Since late 2018, City of Melbourne has been proactively working with telecommunications carriers, hardware and software companies, local businesses, startups, academia and community members to position Melbourne’s economy to benefit from digital disruption. The establishment and running of City of Melbourne’s Emerging Technology Testbed function through API 8.10 “Trial 5G and IOT urban infrastructure and services” is part of this response.

As more technology is rolled out across cities, City of Melbourne has been actively working with business, startups, researchers, universities, other government bodies and our community to to position Melbourne’s economy to benefit from digital disruption. This has led to the setting up of the Emerging Technology Testbed, a council function designed to work with organsiations and the community to:

• Test emerging technology and data to solve city challenges.
• Prototype the ways in which we work with organisations and community to do this.
• Prototype the ways we communicate our use of technology and data.

The Reimagining the City challenge is the second testbed challenge to run through the Testbed function. Over 8 weeks from December to February, in alignment with City of Melbourne's COVID-19 Reactivation and Recovery Plan, we invited participants to submit their emerging technology solutions in relation to a problem or opportunity in Melbourne that responded to the following challenge "How might we reimagine experiences, spaces and places so that they are vibrant and inclusive, promoting social connection and creating new reasons to live, work and play in Melbourne?"

We were looking for submissions that:

• Simultaneously addressed the challenge statement and a problem or opportunity in Melbourne.
• Embodied our future city aspirational values
• Were new and exciting and may not have been trialled before in Melbourne, Australia or the world.
• Were proactive solutions that utilise tech and data and had the ability to deliver results within 12 months.

There were eight selection criteria outlined and shortlisting was based on how well submissions addressed the criteria.

A panel of judges with diverse backgrounds was selected to vote on the finalists’ pitches. Votes will begin to be cast at a live pitch event on 18 March and can be submitted for two weeks after until 31 March.

There is $180,000 funding available for up to four of the submissions to progress to become testbed pilots. Once the pilots start, City of Melbourne and partners will be on hand for support and there will be multiple opportunities for the community to be involved in pilot activities.

Applicants submitting had to identify as one or more of the following;

• entrepreneur/individual
• university/researcher
• startup (a newly established business with growth potential and attractive to investors)
• scaleup (a business that is in the process of expanding and entering new markets)
• established organisation (a recognised and organised group of people with a particular purpose, such as a business, not-for-profit, social enterprise or government department)
• a combination of the above.

There were eight selection criteria the submissions were required to meet, including:

• address the challenge statement
• provide universal access
• ensure trust and transparency
• deliver impact
• be innovative
• be scalable
• be technically and conceptually sound
• be feasible and sustainable.

Read more about the criteria.

The 40 submissions were shortlisted by City of Melbourne based on how well they addressed the selection criteria.

Up to four winners will be selected by a panel of judges and the community. The panel of judges is from local and state government, community organisations and independent experts and their vote comprises 80% of each pitch’s total score. Anyone from the community can vote at the live event or in the two weeks following it and their vote comprises 20% of the final score. All scores will be made public.

The shortlisted applicants will pitch their idea at the live event to be held on 18 March. The judges and community attending can vote at the end of the live event.

For those who can’t make the event the pitches will be recorded and the videos will be uploaded to this page. Voting will be open until 31 March so there will be plenty of time to vote for your favourite idea. The winners will be announced in April.

Yes. Anyone can vote.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the live event. The pitches will be recorded, uploaded here and voting will be open until 31 March so there’s plenty of time to vote for your favourite idea.

Marketing Entourage will be working with the City of Melbourne to deliver the live event. You can contact them before or during the event by:

• Replying to the registration follow up email from the Marketing Entourage team
• Email: hello@marketingentourage.com.au
• Facebook Messenger Chat: www.facebook.com/marketingentourage

Yes. Once the winners are selected they will work closely with City or Melbourne, partners and the community to progress their submissions.

As a first step City of Melbourne will develop a plan to ensure there are regular opportunities for the community to be involved in the implementation process of each pilot. To be updated on the upcoming opportunities subscribe and follow this page.

You can subscribe to monthly updates on the winning pilots by subscribing to Participate Melbourne and following this page.