Cairns to host summit

Smart cities technology gurus gather to chart future

CAIRNS’ own 10-year-old plastic straw crusader will share a stage with business gurus at a conference designed to help the city become even smarter.

The Local Government Association of Queensland is hosting in Cairns today the Future Cities, Smart Communities Summit, which will feature discussions on some of the world’s leading champions of using technology to understand how best to guide the development of cities.

Guest speakers at the summit will include Singapore Land Authority chief executive Boon Khai Tan, Amazon Web Services’ Craig Lawton and Simon Elisha, Queensland’s chief entrepreneur Steve Baxter and futurist Chris Riddell.

Another speaker is Cairns student Molly Steer, who started the Straw No More campaign.

LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam said about 150 people would attend the two-day summit, which was held every two years.

He said there would be new “smart cities” applications for Cairns Regional Council to learn about, including parking meters and carparking.

“Cairns is going pretty well – and I don’t say that about every council,” he said.

“But this summit is big for (Cairns Mayor) Bob (Manning) and (council CEO) John (Andrejic).

“They are constantly trying to seek out best practice in stuff.”

Topics up for discussion range from the future of transport to the uses for emerging blockchain technology to help plan for and guide the growth of cities.

LGAQ president and Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson said councils wanted to better position their communities to benefit from innovation and better connectivity.

“Today, the questions councils are asking are more about what resources they themselves have to take advantage of advances in data science to build more prosperous and vibrant communities,” he said.

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