Alumni network
Each year, nearly 25 territory experts from different backgrounds and sectors (cities and municipalities, inter-municipal organisations, LAGs - Local Action Groups, research centres, companies active in consultancy, insurance, energy, construction, technology, petrochemicals, mobility, waste management, media, events, IT, etc.) join the Smart City Institute's alumni community, after completing its continuing education programme in Smart City Management.
A mix of actors
From year to year, the Smart Cities Management Training brings together participants with a wide variety of profiles. This mix allows for rich exchanges, but also for building an ecosystem that is increasingly representative of the Smart City dynamic that is taking place in our territories.
Indeed, if the main objective of this continuing education is of course to equip participants to better understand the challenges of the Smart City, one of the wishes of the Smart City Institute is also to promote the construction of a community, allowing the sharing of content and the exchange of experiences between participants, alumni, speakers and the Smart City Institute. This is confirmed by Cécile Caputo, training coordinator: "After 4 editions, our alumni community has grown considerably. The time has come to consolidate and bring together this rich and precious network to continue exchanging beyond the training in order to move forward together and concretely our territories to more sustainability and intelligence".
One of the objectives of this programme was to break down the prevailing assumptions and prejudices that it was possible to have about the public, private and academic sectors. Indeed, by favouring training aimed at an audience from different backgrounds and sectors, the participants got to know each other better, understood each other's realities and identified their complementarities. After all, a Smart City is built thanks to the intelligence of the different stakeholders and this training course allows us to bring together "around the table" professional actors ready to debate and find solutions to the challenges and problems encountered in our territories. Our participants have understood it well: the Smart City relies on its inhabitants, companies, universities, associations... to reinvent and innovate. Our community of alumni thus represents the various actors in the field committed to working together, while promoting the decompartmentalisation and meeting common objectives that are beneficial for its living environment and its users.
Today, our community counts 95 experts from both the public (44%) and private (56%) sectors. (figures 2021)
A platform to support exchanges
In order to support experience and content sharing between alumni (all editions combined), a work and exchange platform entirely dedicated to them was launched in January 2021. You are an alumni and you did not receive your invitation ? Contact our colleague Cécile Caputo, who will send you all the useful information!
Joining a network: one of the main assets of this programme
As the alumni will confirm, this continuing education in Smart Cities Management is a real asset to consolidate a solid network on the long term:
- Antoine, 2018 edition : « One of the first benefits I see in this training is to make yourself known, to integrate an ecosystem composed of diverse urban actors. It's a real networking tool. »
- Camille, 2018 edition : « I think this training has several advantages: on the one hand, it's the contacts and meetings it generates. It's very enriching to talk about problems encountered with actors who have different profiles and who approach this from a different angle. »
- David, 2017 edition : « The network that has been created has really enabled the exchange of best practices. »
Discover the complete testimonies of 7 of them
