Emily Yates on Philadelphia’s first Smart City strategy

I think the hardest challenge was really just getting to know people, getting them to trust me and to see the value of our work, which was one of the reasons why we really pushed pitch and pilot forward so fast. And just to kind of get them willing to participate with me. I think you know that change management is a really big challenge in city. government. We have 25 ,000 employees in the city of Philadelphia. And so, you know, I think that is a huge challenge to break down silos between departments and really say we are most effective when we're working together and sharing this data. Don't be afraid to share it. We can only learn from it. I think that was one challenge. I think the other challenge was funding. You know, smart cities is inherently risky because we're saying let's take innovative technology. and data and really improve how we're doing things, but nothing's guaranteed, right? And cities are inherently risk -first. So how do you create or how do you navigate that tension? And pilots seem to be working very well for us here in the city, but it really requires making sure that it's measurable, that we're capturing qualitative and quantitative data, that we're managing the relationships and the partnerships. And so for me, it's not been as much about the tech and data as much as like the partnership management and getting that buy -in and making people feel comfortable that they're not hanging their heads out to take on this risk of trying new technology.