Bristol came 2nd in 2016 and 1st in 2017 in an index of UK smart cities. That’s quite an achievement. To explore this success, last month we helped facilitate and co-ordinate the Bristol Smart City Showcase at the Smart IoT conference in London; one of the biggest of its kind with over 20,000 attendees. I spoke about the importance of open data in creating a ‘city as a platform’, as well as being on a really interesting panel about service transformation and the IoT featuring Pete Anderson (Head of the Bristol Operations Centre). Adam Drake, our CPO, also spoke alongside the always insightful Joanna White from Highways England on autonomous and connective vehicles. All of these subjects being very topical given the incidents with Uber and Facebook / Cambridge Analytica breaking that week.
This event was interesting and popular because the ecosystem in Bristol and the region has lots of strengths; world class universities, forward thinking local authorities, real engagement with businesses, and amazing civil society organisations to name a few.
However, I do feel there is potential to do so much more:
- Structures matter: The public sector, quite rightly in my opinion, is risk averse and hierarchical to safeguard public money and keep vital services afloat; but this is not the best combination for organisational and city innovation to thrive even in a dynamic place like Bristol. There are a number of ways to address these issues which Bristol has had some success in. Ideas need to go straight to decision makers and innovators need the freedom and empowerment to take well considered opportunities and can cut through the layers ‘no-people’. My concern is as budgets contract, the pressure to become more centralised, more bureaucratic, and for cuts to fall on ‘nice to have’ areas like innovation will increase. I believe that would be short-sighted.
- Facilitate closer working with start-ups: Bristol and Bath have some great business incubators; SETsquared, Bristol Robotics Labs and e-Spark to name a few, and a thriving start-up scene. However, I think the Bristol and Bath region would benefit from start-ups having a chance to regularly pitch ideas (perhaps developed with a public sector manager) to the local public sector leadership, with a small amount of ‘test and learn’ pilot, scale-up, and commercialisation funding. The City of Heidelberg in Germany are creating a digital hub where start-ups and city departments can meet and co-innovate. Exeter City Futures have also set up an accelerator programme bringing the city and start-ups together.
- Digital / smart city strategies need less waffle and more action: Lastly, let’s not have huge strategies and plans that sit on the shelf. Public sector organisations need to have their own agile innovation roadmaps / action plans which then tie into (where relevant) regional partnership and national strategies. There needs to be an agreed vision, a plan, and outcome measures, but also the right resources to make any regional strategy happen.
Luke is co-founder and CEO at YoUrban. He is a former smart city programme manager at Bristol City Council where he secured a £33m pipeline of technology projects. He is a Member of the ODI, and a Winston Churchill and RSA Fellow. His interests and experiences are driven from his passion for catalysing innovation in organisations and our local and global communities.
YoUrban is a new type of consultancy that researches, develops and provides advice on digital strategies, services and technologies to increase the quality of life, sustainability and resilience of citizens, communities and cities. We are specialists in the areas of big data, robotics, AI, telecommunications, digital transformation and smart cities.