You have heard of smart phones, televisions, and watches but what about ‘Smart Cities’? Smart cities work to implement new technologies to boost connectivity, productivity and liveability within our urban spaces. Over the last few years Dublin has made great advances in this new space – and is now on the way to being the world’s smartest city.
Building Momentum
The Smart Docklands Steering Group, under the direction of Jamie Cudden, Smart City Manager, has seen Dublin’s profile as a smart city gather momentum indeed. Dublin City Council, have put considerable resources behind smart projects including smart flood prediction, smart bins, smart lighting and numerous smart cycle projects.
Dublin’s Docklands – A Unique Environment
The Docklands area is unique to Europe. What was once a run down neighbourhood now generates 9% of Ireland’s GDP. 44,000 people are employed there, with another 20,000 – 40,000 more expected in the next 2 years. This, along with the presence of most of the World’s top tech companies, makes Dublin’s Docklands the ideal testbed for new technologies. This area has been given special status by Dublin City Council, and many new smart tech projects are currently being tested in this unique environment.
Companies such as Google, Cisco and Vodafone are all testing world first technologies in the district. Vodafone have selected Dublin Docklands as the global testbed for Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) – their new standard for connecting Internet Of Things projects.
In November 2017, Dublin was shortlisted for a ‘Smart City of the Year’ award at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. This award is aimed at rewarding cities that demonstrate strategies, initiatives and policies for their citizens.
An Exclusive ‘Smart Docklands’ Collaboration
IDEA are specialists in smart city marketing and are part of the leadership team for the ‘Smart Docklands’ project. This group has a growing number of engaged tech partners including Google, Huawei, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, Vodafone, AT&T, Three, IBM, Dell, Ericsson, Accenture, Deloitte and Trinity Connect. Can you think of any other project that would lead these companies to sit around the same table? These companies choose to get involved thanks to the Smart Docklands collaborative spirit and the potential rewards for it’s citizens and tech partners.
This kind of collaboration is not the norm for other Smart City projects around the globe (it’s generally university led theoretical projects with maybe one or two tech companies supporting minor local smart technology projects) . To have this many partners engaging, co-operating and exchanging valuable data to create something better is extremely unique.
IDEA – Smart City Marketing Specialists
This is the type of engagement that IDEA thrives on. These creative, communicative challenges enable us to deliver to top levels of corporate and municipal activity. The vision of Dublin City Council’s two main Smart City promoters (their City and Smart City Managers) is becoming a reality at a rapid rate. It is our prediction that within two or three years Dublin will be taking home the prestigious ‘Smart City of the Year’ title. Watch this space!
Ciaran Flanagan, Managing Director
