Smart in the City – The BABLE Podcast

In this episode, we talked with Katerina Nikolopoulou about INCIRCLE, an Interreg MED project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund which supports INsular and low-density areas in the transition towards a more CIRCular tourism Economy. Katerina works for the Greek-speaking branch of the CIVITAS Initiative, CIVINET Greece-Cyprus as the network manager.   Register now for our new online training course: SMARTER CONNECTED PLACES - experiential learning for tomorrow's urban leaders which will take place from 15.11.2022 to 06.12.2022.   Overview of the episode: 02:55 - Teaser: Learn a fun fact about circular tourism economy. 04:18 - What is CIVINET Greece-Cyprus and what does it do? 06:10 - What is a circular tourism economy? 08:20 - What are the pillars of the project? 09:18 - What are the specific challenges related to insular areas? 19:38 - Which cities are involved and what are the similarities and differences that they face? 14:18 - How are challenges in Greece different than in other countries? 17:25 - How do we overcome the challenge of data collection? 20:07 - What can cities and those working in this space learn from this project? 24:21 - What are the limitations to this kind of project? 29:19 - Can tourism be really sustainable? 31:49 - Trial and Error: what went wrong? What mistakes were made along the way, and more importantly, what lessons were learned? 36:30 -  Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?   Liked our show? Remember to rate it! Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu. And for more insights, join our Smart City Community! ...

For this episode, our journey towards a better urban life led us to the beautiful city of Innsbruck in Austria. We sat down with Elisabeth Meze, the former Head of Citizens' Participation of Innsbruck, currently searching for new challenges within climate and sustainability management with participation.   Register now for our new online training course: SMARTER CONNECTED PLACES - experiential learning for tomorrow's urban leaders which will take place from 15.11.2022 to 06.12.2022.   Overview of the episode:  02:21 - Teaser: Elisabeth has her own podcast! For our German speakers, listen now to 'Nachhaltig Wohnen - mit Herz und Hirn' and learn all about sustainable living. 03:45 - How is Elisabeth encouraging people to turn to a less resource consumption lifestyle? 06:02 - Elisabeth's passion project: the Cool-INN climate-fit Park refurbishment and climate saloon 11:50 - How long did Elisabeth work in citizen participation? 15:18 - What is the key to citizen participation? 19:30 - Is convincing people to use less resources a losing battle? 22:06 - Can everyone afford to use fewer resources? 24:20 - Pieces of advice for councils or people wanting to engage and convince citizens? 26:06 - Inspire Us: a story, a quote, or anything that has inspired our guest recently 26:50 -  Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?   Liked our show? Remember to rate it! Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu. And for more insights, join our Smart City Community! ...

In the sixth and last episode of our Smart Dublin mini-series, we talked about the Smart Balbriggan programme and the community-based and innovative projects of this small town of 25,000 inhabitants on the northern edge of Dublin’s coast.  For this, we had the pleasure to discuss with Aishling Hyland, the Fingal County Council Digital Programme Officer.   Overview of the episode: 02:26 - Aishling's background 03:27 - Teaser: Fun facts about Balbriggan  06:24 - What is the population of Balbriggan? 07:37 - What are Balbriggan's challenges? Is it too small to be qualified as 'Smart'? 09:36 - What's the story of Smart Balbriggan? How did it start with Smart Dublin, and what were the milestones? 14:00 - The WeCount project: EU-funded 'citizen science' project that empowers citizens to take a leading role in measuring road traffic and air pollution in their neighbourhoods 14:44 - What has been the biggest challenge in getting citizens involved? 18:38 - A digital replica of Balbriggan for citizen engagement 21:32 - Roll with the Punches: our guest answers this or that questions quickly and with their first instincts  23:34 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?   Liked our show? Remember to rate it! Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu. And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!   Is your company a leader in sustainability, innovation, or a key player in the Smart City field? Join us for BABLE's Innovation Market Watch! ...

In the fifth episode of our Smart Dublin mini-series, we ventured into Smart Docklands – located in the heart of Dublin and a major centre of innovation and employment – with Darach Mac Donncha, Programme Manager at Smart Docklands.   Overview of the episode: 01:55 - Teaser: Three words to describe Smart Docklands 02:46 - Darach's background 06:30 - What makes Smart Docklands special? 10:50 - Darach's favourite project and its related challenges: the Academy of the Near Future 19:27 - How can you address different types of stakeholders in these projects? 27:29 - Roll with the Punches: our guest answers this or that questions quickly and with their first instincts  31:08 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?   Liked our show? Remember to rate it! Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu. And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!   Is your company a leader in sustainability, innovation, or a key player in the Smart City field? Join us for BABLE's Innovation Market Watch! ...

In the third episode of our Smart Dublin mini-series, we focused on Smart DCU, a collaboration between Dublin City Council and partners Enable, Insight and DCU Alpha. Smart DCU aims to develop, test and trial cutting-edge technology innovations within the university campus. We thus sat down with Kieran Mahon, the Smart DCU Projects Facilitator, and discussed living labs, autism-friendly campus, Digital Twins, robot delivery and more!   Overview of the episode: 01:50 - Teaser: Did Kieran attend Dublin City University? 03:07 - What is Kieran's background? 03:54 - Who are the partners within Smart DCU and how do they collaborate? 04:34 - How did this collaboration come to fruition? 05:39 - Are there limitations to using a university campus as a living lab? 06:56 - Kieran's favourite projects: Digital Twin 08:39 - Pieces of Advice for people looking at Digital Twins and its related challenges 09:37 - Does this kind of work can be replicated in other places? 10:24 - Talking about the Smart DCU: Robot Delivery project 11:21 - What are the next steps for Smart DCU? 11:05 - Trial and Error: what went wrong? What mistakes were made along the way, and what lessons were learned? 19:12 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?   Liked our show? Remember to rate it! Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu. And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!   Is your company a leader in sustainability, innovation, or a key player in the Smart City field? Join us for BABLE's Innovation Market Watch! ...

In the third episode of our Smart Dublin mini-series, we focused on one of the Smart Districts of Dublin located on the east coast of Ireland: Dún Laoghaire. We spoke about the specific challenges and unique characteristics of this district with Dr Conor Dowling, the Smart Dún Laoghaire Programme Manager.   Overview of the episode: 02:03 - Teaser: If Dún Laoghaire were an animal, which animal would it be? 04:30 - What is Conor's background and how did he end up in Dún Laoghaire? 06:16 - What are the key challenges in Dún Laoghaire? How do partnerships help with these key issues? 07:20 - Conor's favourite project: SCORE (Smart Control Of the Climate Resilience in European Coastal Cities) 09:30 - How much can we future-proof our coastal towns at this point? Isn't it already a bit too late? 13:24 - What is the Collaborative Research Model and how does it work? 16:37 - How can we determine if the Smart Dún Laoghaire programme is successful? How can we assess the impact? 18:58 - Conor's take on IoT (Internet of Things) projects in Dublin: see our 'Accessible Parking: Using Satellite Data to Map Accessible Assets' Use Case 24:04 - Hot Take of the Day: hear an opinion from our guest that might be slightly controversial or debated 27:24 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?   Liked our show? Remember to rate it! Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu. And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!   Is your company a leader in sustainability, innovation, or a key player in the Smart City field? Join us for BABLE's Innovation Market Watch! ...