Welcome to the club!

St. Petersburg, Florida is the newest city to join the Smart Gigabit Communities (SGC) family with an announcement at St. Pete’s inaugural Sunny Side Up Lecture Series earlier this week led by co-hosts Jason Mathis, CEO of the Downtown Partnership, and Sridhar Sundaram, Dean of the USFSP Kate Tiedemann College of Business.

US Ignite Executive Director Bill Wallace announced the news alongside Alison Barlow, Executive Director of the St. Petersburg Innovation District. Through the partnership, US Ignite has committed to bringing its national network of partners and understanding of funding trends into the community to encourage economic growth and address St. Pete’s particular challenges as a coastal city at the southern edge of the United States.

Every community in the SGC network has its own areas of focus, and an initial working group has begun to explore and prioritize possible initiatives in education and workforce development, traffic management, smart lighting, and tourism, as well as additional efforts in the areas of sustainability and resiliency. St. Pete will find itself in good company with other SGC members addressing these issues.

The city has already completed significant projects on sustainability, including an Integrated Sustainability and Resiliency Action Plan and a Grow Smarter St. Pete plan in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce.

There’s much more to come. Further details on the launch can be found in the St. Pete Catalyst’s coverage of the Sunny Side Up event.