Microsoft CityNext Solution Forum, Tokyo
With Tokyo ranking as the world’s largest city by population, it’s appropriate that Microsoft Japan held its CityNext Solution Forum there on May 30, bringing together our company leaders, government and healthcare customers, and some of Japan’s top thought leaders. The Tokyo forum reinforced that cities are where the action is, with more than half of the world’s population living in metropolitan areas and 80 percent of gross domestic product created there. Cities are where people find jobs, raise families, have social opportunities and find the intersection of all aspects of community living.
It’s against this backdrop that the Tokyo event opened with a keynote on “NextGen Workstyle and Medical/HealthCare Services with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT)” (learn more about Microsoft’s Stefan Sjoestroem and Akira Sakakibara’s compelling presentation here). The estimated 150 attendees then split into government and healthcare tracks before coming together for a closing panel discussion on “Digital Transformation led by Local Government.”
Our CityNext team talks to government leaders around the world about a broad range of issues. The topics that were discussed in the government track are timely and reflect the needs of today’s leaders:
- New Social Services and Transformation Enabled by Open Data, IoT and AI: Tokyo University’s Noboru Koshizuka talked about how the development of IoT and the increased ability to gather large quantities of data is leading to the potential for advanced data analysis leveraging AI and machine learning. He contrasted that capability against the proper use of public data stored by government agencies.
- Municipalities and Government Institutions Working Towards Reform: Seiji Takahashi of the Kumamoto City Bureau of General Affairs Administration Management Department; Kenichiya Kaneda of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Atsushi Oyaizu, Microsoft Technology Center, delved into new ways that city governments are reforming employee work styles. This is what our CityNext team refers to as empowering employees, with cloud-based, role-related applications and smart-city innovations that increase collaboration, productivity and efficiency.
- Trends in Information Systems and Security Audits: Led by Tadashi Nagamiya of the Japan Information Security Audit Association and Microsoft Japan’s Masakazu Takahashi, this session addressed what is at or near the top of every city leader’s priorities: data security. With today’s environment of increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity attacks, the speakers covered the latest developments across information systems and security.
The agenda also highlights the significant issues and opportunities facing worldwide local-government leaders, with cloud computing and other innovations making it possible to digitally transform cities to become safer, healthier, better educated and more sustainable. For years, Microsoft has been working with city leaders and communities to help address their most pressing needs. We believe that technology—especially the cloud, IoT and data analytics—plays a significant role in solving pervasive problems, opening new avenues to better serve the public and advancing smart-city initiatives. We also recognize that governments must ensure their technologies can be trusted by citizens and comply with their heightened security requirements. That’s why trust is at the core of our CityNext initiative:
- Microsoft Azure is the global, trusted, hyper-scale cloud, providing the most comprehensive compliance coverage of any cloud provider.
- Microsoft has become known as “the most trusted cloud service provider.”
- U.S. local government organizations ranked Microsoft the top-scored company in the recent IDC Survey Spotlight on questions of trust and customer satisfaction in enabling smart-city digital transformations.
- We are deeply committed to delivering secure, compliant hardware, infrastructure and applications, and meeting the most stringent requirements specific to government agencies.
I’m confident that those who attended the CityNext Solution Forum in Tokyo walked away with new insights, inspirations and ideas to engage citizens, empower employees, optimize operations and transform their cities to become more sustainable, prosperous and inclusive. If you’d like to do the same, please visit:
