ASCA, SCCANZ forge agreement

Moves to see Australia create more smart cities and communities will be accelerated with the announcement that the Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand (SCCANZ) and the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA) have signed a far-reaching cooperation agreement.

The agreement will see the two groups — which between them represent the major parties involved in this emerging field — working together on programs designed to provide education, advice and coordinated advocacy on behalf of their members.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two groups will undertake a range of mutually beneficial activities in areas such as education, research, industry engagement, capacity building and advocacy.

“This partnership comes at a critical time in Australia’s smart cities journey, as it seeks to choose the path of world leader and net exporter in smart cities services,” said SCCANZ Executive Director Adam Beck.

“With the combined resources of ASCA and SCCANZ, we strongly believe our ability to catalyse opportunity and investment in smart cities will be enhanced.”

Laurie Patton, who was appointed inaugural CEO of ASCA late last year, sees the agreement as a positive move towards Australia developing a bipartisan and broadly agreed national strategy to promote the smart use of technology.

“Australia invented Wi-Fi, the heart pacemaker and the black box flight recorder, just to name a few things that have changed our lives. So we certainly have the track record to be fast-movers and to undertake a wide range of locally initiated smart cities and communities initiatives,” Patton said.

A major factor leading to the decision to create this agreement is the desire of the organisations to present a united front in their efforts to encourage all levels of government and industry to collaborate.

While each organisation has a broad range of members and partners, ASCA is a ‘demand side’ organisation primarily representing local government, which is where most of the smart cities and communities work is expected to be carried out in Australia.

SCCANZ is part of a global ‘supply side’ network representing the interests of the companies planning, designing and delivering smart cities solutions around the world. It has a strong record of leadership in the development of policies and practices to support the deployment of smart city technology and data solutions.

ASCA is the not-for-profit peak body representing people and organisations spearheading moves to make our communities more livable, more sustainable and more technologically empowered. Its members and partners include governments, businesses, universities and passionate individuals.

ASCA was originally created as the Broadband Alliance by people primarily involved in local government who saw great opportunities in an emerging digitally enabled world.

SCCANZ is part of the Smart Cities Council, the world’s largest network of smart cities companies, practitioners and policymakers, embracing technology, data and intelligent design to accelerate livability, workability and sustainability in our cities and towns.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/jamesteohart

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