"Beyond Smart Cities: How Cities Network, Learn, Innovate" - Tim Campbell, Urban Age Institute
In addition to the webinar Learning Series, we will also be interviewing global thought leaders to share their current projects, innovative ideas, research and more. I interviewed three urban sustainability experts and to share with you their work and ideas.
Urban Age Institute Chairman Tim Campbell is researching how cities learn. This is particularly interesting information for this online community as we facilitate learnings and best practices from city to city. His research also touches on the challenges of governments that can be in silos, which is often discussed in the Smart+Connected Communities Institute.
Once I caught up with Tim Campbell, who was sailing from Ibiza to Gibraltar along the Spanish coast and then spending a couple of weeks in Egypt, he told me about his research for his new book "Beyond Smart Cities: How Cities Network, Learn, Innovate." Campbell conducts his research by surveys and face-to-face interviews, and the findings will be included in his book. The cities are not the largest or the smallest in terms of population, rather his subjects are average-sized cities- 1 to 5 million in population. He has interviewed up to 25 key players in each city during the face-to-face research.
"Cities are learning from each other," he said. "In this process, they are reaching out to other cities on many questions, such as how did they get ICT, talent and a lot more."
Campbell sees cities becoming autonomous and developing their own self-sustaining personalities as they start to influence national decisions.
"Cities are taking on new responsibilities," Campbell said. "They are defining their role in international trade."
Campbell continued that Europe is a good example where this influence is already happening with the EU policy and movement. The European city regions have stronger presence and recognition with knowledge, economies, regional cities linking together, including academic institutions and city hall.
According to Campbell, cities learn in many ways, but face to face contacts that build trust is very important. To start, the cities explore their own changemakers, gradually forming a cloud of trust, and this facilitates collaboration with various civil, public and private groups. The "cloud of trust" became a beacon in Campbell's research. He discovered that trust is crucial with city leaders and management.
To hear more about Tim Campbell's research, the Smart+Connected Communities Institute will host Campbell at a live webinar at noon EST February 22 via WebEx Event.
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