The spotlight is on our cities. Citywide government and policy are combining forces with new technology to help our urban communities grow. As we adopt new technology, there’s a growing need for workers in tech companies with a skillset that combines a technical quantitative background with statistics and mapping, combined with traditional policymaking.
That’s why I’m proud to share a new meetup and networking group called Urban Planners in Tech. With 50 current members meeting quarterly, rotating in different tech spaces across the city, we’re working to get likeminded individuals together to build an ecosystem of hybrid planners in the Bay Area.
Unlike traditional moving meetups that focus on the host company itself, our host takes a quick intro to summarize their cool new projects, and we spend the rest of the time socializing and networking. No pitch nights or hackathons here — just time to meet each other, exchange ideas, and finding our place in this relatively new community.
As we grow in our municipalities through political progression and technology-based innovation, we’re seeing our ecosystem as urban planners change drastically. There’s far more of a demand for cross-sector collaboration, and it’s manifesting in new roles in city teams. This trend in the sector itself is driving this small meetup group, and we can’t wait to see where we go from here.
