10 Aug 2017

New technologies to help make our city a smarter, safer place for us to live, work and play in have been showcased at an innovation expo hosted by the Christchurch City Council.

People at the Smart Cities expo.The expo was organised by the Council's Smart Cities team and attracted 16 exhibitors and a busy, interested crowd.

The Smart Cities team has been looking at how new smart technologies and sensors can be used to gather real-time data on all sorts of things so that a better understanding can be built of how Christchurch functions. The team is  also looking at how that information can be shared with the public so they too can benefit from having access to real-time information.

Smart Cities Programme Manager Teresa McCallum said the expo was a great opportunity for Councillors and Council staff to see some of the cutting edge projects under way in their city.

"Judging from the crowd it is something that we’ll definitely be doing again next year with more exhibitors. We’ll be looking to target some of the educational sector and smaller start-ups and we will make it open to the public,'' Ms McCallum said.

Exhibitors involved in today's expo described the atmosphere as buzzing.

Tim Packer, Head of Smart City Solutions for NEC, said the expo was awesome and a great opportunity for those involved in hi-tech industries to connect.

“Because we’re quite focused on what we’re doing, this is an opportunity to see what others are doing. We’re all working on slightly different things but we’ve got to work together to realise our vision,'' Mr Packer said.