Sunshine Coast Council shines in inaugural Smart Cities Awards

Australia’s first ever Smart Cities Awards were presented on Tuesday as part of Smart Cities Week, hosted by the Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand and held in Sydney from 28–31 October.

Telstra and Deloitte partnered with SCC Australia New Zealand to present the awards, which recognise and reward leadership, celebrate best practice and stimulate action to advance the smart cities movement. Nine awards were presented during the celebration, with Sunshine Coast Council recognised in several categories.

Sunshine Coast Council won the coveted Leadership City Award for its commitment to smart cities through data sharing, investment in IoT technology, free public Wi-Fi and more. The award was presented by Monique Esplin, Telstra’s General Manager for Growth and Strategic Markets, who said, “Sunshine Coast Council has demonstrated a smart cities capability internally that has set itself up for long-term success.”

The Sunshine Coast Council also took home the Regional Leadership Award for its 15 MW solar farm — which offsets all of the council’s energy use — and was highly commended in the Digital City Services category. Council’s Smart City Framework Lead, Michael Whereat, meanwhile received the Government Leader Award for driving an ambitious agenda of smart cities projects.

Other award winners were as follows:

• The City of Adelaide won the Digital City Services category for its Economic Insights Dashboard, which provides key city indicators by bringing together a range of data to facilitate decision-making and promote collaboration.
• Newcastle City Council won the Smart Cities Strategy Award for leveraging the city’s natural industrial advantages to address urban challenges.
• The University of Wollongong won the Research and Innovation category for the use of innovative, smart technology and open data for real-time measurement of pedestrian movements.
• Street Furniture Australia won the Built Environment Award for a partnership-driven and replicable approach to smart cities that quantifies the impact of street activation.
• Catherine Caruana McManus, Director of Meshed, IoT Integrators for smart cities and founder of the IoT Alliance Australia, won the Industry Leader category.
• Katherine Tobias, KPMG’s Senior Consultant, Internet of Things Practice, won the Emerging Leader category.
   

“Winners of the inaugural Smart Cities Awards set a high benchmark, and in years to come, this awards program will build a pipeline of world standard initiatives from Australia’s public sector, industry leaders and research stakeholders,” said David Singleton AM, Smart Cities Awards jury chair.

“Our award winners demonstrate that a smart city embraces outcomes-based technology, data and design. But more powerfully, smart cities build a connected community that can solve common problems to enhance the livability, workability and sustainability of our cities and towns.”

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