There is a clear need to “reshape our town centres” in the face of consumer behavioural shift to online dependency and rising business rates.
The Grimsey Report highlights a demand for “an empowered organisation” to put these thoughts into action; at SmartWorld Connect we believe that our Digital Community Hub has the potential to play a key role in this “recalibration” of the UK’s town centres.
At SmartWorld Connect we aim to utilise App Store technology to help our towns and cities prepare for this consumer behavioural shift. Each City’s tailored Digital Community Hub with supporting Apps will ensure a sustainable bond between commerce and community for the future.
Essentially, we have created a platform to support Grimsey’s concept of a Community Improvement District (CID) which embraces all the stakeholders, occupiers, owners, and service providers in an area including the local authority.
Providing free public Wi-Fi would allow this to happen by supporting flexible work patterns, easy access to the Community App Store and permit cloud-based data collection. One idea for an app would be a city specific Carpool service to reduce car dependency, like the one in Japan’s Machinoeki movement that Grimsey mentions.
“New thinking, fresh leadership and ambitious initiatives need to be embraced” Grimsey says, so if you are willing to embrace this future vision and to see how SmartWorld Connect can help please contact us and share your thoughts.
SmartWorld Connect 