Smart and Sustainable: Future Cities

Jeff Peel, MD of Quadriga Consulting, was recently interviewed by Bruce Rogers of Forbes about Future Cities.

Here’s an excerpt…

Bruce: Jeff, do you get the impression that everyone is jumping on the ‘smart cities’ idea? 

It certainly seems to be flavor of the month.  Part of the reason seems to be that many technology companies have been focusing on the idea of smart cities.  It has become a very convenient way to sell big ticket solutions to city and regional authorities.  But I think the message is getting through that smart city initiatives need to be about more than creating a few apps or creating some type of city information portal or congestion charging system.  Smart cities aren’t just about technology.  In fact the smartest cities are the ones that are beginning to focus on how they sustain themselves for the future.  That will take much more than simply a web site and a few apps.  It’s about considering how cities will cope in terms of being attractive places in which to live – and in a way that’s affordable for city authorities.  The process of thinking about these things in concert has to start sooner rather than later.

Billing and CRM: A Tech City Workshop – May 8

On May 8, 2014 Brite:Bill will be holding a special billing relationship workshop, specially designed for service providers that want to know more about billing and customer engagement. Jeff Peel of Quadriga Consulting will be presenting at the event the findings from a recent global survey of communications service providers.

The Billing Relationship workshop will be held right in the heart of London’s thriving Tech City area – in the fabulous Hoxton Hotel on Great Eastern Street.  The hotel has become centre-piece of the astonishing renaissance of this part of East London – now home to dozens of technology start-ups and tech gorillas.

Brite:Bill can only accommodate around 20-30 guests on the day but they promise a series of stimulating discussions and presentations.

Attendance is by invitation on but if you’d like to attend you can pre-register here.

Biometric Research: London and New York Demos

We have been commissioned to undertake a program of research for a company that has developed a new tool that measures emotional engagement in video – based on two types of respondent engagement metric.

The tool can be used to test video based advertising treatments, story-boards, ‘viral’ videos and digital content that is delivered via video. It uses advanced biometric techniques including galvanic skin response.

We’re hoping to undertake a series of meetings (with our client) during late February and early March with researchers and/or agency technology specialists – with people that undertake advertising creative testing in a controlled environment. We were hoping to demo the tool and collect feedback on its potential relevance – and to obtain reactions to the proposed pricing.

We’re hoping to meet with researchers and creative agencies in London 19th to 21st February and in New York from March 3rd to 5th. Would this be of interest to you? Would it be relevant to your specific role? Would you have a spare 1 hour slot where we might demo the solution and get your feedback? If not, would you have any colleagues or connections in the agency world for whom it might be relevant?

This is a fascinating new technology – please let us know if you’d like to be involved.

You can call Jeff Peel on +44 2892 668389 or email him on jeff@quadco.co.uk if you’d like to meet up with us in London or New York.