Kansas City hosting NIST national smart cities conference
February 7, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
Kansas City’s smart city creds are on the national stage.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology selected Kansas City as the first city to host a national conference that encourages collaboration and establishes standards for smart cities.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Think Big Partners and the City of Kansas City, Mo. will host Global City Teams Challenge SuperCluster Workshop on City Platform. With discussions on data collection, smart city challenges and working on corporate partners, the workshop is expecting about 100 officials from around the nation. Local speakers include Kansas City Mayor Sly James, Think Big managing partner Herb Sih, KCMO chief innovation officer Bob Bennett and innovation analyst Kate Garman.
Kansas City officially kicked off its smart city project in May of 2016. The $15.7 million public-private project aims to transform Kansas City’s downtown into a living lab of Wi-Fi connectivity on and around the 2.2-mile streetcar line. Via a Sprint Wi-Fi network stretching more than 50 square blocks in downtown, the project will provide a variety of information to citizens while also collecting data on their behavior in downtown.
The project is a collaboration between Kansas City, Sprint, Cisco and Think Big Partners. Kansas City signed an agreement with Sprint and Cisco in June to create the largest smart city in North America with the intention to improve municipal services.
NIST smart city director Dr. Sokwoo Rhee chose Kansas City because it’s becoming a leader in civic data and smart city technologies, Bob Bennett said. The workshop’s format launched in October and similar NIST events will be held in Portland, Atlanta and Washington D.C. this month.
Bennett said that the conference signifies the success of the city’s smart city initiative. He’s hopeful that the conference will further the project’s momentum.
“This conference will allow the city to add the expertise of smart city practitioners from 16 other smart cities, five federal agencies and two other countries who encounter the same governance challenges we face and refine our current data sets and analysis platforms,” Bennett said.
To learn more about the workshop, click here. Or to learn more about the city’s smart city effort, click here.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Venture experts: Getting your first check in KC is too difficult, but a record influx of coastal investors isn’t a bad substitute
A new report on Kansas City’s venture-backed companies showed year-over-year growth in multiple areas — impressing industry experts who identified key investment trends in the data. More companies with venture capital backing; higher employee counts; a 58 percent boost in fundraising. Yet growth was not universal. Despite gains in top-line figures, the number of Kansas City-based…
RX Savings Solutions sale would see the startup acquired for up to $875M in KC’s biggest-ever exit
The McKesson Corporation has agreed to purchase Overland Park-prescribed Rx Savings Solutions in a deal worth nearly $1 billion. McKesson announced Monday that it had entered into an agreement with the prescription pricing startup valued at up to $875 million — more than double the $425 million price tag for which Kansas City-built Backlot Cars…
KC team developing tool to get low-income entrepreneurs online (and it just got a $240K boost)
A collaborative project to “bridge the gap” in Kansas City’s digital divide secured one of the 2022 Heartland Challenge grants from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. PCs for People Kansas City (formerly Connecting for Good), in partnership with The Usher Garage and No-Where Consultants, will receive $240,000 in funding to be used over two years…
How this KC trucking platform is helping drivers achieve the ‘American Dream’ amid high industry demands, burnout
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of truck drivers in the American economy, said Jeff Dema; and Foxpoint is targeting its efforts to ensure that drivers succeed and stay in the demanding industry. “Being a truck driver is a hard job. They’re gone 250 plus nights a year from their home. It requires lots of…