SmartCity workshop looks at technology and innovation to serve the community

Finnish visitors, Janne Mustonen from the City of Oulu Municipality, and Markku Joutsenoja from the University of Oulu seen inspecting IT equipment during their visit to IT Department at the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. The Finnish delegation on the roof of one of the buildings at the Automotive Supplier Park in Rosslyn.

Local participants and international visitors recently attended a three day SmartCity workshop held at the Conference Venue at The Innovation Hub. The aim of the workshop was to highlight the importance of partnerships in the evolution of Smart Cities. Stakeholders of the SmartCity Community Contact Project rubbed shoulders with business representatives from the City of Oulu in Finland to discuss "technology and innovation in the service of the community".

SmartCity partner representatives included participants from the Youth Development Trust, Khanyisa Real Systems, City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, Embassy of Finland, USAID, the Hub and the SmartCity project candidates. Those from the City of Oulu hailed from various Finnish organisations including Technopolis Oulu, VTT Research Organisation, the City of Oulu Municipality, as well as the University of Oulu.

The first day of the workshop focused on enhancing service delivery in local government. Presenters from the Hub, Youth Development Trust, City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and the Finnish delegation gave workshop participants an overview of South African-Finnish collaboration and a background sketch of the SmartCity initiative.

The second and third days involved presentations from the Finnish team about different mobile technologies that can be replicated in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality to enhance service delivery.

During the workshop delegates visited the IT department at the City of Tshwane Municipality, the Automotive Supplier Park in Rosslyn and the Meraka Open Source Centre at the CSIR. Like the Hub, the Automotive Supplier Park is one of the Gauteng Provincial Government's major Blue IQ infrastructure investment projects to spur economic growth in the Province.

The workshop concluded with the signing of a partnership agreement between the City of Tshwane and the City of Oulu in Finland, overseen by representatives from both Municipalities as well as planning for a follow-up workshop in Finland in mid-November this year. The aim of that workshop will be to enforce the partnership between the two cities, as well as the Finnish team providing technical advice to the SmartCity Community Contact Project.

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