Smart cities are reshaping the way we live, work, and travel—but what does this transformation really mean for residents, businesses, and suppliers?

This event will explore the evolution of smart cities, from visible innovations to the behind-the-scenes technology driving real impact. We’ll look at how digital infrastructure is improving daily life, uncover the often-overlooked areas where technology is making a difference, and discuss the long-term vision for connected urban spaces.

Focusing on Sunderland’s progress, we’ll highlight key smart city pilots—including the upcoming autonomous bus launch—sharing insights and lessons learned. We’ll also explore the opportunities this transformation presents for suppliers looking to be part of the future.

Whether you’re in tech, infrastructure, or just curious about the cities of tomorrow, this discussion will offer valuable insights into the smart city revolution.

The Panelists

Liz St Louis

Liz St Louis is the Director for Smart Cities at Sunderland City Council. A dynamic, highly motivated and experienced leader with over 30 years’ experience. Liz has driven transformation programmes and digital and data initiatives throughout her career and has a passion for person centred user design and ensuring digital and data enables transformational change that makes a real and measurable difference.

Leading the delivery of the Smart City Programme for Sunderland, Liz is responsible for driving forward city-wide investment in next generation digital infrastructure and digital and data solutions that are making a transformational difference across a city landscape.

Naomi Hutchinson

As Chief Innovation and Growth Officer in Sunderland City Council’s Smart City team, Naomi’s role is focused on ensuring Sunderland’s Smart City programme can realise social, economic and environmental benefits for residents and businesses alike.

Naomi is often the one asking the ‘so what’ question, ensuring that everything the Smart City team delivers has an impact: there is no tech for tech’s sake! Naomi has over a decade of experience working with the region’s tech and digital sectors.

Prior to Naomi’s current role, she worked as Head of Innovation at Sunderland Software City, where she found her passion for supporting tech founders to overcome barriers, alongside enabling several startups to win game-changing contracts with the region’s corporates, specialising in the sweet spot between supply and demand.

Seán Keating

Seán has worked on wireless networks for over 25 years. He has delivered projects across four continents. Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Australasia. This involved building infrastructure for mobile operators, governments, investors, real estate companies, offshore wind developers and large industrials.

As CTO for the UK and Ireland, Seán leads an innovative technology team creating industry-leading technology for our customers, underpinning Boldyn Networks’s growth ambitions.

Before Boldyn Networks's acquisition in 2021, Seán was CEO of Vilicom. In this role, Seán executed a strategy to expand the company into new verticals, supporting digital transformation and launching Europe’s first cloud platform to deploy mobile and private networks faster and more efficiently.

Seán holds an electronics engineering degree from Dublin City University and an MBA from Smurfit Business School. He has completed a year-long leadership development programme with IMD Lausanne.

Curious in Conversation: Smart Cities – The Future of Living and Travel