On Thursday 2nd Sept, we held a very interesting webinar about Amsterdam Smart City, presented by Joost Brinkman, Project Manager and Maaike Osieck, Communications Manager for the initiative.

Many thanks to those who were able to attend the webinar. If you would like further questions answered, please feel free to ask them here.

For those who couldn't make it or want to hear it again, you can access the webinar recording here and presentation here.

Below are the questions Joost and Maaike answered during the webinar, with some further information on the funding structure.

Q:  Can you give more detail on the business model of the initiative? 

A:  The Amsterdam Smart City program (which is mainly an accelerator of initiatives and functions as a platform between the various businesses and the city) is partly funded by the European Fund for Regional Development of the European Commission.  ASC is co-financed by the grid-operator Liander.   The different projects are funded by the several companies and governmental organisations that are involved in the projects. ASC assists at the start of these projects, setting them up, involving different organisations and government and defining the project.  After this Amsterdam Smart City offers the projects and involved partners support in terms of several communication tools (website/newsletter/press releases etc).

Q: Have the public/private partnerships been successful?’ 

A: In general:  YES!

Q: What is the optimal energy mix for Amsterdam?’

A: The target of Amsterdam is to produce 20% of renewable energy in 2020.  Current level (2009) is around 6%.

Q: Do you have cooperative relations with Belgorod city (Russia)? It is developing as a smart city, too.

A: No, not at the moment, but if anyone can pass on contact details we would be happy to get in touch.