Consultancy COMPANY DETAILS Name: David Beeton Company: Urban Foresight Email: hello@urbanforesight.org Web Address: www.urbanforesight.org
Future City Shapers
As a consulting think tank, Urban Foresight helps to develop and deploy innovative, sustainable solutions for cities and communities around the world, using strategy and research.
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hat does your business do? Urban Foresight is a strategy and innovation consultancy focused on future cities. We undertake research, develop strategies and run projects to advance new solutions for smart and sustainable cities.
Who are your clients? We develop strategies and projects that enable government and industry to work together to co-create solutions to make cities resilient and responsive to future needs and lifestyles. Our diverse client base includes national governments, local authorities, public agencies, international NGOs, universities, blue chip corporates and high-growth SMEs. What makes you unique? Our unique approach is to combine expertise across the different sectors and services where progress is required to achieve a brighter future for future cities. This includes mobility, energy, environment, communities, economic development, data, infrastructure and innovation. Our skill lies in recognising the links between often siloed systems, and the opportunities for integration in areas such as electric vehicles, renewable energy, smart grids, intelligent transport systems and big data platforms. What’s your biggest challenge facing you at present? The challenges and opportunities facing cities are complex and rapidly shifting. At Urban Foresight we have set ourselves the challenge of tracking significant developments in technologies, business models and policy right around the world. This requires a breadth of knowledge that would typically span a range of professional disciplines and market sectors. It requires our team to be flexible, creative and highly motivated. What’s the aim for your business? Urban Foresight is a mission-driven business that is working to shape a brighter future for cities and communities around the world. We are demonstrating that it is possible to grow a profitable business that accelerates the global transition to a more secure, citizen-focused, low carbon economy. Our ultimate ambition is to scale up the number and size of projects that we undertake and to become the global go-to agency for smart city strategies. What’s your company’s biggest challenge? Our company is all about crafting creative solutions to big challenges. In many instances the challenges are well understood, but bringing new smart city solutions to market requires expertise in diverse areas. This includes the potential of data and technology to shape more efficient and intelligent cities, the policy drivers that underpin innovation and business cases and of course the funding and business models to implement financially sustainable solutions.
11 l Corporate Vision October 2016