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
Rock Chalk startup: KU offers pitch contest for students, faculty
The University of Kansas is gearing up for a new pitch competition set for Oct. 7. The inaugural ‘Celebration of Innovation: A Startup Showcase‘ will feature 10-minute pitches from six KU faculty-led startup companies and five that are student-created. The student startups will be ranked by a team of judges, and the company that clinches the…
Events Preview: ECJC Founders Series, KC Tech Reception
There are a boatload of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter or curious Kansas Citian, we’d recommend these upcoming events for you. WEEKLY EVENT PREVIEW Founder Series: Gaining Working Capital Without Losing Equity When: October 1 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Where: Enterprise Center of Johnson…
Mayor Sly James commits $10K for women in business efforts
Kansas City Mayor Sly James recently announced two initiatives to benefit women in business and in science, technology, engineering and math fields. James pledged $10,000 toward the Women’s Business Center‘s “WE-Lend Microloan Program,” which supports women-owned businesses in Kansas City, Mo., through funding, technical assistance and access to a financial coach. The mayor also announced additional support for…
