| | NOVEMBER 20218CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONPrior to 2020, the Smart Community was a hit among the buzzwords of our industry. Endless promises poured in of technologies bringing insight to government, deepening the connection between residents and their civic leaders, and realizing new services and efficiencies for our departments. Then 2020 happened. For many Cities and Towns, the impending doom of recession loomed over us, and the fluff of promises without immediate returns for the pandemic quickly fell away. Companies who once filled our spam folders with Smart City tech quickly turned to fighting the pandemic with surveillance, temperature cameras, contact tracing, and logistics for aid and vaccine distribution. So where does that leave the Smart Community? To put it simply, our residents still face the same challenges they did in 2019, and in many ways the pandemic and turmoil of 2020 SMART COMMUNITY INNOVATION FOR THE POST PANDEMICBy Harry Meier, Deputy CIO for Innovation, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Mesa
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