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  • Smart Cities Forum: Building a Contemporary Australian City - 29 August 2018

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    Keynote Speakers: Merrick Spain, Smart Cities Manager, Local Government, Telstra Australia and Ranil Sharma, General Manager, Telstra Cities, Telstra Australia

    Managing for growth. Managing digital and social divides. Protecting our best qualities as we build a future city. Building safer and inclusive communities. Sharing open data and learning through innovation. These represent both the challenges and outcomes Hobart can address through the adoption of Smart City initiatives. Join two of Australia’s leading “future city” evangelists, together with a panel of authoritative strategic planners as we spend an evening discussing Hobart’s thought-leadership role as a capital city within the Australia’s national smart city blueprint.

    Moderator: Alex Johnson, MC and Journalist

    Panellist 1:

    Merrick Spain, Smart Cities Manager, Local Government, Telstra Australia

    Panellist 2: Ranil Sharma, General Manager, Telstra Cities, Telstra Australia


    Panellist 3: Stacey Pennicott, Executive General Manager Membership and Community, Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania

    Panellist 4: Neil Noye, Director City Planning, City of Hobart

    Panellist 5: Peter Carr, Director City Innovation and Technology, City of Hobart


    When: 29 August 2018, 6pm - 8pm, doors open 5.45pm

    Where: Hobart Town Hall Ballroom


    Merrick Spain Bio

    Merrick is an emerging technologies expert, currently leading strategy and market engagement in Australia for Telstra in the Smart Cities and Communities space. Merrick leverages diverse experience and deep insight in building corporate insight into the evolving market, and helps governments and their citizens understand the possibilities presented by the convergence of the informational and physical worlds for the way cities and communities function and the changing ways people aspire to live in them. He has led the strategy and engagement for a number of organisations in emerging technology markets throughout his career, including Wireless and Mobility, RFID, Robotics, and various vertical industry software technologies. His knowledge and experience across multiple industry segments provides the foundation for building a practise that is focussed on the macroeconomic outcomes for cities and their numerous stakeholders.

    Ranil Sharma Bio

    Ranil is the General Manager, Telstra Cities. He has been the Industry Lead in Smart Cities and Utilities for Telstra and led the Steering Committee creating Telstra’s Smart Cities Strategy. He was also the Telstra representative on the ASCA Industry Board. His accountability is to understand the sector needs and provide thought, insight and leadership about how emerging trends and developments can help to create and fulfill a richer experience for the Communities of Interest.

    Ranil's perspectives have formed from experiences in major corporate and startup companies within the technology, consulting and distribution/retail sectors with roles in Consulting, Business Development, Marketing, Sales/Management and General Management.

    He is a father of 3 girls and has an active interest in health, wellbeing and psychology.

    Stacey Pennicott Bio

    Stacey Pennicott is a senior executive with the Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania (RACT). As Executive General Manager, Membership & Community, she is responsible for a broad portfolio including leading RACT’s mobility and digital transformation strategies. Stacey is an active participant on a range of national and international forums, gaining insights from her Automobile Club peers on a range of emerging mobility and technology related issues.

    Neil Noye

    Neil is the Director of City Planning at the City of Hobart. He is responsible for the land use and development planning of the city as well as overseeing a suite of public space improvement and connection projects within the CBD.


  • Smart Cities Forum: What You Need to Know - 22 August 2018

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    Keynote Speaker: Richard Griggs, Tasmanian Director, Civil Liberties Australia

    What do citizens and community stakeholders need to be aware of in the context of the global smart cities movement? How must city leaders balance the needs of the city against the rights of the individual? How will we know if we’ve gone too far? Join Richard Griggs, Tasmanian Director for Civil Liberties Australia together with a panel of leading local thinkers as we spend an evening discussing the roles and rights of the individual within the modern city.

    Moderator: Alex Johnston, MC and Journalist

    Panellist 2: Dr Joel Scanlan, Lecturer School of Technology, Environments and Design College of Sciences and Engineering, University of Tasmania

    Panellist 3: Dr Gary McDarby, Neuroscientist and Technologist

    Panellist 4: Kimbra Parker, Associate Director Community Development, City of Hobart

    Panellist 5: Peter Carr, Director City Innovation and Technology, City of Hobart

    When: 22 August 2018, 6pm - 8pm, doors open 5.45pm

    Where: Hobart Town Hall Ballroom


    Richard Griggs Bio

    Richard is the Tasmanian Director of Civil Liberties Australia. In 2016 he started the Tasmanian Human Rights Act Campaign (www.tashumanrightsact.org). The campaign is pursuing political commitment to human rights laws in line with the recommendations of the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute report ‘A Charter of Rights for Tasmania’. He lives in New Town and works in Sandy Bay as a lawyer. Depending on weather and family commitments, he commutes to work through Hobart by bike, Metro bus or car.

    Dr Joel Scanlan Bio

    Joel is a lecturer at the University of Tasmania. He completed his PhD in the dual areas of Intrusion Detection and Machine Learning at UTAS in 2011 and is the primary lecturer for Cyber Security within the Discipline of ICT. His current research is focused towards privacy legislation and enforcement, CCTV analysis and cyber defence of critical infrastructure. Joel’s research interests additionally include electronic health records and sensor networks. Joel sees smart cities as an exciting opportunity for solving complex problems through intelligent data usage whilst still protecting individual privacy.

    Dr Gary McDarby Bio

    Gary graduated from UCD in 1988 in electronic engineering (1st Class). He worked as an R&D engineer in the areas of digital audio and video and also spent some years as an avionics engineer. In 1995 he completed a full-time Masters degree in Digital Signal Processing and mobile communications in UCD and then worked as an ASIC design engineer with Massana. In Sept 2000 he graduated from the UNSW, Sydney with an MIT endorsed PhD in Biomedical Signal Processing. He then worked as a Principal Investigator in MIT Media Lab Europe for 4 years leading the MindGames group which had notable inventions including the Relax to Win concept and the Cerebus brain computer interface. He is co-founder of Fifth Province Ventures - a company that incubates and prototypes innovative ideas in the ICT space.

    Kimbra Parker Bio

    Kimbra is the Acting Associate Director of Community and Culture at the City of Hobart. She has responsibility for the delivery of a broad range of community inclusion programs, strategic planning and policy, community engagement, cultural and creative programs, community events and the City's grant program.

    Peter Carr Bio

    Peter is the Director of City Innovation and Technology at City of Hobart. He is responsible for how technology and information is used to drive and support innovation, improvement and efficiency both within and across the City of Hobart.

  • Smart Cities Forum: The Art of Possible - 15 August 2018

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    Keynote Speaker: Budrish Kapoor, Smart+Connected Communities, Australia, Cisco Systems

    City Deals. Smart Cities. What does it all mean? A smart city uses a range of technologies to connect, protect, and enhance the lives of residents and non-residents alike.

    Internet connected sensors, cameras, social media, and other inputs can act as a nervous system to provide city operators, public and private stakeholders, and citizens with constant feedback in order to decide how and when to take action across a range of operational and service experiences.

    Please join Bud Kapoor, Smart+Connected Communities, Australia, Cisco Systems and a panel of leading city practitioners as City of Hobart opens community discussions about the evolution of urban technology, policy and design.

    Moderator: Alex Johnston, MC and Journalist

    Panellist 2: Katrena Stephenson, CEO, Local Government Association of Tasmania

    Panellist 3: Dr Emma Pharo, Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania

    Panellist 4: Peter Carr, Director City Innovation and Technology, City of Hobart


    When: 15 August 2018, 6pm - 8pm, doors open 5.45pm

    Where: Hobart Town Hall Ballroom


    Bud Kapoor Bio

    As the Australia Sales Manager for Smart+Connected Communities, Bud is responsible for enabling Cities and Councils to transform through smart cities services and new ways to engage citizens. Bud has been with Cisco for 13 years and brings 35 years of senior management experience across the US & Asia-Pacific region. Prior to Cisco, Bud was with Lucent Technologies as the General Manager for New Zealand, Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Program Manager for Harris Corporation and a Captain in the United States Air Force. Bud holds a Master degree in Business Administration - Financial Management and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

    Dr Katrena Stephenson Bio

    Since being awarded a scholarship to undertake her PhD in the UK, Dr Katrena Stephenson has followed a passion for public policy and advocacy, working in not-for-profits, State Government and now, for 10 years in the Local Government sector, currently as CEO of the Local Government Association of Tasmania.

    Dr Emma Pharo Bio

    Dr Emma Pharo is a Geographer and Planner with a special interest in transport. She teaches into the Master of Planning and the Master of Environmental Management at UTAS, specialising in land use and regional planning. She sits on the Planning Institute of Australia’s policy committee and the City of Hobart’s Bike Advisory Committee. Emma is interested in the capacity of sensors to provide better information on transport needs, particularly for data on walking and cycling. She was a member of the Road Safety Advisory Council between 2012 and earlier in 2018, and keen to see a range of technologies investigated to bring down our current high road toll in Tasmania. Examples of applications might include inattention, particularly mobile phone use, through blocking technology and increased enforcement.