Smart in the City – The BABLE Podcast

In the second episode of our Smart Dublin mini-series, we spoke with Luke Binns, Smart Dublin Projects Coordinator, and Gabriel Byrne, Systems Analyst & Team Leader in the South Dublin County Council, about the world of open data and data ecosystems.   Overview of the episode: 02:43 - Teaser: What are things that people get usually wrong about open data? 04:37 - What are Luke and Gay working on specifically? What is Dublinked and how does it work? 08:30 - Is there a time when data shouldn't be open? 11:00 - What are the challenges when it comes to citizen engagement? 12:35 - All about Dublin Region's Climate Action Challenge 16:20 - Gay's passion project: Hale and Hearty 18:40 - What could be the negative consequences of open data? 20:15 - How do you keep data up to date? 26:51 - Shoutout: our guests mention a person, an organisation or a city they think deserves more recognition in the field 29:55 - 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! ...

With this episode, we are kicking off a special podcast series in collaboration with Smart Dublin, featuring and digging into some of the most unique aspects of the Dublin ecosystem and what makes Smart Dublin really a strong example at the forefront of Smart Cities in Europe and beyond. For this first Dublin Month episode, we sat down with Alan Murphy, Smart Dublin's Regional Manager, and discussed Smart Dublin's goals and mission, as well as the Smart City ecosystem in Dublin, Ireland.   Overview of the episode: 01:56 - Teaser: If Dublin were an animal, what would it be? 02:53 - What is Smart Dublin? 05:00 - What is a Smart region? 07:20 - The challenge of coordinating a wide range of stakeholders 11:51 - What makes the Dublin ecosystem unique? 14:55 - Pieces of advice for people working with the Quadruple Helix Model 16:01 - Alan Murphy's favourite Smart Dublin project: the Dublin Rough Sleeper Alerts App 20:00 - What does Dublin being part of the 100 cities for the EU Mission for Climate Neutral and Smart Cities mean for Smart Dublin? 25:15 - Trial and Error: What went wrong? What mistakes were made along the way, and more importantly, what lessons were learned? 28:39 - 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! ...

At this new stop on our journey toward a better urban life, we discuss digitalisation, citizen engagement, mobility and more with Claus Ruhe Madsen, former Mayor of the city of Rostock: the German 'Smile City'.   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!   Overview of the episode:    02:25 - Teaser: Learn Fun Facts about the city of Rostock 03:40 - What's our guest's background? 07:45 - Hear about Claus' favourite projects and what he is passionate about. 11:42 - Data protection in Germany: a hot topic 19:10 - How can we ensure that a project has the right impact? 20:40 - Knowledge transfer from Scandinavia: how we can learn better from each other 23:10 - Participative decision-making in Rostock 25:00 - What are Rostock's mobility goals? 34:30 - Roll with the Punches: our guest answers "this or that" questions 36:06 -  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! ...

Our next stop on this journey is in the city of Glasgow, Scotland with Gavin Slater, Head of Sustainability at the Glasgow City Council, who discussed sustainability, Climate Plan, innovation districts and urban planning with us. Glasgow is part of the Urbact Global Goals for Cities Network, working to accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in 19 cities of the EU, through peer learning and integrated action planning.   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!   Overview of the episode: 01:58 - Teaser: is it true that the Glasgow City Chambers have more marble than the Vatican? 03:00 - Gavin Slater's professional background: "always trying to make a real difference from a public sector point of view" 04:48 - How does Gavin sees the impacts following COP26? 06:30 - What is sustainability? 08:00 - Focus on Glasgow's Climate Plan 09:25 - What is the biggest hurdle? 11:45 - How can you work in a political sphere where politicians are concerned about their ongoing position? 15:20 - What issues do you face when working with the private sector? 16:46 - The Climate Neutral Innovation District in the city centre of Glasgow 20:18 - Who are the stakeholders and how are they cohesively involved? 23:10 - What is the key to stop planning and start implementing? 27:35 - Roll with the Punches: our guest answers "this or that" questions 29:42 -  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! ...

Let's take a moment on this journey toward a better urban life to reminisce about 5 years of Smart City projects at BABLE with host Tamyn Shimizu, CEO Alexander Schmidt, Senior UKI Consultant Nikita Shetty, Smart Cities Consultant Shannon Macika and Iberia Consultant and Business Developer Héctor Cañas. BABLE Smart Cities was established 5 years ago with the goal of helping cities to become smarter, more sustainable and more livable. Along this journey, we collaborated with many partners and cities on different projects that we wanted to celebrate on this special day. 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! Overview of the episode: 04:15 - Shannon's favourite project: SPARCS (Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS) 06:12 - What were this project's challenges? 07:42 - Nikita's favourite project: the development of a Smart District in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland 09:00 - Who were the stakeholders involved in this project? 10:50 - What were the main challenges of this 2 years-long project? 12:10 - An advice for cities wanting to develop a Smart District 13:17 - Hector's favourite project: working on a Smart Mobility Strategy for the city of Beasain, Spain 13:57 - Why do cities need a Smart Mobility strategy? 15:35 - What are the impacts of this project, and the limitations of these impacts? 17:42 - Alex's favourite project: developing a delivery system based on electric cargo bikes in the city of Ettlingen, Germany 19:25 - Are there determinating factors for the speed of a project? 21:48 - Hot Take of the Day: we hear an opinion from our guests that may be slightly controversial or ...

Today our journey leads us to the Municipality of Gladsaxe in Denmark, where the lighting design practice Light Bureau has implemented a red Bat-Friendly LED Street Lighting along an important traffic artery, and all for the sake of bats! We welcomed Rune Brandt Hermannsson, Visualizer and Designer at Light Bureau, Philip Jelvard, Lighting Designer and VR Specialist at Light Bureau and Jonas Jørgensen, Project Manager of traffic and facilities at Gladsaxe to discuss this project. Overview of the episode: 04:50 - Teaser: If the lights were a different colour than red, what colour would they be? 11:15 - What was the public reception of the project? 13:50 - How will light interact with biodiversity in the future? 15:25 - Are red lights as safe for pedestrians and cyclists as a white light might be? 19:30 - What are the next steps after this pilot? 26:20 - Trial and Error: What went wrong? What mistakes were made along the way, and more importantly, what lessons were learned? 32:00 - 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! ...