Parramatta City Council is one of the very few councils that started initiatives on smart cities related projects. Paraconnect is considered an innovative initiative that has been driving through community involvement. When we started our research and development centre on Smart city, Australian Centre for Smart Cities, paraconnect was one of the few projects that we found very appealing and relevant for study. Hence, it was a privilege to receive the Lord Mayor of Parramatta city council along with his delegates to discuss our centre’s objectives, scope and directions. The delegate was visiting Adelaide to learning about different initiatives on smart city in South Australia, particularly the Adelaide Smart City initiates, with which we are proud to be associated as I serve on the steering committee of the initiative to represent the University of Adelaide. The paramatta city council delegate briefed us about their vision of the city of paramatta and different initiatives that are already underway to contribute to the achievement of the vision. We briefed the delegates about our centre’s vision, objectives, and some selected projects that are being carried out in close collaboration with the internal and external stakeholders. we also briefed the delegates about different smart cities initiatives around the world and how those initiatives have been providing us inspiration and collaboration. We were very happy find that sustainability and carbon neutrality were among the top priorities of the paramatta city council’s initiatives on smart city.
We discuss the potential ways of collaborating with the city council and the educational institutes in within the paramatta city council in particular but in Sydney in general. It was agreed that we follow up for further discussion to brainstorm the ideas that can form the foundations for some collaborative projects within the paramatta city council. We are really excited about the possibility of working closely with the paramatta city council on smart city related initiatives and projects. The paramatta city council delegate included the Lord Mayor, Senior Policy Advisor to the Lord Mayor, Strategic Smart City Officer, Head of IT, Crime Prevention Officer, and Consultant on Parramatta Smart City Initiative.