Major sporting events can be defining moments for cities since they contribute to the local economy across numerous industry sectors such as hospitality, entertainment, and tourism. These events are also heavily publicised and televised; therefore, host cities can demonstrate its features and services to a wider audience than traditional tourism marketing.
These key events are a chance to highlight a city’s liveability while testing its ability to manage increased pressure on public services.
Measuring liveability is a complex notion as it encompasses citizens’ access to various elements such as; affordable housing, sustainable energy, water and sanitation, traffic management, public transportation, health and education, and public security. These individual aspects may be difficult to measure, but collecting this data can help streamline and automate various public-service functions through intelligent digital solutions.
A city’s liveability is intimately tied up with the concept of digitalisation since online access greatly affects how citizens live, learn, work, and play. Public service providers are striving to be more conscious of how intelligent digital technologies can be used to both measure and improve liveability and sustainability.
Using the State of Origin rugby league tournament as an example, this annual event places strain on numerous public and private services throughout its host cities. Challenges to cities’ liveability include increased traffic congestions, noise pollution from various venues, and the ability to maintain public order and safety.
Intelligent digital technologies such as data collection and automation can measure various liveability elements to highlight, potentially pre-empt, and remedy problematic areas. For example, using sensors to measure traffic and automation to correlate this data with weather, parking availability, and public transport loads. This data can then be used to keep citizens informed and even alleviate the added stresses of these major sporting events.
Intelligent technology in sporting venues is gaining traction as seen with the San Francisco 49ers’ latest stadium. Vice President of Strategy and Analytics for the 49ers, Moon Javaid noted how working with SAP and automation has streamlined its customer experience to make fan interactions more seamless.
“For example, if a parking lot is filling up, we can change the signage around the parking lot to direct customers to another parking lot, so they don’t have to wait in line,” he explained during the SAP Best Run Podcast. “If we see that we’re getting hit at a specific entry point, we can send more staff to that entry point, so the lines become shorter.”
Expanding this idea further, digital solutions can measure liveability factors in a macro sense and offer data-driven solutions so cities can become more citizen-centric. Public service providers are recognising the importance of driving liveability of economic prosperity. For example, New Zealand recently announced its ‘wellbeing budget’ making it the first country in the world to focus on citizen wellbeing over economic progress – prioritising child poverty, domestic violence, and mental health.
Achieving greater liveability requires a holistic approach to city management and to truly facilitate cross-industry collaboration, digital platforms such as ERP platforms, can ensure social programs and services are more accessible and affordable for everyone. Intelligent technologies have the ability to measure citizen engagement and wellbeing better than ever, so public service providers need to incorporate these resources to create smarter cities and happier citizens.
The role of intelligent technology in building smarter cities will be explored much further at this year’s Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayors’ Forum. For the opportunity to connect with thought leaders and industry experts on city liveability, sustainability, mobility, and innovation, register for the event today and visit the SAP liveability area, in partnership with the Urban Institute, Queensland University of Technology, Intel & DXC Technology.
