Bristol is Open for SmartCity Development

Similarly, in Bristol, city management authorities and citizens are implementing technologies beyond purely tackling issues like productivity, efficiency and traffic. When it comes to smart cities, "we hardly ever talk about play," says Stephen Hilton, Director of Bristol Futures Global Ltd.

Bristol is a "creative, open, quirky, unorthodox sort of place," says Hilton. Bringing out the city's character is important. He stressed smart cities should not be implemented by a top-down blueprint but should respect each city's unique culture and character.

"Bristol's take is to harness all that potential for innovation and creativity and apply it to a local place to make it more distinctive, creative, fun, engaging and inclusive."

The city has implemented smart technologies in the intersection between creativity, media and technology, such as the Playable Cities program, which works with creatives and artists to use city infrastructure to create experiences that connect people, particularly younger generations, to the city and inspire them.

One such program is Hello Lamposts, where people talk to street furniture and the street furniture 'talk' back through text.

"We're using technology to bring people into a conversation about the city and to consider opportunities to do things differently and think differently," says Hilton. "It creates a collective experience of a place that's different."

It was also crucial Bristol be able to use data to address pressing societal issues, enable citizens to interact with the council and benefit from public services. The ultimate goal was to tackle challenges such as social isolation and healthcare in a non-invasive and stress-free way.

"Bristol has always been a distinctive smart city because we place citizens at the heart of our strategy and take a playful and engaging approach to tackling serious urban challenges," says Hilton.

It is this very distinctive culture of collaboration and the coming together of different skills and perspectives that has created some very unique values for Bristol. The result of which is that the people feel like they have a stake in the decisions that are being made in the journey to becoming a smart city.

Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said: "The challenges we face to beat congestion, support vulnerable people in their homes and secure safer streets require new approaches and new ways of working. Blending state-of-the-art technology and a collaborative approach to sharing operations, we're taking a positive step towards meeting these challenges."