Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Dean.
Brian, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My Co-founder, Dominic Papa, and I grew up for most of our lives in the Greater Phoenix Region, and iDP were born from our desire to be able to help the region continue to grow, improve, and thrive for all of our neighbors, friends, and citizens. We are proud of being from this region and want to do our part in developing communities that serve the changing environment and needs of its citizens. Currently, utilizing innovative paradigms centered on how smart technology and processes can help our communities be more efficient, resilient, and fun, is how we felt we could accomplish that goal.
When we began looking around the world at how other historically “Smart” cities were able to accomplish this, we noticed a pattern where each of those cities had a not-for-profit partner in place, which was able to act alongside the government to cultivate public-private partnerships which allowed both cities and technology partners to act more collaboratively and be more agile in the development and testing of new technology solutions. iDP was created to act as that trusted partner in the Greater Phoenix Region.
However, the problem persisted of how can cities not only more efficiently move beyond pilot stages, into true implementable and scalable solutions, but also, how can they capitalize on the solutions developed in other communities. We found the answer to those opportunities was to not view these as city problems, but as regional opportunities, and thus the Greater Phoenix Smart Region Consortium was devised (now known as The Connective). The Connective is a multifaceted partnership group between iDP, Arizona State University, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, Maricopa Association of Governments, technology industry partners, and the twenty-two communities which make up the Greater Phoenix Region. By bringing together this group of stakeholders from multiple disciplines, and developing the framework for which new solutions can be developed, tested, procured, and scaled, we believe the Greater Phoenix Region can become the leading hub for the development and implementation of new smart city solutions in the United States. By co-researching and co-developing new solutions with multiple stakeholders from the onset of the development cycle, we believe better more viable solutions will be output from the process, and through streamlined procurement processes, solutions can be more easily scaled across the region and beyond.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If you were to ask most people who work in some form with emerging technology solutions, it has been my experience that many of them will agree that typically the main struggles are not born from the technology itself, but more from the necessary alignment of the people, processes, and environment which the technology must operate in. With as fast as technology iterates and improves in today’s world, there are very few situations that we have come across where the desired end state cannot be reached because the technology does not exist or could not be developed. Thus, it is our struggle and our opportunity to help communities identify the appropriate use cases where a potential “smart” solution would enable them to reach their desired end state, then adapt and align the environment which will allow for that potential solution to be properly developed, vetted, implemented, tested, maintained, and scaled as necessary.
It is very easy to innovate for innovation sake, however, iDP’s core mission dictates that we help communities leverage smart technologies together, thus our goal is to utilize technology as a tool to achieve a greater purpose which creates a positive impact on the quality of life for the citizens and businesses in the Greater Phoenix Communities. Local governments are in a unique position as unlike private industry or even some higher levels of government, it is the duty of a local government to include and serve each and every one of their constituents. They are not satisfied with an X% market share of X% approval rating, so any new service rolled out, or programming offered must take into account as many of the unique requirements in their community as possible, and we must work together to satisfy those requirements from the very beginning of the development life cycle. Naturally, this can occasionally slow down the innovative process, however, it is that necessary collaboration that provides the greatest opportunity for truly tangible improvement.
The Smart Region Consortium is built to attack those challenges by creating a new culture of innovation that focuses on inclusivity and collaboration across municipal boundaries, organizational silos, and public, private, and academic sectors, to develop a new value for stakeholders across the region. Changing behavior and established paradigms on such a large scale is always going to be difficult, but the Greater Phoenix Region is lucky to have a large group of visionary leadership across the various sectors, who have truly driven this new attitude towards innovation, and are now focused on developing the environment which will enable the value creation for all, and we are tremendously excited to begin to enable the communities of the future, together!
Please tell us about the organization.
The Institute for Digital Progress is a not for profit organization, which allows us to focus solely on mission driven activities. As such, iDP can act as a trusted partner for organizations on both sides of a public private partnership. Leveraging our unique position, we have become known for being the regional convener for all things “smart city” related, and we are tremendously proud of our ability to drive these conversations forward in a way that continuously keeps the needs and desires of the citizens and what is best for our communities at the forefront of every conversation. We do not exist to sell technology, we exist to help our communities thrive in the new industrial revolution ahead of us, and by working together to maintain the human element within “smart cities”, we hope to position the Greater Phoenix Region as a beacon on the hill for other regions and communities across our country moving forward.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I grew up as an only child with a relatively small extended family, however, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be very involved in team sports throughout my childhood. With no brothers, sisters, or cousins (until much later in life) at home, anytime I was able to be with my friends and teammates working together to achieve something greater than ourselves; those are my favorite memories. I guess you could say those memories still drive much of the work we are attempting to do at iDP to this day.
Contact Info:
- Address: 515 E. Grant St. Phoenix, AZ 85004
- Website: www.azidp.com & www.greaterphxconnective.com
- Phone: 480-223-8177
- Email: brian@idp.city
- Instagram: az_idp
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=113640470030726&ref=content_filter
- Twitter: @AZ_iDP & @phxconnective
Image Credit:
Taylor Henning
The Desert Creative
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