The first Smart Regions Conference, organized by Cincinnati’s Regional Smart Cities Initiative, will take place Oct. 25 at BB&T Arena at Northern Kentucky University. The conference is open to both stakeholders and the public who are interested in exploring new technologies.
“This is a great opportunity for people unfamiliar with smart cities to learn about the foundations, hear from who is involved now and find out how to get involved,” says Zack Huhn, director of RSCI. “We’ll have an Internet of Things playground with autonomous vehicles, Hyperloop UC’s capsule and drone races. People will be able to experience things they may have only read about.”
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Zack Huhn, director of RSCI
Vendor demonstrations will also take place at the IoT Showcase, and cities from around the country will share their smart city projects. To encourage the general public to attend and experience smart city technologies, a $10 general admission ticket is available for the day (all-access tickets are $50).
“We want to show the public what we are already doing and what we could be doing,” says Huhn. “Smart city initiatives will improve social mobility, drive economic growth and make the region a more desirable place to live and work.”
A full conference ticket includes focused workshops targeted toward startups, community leaders, academics and others working in the smart cities arena. Industry insiders are also the audience for RSCI’s event during Techstars Startup Week Cincinnati (the five-day conference is free).
“Smart Cities Day really focuses on the startups working on smart cities solutions and for people interested in working with those companies or developing new solutions,” Huhn says.
The foundational areas of smart city initiatives — connectivity, mobility, security and sustainability — are already being addressed on a small scale by the private sector. RSCI hopes that by increasing public interest in smart city technologies, new investments will be directed to the Tristate, accelerating the pace of implementation.
“The Greater Cincinnati region is unique in that stakeholders in all three states are collaborating to create interoperable solutions that will work across state lines,” says Huhn. “This will set the precedent for policies related to smart region infrastructure and attract resources here.”
Smart cities solutions not only offer businesses, utilities and municipalities technology to optimize infrastructure and reduce costs, but have applications for the public as well.
“We can create better neighborhoods and communities by having regional conversations and implementing solutions that will improve the experience of residents and visitors,” says Huhn. “It could be something simple like reserving a parking space downtown or address complex issues like the heroin epidemic. The Smart Regions Conference will be a catalyst for regional collaboration.”
You can register for the Oct. 25 Smart Regions Conference and for Smart Cities Day on Oct. 12 now.
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