WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Smart Cities Council today released version 1.0 of the Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide, the first comprehensive, vendor-neutral smart city handbook for city leaders and planners. Designed with input from leading smart city and urban planning experts as well as top global technology companies, the Guide enables city leaders to assess their current state of technology and its readiness to become a smart city.
The Guide is being unveiled at a smart cities workshop and press announcement with the renowned ESADE Business School’s Institute of Public Governance and Management. The event takes place November 18 at 4:00 p.m. CET, the day before the Smart City Expo World Congress begins in Barcelona, Spain. Interested parties can view the event and press announcement by visiting http://www.esade.edu/research-webs/eng/igdp.
An early version of The Readiness Guide was introduced and "beta-tested" in summer 2013. In addition to input from over 100 experts, the first draft was evaluated by progressive U.S. cities including Baltimore, Dallas, Green Bay, Hartford and Orlando.
“Critical to our future success as a smart city is a clear understanding of how to procure technology effectively,” said Hartford, Connecticut Mayor Pedro E. Segarra. "In fact, our core values drive us to create a collaborative work environment that promotes sharing, creativity, and openness to new ideas. The Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide offers us new ideas and has helped set the foundation for our 2030 planning. It is the tool that will help Hartford move forward.”
The Guide is a collection of guidelines, best practices and more than 50 case studies. It helps a city create its own customized "wish list" with the confidence that it has not left out anything essential and that all the pieces will work together even if they are built in stages. The Guide outlines 27 proven principles to follow in order to guarantee success and avoid pitfalls.
“Over the next twenty years, the world’s 700 largest cities are projected to make a cumulative infrastructure investment of $30-$40 trillion,” said founding Smart Cities Council Chairman Jesse Berst. “It is essential that they invest wisely. Because it was produced collaboratively by some of the world’s top smart city experts, the Readiness Guide prepares city leaders to make informed decisions that will enhance the livability, workability and sustainability of their cities.”
The Guide includes vendor-neutral technology recommendations on all eight of a city’s most important responsibilities: the built environment, energy, telecommunications, transportation, water and waste water, health and human services, public safety, and payments.
It is available for free download at http://smartcitiescouncil.com/resources/smart-cities-readiness-guide.
Current Smart Cities Council Lead Partners include: Alstom, AT&T, Bechtel, Cisco, Electricite de France, General Electric, IBM, Itron, MasterCard, Microsoft, National Grid, Qualcomm, and S&C Electric. Associate Partners include: ABB, Alphinat, Grid2020, Invensys, MaxWest, Opower, SunGard Public Sector and Zipcar.
Current Smart Cities Council Advisors include many of the world’s leading universities, national laboratories, standards bodies, climate advocacy groups, and development banks.
About Smart Cities Council
The Smart Cities Council is comprised of the foremost experts and leading global companies in the smart technologies sector, who serve as advisors and resources. Its goal is to accelerate the growth of smart cities worldwide by providing city leaders with access to technology counsel, financial tools, policy frameworks, visibility campaigns, and advocacy. For more information, visit www.smartcitiescouncil.com.
