Consult Australia’s VIC: Digital Built Australia event kicks off 30th of May

To highlight Australia’s potential in the age of the smart city and facilitate its transition towards a digital economy, Consult Australia is running an event on the 30th of May. The event, which is called VIC: Digital Built Australia, will feature market leaders in the field of digital transition and smart city technology alongside others from the Australian consulting sector. 

In late 2016, the Australian Government released its SMART Cities plan, which defined the country’s vision for the future of our cities. Globally, digital technological advances are disrupting the way which businesses and individuals conduct their work and their lives. 

With the advancement in Industry 4.0 technologies, the Australian Government’s plans to incorporate smart technology into urban planning, smart investment and smart policy in order to future-proof our cities.

The push towards a digital economy in Australia comes as a major drive for Smart City technology integration. This, in combination with an urban push and increasing population, generates the need to “continually revisit the way our cities are planned, built and managed” says Consult Australia. 

Cities are smart when they utilise technology to increase day-to-day quality of life for their citizens and have an influence on five factors; government, environment, economy, mobility and lifestyle. 

Smart cities are hyperconnected urban areas that utilise innovation and technological advances to become more citizen friendly. Through an integrated information network, cities can manage resources efficiently to become more resistant and sustainable. 

To support the development of resilient and liveable cities in Australia, Consult Australia has partnered with the Smart Cities Council of Australia & New Zealand and technical and professional services firm Jacobs for the event.

VIC: Digital Built Australia itself aims to foster innovation and promote building a comprehensive approach towards building a digital Australia. Speakers at the event will highlight the benefits and opportunities that will arise from adopting a Digital Built Australia policy. 

The event will cover a range of new digital innovation initiatives as well as draw on examples from recent urban planning projects in Australia and the UK. Presenters will then showcase a number of tools, processes and technologies which could also be relevant and applicable to the Australian sphere.

Speakers at the event include; Jacobs’ Business Development Leader for Built Environment, Social Infrastructure and Urban Development, Richard Ebbs, PCSG Consulting Director, Gavin Cotterill and Adam Schultz, Buddy Platform’s General Manager for Australia and VP Business Development.

Ebbs, will explore the possibilities of applying smart city technology in the proposed the Australian Education City. He will use the new city, to be located in Werribee, Victoria as example of how data integration can be harnessed to strategically plan and design a new sustainable city development.

Cotterill is a leading digital advisor with a wealth of consulting experience spanning from global engineering firm AECOM to Hyder Consulting. He is an expert in digital information management and IoT technologies, and is a Built Environment Task Force Member of the Smart City Council. Cotterill will explore the opportunities that Australia has whilst moving towards a digital economy, and will work on identifying how digital strategy can provide possible solutions to Australia’s strategic challenges.

Schultz currently serves as the Australian GM & VP Business Development for Buddy Platform, a technology company in the IoT sector focused specifically on the smart cities and building & development market. Prior to his appointment with the firm, he was a strategy consultant and advisor in the implementation of IoT technology and a Principal Consultant with both DNG VL and DVA Consulting, as well as a co-founder of the latter firm.