Steve Rao: Triangle innovators make ours smart cities, let’s expand that vision to state

Recently, for whatever reason, I have been binge watching the Avengers. I am intrigued by this idea of a multiverse, that there is a parallel universe out there with all of us in it, and in this universe the world is very different from what we see every day.

Imagine if in another universe right now, there were no “smart” cities.

No Internet of Things.

No Riot.

No Tom Snyder.

No highspeed broadband.

No data economy.

In this other universe, if a Morrisville parent wanted to know if their soccer practice was canceled, they would have to view the website, call a number or, like I did when my kids played, drive to the fields and see that practice or a game was canceled. If, for example, I wanted to go play some tennis or pickleball, I would drive to the courts and then see them all occupied.

In the Morrisville I live in on a rainy day, residents would be sent a notification that the fields were wet. (Data captured by the sensors). Staff would be notified and the gates to the park would automatically shut. Tennis! I can view which courts are taken and head over to another park if the courts are filled up.

This exercise really made me think of how far our region has come in this space and how much progress we can showcase to the cities around the nation during the Smart Cities Connect Conference next week.

During his State of the Region Address in February, Snyder reminded a packed room of start ups, investors, and city leaders on how our smart city progress in the Triangle, has quickly transformed our region into a powerful, vibrant data economy. The bottom line is that data can be used in real time to enhance the quality of life for our residents.

It’s not about the tech

The Town of Morrisville is a perfect example of a local government that has leveraged the data economy and smart cities to enhance the quality of life for its residents.

Two years ago in my blog, Making NC A Smart State, I cited Morrisville as a perfect example of a smaller town which was able to develop a more sustainable, resilient and innovative community. Managing flood levels in parks, providing real time visibility  of facility usage for our residents, ordering on demand transit via an app are a few examples of how our residents’ quality of life can benefit from this type of innovation. Since I wrote that last article, the Town of Morrisville has received the CIO Symposium Award for leading world class innovation, one of the first local governments to receive such an award.  Their Facility Vision Project is a finalist for the IDC Government Insights Awards, and this program, will create a Smart City Dash Board, where residents can view in real time how their fitness center is being utilized.

In fact, just yesterday, I was told that my days of getting to the pool and seeing lap lanes full could end very soon, as I could view on the Morrisville app, Morrisville Central, which lap lanes are full.

The Morrisville success story clearly demonstrates that data-driven decision making enables us to leverage data analytics to gather insights, make informed decisions, and personalize customer experiences.

Kudos to Rick Ralph and his team for laying a foundation and case study for other Wake County municipalities to follow.

It’s the jobs, stupid

Remember the old Bill Clinton campaign slogan: “It’s the economy stupid.” Well, in this case, it’s the jobs, stupid.

I am seeing a connection between startups working with local governments and their ability to create new jobs.

• Green Stream Technologies was founded to install and manage sensors in fields to manage floods.
• Varidx worked with Morrisville to set up and manage Smart City Dashboards.
• Start ups like Acta Solutions and Civic AI are applying artificial intelligence to enhance the efficiency of customer services to local governments.
• And RIOT has had a number of successful startups who have sprung out of their accelerator program.

In the midst of major tax incentives to bring in the big whales for economic development, smart city startups which succeed can grow and hire jobs. For every company we create, about five jobs are created. Startup success in smart cities can accelerate job creation and keep our Secretary of State Elaine Marshall very busy.

Let us not forget that small businesses in North Carolina employ 1.7 million North Carolinians, and can be as critically important to creating jobs as the big tax incentives, which often go to waste when companies do not meet their performance targets.

Marvel has the Avengers. We have the innovators!

Collaboration is key to success

Over the past two years, state Chief Information Officer Jim Weaver has made it his top priority to deliver the $1 billion of broadband funding throughout all of  North Carolina, with the focus on providing high speed internet to every corner of the State.     Just yesterday, in Wilmington, President Biden reminded the audience that North Carolina has now provided high speed internet access to over 900,000 households, and saved millions on their internet bill.

As Weaver continues to execute North Carolina’s broadband plan, our state now has the opportunity to accelerate smart city initiatives across the state at a much faster pace. Every place where we expand high speed broadband access is a potential for smart city.

While I am excited about the handful of cities and towns like Raleigh, Cary and Morrisville that are demonstrating smart city success, we can can now expand these types of programs with other local governments. For example, there is no reason that Garner, Rolesville, Fuquay Varina and Apex cannot join these efforts but in order to do there must be a more regional approach so best practices can be shared.

One idea I have would be to have a Wake County Task Force which could provide recommendations to other local governments in our region on how to begin their smart city initiatives. This task force could help provide a central forum where other governments can learn from case study examples. For example, every city or town in Wake County could be offering similar services like Morrisville (managing facility usage, flood sensors, mobile app), a repeatable process where smart city innovation can be accelerated and more Wake County residents can see the benefits of innovative applications of technology.

Finally, collaboration between government entities, businesses, academia and community organizations is essential for the success of smart city initiatives. The recent HBCU Smart Cities Challenge showcased how cities can leverage collective expertise and resources to address complex urban challenges, fostering innovation and job creation in the process. Students from the HBCUs spent time with town staffs and came up with ideas to on how smart city solutions could help address a number of challenges in transportation, sustainability and a number of other areas.

I do hope that our next governor restructures North Carolina Department of Information Technology to help grow smart city initiatives across the state as we continue to expand broadband.

With focus and building on our momentum here in the Triangle, we can and will make North Carolina a “smart” state.

Come out to Smart Cities Connect

As we prepare to host the Smart Cities Connect Conference next week in Raleigh, I wanted each of us to take some time and celebrate the progress we are making and the positive impact that data innovation is bringing every day to our lives in the Triangle.

I encourage all city leaders to attend this conference, which expected to have over 1,000 attendees and technology leaders and companies from all around the world. In addition, there are over 100 city leaders from across our country who will  be coming to Raleigh to share their experiences, lessons learned, and most importantly, how local governments can embrace data innovation to grow jobs and make our lives better.

See you next week!

I also could not help but think of the smart city innovators, the pioneers who recognized and seized the opportunity to transform our region into a data economy.

Forget the Avengers. In the present day universe, we have the innovators.

And the Triangle has the innovators, the  local startups, investors, and visionaries, who are not afraid to take the first steps on new roads, armed only with their vision and willingness to bring positive change to our communities.

Editor’s note: Steve S. Rao is a councilmember at large and former mayor pro tem for the town of Morrisville and an Opinion Writer for WRAL TechWire.  He served on the board of the New American Economy, now the American Immigration Council, and on the NC League of Municipalities Race and Equity Task Force.

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