Client: West Midlands Combined Authority (via PUBLIC)

Project: Urban Challenge

Sector: Smart Cities

Service: Startup Ecosystem Services

Challenge

Local authorities face a myriad of challenges but often lack the knowledge of solutions that exist in the marketplace. Startups on the other hand often have difficulty getting their solutions in front of cities and showcasing how their solutions can help, running pilots to demonstrate and getting first customer validation.

Our Role & Impact

We designed and delivered the Urban Challenge startup innovation with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Centred around four challenges to support new entrants to the sector and applying new technologies to promote advanced digital design methods to challenges such as;

• Building more homes and new places smartly: Which new technologies and innovative ideas can speed up the process of building high quality homes and connected attractive places?

• Digital citizenship: What new technologies can help governments become more responsive to citizens' needs?

The innovation programme attracted 140+ applicants in 40+ countries, with several applications winning pilot programmes with WMCA to trial their solutions. As part of this I organised the UrbanTech Summit (500+ pax), 20+ speakers including Sajid Javid and Andy Street, Mayor WMCA.