The Power of Leadership and Technology in Smart Communities, with Jonathan Reichental

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I had a fascinating conversation with Jonathan Reichental, the Chief Information Officer for the City of Palo Alto, California. Jonathan shared a bit about his background in technology, why he loves the way technology can make positive things happen for individuals and the world. He talks about what it's been like being, in his words, a bit of a maverick from the private sector, now being a public servant and working for local government. Jonathan shares how the City of Palo Alto is working on digitisation and the high degree of importance they place on collaboration with the community. We talk about what a Smart City or Smart Community means to Jonathan, why it's so important and how being in the opening chapters of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating a lot of change for all of us. Jonathan also explains why cities or urban locations are the future, not only in terms of where most humans will live going forwards, but also in terms of solving the big problems facing our planet, such as climate change. We talk about some of the projects Palo Alto is currently working on and why decision making and leadership is key to better integrating across disciplines, industries, governments and academia. We finish off discussing emerging trends, including the human trends of the digital divide and human rights, and tech trends such as blockchain, AI and data. As always, I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes as: www.mysmart.community Don't forget to check out the Urban Motion Conference in Brisbane https://www.apchexpo.com Connect with Jonathan on Twitter @reichental Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod