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
Kin crafts flavor into hard seltzer market, targeting overlooked Black consumers looking for authentic social experiences
The founding trio of a new hard seltzer crafted in Kansas City hopes the drink will add much-needed inclusivity to the craft seltzer space. Kin Seltzer is a collaboration between Joshua Lewis and Kearra Johnson of UpDown Nightlife, and Eric Martens of Border Brewing Company. Currently, leading seltzer brands target their marketing predominantly to white…
KC mom’s goal for her daughters’ brewing coffee business: Making history, served Blakk
Germaneke Drone is steeping her daughters’ entrepreneurial vision with her own lived experience to turn the kids’ idea into the Kansas City-based, dairy-free mobile coffee cafe of their dreams, the Blakk Brew founder said. Growing up with a Vietnamese grandmother, Kai, 8, and Keanu, 6, were introduced to coffee and tea culture at an early…
Danza returns with a new music video (and business cards); why this award-winning KC performer is chasing more than success
The idea of “making it” in the music industry isn’t what drives Anthony Louderback to create vulnerable, truth-filled melodies, he shared — rather, his creative outlet has taken him on a life-long exploration of himself and his community. “When I first started releasing music, I didn’t know that it was going to be this journey…
Top 10 unfurled after banner year: KC Chamber narrows contenders for ‘Small Business of the Year’
A half-dozen fresh-faced ventures — plus a few high-profile returning businesses — round out the Top 10 finalists for the KC Chamber’s 2023 Small Business of the Year award, announced publicly Friday during a social media rollout. “Small businesses drive KC’s economy, and we couldn’t be more excited for this year’s Top 10, and the…
