Kansas City seeks leaders for Smart City board
May 28, 2015 | Bobby Burch
The City of Kansas City, Mo., is now seeking nominations to lead the city’s smart city efforts.
City leaders hope to attract citizens with experience in smart city technologies to help advise the City of Fountain’s coming Cisco Smart City project, in addition to its other smart city efforts.
The newly authorized “Smart City Advisory Board” will help the city establish best-practice policies for smart city applications, which combine a communications and data network to make the city more efficient. To nominate a citizen for the smart city board, click here.
Cisco and Kansas City announced in May of 2014 that the two would partner to create North America’s largest smart city project. The public-private initiative will turn Kansas City’s downtown into a “living lab” of connectivity that will gain insights on the city’s traffic, public safety, coming streetcar line and more. The project in total will cost about $15 million, according to the Kansas City Business Journal.
Business incubator and coworking space Think Big Partners plans to act as a “development portal” manager for the project, allowing area entrepreneurs to access Smart City data. Kansas City Mayor Sly James previously challenged startups and entrepreneurs in the area to develop solutions to improve the city, including its water system.
Featured Business

2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Pure Pitch Rally reveals competitors for its 10th crowd-funded, spot-cash pitch contest
Eight emerging startups set to take the Pure Pitch Rally stage next month will become part of the Kansas City tech community’s evolving story, said Karen Fenaroli, touting a decade of impact that has seen millions in follow-on capital raised and thousands of jobs created across the region. “It is no longer just an event,”…
Sisters brew backyard-style beers from a historic firehouse in Budweiser territory
Editor’s note: The following story was produced through a paid partnership with MOSourceLink, which boasts a mission to help entrepreneurs and small businesses across the state of Missouri grow and succeed by providing free, easy access to the help they need — when they need it. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A midlife career crisis took Carol…
LISTEN: Meet the partners behind Plug and Play Topeka’s growth (and impact)
On a special episode of Startland News’ 12-part podcast series diving deeper into Plug and Play, we explore how the Topeka-based program and its partners work to turn bold ideas into Kansas success stories. Guests includes Bret Lanz from Kansas State University’s Technology Development Institute; John G. Brown of StenCo; and Cole Ahlvers from NQV8…
