Grassroots and Green Roofs, with Catherine Caruana-McManus

In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I had a really fascinating conversation with Catherine Caruana-McManus. Catherine is the Director of Meshed IoT, an Australian-based IoT Integrator, and the founder of the global community Giant Ideas for Smart Cities, and the co-founder of the IoT Alliance. Catherine recently won an IoT Ambassador Award for Australia and Smart Cities Industry Leader at the recent Smart Cities Council Awards. Catherine has been in the cities business her whole career and even though it wasn't called Smart Cities, she shares how she's been working in the space for 25 years. We discuss the economic imperative for cities to get Smarter and more sustainable, as well as a bit about the history and evolution of Smart Cities as a concept over the last 30 years from it being purely about urban development, to now being acted upon at the grassroots level. Catherine has some really interesting observations about how Australia is currently embracing Smart Concepts, her optimism about Australia innovation, and the opportunities we should be acting on now. We then discuss some of the many projects Catherine is working on, as well as her takeaways from her trip to the Barcelona, Amsterdam and the UK. We finish our chat focusing on the emerging trend of the circular economy, and why we should all be talking about it more. One thing I will say is that we did record this at the end of last year so you'll hear us refer to 'next year' in the interview, but of course that is now this year! You're all Smart people, I'm sure you'll figure it out! 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 Connect with Catherine on LinkedIn or with Giant Ideas for Smart Cities at https://www.facebook.com/smartcitiesIoT/ Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook @smartcommpod