Ignacio Lamothe graduated in Political Science at the School of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires in 2005. Afterwards he has completed several postgraduate seminars and courses concerning City matters, Economy and Capital Markets.
He started his career in the National Executive Power in 2004, working in the Coordination of Institutional Political Affairs of the Presidential Unity charge of linking the political organizations, provincial governments, among other institutional organizations to the National Executive Power. He had the chance to work with different organizations and governments from all around the country on their local problems and issues and report these problems and issues to the National Executive Power for a closer approach.
During 2004-2006 he worked in the National Chamber of Deputies as a technical advisor following up and analysing the Budget and Finance Committees and Economy Committee.
In 2011 he was appointed Secretary of Municipal Affairs in the Ministry of Interior and Transport. He was responsible for assisting the municipalities countrywide in updating local administrative systems and improving their management skills. He devised a management plan based on his comprehensive knowledge of a large number of cities in different provinces around the country, designed a national training programme for local agents, carried out studies on municipal issues countrywide, fostered the innovation in the local administration and broadened the territorial scope of the National State policies.
1. Please can you give us a little background about yourself and your current role?
I am Co-founder Atlas Smart Cities (strategy consultancy of smart cities) www.smartcitiesatlas.com
Co-founder Intuitive (agency to develop makerspaces in cities) www.intuitive.net.ar
Co-founder PANAL (NGO to improve skills in public sector) www.ideaspanal.org
2. What are the main goals for „ATLAS Smart Cities“ in 2020-2021?
We are focused on adding new technologies in the public sector in order to face the new covid19 and to introduce into public organizations new ways of management. We are strongly convinced that covid19 crisis it’s a great opportunity to turn around the shape that cities have been handled.
We know that crisis it´ a huge opportunity to introduce new concepts, new ideas.
cities need now to solve urgent problems, in a short time. but the pandemic let us have a big lesson, this it´a great time to make changes.
3. Tell us how your company helps businesses and cities be smarter?
Do you have a smart city strategy or plan in place?
We don’t work with a previous plan or strategy, because we disagree with the idea that cities have to adapt to previous plans.
Firstly we hear mayors or decision makers. Secondly we write down the foremost problem and biggest challenges the institutions have to face.
Third, we design better solutions according to these kinds of institutions. We don’t sell pre-recorded solutions, we integrate different tools in order to solve specific problems. We always design solutions thinking for citizens, because they will be the final users.
We work using a design thinking mindset, but we adapt to the context.
4. What advice would you give to a city that is looking to improve the living conditions for its residents through better data management?
We don’t give general advice, because every city is different. But data, it’s like a mineral, Data is the destiny. Data will be the most important asset that cities will have. However, today data is produced in every city, but not collected and turned useful. We try to introduce that idea in every city we are working.
It’s very important to us to deal with standardized data sets to produce improvements in the institutions. Using standardized data sets allows us to design better tools based on real information instead of intuitions.
We encourage governments to use platforms of open data and api management. This kind of platform allows governments to deal with a huge amount of information. if this information is not standardized and introduced in a right software tool, it’s useless information. Management information and turn this into something useful, it’s one of our principal goals working in the design of smart cities strategies.
5. What are the challenges for the city of the future and what solutions are needed?
The challenges for the future of cities include people in the decisions governments make. Cites are complex systems of systems. To govern cities today is very different than it used to be. Cities have become more and more complex. Local governments today have to face huge issues: inequality, future jobs, security, pollution, etc, at the same time they have to improve services and quality of life. Local governments need to produce a quantum leap to face the new context, they need to adapt cities to people. To accomplish this goal, they need to take into account citizens’ opinions and point of view. Introducing new technologies and new management, Local government could allow citizens to participate in different topics. Collecting and organized opinion in order to improve the decision making. The multiple opinions and point of view offer governments a strong tool to deal with the new scenery. The current tech revolution it’s a big opportunity to take advantage and use this to transform cities into good places to live.
