Hitachi's Contribution Towards Innovating the American Metropolis
On February 13, 2019, the Hitachi Group sponsored “Innovating the American Metropolis,” organized by Axios, a cutting-edge news site at AJAX in Washington D.C.
The event provided an opportunity for government officials, influencers, and key local stakeholders in Washington D.C. to further understand Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business.
At the event, four high-level speakers joined Axios editor, Kim Hart, on stage for a series of in-depth, one-on-one conversations about the future of smart cities. They discussed policies, innovations and businesses revamping America's cities from both the private and public sector. The “Innovating the American Metropolis” event underlined “why it matters” so guests left the event with a deepened understanding of the smart city landscape and key issues driving the 2019 agenda. Alongside Evan Ryan, Axios executive vice president, Hicham Abdessamad, CEO of Hitachi Global Digital Holdings Corporation participated in the ‘View from the Top Segment” discussing Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business and how it correlates to innovating cities at-large.
This event was live-streamed to 3,000 people and 156 notable guests from a cross-section of organizations and industries were in attendance and active on social media with #Axios360.
For our View From the Top segment, Axios Executive Vice President Evan Ryan interviewed Hitachi's Hicham Abdessamad about the role his company plays in bringing smart cities to life and the impact these cities will have on how we live.
- How industries will be transformed: "It's not about rip and replace, it's about building a digital intelligent layer that will predict and provide better service to our citizens."
- On whether smart cities will make people safer: "It's very certain. If you can deploy sensors around a city, we have access to thousands of cameras and with the help of A.I. and machine learning you can do deep analytics and make predictions."
- Why smart city rollouts will take time: "You can't take a [smart city] blueprint and apply it across every city, because each one is different."
Senator Thune (R-SD), who serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, gave his take on what the federal government needs to do to enable smart cities.
- America's rating. "The U.S. is a solid B” in terms of having the infrastructure necessary to build smart cities: “But we could be an A,” especially with the right investment.
- “Whoever wins the race to 5G will benefit enormously economically from that.” We at least need to have a federal government that works as a partner and works to ensure that type of technology has the opportunity to succeed.
Rep. Clarke, who is the co-chair of the Smart Cities Caucus, discussed the future she sees for New York City and the importance of spreading smart technology beyond cities like her own.
- On whether New York is already a smart city: "I think it has the potential to be a smart city. When we talk about mobility, our city is grappling with an aging infrastructure ... If we invest wisely we can build out a 21st century subway system."
- Clarifying the Smart "Cities" Caucus: "I call it smart cities / smart communities" so we can address the needs of rural communities that struggle to get broadband access.
Shapiro discussed the importance of smart cities and the biggest trends he's seeing as they're starting to develop.
- On why we need smart cities: "By 2050, two-thirds of the people in the world will live in cities and cities are already strained" and the best way to address this is with technology.
- On 5G: "It is probably one of the pre-requisite installations required for smart cities."
- On privacy: "Of course there are privacy implications [of smart cities] but we could put up guidelines and guardrails to protect our citizens while giving better service."
- The biggest area of opportunity: "Transportation."
Mayor Berke spoke to the steps Chattanooga is taking to remain on the frontlines of smart city technology and innovation.
- On Chattanooga’s city-owned fiber optic network: "It doesn’t miss any home or business … we’ve used it to build out the smartest, cheapest, most pervasive internet in the world."
- On the 5G hype: "It’s difficult for us. Chattanooga is set up better for 5G because of our fiber backbone, but it's not going to reach some of our residents and we have to grapple with the policy implications of 5G, which we haven't done."
- "It's not healthy for our country if the only places where innovation occur are New York, Silicon Valley, and Boston. A lot more places look like Chattanooga than look like that."
