Martin Cele, CEO of Smartxchange, Deputy Mayor, Clr Logie Nairoo, Jacquie Subban, Head of Geographic and Information Systems, Ethekwini Municipality
The first SmartCity Conference and Exhibition in Africa took place in Durban at the International Convention Centre on 19 and 20 April 2007.
They streamed the conference live to five venues on the campus at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) using eThekwini's municipality's fibre optic network.
Part of the SmartCity initiative is to provide affordable broadband technology to the citizens of Durban by using the City’s own fibre-optic infrastructure which will be extended and enhanced.
One doesn't have to be a rocket-scientist to understand, how broadband technology can change the delivery of government services, business processes, education and people’s access to information.
For eThekwini municipality, this is a win win situation. "There is no doubt that low cost connectivity will have a major impact in attracting foreign investment. SMME skills will also be able to be developed further around the telecommunications and broadband services space," says Deputy Mayor, Councillor Logie Naidoo.
Smartxchange, the organisers of the conference, is an initiative within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). It was established for the purpose of developing the business base for the ICT industry in KZN.
In its efforts to realise the vision of KwaZulu-Natal becoming Africa’s ICT Hub, Smartxchange created the SmartCity Forum. Members were drawn from the SmartXchange partner base and workshops were held with key city officials to discuss the SmartCity concept and the SmartCity Municipal strategies. And that is how this conference and exhibition was born.
But watch this space, there will be another one next year. And keep an eye on the Smartexchange website - there is a lot of interesting stuff happening.
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