Stan Schultes and Sara Hand, founders of Station 2 Innovation and local innovation firm Spark Growth recently attended the Smart City Innovation Accelerator program in NYC. The program was coordinated by Harvard TECH (Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard), and was attended by 18 leading North American cities in Smart Cities development.
Major issues discussed were creating open data systems, sensor deployment, transportation infrastructure, rising sea levels, and funding strategies. The program focused on development of strategic action plans that address critical problem resolution, shared issues faced by cities, and education and discovery of best practices. The Accelerator was a collaborative, multi-disciplinary engagement process, attendees included people from many different sectors – government, business, education, non-profit, and the arts and sciences.
A Smart City is an urban development vision that integrates multiple information and communication technology (ICT) solutions to manage a city and its region’s assets. Through the use of sensors and human input integrated with real-time monitoring, non-personal data are collected from a wide variety of devices and systems with the overall goal of improving quality of life for all citizens.
Insights in a Smart City are gained through big-data analytics, visualization tools and interactive apps for citizen engagement. While each city’s approach is unique, think local city departments’ information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, emergency management, etc.
Stan and Sara are leading voices for Smart Cities Technology, facilitating sessions and leading discussions at the Harvard Smart Cities Accelerator, and are working to bring future Accelerator programs to the Tampa Bay area and other major cities. They are also involved in several Smart Cities initiatives globally, and also work on development of Innovation Districts as a progressive economic development strategy.
About Spark Growth:
Identifying potential and possibilities for growth, our consultants are innovators who specialize in bringing connections, resources and solutions to solve the most challenging business issues. http://sparkgrowth.net/services
Spark Growth is a partnership of the community and business development work of Stan Schultes and Sara Hand – social and civic entrepreneurs who are long-time community builders throughout Florida. They’re also co-founders of Station 2 Innovation, the 3.0 Thought Leaders Conference, and DaVinci’s Faire and BarCamp Sarasota-Bradenton. http://Station2Innovation.com
http://3-Leaders.com
http://DaVincisFaire.com
Serving entrepreneurs, building community and growing businesses – Station 2 Innovation is a cowork-to-business incubation space, and serves soft-landing companies for international business expansions. Each week Station 2 holds free education events for entrepreneurs and small businesses – network, learn and mingle with fellow professionals. http://meetup.com/entrepreneurs-startups
https://station2innovation.com/events