Hi #SmartCommunity friends! I sat down with my podcast producer Ellen to record a little update episode, there is a little bit of Smart Community Podcast news and we want to keep you in the loop! 

We are planning to take an extended break from the podcast because unfortunately my Mum is very unwell. So I'm going to take some time to be with her and just scale things back a little bit for a while. I will still be doing my consulting work for My Smart Community, working with my amazing clients that I have contracts with at the moment and into the future.
But we're pressing pause on the podcast for a time while I spend time with my Mum and family, and while Ellen goes off on her second maternity leave. So your podcast feed won’t be updating for a while, but we will be back in some form or another later down the track. 

In the meantime, connect with me on LinkedIn or email. I’m not going anywhere, just taking some time to pause and prioritise the people who are important to me. 

Talk to you soon!

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! Welcome to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we’re taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. This week we’re sharing my interview with Samuel Austin from Episode 340, which was published in May 2023.

Sam is an Urban Planner, Community Engagement Specialist and Placemaker, and also the NSW Young Planner of the Year 2022. In this episode, Sam tells us about his background in urban city planning, and his interest and passion for the relationship between people and place. We talk about the role data plays in planning and analysis of how people are using spaces, and Sam tells us about his work on the neon grid and nighttime economy strategy for Sydney.

Sam and I discuss the importance of breaking down barriers and silos within cities and communities to foster an integrated approach for a seamless experience for customers, as well as what the nightime economy and neon grid looks like in semi urban and regional or rural settings. Sam tells us about community engagement projects he’s worked on in Sydney and we finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of live data allowing for appropriate and timely responses to community requirements. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Sam on LinkedIn 

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we’re taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. This week we’re sharing my interview with Michael Wanyama from Episode 335, which was released in March 2023 as part of our annual Mobility March series.

Michael and I met at Smart City World Expo in Barcelona in November 2022 where his company Auto Safety Uganda won the Innovation Category of the World Smart City Award. In this episode Michael and I discuss his background in IT and automatic technology and why he’s so passionate about happy, healthy and inclusive communities. Michael tells us about the context in Kampala, Uganda, why it’s the best tourist destination in Africa and also about some of the challenges Uganda faces with traffic safety, vehicle reliability and air pollution due to lack of systems, skills, infrastructure and regulation. We talk about the many different areas of the community that transport impacts and the importance of supporting the community in the process of transitions to new and cleaner mobility options. 

Michael tells us about the projects they are working on, including upskilling mechanics, promoting gender inclusivity in the automotive industry and collecting data to support policy change in Uganda. We also discuss the problem of African nations having to ‘copy and paste’ solutions from other countries but finding they don’t work in the African context. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of great ideas and policies being stymied by the lack of resources and skillsets to implement the changes, as well as the need for community engagement, leadership and education to work together to solve these problems. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!

Connect with Michael on Twitter or LinkedIn

Follow AutoSafety Uganda on Twitter, LinkedIn or their website www.autosafety-ug.org  

Connect with me via email: [email protected] 

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome back to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. As you know, we’re taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. This week we’re sharing my interview with Dr. Michaela Musilova from Episode 339 which was released in May 2023.

Dr. Michaela Musilova is an astrobiologist, speaker, analog astronaut and author. Michaela has been conducting space-related research at institutions around the world and was the Director of HI-SEAS and Commander of over 30 simulated missions to the Moon and Mars, in collaboration with NASA, ESA and many international organizations. She also writes articles for Space.com and co-authored her biography, A Woman from Mars.

In this episode, Michaela tells us about her passion for space and for life on earth, how she got into this Space space, and some of the challenges she has overcome to pursue this dream. She tells us about why it’s so important to share with the public how science is helping humanity and how diversity and also food have both been key to the success of the missions she’s been involved with. 

Michaela then tells us about the projects she’s worked on, including the Astro Seven Summits, which is focused on performing research related to life in space and also on extreme environments on earth. Michaela and I talk about how to link space exploration science with climate change, as well as what she thinks will happen on the first missions of humans living on Mars. 

We finish our chat talking about whether there really is life on other planets, and Michaela tells us what she thinks about the likelihood of finding it. As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Follow her on LinkedIn and Facebook, or on Instagram and Twitter @astro_michaela 

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #smartcommunity friends! Welcome to the Summer Series here on the Smart Community Podcast. We’re taking a little break from new content over the Australian summer holidays, and instead we are sharing the replays of a few of our all time favourite episodes. This week to kick off the series, we’re sharing my interview with Martin Darcy, who was on the show back in July 2022 in Episode 303.

Martin is the Service Manager of Business and Innovation with Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council. In this episode, Martin starts off by telling us about his background in the tourism industry, his past roles and current role working in local government, and Martin tells us what a Smart Community means to him. Martin then tells us a bit about how his role at the Council has evolved over time, some of the challenges in the Smart Communities space he has faced in this time, before he discusses his experience working to embed Smart Communities in his organisation. He then shares with us some lessons learnt when measuring and monitoring Smart Community benefits, as well as some of the communication and community engagement challenges he has faced. 

We then discuss the importance of educating the community about the benefits of Smart Communities and some of the elements that contribute to dealing with change. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of using data to make better informed decisions. There’s a few audio glitches in this interview but it’s a great conversation so we hope you will forgive us the imperfections. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!

Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community 

Connect with Martin via LinkedIn 

Connect with me via email: [email protected]  

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! Welcome back to the Smart Community Podcast. In this episode I have a fantastic conversation with Calum Handforth. Calum works for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has led innovation and digitalisation efforts globally, as well as advised governments around the world. He was also Co-Chair of the Digital Infrastructure Taskforce, part of the World Economic Forum’s G20 Working Group on Smart Cities.

In this episode, Calum and I discuss the types of things he works on at the UNDP, and the progress made on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals since they were introduced in 2015. We talk about using data and storytelling to drive progress and innovation, including Calum’s BLT acronym when thinking about data, and the potential of open source digital solutions to improve city infrastructure and services. Calum tells us about his favourite project he’s worked on at the UNDP, that incorporated a human-centred design approach to improve a market in Gambia, and the emerging trends of refocusing on the city as the centre of innovation and development. 

We finish our chat discussing the importance of community and of sharing failures to achieve SDGs and Smart Community outcomes, plus the power of celebrating even small wins. As always we hope you have enjoyed this episode as much as we have enjoyed making it.

Connect with Calum on LinkedIn, @calumah on Twitter/X and via email [email protected]

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity Friends, in this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I had a fantastic conversation with Nicole Stephensen, Partner at IIS Partners, a prominent privacy consultancy in Australia, where she leads privacy strategy and services. Long time listeners will remember that Nicole was on the podcast way back in Episode 69, in 2018, and again on our Covid Catch Up YouTube series in 2020.

In this episode, Nicole and I discuss what’s changed in the privacy landscape in the last few years, for better and for worse, including data breaches and the review of Australia’s Privacy Act. Nicole reminds us of the essential principle of "Nothing about me, without me," stressing the imperative to engage and involve the community in co-designing solutions.

We explore the vital role of public servants in keeping the needs of the community as a focus, and touch on the crossover between information security and privacy. Nicole and I then discuss the pros and cons of privacy laws and regulations, and Nicole advocates for a shift away from ‘incremental change’ in order to keep pace with the speed of technological advances.

We finish our chat talking about the emerging trend of the intersection of privacy and AI, the potential for Smart City and Privacy Standards to be combined, and why we need to rethink the term ‘responsible AI’. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn or via IIS Partners

Connect with me via email: [email protected] 

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

Hi #SmartCommunity friends. In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a great chat with Karandeep Chadha. Karandeep has two decades of diverse work experience in government services, infrastructure asset management, property, procurement, supply chain, consumer goods, technology and financial services industries for top tier Australian, US and European organisations. In this episode Karandeep tells us about his passion for innovation and Smart Cities, and how he ended up in the Smart Community Space.

We talk about the importance of coming back to the business purpose and community requirements when implementing Smart solutions, and why foundational transferable skills are so beneficial considering the broad range of skills needed in the Smart Community. Karandeep tells us about some of the projects he’s been working on, including what he has been learning from New Zealand’s smaller scale ‘do more with less’ approach. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of cyber security and data privacy, as well as the need for affordability of Smart initiatives, and why partnering across different sectors and industries is the next step for Smart Communities. As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Karandeep via LinkedIn

Connect with me via email: [email protected] 

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community podcast, I’m excited to have Jennifer Sanders back on the show for the 3rd time! Jennifer was also on the podcast back in Episode 170 and also Episode 284, so make sure you go back and check out those great conversations after you’ve listened to this one. I’m also excited to announce that Jennifer and I will be speaking on a panel together in Barcelona and the Smart Cities Expo World Congress on the 7th November 2023! It’s going to be fantastic. 

In this episode, Jennifer tells us about what she does with the Dallas Innovation Alliance and some of the projects she’s worked on there, including a Digital Inclusion Project and a Drones and Robotics project. We discuss the different ways the Dallas Innovation Alliance collaborates with other groups and how it’s different to a traditional approach, as well as what’s changed in the last 18 months since she was last on the show. Jennifer then shares with us a bit about the Urban Resilience Fellows Program they are working on, which of course has an interdisciplinary focus, and the power of brave conversations and courageous collaborations for solving wicked problems. 

Jennifer and I finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of the fact that now you can find someone talking about almost everything within the Smart Community space, and why we need to lean into multigenerational connections and collaborations as the next step for Smart Communities. As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn or via www.ntxia.org  or Dallasinnovationalliance.com  

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #SmartCommunity friends. In this episode I have a fantastic conversation with Josh Sattler, the cofounder of TwentySeven Technologies and CEO of Circl Group. Josh tells us about his background in economic development and technology within local government, particularly at the City of Darwin, and how that led him to the companies he’s started. Josh and I discuss the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance community connectivity, as well as the benefits and risks of AI, and the need for diversity in the AI space. Josh tells us about some of the possibilities of using AI in government to make data driven decisions, and how he’s using AI daily in his work these days. 

Josh and I then discuss his work at the City of Darwin, including the challenges and the project he’s most proud of, the MyDarwin online platform for economic stimulus that began during the early days of the pandemic and is still going strong. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of the way Gen Z and Generation Alpha are integrating technology as they participate in society and why co-design with young people is the next step for Smart Communities. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Connect with Josh on LinkedIn or via TwentySeven Tech or Circl Group Pty Ltd

Connect with me via email: [email protected]

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

Podcast Production by Perk Digital

Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, host Zoe Eather is back in the hot seat! In celebration of this being episode 350, Zoe and producer Ellen Ronalds Keene sat down for a chat where she answers questions from you, the audience of the Smart Community Podcast. 

We can’t believe we’re at 350 episodes. It’s been nearly 6 years of the show and thank you so much for all of you tuning in! Zoe answers 4 questions today from the many that were sent through via LinkedIn. Thank you to those of you who submitted questions! As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it. 

Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community 

Connect with me via email: [email protected]     

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital