The Smart+Connected Communities Institute will host Hardik Bhatt at 11:30 a.m. ET on December 14 to present a webinar, "How to make an existing community smarter and connected: A case study."

Bhatt is the former CIO of the City of Chicago and the champion for  Chicago’s Digital Excellence efforts, and now carries that torchlight  for Cisco, to develop smart and connected communities around the globe.

See the link below to access the webinar presentation and audio the day of the event.

Presentation:

How would you make a 170 years old community smarter and connected so it can complete with a new community coming up on the other side of the world with completely new thought, design and technology? Chicago tried to do exactly that. The Chicago approach was both-  top-down: when it came to infrastructure and bottom-up: when it came to Digital awareness and literacy. But on both ends, success lies in creating partnerships with stakeholders across various sectors.

More About Bhatt:

Hardik Bhatt is working for Cisco’s Global Smart + Connected Communities group as Director of Business Development and strategy. Hardik oversees Cisco’s large, marquee Smart Connected Communities projects for the Americas. Hardik joined Cisco after being the Chief Information Officer of the City of Chicago and Commissioner for Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology for close to 5 years.

As the CIO, Hardik had been leading a team of 250+ employees and consultants with an annual budget of over $150 Million. Hardik also lead Mayor Daley’s charge for universal and affordable broadband for all Chicagoans through various initiatives, including the Smart Communities program. In last 3 years, Hardik brought over $25 Million from Federal, State, Foundation and Private sector sources for Chicago’s Smart Communities program. On the way, he was instrumental in establishing partnerships with Chicagoland Healthcare providers, Utility and energy sector leaders as well as public safety, transportation and non-profit leaders.

Prior to joining the public sector, Hardik worked as a consultant with Oracle corporation in the US and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India. Hardik has an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from M. S. University, Baroda, India.

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Additional Resources from Webinar:

PowerPoint Slide Deck

As part of the Smart+Connected Communities Institute Learning Series, we will offer a webinar at 11:30 a.m. EST March 30, 2011.

The webinar "Driving the Next Generation Learning Experience" will be presented by Vito Amato, Ph.D, Education Manager for Cisco Systems.

What does it take to successfully implement the next generation learning experience?  The next generation learning experience takes many shapes and forms, and most educational institutions employ one method or another. This webinar will provide trends, challenges, best practices, solutions and practical methodologies relevant to driving and implementing the next generation learning experience.  The next generation learning strategy focuses on the implementation of a solution that can enable highly interactive and collaborative teaching and learning experiences, while delivering any content, anytime, anywhere to any device.

Dr. Amato will present flexible and comprehensive approaches to harnessing the power of next generation learning solutions to enhance teaching and learning. The goal of this webinar is to present approaches to implementing the next generation learning experience, which will enable an understanding and confidence when evaluating, analyzing, designing, developing, and implementing next generation learning solutions.  In addition, this webinar aims to assist the community of practitioners and decision makers in education to better understand the components of the next generation learning experience along with the key areas of focus for deploying solutions that effectively meet the needs and requirements of the various stakeholders involved in the implementation process.

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"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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POWERPOINT SLIDES:

http://www.smartconnectedcommunities.org/docs/DOC-1580

The Smart+Connected Communities Institute will launch its monthly Learning Series on December 14.   The webinars will feature sustainable urban development subject matters experts from around the globe. They will share their implementation successes and challenges as well as best practices and innovation in the areas of real estate, urban planning,  transportation, buildings-energy consumption, education, information and  communication technology and more.  Mark your calendar!

"What is a Smart+Connected Community?" presented by Gordon Feller, Cisco Systems

RECORDING:

PRESENTATION SLIDES:

http://www.smartconnectedcommunities.org/docs/DOC-1476