City leaders are increasingly tasked to create more sustainable and efficient cities despite sinking budgets.
To do so, they are starting to use the enormous amount of data generated within their cities in combination with well-developed strategies, improved planning and smart technology to improve the lives of their citizens and deliver better services.
Geoff Snelson, Director for Strategies & Futures at Milton Keynes Council, recently attended the Smart Cities CEE conference in Budapest, to present MK:Smart and Milton Keynes’ wider range of smart city projects to the 200 attendees from Hungary and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
“As ever there was a lot of interest in the MK Data Hub and [Milton Keynes’] driverless cars programme” commented Snelson, and continued to say “it was evident that many of the participants were already aware of Milton Keynes and our reputation for technology innovation. The event reinforced the sense that MK:Smart continues to be a benchmark project for smart cities internationally.”
As part of his visit to Budapest, Snelson was hosted at Budapest Technical University where he presented to 60 students and academics alongside Jessica Ellis of Bristol Is Open. Snelson was also invited to meet with the smart city team at the Budapest Mayor’s Office, followed by a meeting with the Chief Executive of the Budapest smart city cluster, accompanied by trade representatives from the UK Embassy.
Click here for the full Smart Cities CEE Agenda.