Smart Regions Unite to Form the National Smart Coalitions Partnership

Source: Smart Cities Connect | By Chelsea Collier

In June, Smart Cities Connect reported on a groundbreaking new alliance between two regions – The North Texas Innovation Alliance, The Connective and the Southern Arizona Smart Region. In a few short months, that initiative has expanded with incredible momentum and now includes seven regional associations, uniting more than 100 governments across the country. 

The National Smart Coalitions Partnership (NSCP) “will leverage a national cross-sector network to accelerate more sustainable and resilient cities through the use of new technology tools and partnerships.” By bringing together these leaders and communities, the organization hopes to lower the barriers to deploying, replicating and scaling smart solutions. As a multi-state organization, the partnership aims to bridge gaps between local and regional technology efforts within specific states and transform them into multi-state collaborative endeavors.

Members of the NSCP include The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance (CSCA), North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA), The Connective, Illinois Smart City & Region Association (ISCRA), KC Digital Drive (KCDD), The Southern Arizona Smart Region, led by the Regional Partnering Center (RPC), and Smart North Florida. 

“Smart regions are the new smart cities,” declares Tyler Svitak, Executive Director of the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance. “Without a regional, collaborative approach across jurisdictions, new technology solutions will never reach the scale or standardization required to improve complex civic issues. The National Smart Coalitions Partnership will unite already-established regional ecosystems of civic innovators across the country to accelerate the entire smart cities industry and keep America competitive.”

“By coming together in partnership, we can evaluate the best ways to address shared challenges, as well as the barriers that inhibit the deployment of solutions. A natural place to begin collaboration between geographies is how to utilize financial models that allow the public sector to capture revenue and increase sustainable investments in innovative programs. The goal of the National Smart Coalitions Partnership is to advance learnings, build connections, and ultimately, together identify approaches that will improve quality of life in cities and towns throughout the country,” explains Jen Sanders, NTXIA Executive Director. 

“Over the past 10 years, metropolitan areas around the country have developed new civic organizational capacity around emerging technology. The quick pace of emerging technology demands collaboration across local government and across public, private, non-profit, and academic organizations.” said Aaron Deacon, Managing Director of KC Digital Drive. “We’ve developed a deep network of local and national partners engaged in this work, but with the National Smart Coalitions Partners, we have for the first time a network of new peer organizations to learn from and scale our impact.”

The National Smart Coalitions Partnership will be announced at a keynote presentation at the Smart Cities Connect conference in National Harbor, MD in October, where they will discuss plans and activities for the new organization. 

The National Smart Coalitions Partnership (NSCP) Members

The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is a statewide organization that brings together government, businesses and allied organizations to improve life for all Coloradans through creation of innovative technology partnerships. The organization accelerates civic innovation in Colorado through Partnership Building, Research, Education and Consulting. Learn more about the Alliance, its partners, research and current projects at https://coloradosmart.city.

The North Texas Innovation Alliance (NTXIA) is a 501c3 initiative comprised of key stakeholders across sectors working together to build and implement a regional smart city strategy for North Texas and create the most connected, smart and resilient region in the country.. A holistic view of a smart region encompasses the use of data, technology and community to improve quality of life, inclusive economic development and resource efficiency. Learn more at www.ntxia.org , Twitter, or LinkedIn. 

The Connective is a collaborative research and implementation partnership between public sector, academia, industry and civic institutions to drive the creation, advancement and adoption of smart city technology to improve the quality of life for all citizens and businesses across the twenty-three communities of the Greater PHX Region of Arizona.

The Illinois Smart City & Region Association (ISCRA) is a 501c3 nonprofit association that brings municipalities and technology vendors together in a neutral platform where municipalities receive impartial knowledge through education, collaboration and facilitation toward smart city and sustainability initiatives.

ISCRA’s mission is to foster an environment that prompts municipal decision makers to embrace technology to increase efficiencies, recognize cost savings, improve citizen quality of life and increase social equity.

KC Digital Drive (KCDD) is a civic non-profit organization serving the Greater Kansas City metro area with a mission to improve the quality of life for all people in the region through the establishment of Kansas City as a digital leader. KCDD identifies and develops projects at the intersection of emerging technology and civic impact with a broad network of innovators that includes public sector, corporate, academic, non-profit, philanthropic, and community-based partners.

The Southern Arizona Smart Region, led by the Regional Partnering Center (RPC), was established to identify how the greater Tucson region can level the competitive playing field among smart regions. RPC works through the smart region initiative to develop public and private sector support and funding for collaborative efforts to build the region’s economic competitiveness and quality of life for residents.

Smart North Florida (SNF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to harnessing regional collaboration, data coordination, and smart technologies in order to improve Northeast Florida’s economic competitiveness, sustainability and quality of life. Learn more at www.smartnorthflorida.com.