Learnings from UKAuthority’s Smart Places, Smart People conference
There is a feeling that a tipping point has been reached in the move towards smart places, with an increasing number of local authorities beginning to invest in projects rather than just talk.
Most are still watching and waiting, but we can expect a surge in activity over the next couple of years, as internet of things technology becomes less expensive and more reliable, and organisations make progress in their collection and management of data.
But there are challenges, not all of the solutions have been found, and there is some way to go in scaling up from pilots to widespread deployments, in which local authorities learn from each other and begin to replicate the successful initiatives. Dealing with these is the next step in the development of smart places.
UKAuthority’s recent Smart Places, Smart People conference investigated the outlook, with contributions from a number of local authorities and experts on the issues. It highlighted issues such as network priorities, the importance of location data and how the public react to internet of things technology being used to raise revenue.
It also threw up ideas around the structure of contracts with technology suppliers, how to improve the quality of data and the need for an innovation fund.
There is an opportunity to learn more: our briefing paper on the event can be downloaded from here and videos of the presentations viewed through this link.
You can also make plans to attend the event next year, schedule to take place in London on 11 June 2020.
