Cities are keen on attracting and maintaining tax payers. Therefore “marketing” the smartness of a town becomes increasingly important. However like in every good marketing campaign there needs to be a set goal and strategy how to achieve it. Therefore Smart Urbanism starts with a masterplan for Smart City.
Having defined the goal “sustainability”, some cities did that already 10 years ago, is not enough, the roadmap towards it is key. Like in a good marketing campaign any action has to contribute to the overall goal in an integrated way. The many initiatives on municipal side and bottom up approaches from citizens (and industry) hardly follow the rule “the whole is more than the sum of its components”. Examples where such initiatives lack visibility in a big picture happen e.g. in Stuttgart, Mannheim. Approaches need to be integrated and coordinated by e.g. defined KPI for sustainable development. A good example of that marketing analogy is the Smart City of Amsterdam. Tokio has a 10 point masterplan for disasterous prevention and boost economic growth, having de-regulations and tax benefits.
Having a masterplan and milestones could also help industry to cope with the fragmented structure on city side and help find more easily ways to scale solutions.