City of Aurora issued the following announcement on Nov. 15.
16 cities around the world unite for a common cause
This week, Mastercard announced the launch of a unique global network for urban co-development. As part of its City Possible program, Mastercard is connecting cities with academia and businesses to identify common challenges that can be best addressed through collaboration.
“The superpower of cities is their freedom to collaborate – allowing them to build on each other’s progress," says Miguel Gamiño, who heads up global city partnerships for Mastercard. “By bringing together city leaders from across the world, City Possible promotes the sharing of ideas and best practices. What unites all our public, private and academic partners is their commitment to make technology work for all people, and finding scalable solutions for universal needs.”
Sixteen cities from all over the globe are becoming founding members of the City Possible network – representing a diverse mix of geography and size: Athens, Aurora, IL , Baltimore, Dubai, Dublin, Helsinki, Honolulu, Kansas City, Melbourne, Prague, San Diego, and Altamonte Springs, FL, as well as the Greater Sydney communities of Campbelltown, Canterbury Bankstown, Liverpool, and Wollondilly. The network is open for additional cities to join.
“The City of Aurora is honored to collaborate with private and public innovators to help solve a variety of challenges from public safety, economic development and digital equality through the use of smart technology,” said Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin. “Successful innovation is greater than just technology alone. It requires the ability to generate ideas from across the board and the proven capacity to implement them for improved City services.”
As a key component of City Possible, Mastercard is partnering with the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University (TECH) which will host a series of programs to foster a regular learning exchange among global city leaders. Participants will also have access to an online community where they can continue the dialogue with their peers.
“As urban areas around the world continue to grow, cities face common issues – how to provide a healthy environment, safety, affordability and economic opportunity for their communities”, says Prof. David S. Ricketts, fellow at TECH. “Faced with limited resources and competing priorities, city leaders look for solutions that have been tested elsewhere. Through our learning exchanges, we want to equip CIOs and other urban leaders to better navigate this dynamic environment.”
Once key challenges that are shared by cities across the globe have been identified, City Possible will provide a framework for co-creating, testing and scaling solutions – connecting cities with private sector players that are equally committed to people-centered design.
Original source can be found here.
Source: City of Aurora
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