(Post by US Ignite Director of Technology, Scott Turnbull)

The 2019 US Ignite Application Summit serves as one of the best demonstrations of the explosive growth of the Smart Community movement that I can think of. This year’s summit will be held in the great city of Denver, Colorado April 1-4.  Like previous years, we’ll feature some of the most promising advancements in applications and services in the smart city movement. This will be my fourth US Ignite Application Summit and one of the highlights of my three years helping to lead the Smart City movement. Every year I look forward to seeing the achievements on display and the relationships forged that promise to create even greater success in the future.

When it comes to thinking about Smart Cities and transforming people’s lives, it’s important to realize this is an entrepreneurial movement, delivered by technology but not about technology. Don’t get me wrong, technology is incredibly important, but it’s a means to an end for a new breed of city leaders, civically engaged businesses, and impact minded researchers. In all cases, these leaders have made a dedicated effort to breaking out of their traditional lanes to find ways to make differences in the everyday lives of people living in our communities. Smart communities adapt to create almost individual experiences for the people living in them, and the summit puts some of the best examples of that on display, not just to raise awareness, but to create opportunities to leverage those success stories in your own community.

The stage sessions for this year feature two days of demonstrations, reaching a large audience, selected from the most visually impressive applications and services that achieve community impact. Likewise, the expo floor demonstrations are expanding to two days this year due to the overwhelming growth and success of our community’s efforts. Blended with strong keynotes and insightful panels, the US Ignite Application summit (co-located with the Smart Cites Connect), has become one of the best opportunities for communities and application developers to come together and chart a pathway forward for real impact and growth.

Developers of applications or services who are working with one of our partner cities in the Smart Gigabit Communities program, and are interested in proposing a demonstration either on the expo floor or stage, should reach out to Scott Turnbull ([email protected])with proposals or questions.

For the last several years we’ve produced a series of highlight videos from the summit that can be viewed on the US Ignite YouTube channel, and I’ll link the highlight videos from last year’s summit in hopes it inspires you as much as it does me.

See you at the Summit!

For more, see the highlight videos for Coding for Kids for Kiwi Compute, and Cities of the Future: Smart Cities and Smart Energy.

Also available, our 2017 Summit Highlights.