The Smart City.Blog Podcast

We're starting to see a greater stratification when adopting new technologies. Anthony Furey is a journalist and recently ran for mayor of Toronto, and has some views on that and a few other things. We reached him at his home office in Toronto. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carrie Soave has a real estate background. Then along came artificial intelligence. This was a field that appealed to her love of systems and processes. Could AI be used to make lives for real estate agents easier? And if real estate agents, who else? We spoke to Carrie at her home office in Niagara Falls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Technology is forever disrupting established businesses and markets. Real estate, with its millions of human brokers, could be a target--or is real estate an arena where AI will be helpful? That's one of the questions we posed to Tim Hudak, the CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association. We reached him at his office. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do we do about battery manufacturing when it comes to the move towards electric vehicles? And I'm not talking about the batteries. I mean the components that go into making the batteries. This is a complicated business, most of which is centred in China. Sylvatex is an American company that thinks it has some solutions. Virgina Klausmeier is the CEO of Sylvatex. We caught up with her at her h...

Smart One is a Canadian company that's been around for at least 15 years. One of their mantras is "building stuff that matters." In this case, we're talking about designing the systems that power smart buildings and smart comunities. They're in no fewer than 80 communities across the Canada. Ted Maulucci is the company's co-founder and president. He's making a return visit to the Smart City P...

Alan first met Mark Saltzman more than 30 years ago when he was reviewing video games. These days, he's a consumer tech expert with podcasts, radio shows, and books that help us sort out our gadget dreams. He came into Locomobi world headquarters to talk about a very hot product category: Wearables. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This time, it's just me and Locomobi CEO Grant Furlane reviewing what happened in 2023 and what's on the agenda for 2024. Let's see if you agree with any of this anaylis and any of these predictions. We touch on smart city topics, but we also go much further. This time, it's just me and Locomobi CEO Grant Furlane reviewing what happened in 2023 and what's on the agenda for 2024. Let's see if you a...

The Faculty of Engineering at Humber College in Toronto has an incredible facility that's just begging to be used for all kinds of R&D. Locomobi and Humber have partnered up to push all kinds of technological envelopes. This is the first in a series of podcasts that will look at what Locomobi and Humber will do in the future, starting with the electrical grid. We talked with Shaun Ghafari, the...

If you're in business, you're probably on LinkedIn. I mean, you almost have to be because it's where so many important B2B connections are made. You know you should comment on certain posts, but that can take a lot of time. And what should you post? You want to sound intelligent plus you also want to get some kind of a reaction. That's the key to further engagement. But that can take a lot of time...

When Iveda started up about 20 years ago, the company's main service was to offer hosting for things like security cameras and so on.. Today, Iveda can do much, much more with their sensor-and-monitoring technology. It is being applied today and it's already making life much more secure for their customers. We found David Ly, Iveda's chairman and CEO, at the company's head office in Phoenix. Hoste...

Civilization is based on infrastructure. You can't have a city, town, or modern society without it. Infrastructure projects aren't always sexy but they're important, they're complex, they're expensive, and they're essential. Transcend is a mult-national software company operating in 65 countries that deals with the intricacies of critical infrastructure. To talk about what they do, we got in touch...

Parsons is a giant construction and infrastructure company that works on the the really, really BIG stuff including a science fiction-level project for the government of Saudia Arabia called The Line. Wait until you hear about that. We welcomed Bruce Irwin the CTO for the company's mobility solutions in North America to our offices along with Daniel Weng, who is on Bruce's team and leads a lot of...

Keeping everything and everyone moving in an urban area is becoming increasingly complex. More vehicles and people on the road. Choke points. The lack of real-time data about what's actually happening. Seoul Robotics, a company based out of South Korea has some solutions. We spoke with William Muller, the vice president of Business Development.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

If you have a car, you know how annoying it is when you run out of windshield washer fluid. It's a small thing, but it's one of the things that go along with owning and maintaining a car. It turns out that the whole universe of windshield washer fluid can be very environmentally unfriendly--and this is a problem that needs to be solved. Robbie Mair is the CEO of EcoTank Canada and he will explain...

Colin Chan is from JLL, international company with 80,000 people spread out in offices worldwide, that aims to help clients make the most out of the real estate they own. One area where they excel is the use of data and analytics to determine the best uses--or alternative uses--where people park their cars and in a responsible and sustainable way. We found Colin at his office in London. Hosted on...

Grant has written a new paper outlining a theory on urban transportation. Big ideas and big investments are needed, but when it's rolled out it will make a huge difference for people getting from point A to point B. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode will look at a company called Otorio which is looking to make the world more secure. Every second, the world becomes more connected. And with infinite inter-connectablity comes infinite risk. There are people--from guys in their mom's basement to ransomeware gangs to shadowy state actors--with a mission to break into systems to wreak havoc. Focus on cybersecurity has never been more i...

Arif K. Rafiq works for a company called ESRI. It's a Canadian outfit that believes geography is critical to decision-making. Arif is an expert in the digital systems that manage roads, highways, and public transit infrastructure, things that (unfortunately) often do not talk to each other. But what if they did? What if there was some way to incorporate all the data and analytics from the ways we...

We packed everything up and headed to the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto to check out Project Arrow, a proof-of-concept plan to showcase all the amazing tech available from Canadian manufacturers when it comes to the cars of the future. The hope is that existing manufacturers will take advantange of what Canadian companies have to offer--and to inspire someone to create a domestic EV...

At the risk of bringing up a lot of bad memories, let's think back to the worst days of the pandemic. Many people could work from home. But what if you were an essential worker and had to get to the job even though transit wasn't running? Robin Tam is here to explain how this start-up identified and solved a problem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Getting people to do certain things can be tough. It's only natural to do things in your self-interest. Online shopping can be more convenient and cheaper instead of shopping locally. Taking your car from point A to B can be faster. So how can a city change this? By incentivizing the desired behavior. Okay, how? Michael Mazur is with an Israeli-based company called Colu. They're working with towns...

Now here is a grand title: Chief Digital Officer and Director of Innovation fo the city of Hamilton. That's the job of Cyrus Tehrani. His department works with all the other departments across the city to help introduce smart city technology. And this is happening in areas in which you might not expect. This is a massive job and one that requires a tremendous amount of vision. We caught up with Cy...

If you've been doing any travel through airports over the last six months, you've probably noticed an increase in the number of vending machines. Not the kind that dispense cold drinks or chocolate bars, but everything from over-the-counter medicines to expensive electronics. And chances are, those machines were built and designed by Signifi Systems, a Canadian company headed up by CEO Shamir Jaff...

Imagine this. It's 2 in the morning. You've got an important project that needs to be completed in the morning but you've run out of some important supply. But instead of panicking, you head to a location with a certain type of vending machine. You pick up what you need, head home, finish the project, and you're a hero. Or how about this: You order something online and instead of waiting for it to...

You've probably heard the word "metaverse" thrown around--and you're forgiven if you think that this is something that Facebook is trying to push on us. That's true--but only to an extent. The new age of the internet and online activity will include an infinite number of metaverses, all based on new technology, new protocols, new ways of doing business, and new ways of owning digital property. It'...