Getting people to do certain things can be tough. It's only natural to do things in your self-interest. Online shopping can be more convenient and cheaper instead of shopping locally. Taking your car from point A to B can be faster. So how can a city change this? By incentivizing the desired behavior. Okay, how? Michael Mazur is with an Israeli-based company called Colu. They're working with towns and cities on changing not only behaviors but mindsets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now here is a grand title: Chief Digital Officer and Director of Innovation fo the city of Hamilton. That's the job of Cyrus Tehrani. His department works with all the other departments across the city to help introduce smart city technology. And this is happening in areas in which you might not expect. This is a massive job and one that requires a tremendous amount of vision. We caught up with Cyrus in his office. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've been doing any travel through airports over the last six months, you've probably noticed an increase in the number of vending machines. Not the kind that dispense cold drinks or chocolate bars, but everything from over-the-counter medicines to expensive electronics. And chances are, those machines were built and designed by Signifi Systems, a Canadian company headed up by CEO Shamir Jaffer. And just wait until you hear where this company plans to take this space in the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine this. It's 2 in the morning. You've got an important project that needs to be completed in the morning but you've run out of some important supply. But instead of panicking, you head to a location with a certain type of vending machine. You pick up what you need, head home, finish the project, and you're a hero. Or how about this: You order something online and instead of waiting for it to show up on your doorstep during business hours (where it could get stolen), you go to an automated pickup locker. This is the business of Signifi Solutions Inc. Peter Sciberra is here to talk about how these types of pickup locations are going to change the retail landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You've probably heard the word "metaverse" thrown around--and you're forgiven if you think that this is something that Facebook is trying to push on us. That's true--but only to an extent. The new age of the internet and online activity will include an infinite number of metaverses, all based on new technology, new protocols, new ways of doing business, and new ways of owning digital property. It's far, far more than what we're hearing about Facebook. And as you'll hear in a moment, Asia is leading the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier this summer, Locomobi CEO Grant Furlane organized the first-ever Smart City Summit in Toronto. About 20 people met around a table to talk about working together toward making smart building, smart community, and smart city technologies a reality, both in the short- and long-term. A selection of those folks gathered here for a bit of a post-mortum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Kennedy Smith is the chair and co-founder of a couple of biotech and human health companies. He has teamed with Cheryl Buchanan, an attorney and a co-founder of Writers Without Margins, a non-profit that uses the power of storytelling to heal. This is a different sort of Smart Cities topic--there's very little tech involved here--but it does look at a smart approach to dealing with the problems cities have today. We'll get to the film "In Their Shoes: Unheard Stories of Re-entry and Recovery," too. We hooked up with Stephen and Cheryl from their respective offices in Boston. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Majewksi is from Inovex is a data foundation company, which is another way of saying that they do data analytics in a way that takes sets of data and aligns it to specific business strategies. Mark Majewski explains how Inovex ingests data, sorts it, and creates useful knowledge that can be implemented in a wide varieties of ways. Mark came into Locomobi World HQ. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicholas Gill is from a New York-based company called Building Link that helps property managers run 6500 different buildings around the world using their industry-leading software. Nicholas Gill, the head of Building Link's Canadian division, explains what the company does and how things look for the smart buildings of the future. Nicholas joined us at Locomobi World Headquarters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You've probably heard the term "Metaverse" thrown around a lot. But what IS that? And what does it have to do with you? Nav Gupta, the CEO and founder of a company called Chaarmi is here to explain--and he'll tell you how you can can have a metaverse of your very own. Strap in. This one is really interesting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.