Is the future of the City ‘Smart’?

Last week saw the re-ignition of the Global Smart City event ‘Cityscape Global’, relocated to the Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Centre Malham, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is going all out for the gold medal on scale and vision.

Take their flagship project ‘The Line‘ (Al Khatt), To a degree, THE LINE is NEOM. It is the epicentre for all activities and the numbers are staggering:

• A linear 110-mile long and svelte 200 meters wide
• 460,000 people building it (started in October 2021)
• Target population? A casual 9 million
• Average population density @260,000 people per square kilometre, density so high, even Manila looks sparse at 44,000/km.
• While only using an area of 13 square miles
• And a budget that screams, “Yes, we can spend a trillion dollars!”
• First residents expected to move in during 2024

Not a venture for the timid. It’s like the “Field of Dreams” of cyber, tech and real estate, but instead of converting just a field into a housing estate, it’s an entire digital economy + society future-proofed city on steroids.

Neom is owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and is part of Saudi Vision 2030, a plan that seeks to diversify the country’s economy and reduce its dependence on oil. The whole Neom project will be built in phases, stretching from 2030 until 2050.

I had the pleasure in participating in the NEOM Future of Living Summit, which was essentially Tomorrowland for residential + commercial + retail + recreational + enviromental investment/development, tech and Cyber enthusiasts. For me, it was like a ‘Back to the Future‘ moment; a blend of my past life as a Chartered Surveyor with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and my last 25 years in IT (Information Technology) and Cyber Security.

Now, if you’re scratching your head about what a ‘Smart City’ really is, think of it as an all-encompassing human habitation environment with a brain. It uses everything from AI (Artificial Intelligence), OT (Operational Technology) and IoT (Internet of Things) to efficiently manage, well, pretty much everything: traffic, utilities, public service … you name it. That means unfathomable volumes of data, data that will have very personal ramifications and demand new thinking in terms of Cyber protection and data lifecycle management and privacy. 

So no surprise, that one of the most discussed subjects was the Cyber and physical security of both the digital City OS (Operating System) and devices that are at the heart of what makes such environments ‘Smart’. 

Queue Panel Session 1 that I moderated in at the event – ‘The Importance of Cyber-Physical Security in the Age of Smart Cities’  with some eminent figures uniquely positioned who provided some enlightening discussion:

• Feris Adi – Director of Cyber Security (CISO), City of Toronto.
• Dr. Joseph Cevetello – Chief Information Officer, City of Sanat Monica, LA County.
• Chris Johnson – Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Balfour Beatty.
• Ivelisse Torres – Senior Director, Information Systems, ABM Industries.
• Henry Van De Ven – Chief Information Officer (CIO) Board member, former CIO of BAM.

You can watch the whole session here:

The second panel session I participated in complemented this foundational theme – ‘Building Resilience and Security by Design for the Smart City of Tomorrow‘. Moderated by James Bore (Director, Bores Group Ltd), I was in the eminent company of:

• Benny Thottam – CIO, New York Fire department
• Rashiq Fataar – CEO, Our Future Cities, South Africa.
• Christopher Carter – CISO, WSSC Water.

You can watch the whole session here:

The last but most exciting part of the whole event was the opportunity to spend some time with a Great British IT and Property heavyweight with a non-nonsense reputation – Lord Sugar. The International Keynote event on the final day was a Fireside Chat session with Lord Sugar.

You can watch the fireside chat here:

In conclusion, well truth be told my head is still spinning. However, one thing that is certain is this. This is the future and beyond, unfolding right before our eyes.

Oh yes, perhaps not such good news for the auto industry as cars have been eliminated from the design!