In this episode of The Smart City Podcast, I interviewed Thibault Van De Auwermeulen who is the Founder of 4Instance and Co-founder of ExpoPolis, the Smart City Virtual Expo. Thibault shares his background in the public sector and his passion for connecting the government and industry. We also discuss ExpoPolis and The Smart City Virtual Expo as well as the importance of both virtual and physical expos. I also really enjoyed talking about how some Smart City project might be the disconnection from technology and bringing people together.

Listen:

Quotes:

“[the Smart City concept is about] using data and using information to give better services”

“maybe the future [will be] how to find Smart City projects that are not using the Smart City Technology. We need this new technology but I think it will also be good to have solutions without this technology”

“there is really a good connection [developing] between the public and private sector, they are working together and talking together”

“to bring people together and talk with each other, people from different origins…it will be important to work on this and find new kinds of solutions…to bring together the “nerd” world and the world of the more social person”

What we covered:

• Thibault’s background in the public sector and passion for connecting the government and industry
• Introducing marketing and public relations into the public sector
• The launch of the Smart City Virtual Expo – ExpoPolis
• Collating data within government
• Both technology and concepts being important
• Smart City projects not necessarily using new technology
• Creating a virtual Smart City community, market place and job board
• Utilising both virtual and physical expos
• Discussion around Smart City rankings
• Issues around Smart City project procurement
• Leadership in the Smart City space for Belgium
• Digital birds and bringing people together

Links:

Expolis http://www.expopolis.com/en/

4Instance http://www.4instance-govnet.com/en/

Smart City Virtual Expo https://www.smartcityvirtualexpo.com/en/

Connect:

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community

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Podcast Production by Perk Digital