Join a team of experts for an interactive and informative half-day workshop designed to answer questions on how to align your community's needs with new funding sources and procurement procedures.

Sensor makers, smart city hardware and project integrators, and city planners converge at this invite-only session to discuss the latest in products for smart city lighting, waste, transportation, parking, and environmental monitoring. Information will fly as every attendee contributes their ideas, motivations, pain points, and product needs. Structured presentations will set the stage, followed by illuminating panel discussions and real-world challenges posed by questions from the attendees. This workshop is a perfect stage-setter for the rest of the Smart Cities Connect programming. For an invite contact Laura Murphy at laura@smartcitiesconnect.org, Managing Editor, Smart Cities Connect Media & Research.

Many places across the country are expanding smart cities programs into regional initiatives, which has resulted in the creation of new types of organizations to facilitate this cross-jurisdictional and inter-sector innovation. Hear from the people that built the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance to understand how they did it, why, and what it has produced for Colorado.

To optimize multi-mode traffic flow based on local policy, generate high-resolution actionable data to drive safety initiatives, and make a measurable impact on greenhouse gas emissions, two cities in Ohio are deploying TNL Mobility’s Traffic Flow Engine. This keynote will give you insights into how to translate your policies into operational optimization and deploy it throughout your road infrastructure.

City managers and law enforcement personnel all face the same key challenge: How to improve quality of life and public safety for the residents they serve, while reducing energy, operations and maintenance costs. Fortunately, city streetlights represent an enormous—though largely untapped—opportunity to enable cities to do everything from enhance public safety and expand access to broadband connectivity, to streamline traffic, make parking easier, and much more—all while significantly reducing costs. Attend this session to learn how to: - Overcome challenges to smart city technology deployments with next-generation infrastructure and technology solutions - Optimize AI for traffic, curb and pedestrian management to benefit your community - Reduce maintenance costs by 50% and energy savings by 67% - Scale quickly with lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) - Create digital equity, access and inclusion

With the right design and implementation, smart city technology can support systems and process automation of municipal infrastructure. The benefits can mean increased flexibility and efficiency for service delivery and procurement processes, resulting in lighter workloads and more efficient operations. Join this panel of city and industry leaders who will share insights on digital transformation for networks, infrastructure and operations. This panel of city and industry leaders what their insights on the digital transformation of networks, infrastructure and the impact on city operations.

Discussion on how open and interoperable platforms allow cities to maximize their infrastructure, leverage valuable data and evolve in a cost-effective manner as new technologies emerge.

Many cities and regions around the world have developed climate action plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase resilience to climate change and promote environmental justice. Whereas some cities have begun implementation, others are struggling to start. Hear from panelists on how they have moved from plan creation to plan implementation and tools to help accelerate such activities.

With the emergence of intelligent transportation systems, the world is entering the next generation of movement — smart transportation. Emerging technologies like 5G, AI, and IoT have the power to make transportation more convenient, more cost effective, and safer. Mobile connectivity along transportation routes is key to the future of connected vehicles. Whether it’s tracking a vaccine shipment, updating navigation instructions to a vehicle, or sending vital signs to a trauma center as a patient is being transported in an ambulance — wireless coverage is a necessity for public safety, logistics, and transportation planning. Through a combination of IoT and AI, sensors and controllers can be placed into vehicles to anticipate vehicle maintenance needs, improve safety, and reduce costs. The future of connected vehicles is about an increasing level of autonomy. Autonomous transportation systems have the potential to reduce crashes, prevent injuries, and save lives. In this panel, a group of experts will discuss trends in mobility, automotive safety, autonomous vehicles, and the future of smart transportation.

In this session, Wesco’s Kirk Whittington will discuss how smart cities, campuses, buildings, and utility companies can leverage today’s technologies and offerings to enhance their grids, public safety and security provisions, wireless network infrastructures, 5G and wifi capabilities, IoT readiness, cost and productivity efficiencies, and a host of other topics that are crucial to modern cities and campuses.

During a time of economic uncertainty, how do you take into full account of your current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the tourism industry, the environment, and host communities of your city? In this session, the Visit Durango and CitizenLab will share how a mix of digital and traditional engagement tactics brought historically under-represented communities into the discussion on topics such as “County Gems to Keep Hidden”, a survey and mapping exercise that asked residents what local landmarks, trails, and areas should be left off marketing materials to preserve their splendor and how to effectively close the feedback loop by sharing results of the consultation. We’ll cover the process of balancing online and traditional engagement methods that build off existing community networks and systems by starting with an overview of digital community engagement, doing a deeper dive into concrete Visit Durango's good practices, and wrapping up with a Q&A session which any city and organization can immediately take away and adopt.

Join us for the 10th annual Smart Cities Startup Challenge, delivering transformational solutions to global cities and military components. Leading startups will pitch their solutions and engage with attendees and a review panel featuring investment, city, industry, and military leadership and tech prospectors. From 4:00PM-6:00PM ET, we will have Demo and Drinks in the Expo Hall! Come join us and meet the Startups!

CITYPARKS : Big Data + Ai for Parks Visitation and Movement Patterns

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.

As smart cities deploy networked lighting, infrastructure and sensors, there is an opportunity to reengineer operations and work smart in ways never before possible. This panel will examine lessons learned from the award-winning system deployed in the City of Chicago - one of the largest, most reliable smart technology infrastructure systems in the world. Chicago deployed TerraGo’s field operations software for the installation and maintenance of over 280,000 smart streetlights and over 1.1 million assets total, including other infrastructure such as traffic signals, electric grid components, and pole replacements. TerraGo is used by Chicago’s Division of Electrical Operations for responding to citizen requests, managing work orders, and resolving outages, seamlessly integrated with Chicago’s 311 system.

Data is seen as the key to a Smart City. But is it? In this panel discussion, we will dive into how and which data cities can use to drive positive actions and increase safety, traffic flow, people’s welfare, as well as reduce noise and other pollution. On the other side of the coin – what data is available, what sensors might be needed, and how is this data unlocked, shared, and turned into actionable insight? This might just answer your questions about where to focus, wait, or accelerate initiatives – the good, the bad, and the ugly of data.

Intel and Dell will talk about the “New Infrastructure: Physical + Digital” a how public-private can work together to enable the future. With physical and digital worlds becoming permanently intertwined, investment in the New Infrastructure can generate profound impacts for citizens across states, counties, and municipalities. The design and development require a true shift in thinking about how to deploy the New Infrastructure to maximize positive citizen outcomes across safety, economy, climate, and equity. Our approach should strive for much more than just upgrading aging infrastructure; it should look forward to a unified, intelligent system of systems that incorporates new physical and digital infrastructure and supports citizens in new and novel ways.

We've come a long way! Smart cities has evolved from a generic concept to real implementation. This dynamic, interactive session will look at smart city approaches and structures from various lenses and scales (cities, DOTs, etc.). You will hear from the people who have been doing the work on an integrated smart cities approach: some have been on the journey for a while and others are just beginning. Come engage and learn how to make your organization ready to begin, enhance, extend and transform.

Join us for the 10th annual Smart Cities Startup Challenge, delivering transformational solutions to global cities and military components. Leading startups will pitch their solutions and engage with attendees and a review panel featuring investment, city, industry, and military leadership and tech prospectors. From 4:00PM-6:00PM ET, we will have Demo and Drinks in the Expo Hall! Come join us and meet the Startups!

It goes without saying, now is the right time for local governments and communities to accelerate their digital development, at scale. Not only because there is a unique opportunity with federal and state governments which committed to provide over $97 billions in funding to unserved or underserved communities, but also because connected, digital services can bring very significant benefits to you community in term of inclusion, resilience, economic attractiveness or sustainable development. If it’s easy to say, the execution can be seen as complex, particularly for cities with limited resources. In this session we will look at solutions and best practices that local governments can leverage to help them define and execute their broadband and digital agenda. We’ll look at how to: - Define and build an optimized digital infrastructure that can both bridge the digital divide, and allows to deploy at scale and on-time a roadmap of digital public services to modernize your community? - Facilitate and submit successful grant applications for federal and state funding programs? - to bring private investors to support your project. Our speakers coming from local government, investment funds and government affairs will share their experience to answer these questions and guide local governments in this unique exercise

What are urban operations other than a series of policy and in-the-moment decisions on the efficient use of public funds and effective management of urban infrastructure? Municipal operators are tasked almost daily to prioritize the use of public funds on a range of options that must be effectively understood and deployed. In a time of rapid technology change, how do big data, smart technologies, and a commitment to innovation affect municipal operations and decision making? Learning Opportunities: Participants will learn about opportunities to use big data to better prioritize and identify municipal challenges and how to use a structured SMART City approach to consider new and proven technologies to solve urban operational challenges. Hear from industry leaders on the role of data analytics and the use of technology as part of a structured SMART City program in addressing municipal needs.

If you scan the countless headlines on the future of cities, you can easily find predictions about how technological innovations will transform how we live and move in urban life. It can be the emergence of smart cities, the onslaught of autonomous vehicles (AVs), or even how vertiports will improve efficiency and safety. But the undercurrent in all of these mobility-related technologies is similar — confidence that these changes are coming, but the details around the how and when remain ambiguous. The key to being proactive in these pivotal moments is data. City planners need to know what data to collect, how to interpret it to make more informed decisions, and how to keep data secure to protect the city at large and the residents within it. If there’s one prediction that will stand true regardless of which future innovation emerges next, it’s that cities that securely track their mobility trends now are the ones most likely to thrive in the future. Learning objectives Upon completion, participants will be able to identify how partnerships with cities and municipalities across the country are key to tackling congestion and mobility challenges. Upon completion, participants will be able to learn how insights and data can be used to make informed and sensible policy and pricing decisions.

The panel will discuss the myriad of approaches to becoming a Smart City and the lessons learned along the way. Panelists will provide their commentary on their City’s approach to implementing innovative technologies to reduce demand, increase the availability of renewable resources, and think outside of the box when it comes to becoming a smarter city. Examples include sustainable deconstruction, energy efficiency and renewable energy assets. Presenters will provide the audience with takeaways to implement these initiatives in their own City. The panel will be moderated by an Ameresco representative and feature 2-3 additional cities and subject matter experts.

As residents continue their intensified demand for digital everything, cities are eager to accelerate the digital delivery of government services. And with good reason: great digital experiences are big predictors of resident trust, increase agency productivity and efficiency and accelerate time to revenue. This session will walk attendees through The City of Grand Rapids Michigan’s journey to digital excellence highlighting the key elements enabling them to accelerate delivery to end users. Attendees will leave with a deepened understanding of how to specify and implement solutions that modernize the resident experience, grow trust and satisfaction, and improve city efficiency, employee satisfaction, and overal resident adoption and revenue collection.

Join us for the 10th annual Smart Cities Startup Challenge, delivering transformational solutions to global cities and military components. Leading startups will pitch their solutions and engage with attendees and a review panel featuring investment, city, industry, and military leadership and tech prospectors. From 4:00PM-6:00PM ET, we will have Demo and Drinks in the Expo Hall! Come join us and meet the Startups!

Come meet the Smart Cities Startups and Review Panelists in our Demos and Drinks Area of the Expo Hall! Demo tables will have drink coupons!

Most things important to our lives have no care for jurisdictional boundaries. Pollution, traffic, stormwater, weather and the spread of disease are just a few. Yet so many solutions historically have been built within those siloed boundaries. This panel unlocks how best to allow data to flow across jurisdictions to enable regional and larger solutions, while spreading the workload efficiently and cost-effectively among government partners.

The conversation will focus on: • funding ideas, • concepts around data management & data governance – how to start & the role private sector can play to assist, • the opportunity you feel data presents to your agency – speak to a couple use cases (setup a problem and solution, the role data plays) • blockers you face and mitigation approaches • what advice would you give other leaders who haven’t started

Join US Ignite in recognizing a leading group of communities working toward accelerating the smart city movement, closing the digital divide, and driving innovation.

Technical standards like WiFi and 5G provide a common base for digital products to work together and are a core part of the IoT revolution. Ensuring that the patented technology underlying these standards — known as Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs) — are licensed on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms is critical to promote competition and American innovation. Unfortunately, this system and our standards are under threat as a growing number of SEPs are held by patent trolls, or non-practicing entities, who leverage them to extract monopoly payments from smart technologies that use SEPs including EV chargers, WiFi sensors, and connected transportation. As demand for WiFi and 5G compatible devices rises, so too does the impact of such abuse. This panel will shed light on how consumers, smart innovations, and the economy are being held hostage by these bad actors, and what you can do to safeguard the future of innovation!

Technology has always been a powerful tool for city leaders looking to improve efficiency and quality of life for residents. In recent years, advancements in technology have made it possible for city leaders to improve services and modernize their communities. Municipal governments have started to taken steps to become more connected through the implementation of broadband services like 5G. By unlocking the potential of streetlights, cities can access opportunities for various smart city integrations like 5G, cameras, traffic controls, and more. In this session, audience members will learn more about: - various broadband strategies municipalities are implementing such as 5G and Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) - how smart lighting technology can improve asset management, reduce energy costs, and lower environmental impacts - what smart city integration opportunities are available - how financial models can help

In the wake of major societal changes spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, American cities are in a pivotal moment, and our public transportation agencies need to deftly evolve to meet the public’s changing needs while contending with shrinking budgets. This panel will bring together senior executives from the Transit Innovation Partnership, the MTA, and transit tech startups to discuss how thoughtful public-private collaboration can help transit agencies cost-effectively bolster creativity and innovation to improve user experience and system performance. These leaders will reflect on their collective work to help the nation’s largest transit ecosystem bounce back from the challenges of the last few years while building a more resilient system for the future. The lively discussion will cover everything from lessons learned from scaled technology deployments to bureaucracy-navigation advice for urban leaders to a nuts-and-bolts debate on the latest in cutting-edge transportation solutions.

This moderated panel of city leaders will focus on practical and specific lessons learned, successes and failures, and the resulting best practices.

The development and evolution of technology that creates solutions for smart cities and connected communities advances fast. Government procurement processes are often not designed for fast-changing marketplaces with emerging solution providers and evolving specifications. Municipalities who wish to take advantage of the latest tech often get stuck in procurement processes designed for mature markets with legacy suppliers and detailed specifications. And if you have tried the “Jam it through procurement” approach, you know that it is at worst painfully unsuccessful and at best unsustainable.

Join us for the 10th annual Smart Cities Startup Challenge, delivering transformational solutions to global cities and military components. Leading startups will pitch their solutions and engage with attendees and a review panel featuring investment, city, industry, and military leadership and tech prospectors. From 3:30PM-5:30PM ET, join us for Cocktails and Conversations with the Startups and Review Panelists in the Expo Hall! Follow the signs and join us!

New York Digital Transit Infrastructure: Data-Driven Congestion, Emissions, & Safety

Overcoming Challenges, Lessons Learned, Seizing Opportunities & Shaping Future Development Issues to consider Data and technology Cybersecurity Lessons Learned Future-State: Cognitive Cities

On this panel, diverse perspectives will discuss their approaches to successfully align people, policy, and technology to address neighborhood stabilization and revitalization. Listen as leaders from the municipal, academic, and private sectors share insights regarding: the power of community engagement in identifying needs; the role of academic researchers and technology providers as partners; successful deployment of data to empower decision-makers; mitigating constraints and challenges; and what's next for the city of Syracuse.

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.

Hear from expert panelists about the programs they lead and three key foundational technologies for digital innovation: smart street lighting, sensors, and broadband connectivity/Public Wifi. Learn about recent key developments for each of these technologies and how they come together to increase the speed of deployment and the realization of value. Understand the measurable impact delivered across priorities including addressing the digital divide, enhancing sustainability, improving transportation, and increasing safety. Hear practical recommendations on how your city or utility can replicate success and create valuable programs that rapidly scale.

Join IDC as we celebrate the award winners from the 2023 IDC Smart Cities North America Awards. This session will shine a spotlight on the winners of our 6th 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 2023 award winners visit: https://www.idc.com/prodserv/insights#government-smart_cities_awards

Join us for the 10th annual Smart Cities Startup Challenge, delivering transformational solutions to global cities and military components. Leading startups will pitch their solutions and engage with attendees and a review panel featuring investment, city, industry, and military leadership and tech prospectors. From 3:30PM-5:30PM ET, join us for Cocktails and Conversations with the Startups and Review Panelists in the Expo Hall! Follow the signs and join us!

Georgia City Improves Community and Site Surveillance with DeepInsights from EPIC iO

Edge computing is the network-centric technology now hitting the mainstream, with proponents claiming benefits including reduced latency and backbone traffic requirements and thus lower cost and improved response time. Although non-city applications for edge exist, such as smart manufacturing and agriculture, smart cities are a sweet spot for edge and 5G applications—their density provides favorable economics for deployment, and use cases include everything from Vision Zero (reducing traffic injuries and fatalities) to smart trash cans to emergency response. Edge also vastly impacts sustainability. Yet, leading academics claim current cloud computing architectures are sufficient for most applications. Is edge really needed for realizing the smart, sustainable, secure city of the future? Three Key Takeaways How edge can be operationalized to enable the economic realization of the smart, sustainable, secure city of the future. Consider the leading academic research that has recently claimed today’s cloud computing architectures are sufficient for most applications, implications on cloud growth, the viability of edge, data center size and location, network transport. infrastructure and intelligence, and interconnection bandwidth architecture and growth. Implications for the new digital infrastructure form factors and the global rollout of the future of digital infrastructure.

LVT partnered with retailers, local governments, local law enforcement, and the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) to create the ACCESS Taskforce, or the Alliance of Companies and Communities to Enhance Safety and Security. This program makes communities safer by helping to reduce retail crime. In the Fall of 2022, LVT deployed more than 75 mobile surveillance units to Opelika, AL and Paducah, KY. Both cities have crime rates higher than 90% of other cities in the United States. The units were placed in the parking lots of retailers such as Advance Auto Parts, Kroger, JCPenney, Lowe’s, Walgreens, and Walmart throughout both cities. The units have been collecting data, deterring crimes, and helping retailers and local law enforcement coordinate their efforts since their deployment. During this panel, participants in the ACCESS Taskforce will discuss the effects, the recent data, and how the technology has made a difference in the number of parking lot incidents and crime throughout the communities.

Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles are currently testing and expected to provide passenger service as soon as 2024. This amazing new technology will soon change the way we travel and transport people and goods between and within cities. The City of Orlando is preparing an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Transportation Plan to prepare for this emerging technology, using a series of community workshops with transportation agencies, local governments and private citizens to discuss equitable, economic, and environmental challenges and opportunities. The City is also leveraging a community partnership with NASA to share best practices in advancing a transformative new regional connectivity plan. The input gathered through the planning process will help inform the equitable, safe and early advancement of air taxi vertiports in Orlando. Learn what ideas are shaping AAM in Orlando and how communities across the U.S. can prepare for their own future networks.

The transport sector is responsible for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse emissions, 75% of which come from road transport. Increasingly, extreme heat and storms are putting roads, bridges, water systems and other infrastructure under stress. The Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions added another dimension to these existing challenges and highlighted the need for sustainable, and practical technologies that help build better, more resilient infrastructure and proactively maintain existing assets to enhance quality and resilience. This ongoing transformation, recovery and resiliency are fuelled by the “oil” of the 21st century, Data and Digitization. Discussions will be around strategies to de-carbonise operations, optimise fleets, and proactively maintain assets - and how smart cities technologies are well poised to rapidly capitalise on this ongoing market shift towards automation, digitalisation, and long-term sustainability. With my co-panelists, we will be discussing how AI and smart cities are digitalizing and powering the resiliency of city core infrastructure in the US, Canada and Europe - especially important as world economies weather recessions, post-pandemic recovery and world conflict in 3 continents.

During the "Helping Governments Across the Country Buy" discussion, our panel of experts will share their insights on various approaches for simplifying government procurement processes. They will underscore the significance of utilizing technology to enhance purchasing efficiencies and spotlight the potential advantages of utilizing digital procurement platforms, which can automate tasks, enhance transparency, and minimize mistakes. In addition to discussing procurement challenges in remote and rural regions, the experts will delve into collaborating with other government agencies, the potential benefits of fostering innovation, maximizing value through cooperative purchasing arrangements, and promoting local economic development through procurement. The discussion will also cover procurement strategies during budget constraints, effective procurement strategies for emergency services, and overcoming challenges in acquiring complex or specialized goods and services.

Post-Smart Cities Startup Challenge, this Roundtable discussion will feature investment, industry, and military leadership focused on the state of smart cities investment and partnership opportunities for young companies. From 3:30PM-5:30PM ET, join us for Cocktails and Conversations with the Startups and Review Panelists in the Expo Hall! Follow the signs and join us!

Join our closing reception for the Smart Cities Startups and Review Panelists! This is a great opportunity to connect and network.

The City of Pittsburgh has overcome many challenges to implementing Smart Cities projects, finding a key to success is to convene interdisciplinary teams that can share insights and support decision-making. Smart Cities projects create opportunities to use and analyze data, but local government also faces capacity challenges. Challenges to overcome: Data is an asset that needs to be managed; doing cool stuff is easier when we govern together. Documenting what data departments keep and use helps teams know what can be shared to amplify openness. Creating and maintaining up-to-date data inventories is real work that must be accounted for. Turnover and staff capacity. To help resolve these challenges, the City of Pittsburgh has focused efforts on: Standing up a data governance committee; Rooting our work in our open data ordinance; Building policies that support data accessibility, privacy concerns, and set sharing standards; Establishing a training program to develop data management skills; Allowing flexibility and communication; Leveraging cloud data storage; Managing sensitive data. Cities need assistance to set and govern with data sharing standards and Pittsburgh has benefited from support through Johns Hopkins University Center for Government Excellence and the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information.

If your goal is to gather data, in 2023 you will likely 100% reach your goal. Data alone will not make our cities safer to achieve VisionZero goals. Learn how the City of Chicago is folding big probe data into operational changes and how AI will be able to add actionable insights. The City of Chicago has invested in a large scale ATMS to consolidate data sources from 29 interfaces, including third-party data from Wejo and HERE. This data is synthesized to provide regular updates to the City staff on actionable insights ranging from origin/destination, speeding trends, red light running, weather impacts, volume modeling, and ATSPMs. This translates into improved coordination between planning, permitting, maintenance, enforcement, and traffic management.

How does a city become a Testing and Research Space for Autonomous Vehicles? Collaborating with a company that can retrofit any vehicle type to be autonomous and allows access to vehicle generated data, a university with a top transportation research lab, and technical college eager to train students in the maintenance of autonomous electric vehicles. The panel will discuss how a post-industrial medium-sized city turned its desire to become a research space into reality. Learn how the unique partnership has grown into more than just one project, one outcome. Hear a frank discussion (with lessons learned highlighted) on initial planning, collaboration, memorandums of understanding, procurement, implementation, and next steps. Subjects include expansion of public and private research in autonomous vehicles, work force development relating to maintenance of AV/EV, education of public safety organizations regarding the science and safety differences in AV and EV, and questions from the audience.

All municipalities engage with their communities, and some have pushed the envelope using problem-solving approaches and techniques to embrace extensive engagement around smart city technologies. Learn from our panel of leaders who have tried and tested human-centered design approaches and developed strategic roadmaps and frameworks for a more effective community engagement processes with clear outcomes. You will hear about the active promotion of an entrepreneur ecosystem, digital equity action, and community information exchanges. This panel will focus on practical and specific lessons learned, successes and failures, and the resulting best practices used over the past years by five diverse and unique cities.

Smart cities present seemingly limitless opportunities to optimize systems and delivery of city services to improve equity and enhance quality of life. While artificial intelligence systems bring many benefits, they also pose ethical questions and considerable challenges for communities learning to navigate smart technologies in their cities. This panel examines ethical issues in smart cities and how partnerships between government, academia, nonprofits and industry can support ways to navigate ever-present challenges to smart transportation, privacy, and community inclusion. It convenes academic researchers, city government officials, and cybersecurity experts to explore questions and promising solutions. Attendees will walk away with ideas for effective cross-sector partnerships that promote equity and community inclusion as well as a deeper understanding of the potential pros and cons of smart city technologies such as AI-based surveillance systems and digital twin models. Good Systems is an interdisciplinary research Grand Challenge at UT Austin focused on designing ethical AI technologies to benefit society.

This moderated panel of city leaders will look at the challenges they are facing, best practices and lessons learned.

The way that cities have been implementing micromobility has been piecemeal and ad hoc, and it's time for a new paradigm. Instead of treating micromobility as an afterthought, cities should be proactive in planning for it and integrating it into their transportation systems. This means working with the private sector to ensure that micromobility services are accessible, affordable, and equitable, and that they complement other modes of transportation. It also means creating a regulatory framework that supports innovation and allows for experimentation. Finally, it means investing in infrastructure, such as dedicated lanes and parking, to ensure that micromobility can flourish.

Smart Cities promise a more efficient, environmentally sensitive and citizen-centric urban environment. Concerns continue to surface around the exclusion of disadvantaged neighborhoods, the challenges of privacy and how smart cities can remain inclusive and accessible. Smart Cities should improve the experience of the city for every resident and visitor. The Panel will discuss ‘Building user-centric cities through smart engagement’ - the revitalization of residential and commercial districts through community and tourist engagement. How can innovation and technology help bring cities to life and improve engagement with the city’s businesses, social programs and government. How can technology improve a visitor’s navigation experience through the city and interaction with the city, to create a place that is safe, vibrant and successful. The Panel will present a case study from the City of Las Vegas and use data as evidence of the new smart city platform being used to guide visitors around the city. Also planned for discussion will be how the government can drive a user-experience focused smart-city strategy and how leaders can promote buy-in from all stakeholders within the community.

City planning is too slow, obscure, and expensive for the pace of change required in cities today. Facing climate change, severe housing shortage, public health threats, mass urbanization and major geo-political shifts, cities worldwide must adapt fast and effectively, but the obsolete systems prevent equity in the design and decision making process, leading to a lack of trust, collaboration and inclusivity amongst residents and industry professionals. inCitu is a New York based technology company delivering on a mission to bring future cities to life via augmented reality to empowers residents, developers, and city governments to collaborate on the process of urban change. They turn massive piles of messy data and archaic systems into beautiful, informative, accurate visualizations of future skylines and buildings, restoring trust and transparency into how cities, developers, citizens, and technology companies interact to allow for urban development Obsessed with lowering the friction for people to access tangible development data, all of inCitu’s projects - from individual buildings, affordable housing, mixed use, through parks and bridges and to complete neighborhood rezoning and regional infrastructure - are available via mobile AR, with no headsets or special devices required.

Join David Graham, Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Carlsbad, and Brian Johnson, City Manager of Peachtree Corners, as they discuss the connectivity behind their community’s transportation systems. Find out how they attained wireless readiness scores for their own transportation systems, and how they put that knowledge to work for their community. From smarter intersections, micro-mobility, parking, and public transit, find out how wireless connectivity is enabling safer, more efficient roadways and how communities are planning for the intelligent deployments of tomorrow. Learn more about their experiences and how to attain your own wireless readiness score by joining David and Brian for this discussion!

Last year, three cities embarked on different budget engagement journeys that gave decision-making power to young and diverse populations via online simulation tools. In October, the City and County of Denver, CO, launched its first participatory budgeting program that let residents decide how to spend $2 million in infrastructure investments for their historically underserved communities. In the same month, the City of Pittsburgh, PA, tapped the civic minds of its youth with about 200 ninth graders participating on the city’s finances and 2023 budget priorities. Finally, the City of La Marque, TX, asked residents how they would spend American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds by choosing and then ranking projects by priority. This session will cover the strategic processes of these three cities and showcase how their innovative use of online tools produced successful and involved budget engagement.

The panel will focus on how Nicholas D'Andre and the GridMatrix team won the Transit Tech Lab Innovation Challenge. The team will give details regarding the proof of concept and pilot project conducted in conjunction with the Port Authority of NY & NJ. GridMatrix will expound on how its software, in collaboration with the Port Authority, is aiding in creating safer, more sustainable, and more livable cities. Lastly, GridMatrix will share the story of how they integrated their software with Port Authority hardware and requirements to deliver value in their specific areas of interest: congestion and emissions mitigation, roadway safety enhancements, and signal performance improvement.

At the Smart Futures Lab we are creating a program that is focused on incubating and accelerating technology businesses led by a new majority (women, BIPOC, people with disabilities) Our program starts this March 2023 and by the time of the conference we will have multiple companies engaged in the program and would like to give them a platform to talk about their work and how they are innovating in this space.