https://get.knect365.com/smart...487236218.1521704777

Message from Rhonda

I am humbled to make the short list for the People’s Choice Smart to Future Cities Award, nominated by Europe’s ONLY citizen centric smart city event. And as the ONLY American, I am particularly honored, knowing how advanced technologically European communities are compared to the U.S, even with long, changing histories of governments and tougher data privacy regulations. America in fact leads in innovation across the world, but historically technology has outpaced our policy. And so innovation has outpaced implementation. 

As the rapid pace of evolving technology continues to unlock new potentials for humanity, we at Venture Smarter and the Regional Smart Cities Initiative, are on a mission to help connect available solutions and addressable opportunity areas providing support and resources in real-time to communities big and small. By streamlining the discovery and collaboration process for government and technology leaders, we can compress the time to realizing smart city success stories that will change people's lives all across America and abroad.

As a public servant, technology lawyer, diplomat and entrepreneur, I worked hard to move forward the neighborhood I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, NY employing the 3T - technology, transportation and tourism strategy - landing Jamaica the #1 neighborhood designation by the Wall Street Journal and the Governor’s #1 award for downtown revitalization. At the White House, Senate and U.S. Department of State I worked with states and cities across America, and globally, providing the tools and resources to drive economic development from the ground up.