Strategies for city leaders to generate successful smart city initiatives

What are some best practices city leaders should embrace when launching smart city initiatives?

Mayors, city managers and department heads should avoid choosing flashy projects simply because they use popular new technologies. They should also avoid starting too many projects at once. Instead, city leaders should focus on issues that will impact their community.

When launching smart city initiatives, the first things leaders should do are clearly define the specific problems they want to solve, create a dedicated budget and establish a priority list. Only then should they begin to use technology to solve those problems.

What role do peer-to-peer relationships among city leaders play in smart city initiatives?

Peer-to-peer relationships are critical to move civic innovation from concept to scale.

Each mayor or city manager will get one, maybe two, opportunities to do something completely new and unique for their city. Budget limitations and the capacity of a political leader to fail only once or twice limit the appetite for innovation in government. However, a local leader can enact a multitude of programs by turning to the successful work of their peers.

Mayors and city managers can emulate other city programs by making easily linked modifications to meet their city’s specific needs. With a large peer network, city leaders have a number of validated solutions at their fingertips, which can lead to impactful local change.

What can government leaders do to ensure their smart city initiatives are secure?

Do not skimp. Government leaders need to be comfortable spending the money necessary to work with validated solutions for cyber security. You need large-scale monitoring, rapid development capabilities and responsiveness to do this well. As a city leader, you cannot afford an attack on your system — monetarily or organizationally. If you decide to go with a cheaper alternative, you will most likely end up paying in failure and ultimately purchasing the more expensive solution.

How has the pandemic changed the way cities implement or utilize smart city solutions?

Like all of us, cities are focusing on their most critical priorities, and they must do so with limited resources. Right now, those critical priorities are typically public health and public safety. Any smart city initiative that fails to address these priorities is likely not going to be viable for the next few years. Mayors and city managers should therefore look toward initiatives that will address problems related to these current priorities.

As a smart city project progresses, what common mistakes should government leaders avoid?

Don’t hype the use of technology when informing the public or your peers of a new smart city initiative. To hype the application of a technology as a personal triumph ignores the innate creativity, intelligence and dedication of local government professionals to recognize and address a problem.

Instead, government leaders should emphasize the fact that they are solving a particular community problem, and that they are using technology as a tool.