Smart in the City – The BABLE Podcast BABLE Smart Cities

For this episode, we sat down in Stuttgart, Germany with our guests Sebastian Ewert, CEO and Founder of MAHLE chargeBIG, and Alexander Schmidt, our CEO and Founder at BABLE. With them, we discussed electric vehicles, EV charging infrastructures, and the future of urban mobility in general.
 
Overview of the episode:
02:47 - Teaser: Imagine Stuttgart in 2050. Are there cars, and what does it look like?
04:18 - Who is Sebastian and what is MAHLE chargeBIG?
09:40 - What does the future of electric charging look like?
14:43 - How have the discussions changed over electric vehicles and charging in the past 12 years?
19:02 - What is the political environment around EV charging in Germany and in the EU?
21:14 - What do you say to people that still say that electric vehicles are not the solution to urban mobility challenges and that they still cause congestion, etc.? What about the impact of batteries etc. on the environment?
26:37 - How can we accelerate the transition to electric mobility?
 
36:25 - What Would You Do: what would our guests do if they were a minister of transport?
41:26 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?
 
Like our show? Remember to subscribe and rate it!
Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu.
 
And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!

With us in this special episode is none other than a fellow podcast host and urbanist – Marcin Wojciech Żebrowski from Urbcast - a podcast about cities. He is also a Business Development Coordinator at Henning Larsen Architects.
Urbcast is a unique bilingual podcast about cities, urbanism, urban planning, architecture and much more. Every second Wednesday, Marcin interviews various guests and dives into topics such as cities, urban design, architecture or living in the Scandinavian capital of design—Copenhagen.
 
BABLE will be at the Autonomy Mobility World Expo in Paris on March 22nd and 23rd. Register now to benefit from the many activities on the programme: Startup Village, City Hub, two conference programs, test tracks, demos, B2B and B2G meetings, startup challenge and innovation award ceremony We hope to see you there!
 
Overview of the episode:
02:25 - Teaser: How does it feel for a podcast host to become the guest?
03:05 - How did Marcin get into podcasting?
05:30 - How many cities have Marcin recorded episodes with?
07:10 - Is urbanism an inclusive term, or should we widen the scope of Smart in the City and Urbcast?
09:00 - What is the most inspiring story Marcin heard from his guests?
13:15 - How can cities enable bottom-up initiatives?
18:10 - What has been the biggest urban challenge Marcin heard about?
21:50 - What role can podcasting have in the urban transition?
29:20 - Can we copy-paste solutions from one city to another?
 
32:05 - Flip the Script: our guest is asking the questions!
36:45 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?
 
Like our show? Remember to subscribe and rate it!
Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu.
 
And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!

In this episode, we welcomed Montserrat Miramontes – who is a Transport Planner in charge of mobility management at the city of Fürstenfeldbruck in Bavaria, Germany. With her, we discussed transport planning, urban design, multimodal mobility and more!
 
BABLE will be at the Autonomy Mobility World Expo in Paris on March 22nd and 23rd. Register now to benefit from the many activities on the programme: Startup Village, City Hub, two conference programs, test tracks, demos, B2B and B2G meetings, startup challenge and innovation award ceremony We hope to see you there!
 
Overview of the episode:
02:42 - Teaser: if Fürstenfeldbruck were an animal, which animal would it be?
04:20 - What does Montserrat do as a Transport Planner and what is her background?
07:06 - Is convincing people not to use their cars a challenge in Southern Germany?
08:40 - What does sustainable mobility mean?
11:00 - What are the main challenges when planning and implementing a transport development plan in a city such as Fürstenfeldbruck? 
13:42 - Transport demand measures in Fürstenfeldbruck
15:45 - What are mobility hubs?
18:30 - What are the challenges Fürstenfeldbruck faced in the process of implementing mobility hubs?
20:40 - What was the tendering process?
24:30 - Can you make everyone happy when working in city administration?
 
28:25 - Shoutout: our guest mention a person, an organisation or a city they think deserves more recognition in the field
30:08 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?
 
Like our show? Remember to subscribe and rate it!
Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu.
 
And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!

Going just a little north from our last episode to the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, we discussed Smart District development, stakeholders engagement, funding sources and more with Deborah Colville, the City Innovation Manager & Head of Smart Belfast, and with Nikita Shetty, the UK and Ireland Lead and Senior Consultant for BABLE Smart Cities.
 
BABLE will be at the Autonomy Mobility World Expo in Paris on March 22nd and 23rd. Register now to benefit from the many activities on the programme: Startup Village, City Hub, two conference programs, test tracks, demos, B2B and B2G meetings, startup challenge and innovation award ceremony We hope to see you there!
 
Overview of the episode:
03:00 - Teaser: A little-known fact about Belfast
04:50 - What is the story behind the Smart Belfast program?
06:40 - What is Deborah's background?
08:30 - What is Nikita's experience with Belfast?
09:40 - Main stakeholders' engagement learnings from the Smart District development in Belfast
11:40 - Why start with a district approach?
15:07 - What were the success factors in accessing funding sources within this project?
20:05 - Political leadership: pieces of advice for cities
24:30 - What about stakeholders who don't have the time or resources?
28:50 - What is the nature of this partnership? Is it more about resource-sharing or strategic decision-making?
31:48 - The Healthy Aging Project
34:26 - Were there any concerns regarding Data Privacy and Security?
36:30 - Roll with the Punches: our guest answers this or that questions quickly and with their first instincts
38:50 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?
 
Like our show? Remember to subscribe and rate it!
Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu.
 
And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!

We start 2023 with our very first co-hosted episode with Alessandro Gaillard, Communications Campaign Officer at the Solar Impulse Foundation and host of the Solutions for Cities Podcast. 
With our host Tamlyn Shimizu, they had a fascinating talk with David Kelly, the Director of the Southern Regional Assembly in Ireland, about collaboration between organisations, local authorities but also regions in Europe, as well as Smart Specialisation strategy goals for this region. 
 
Have a look at the Solar Impulse Foundation's Solutions Guide for Cities on the BABLE platform. Make sure to check out our feature on page 208!
 
Overview of the episode:
01:35 - What does the Southern Regional Assembly (SRA) do and what does it cover from a geographical point of view?
5:15 - Teaser: in what other region in the world besides the Southern Region in Ireland would David like to work?
6:45 - What are the goals of the Southern Regional Assembly with their Smart Specialisation strategy?
09:30 - Collaboration and learnings from other regions and cities.
13:20 - What can be gained from Smart projects?
16:36 - What can be "lost" from Smart projects? What are the risks?
18:35 - How can public entities work with private ones?
21:28 - What are the specific challenges the Southern Region is facing?
25:23 - How can regions bring together local authorities effectively?
28:40 - How do cities collaborate with each other in the Southern Region?
30:31 - How are the smaller towns in the region working differently than bigger cities?
34:50 - Flip the Script: our guest asks the questions
40:57 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?
 
Like our show? Remember to subscribe and rate it!
Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu.
 
And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!

 In this episode, we dived into the topic of digitalization with Bas Boorsma, Chief Digital Officer of the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, urban innovator, professor of practice at Thunderbird School of Global Management and author of A New Digital Deal.
 
Overview of the episode:
01:50 - Teaser: an inspiring quote from our guest
4:45 - What is Bas' background?
07:25 - Building on Bas' episode in the podcast 10 Lessons Learned ("Bas Boorsma - The Current Paradigm Shift: The Network Paradigm"): what is the #11 lesson that Bas has learned as CDO of Rotterdam?
09:30 - What needs to change within governments to drive the digital transition?
13:50 - Bas' book: A New Digital Deal
15:30 - What was a common conclusion that Bas heard from the 22 leaders he interviewed for his book?
17:35 - How is he using those insights in this role as CDO for the city of Rotterdam?
21:50 - "Keep your presumed friends close, and your presumed enemies closer." - Bas Boorsman
27:30 - Why do we need a "license to fail" on Smart City solutions?
29:11 - Examples of digital solutions being used poorly
33:15 - How do we put actions to words and go from conversations to implementations?
45:35 - Roll with the Punches: our guest answers this or that questions quickly, and with their first instincts 
49:00 - Ending Question: To you, what is a Smart City?
 
Like our show? Remember to subscribe and rate it!
Want to join us for an episode? Contact our host Tamlyn Shimizu.
 
And for more insights, join our Smart City Community!