BroadbandUSA’s June 19, 2019, webinar discussed initiatives to develop smart cities and communities aimed at increasing the quality of life for all residents. Speakers from the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC), the Tahoe Transportation District and the Greater Washington Board of Trade gave presentations on projects in their jurisdictions.

Projects covered in the webinar included building and sustaining smart cities, using technology to save energy for power usage, street light coordination with traffic patterns, and improving public safety response times. Some specific topic areas included:

• Rallying communities -- Maci Morin, NARC program coordinator, talked about the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) Smart Regions initiative that encourages communities across the U.S. to use smart technology to provide financial and social benefits for all residents.
• Handling uptick in visitors -- Danielle Hughes, manager of the Tahoe Transportation District, talked about local programs to combat environment and transportation issues for the Lake Tahoe Basin, California and Nevada. The large influx of annual visitors has heightened the need for efficient traffic management and communication systems.
• Creating regional digital infrastructure – Karl Darin, smart region program lead for the Greater Washington Board of Trade, described the group’s partnership strategy for bringing area governments and stakeholders together to develop common tech solutions. Nearly 250 people from 120 organizations meet regularly to design the project.

The panelists strongly endorsed using public-private partnership to achieve their goals. For more information on the webinar, see the presentation, transcript and audio.