TM Forum, the global member association for digital business, has announced the launch of its Smart City Forum and accompanying Leadership Team. TM Forum explained that cities are becoming a natural convergence point for Internet-of-Everything (IoE) technologies, underpinned by intelligent communications networks. As urbanization drives rapid growth in cities worldwide, the challenges of privacy, big data analytics, open data and operational efficiencies will demand collaboration on a  global scale. The smart city industry is projected to become a USD 400 billion market by 2020.

Co-chaired by Peter Marx, CTO of the City of Los Angeles, and Jane Chen, senior VP of ZTE and chairman of ZTEsoft, the Smart City Forum will be expanded to encompass over 100 leading smart cities and governments worldwide, plus the top 10 global smart city research groups, 10 Smart City Innovation Centers and hundreds of suppliers, service providers and international bodies from the wider smart city ecosystem.

When fully established, the Smart City leadership team will include seven smart city leaders (G7), a rotating chair from the Smart City Think Tank Group, a rotating chair held by the Smart City Innovation Centers, three service providers, three equipment suppliers, two leading systems integrators and two impactful global consultancies.

The Smart City Forum welcomes Mike Zeto, general manager smarter cities at AT&T, Rosalia Simon Navarro, smart city leader at Telefonica, Gerard Corcoran, smart city leader at Western Europe Huawei and Manuel Machado Alonso, smart city leader at Deloitte.

The Smart City Forum has also established the Smart City Think Tank Group, bringing together key academia to advise and influence direction and drive a pragmatic research agenda. The first think tank members include Professor Carlo Ratti, director SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT, Professor  Soeren Auer, leader of Fraunhofer IAIS, Professor Wan Wanggen, head of Smart City Research Center at Shanghai University, Dr Wan Biyu, chief Scientist at the Chinese Society for Urban Studies National Smart City Joint Lab and Professor Brian Field, former chief urbanist at the EIB, and others.

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