Luc Baardman🏃☕️

A while ago, I sent all the community members a survey as part of my internship here. Through this update, I want to share some insights we gained from your input.

Held in October and December 2017, the goal of the study was to find out how Amsterdam Smart City can better serve its community members. This survey therefore asked members to express their experiences with, interests in and wishes for the community website www.amsterdamsmartcity.com.

Respondents indicated to be satisfied with the quality length and relevance of items.

Results have shown a general satisfaction with the website in terms of usability and quality of content. More so, most respondents found the website relevant to their interests.

Although most interest was shown in the theme Mobility, a more general conclusion from this is that the interest differs widely between community-members and is evenly spread.

Those who gave a more critical response also helped us a lot. Main critiques in this were found in some minor e-mail processes (people complained about the many e-mails they get), and the missing functionality of personal messaging on the website.

We do value all opinions gathered through this study and hope to follow up on these in 2018. Already, the Amsterdam Smart City team is working to make the platform more user-friendly, and to stimulate more activity on the platform. This way, networking will be made easier.

A more elaborate write-up of all the responses can be requested by sending an e-mail to <a>info@amsterdamsmartcity.com</a> (subject: inquiry survey results 2017).

Missed the survey, but want to share your opinion about how we can improve the platform? Just drop a comment below!

Each year, Amsterdam scares away the dark with beautiful light expositions on land and water. Until the 21st of January, citizens and visitors can enjoy the beautiful artworks on water, created by artists from all over the world, among which Chinese artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei and the British artist Cecil Balmond.

For the first time, the land exposition is being held at the Marineterrein (next to our office!). Until the 7th of January you can admire the artworks on land, each day from 17.00 till 22.00 (NYE 20.00).

Amsterdam Light Festival brings people from different backgrounds together in the dark winter times. By exhibiting high-quality and innovative light art in public space, the festival wants to – as befits the season and the times we live in – involve, inspire and lighten visitors, creators and partners.

Click here for more info: https://amsterdamlightfestival.com/en

On Tuesday, the European Commission launched URBIS, "Urban Investment Support". URBIS will help cities plan investments to support their own urban development strategies and get easier access to finance.

Cities face particular challenges when it comes to accessing finance. Individual municipal projects, for example in the fields of social inclusion, urban regeneration or energy efficiency, can be too risky or too small for the market. At the same time, funding for integrated urban programmes can also be difficult to access, because they group several small projects across different sectors. Finally, cities can also face borrowing limits.

URBIS intends to help cities tackle these specific issues. It will help them design, plan and implement their investment strategies and projects, with tailor-made technical and financial advice, also on innovative financing options. The objective is to see solid projects get off the ground in the short to medium-term, for example in the field of urban climate actions.

Read the full article here

The Amsterdam Economic Board is looking for a young professional experienced in organising events as per direct for 4 months.
Main deliverables will be an overview of start-ups operating in the circular economy, digitisation of this overview in an attractive manner and an event in which these circular start-ups will be matched with procurement professionals. The event is scheduled to take place February 14th 2018 at the Circl Pavillion. Creativity in finding unique (digital) ways to match circular startups and launching customers is highly valued. The chosen candidate will carry the responsibility on delivering a successful event. Interested? Leave a comment below or e-mail Marjolein Brasz: m.brasz@amecboard.com

Intense collaboration, combined with a high degree of realisation and effectivity of projects and a strong sustainability and innovation component brought Rainproof Amsterdam the WOW-prize for Best Collaboration. Read the full article here (in Dutch).

Vanmorgen mocht Amsterdam Rainproof de WOW-prijs in ontvangst nemen voor Beste Samenwerking! Een mooie erkenning voor hun rainproof aanpak, het harde werken van het team en alle partners uit het netwerk. Van de 58 inzendingen kreeg Amsterdam Rainproof van de jury de hoogste totaalscore voor de drie criteria:

• de diversiteit van de samenwerkingspartners en/of de intensiteit van de samenwerking
• de mate van realisatie en het bewezen effect van het project
• de mate van duurzaamheid en innovatie

Uit het juryrapport:

> “ Samen bewerkstelligt Amsterdam Rainproof druppelsgewijs een fundamentele verandering in het klimaat denken en doen.“

The full article can be found here (dutch).

Last month, the World Economic Forum ranked Amsterdam 15th in a global benchmark regarding the innovativeness of cities. The research firm behind the publication, 2thinknow, assessed world cities on 10 factors related to technological advancement — including the number of patents filed per capita, startups, tech venture capitalists, ranking in other innovation datasets, and level of smartphone use — weighted them, and ranked a list of 85 cities accordingly.
The firm praised Amsterdam's combination of financial technology, energy efficiency, and startup culture, despite being much smaller than its neighbors. (Amsterdam has only a third of Berlin's population, for example.)

Surprised to see Amsterdam ranked 15th? Share your comments below!