It will be the third time in six months that a Dutch Smart City Mission will visit Australia. This time the visit will coincide with next week’s Smart Communities Conference in Adelaide, organised by the Australian Smart Communities Association (ASCA).
The first visit took place in November last year when Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was the esteemed guest of the Australian Dutch Smart City Summit in Sydney, together with the Hon Henk Kamp, Minister for Economic Affairs of the Netherlands; Senator the Hon James McGrath, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister; Mrs Lucy Turnbull, Chief Commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission (GSC); as well as several mayors and other government and industry dignitaries.
A follow-up visit took place in March, when the delegation visited all the cities that have signed MoUs with the Dutch-led Global Smart Communities and Cities Coalition (GSC3).
Since that time significant effort has gone into building collaboration links between smart cities in the Netherlands and the GSC3 smart cities in Australia (Adelaide, Canberra, Bendigo, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Sydney (GSC), Ipswich and Moreton Bay).
The upcoming visit will further strengthen the links between both countries, with plans for meetings with the participating cities.
Businesses in both Australia and the Netherlands are critical in assisting in the collaboration projects between Australian and Dutch cities. This is particularly interesting for businesses that operate internationally and a range of meetings are planned to explore these business opportunities.
The Dutch Government is hosting a networking reception in Adelaide on Sunday 28th May. GSC3 will also participate in the Smart City Mayors Meeting hosted by the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, the Hon Martin Haese.
Apart from Adelaide the delegation will this time also visit Sydney and Brisbane.
But also R&D collaboration will be explored. During the same period the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions will meet with potential R&D partners in Australia.
The next international activity will be the Australian Smart City Mission to the Netherlands. Last November the Dutch Government invited the Australian Government to lead such a mission. It will take place from 19-22 November and coincides with the Global Smart City Conference in Barcelona, which takes place in the week prior to the mission.
Paul Budde