with drones. However, most users are applying drones in an ad hoc fashion, thus not receiving full benefits of this new technology. Effective use of drones for public safety and emergency management requires appropriate and secured infrastructure, AI and ML based information management platform, real time data sharing, as well as appropriate policies and procedures. While deploying a drones program, it is critical to use best practices and standard operating procedures. The goal of the proposed panel is to present an integrated approach to deploying successful drones program for public safety and emergency management We will share our experience from Stafford County where Smart City Testbed and Drones for Public Safety Use Cases and Pilot Project are being conduced. These use cases have incorporated multiple technology—drones, 5G networks, cloud computing, data analytics, and intelligent video management system. The drone pilot project has provided significant insights on how to integrate multiple technology to establish a successful drones program for public safety and emergency management. We will share the results and experience from this and other projects.

Poor quality built environments impact mental health, well-being, and economic prosperity, which in turn is tied to higher rates of crime and violence. US cities are seeing a sharp increase in homicides this year, signaling a new public safety risk in addition to the COVID pandemic, economic recession and national social uprisings and in Philadelphia the current level of homicides ranks the City as second in the nation. Underrepresented communities face a myriad of structural inequities in access to healthy, safe places that promote quality of life. At its core, this is a community-level, micro-scale built environment (e.g., street trees, parks, and sidewalks) and social infrastructure problem. The City of Philadelphia is partnering with State of Place to utilize AI and visual machine learning to create evidence-based data that will help identify and prioritize interventions and areas, facilitate effective community engagement that builds trust and deliver safe, healing and resilient communities. This session will discuss why data-driven city making is needed to create a more transparent and accountable process that leads to more effective, cost-efficient, inclusive, just, equitable, and lovable places and explore this through the case study of the City of Philadelphia.

RIoT, WRC, State of North Caroline (Innovation Dept), Raleigh NC, Cary NC, Wilson NC, Picture digital broadband solutions as a 3 legged stool, with the three legs being connectivity, abundance, and affordability. Join this panel discussion to hear how public/private partnerships with infrastructure solutions minimize public costs and bridge the equity gap. Hear how three cities in North Carolina, along with the state, are prioritizing broadband for all.

This moderated panel will explore and identify challenges and best practices presented by the participating cities. This session will focus on Community Engagement (Policy, Funding, Commerce, Inclusion, Governance, etc).