THE progress of Limerick’s ‘Smart City’ programme and how it will positively impact the future of all its citizens will be explored this Thursday and Friday.
The Science Foundation Ireland research centre in smart manufacturing, which is hosted at UL’s Park Point complex in Castletroy, will be transformed into a showcase for the innovation surging across Limerick as the European Commission’s ‘Smart Cities’ programme takes hold.
The inaugural two-day ‘Limerick Innovation Virtual Event’ (LIVE) at the CONFIRM centre in Castletroy is part of Limerick City and County Council’s ‘Smart Limerick’ programme.
The event will be a coming together of a representative mix of the cross sectoral and organisational champions of innovation and the Smart Cities programme. These will include local authority digital strategy leaders to universities and technology entrepreneurs and tech industry representatives to citizens’ networks – all combining to create the smart, sustainable city and region empowered by digital technologies.
The innovation showcase will be the first in a series of similar engagements that will celebrate Limerick’s thriving innovation ecosystem, which is shaping the future of a digitally connected sustainable city.
It opens with an overview of Smart Limerick’s journey, then Innovate Limerick presenting the success story that ‘Film in Limerick’ has become, with another key session of the morning involving a panel discussion on how the digital transformation is going to play a key role in the revitalisation of Limerick’s city centre as a key contributor to Limerick’s evolution as a modern, sustainable ’15 minute city’.
Speaking ahead of the event, Mayor Daniel Butler, said, “Innovation in Limerick is centred around its people. Often it’s thought that a Smart City is some sort of creation of science fiction, with screens and sensors on every corner, but what we have learned on our journey as a Council, is that often the most successful aspects of a Smart City are as simple as making our services easily accessible, and embedding a culture of technical ability in our organisation.
“As technology constantly changes, Limerick City and County Council is agile enough to be able to lead by example to change easily with it, making sure that innovation is used to enhance the lives of our citizens.”
According to UL President Kerstin Mey, the launch of the smart city project showcasing outcomes highlights the value of true collaboration.
“At UL we value very much our multi-dimensional partnership with Limerick City and County Council and the communities we serve to connect its citizens and harness the power of our collective creativity in order to contribute to a more just and prosperous society in Limerick and to the transformation of the region.”
