Woodstock Recognized as International Smart City Leader at Taiwan Conference

Editor’s note: Global Atlanta’s Michal Jensby traveled to Taipei with the delegation to contribute the bulk of the reporting for this article.

TAIPEI — As Hsieh-Hung Cheng outlined how cameras monitor water pollution and scan license plates for stolen vehicles, his audience from Georgia had no trouble seeing similarities with projects they’re running back home. 

Mr. Cheng, chief of innovation and application section for the city of Taoyuan, Taiwan, fielded questions from two Georgia mayors and multiple reporters as they toured its “AI for All” exhibit at the world’s second largest smart-cities conference in March.  

Mayor Michael Caldwell immediately saw direct links to how Woodstock, his Cherokee County city of 35,000 people, is collecting data on traffic inflows during citywide events and helping first responders avoid getting caught at red lights.  

But Taoyuan — and Taiwan at large — is taking perhaps a more holistic view about the way cities can improve their citizens’ lives through data-driven decision-making, Mr. Caldwell mused. 

“I guess part of what’s most impressive in this for me is how comprehensively you think about this, because for us, we’re doing each of these things, but we think of them departmentally,” he told Mr. Cheng as they walked the floor observing an AI Mayor, electric buses equipped with sensors and visual exhaust monitoring systems for scooters, among other solutions.

The sharing of best practices across international borders is at the heart of the Smart City Summit and Expo 2024, a massive gathering in Taipei put on by the Taiwan Computer Association. 

Georgia cities had much to contribute: Along with Warner Robins, Woodstock was one of two communities from the state that made the Smart21, a global list of cities honored by the Intelligent Community Forum for specific smart-city initiatives. Woodstock will learn in November whether it advances to the competition’s next phase.

Woodstock’s was a project dating back to 2020, when it began working with the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation — or PIN, also part Georgia’s Taiwan delegation — on a smart-corridor study mounting GridSmart cameras at intersections.

After collecting data, PIN-supplied interns paired it with previously collected information to help the city better plan for future transportation projects. 

The project is one example of how Woodstock, where population doubled in the decade leading up to 2010 and grew another 50-plus percent by 2020, is using technology to solve citizens’ problems while adopting frameworks to maintain their privacy, said Mr. Caldwell, an entrepreneur-cum-politician who maintains a wider view on metro Atlanta through his vice chairmanship of the Atlanta Regional Commission. 

While impressed by the scale and focus of Taiwan and global cities represented at the conference, Mr. Caldwell was happy to see that his city holds its own when it comes to putting technology to use in service of solid governance. 

“I felt on equal footing in a way I didn’t expect to be on equal footing,” Mr. Caldwell said in an interview at the conference. 

Before he was mayor, Mr. Caldwell acted through his digital product agency, Black Airplane, as an in-kind consultant to the SMARTWoodstock Master Plan developed through the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge. 

The fact that much of Woodstock’s work on this front predates his term as mayor is a sign that his city has long been forward-thinking on issues of digital governance, Mr. Caldwell told Global Atlanta in an interview.

Similarly, Woodstock resisted sub-optimal development plans during the Great Recession and instead held out to create a thriving downtown on a grid layout, he said. What started as a quaint railroad stop in 1897 is now the 20th largest city in Georgia and one of the fastest-growing municipalities of its size in the country. 

“If I were to describe my city to people, I think it would be: It’s a walkable beer and art town. It’s a vibrant town. It’s the kind of town that you’re going to see the really high-end Mercedes parked next to a ’92 Accord and nobody thinks anything of it,” he said. 

The smart-city plans thus far have collected feedback from residents and worked to balance pedestrian and vehicle traffic and optimize flows, especially during busy evenings or events like the Summer Concert Series, which can bring an influx of tens of thousands of people.

Mr. Caldwell, who became mayor two and a half years ago after four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives, sees the Taiwan conference as a way to showcase American (and Georgian) leadership on the transformative global trends like artificial intelligence and data privacy, all while bringing lessons back home. 

One takeaway: While Taiwan and other Asian exhibitors have taken a more centralized approach on these issues, Mr. Caldwell believes the federal system of the U.S. and the competition among cities may be more “chaotic” in the short-term, but it also may produce more durable solutions than a one-size-fits-all approach.

“It takes more time. It involves more failure. But you get a better long-term output. And that was a fun realization,” said Mr. Caldwell, who was also appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to the Georgia Technology Authority. 

On two separate panel discussions, including one on AI during which he shared the stage with Mayor LaRhonda Patrick of Warner Robins, Mr. Caldwell showcased a broad knowledge of technology, saying AI will upend both industry and government, mainly by changing what customers and citizens expect. 

Cities have long been seen as “consumables” when instead they should be viewed as “services,” with long-term thinking that invests in bridging digital divides. 

“I think artificial intelligence is going to change the world — whether it’s five years, 10 years, 20 years, that genie’s out of the bottle,” he said. “We are about to watch complete transformation of both the public and private sectors, and I’m intent on making sure that Georgia is helping write the playbook around it, because the leaders who get in early today to start talking about how we do this are going to have outsized influence on the next generations’ use cases.”

“We are about to watch complete transformation of both the public and private sectors, and I’m intent on making sure that Georgia is helping write the playbook around it”

Michael Caldwell

That said, it’s not always the shiniest or newest tools that make the most impact — any city can get smarter with the deployment of simple technologies, if they help solve problems, Mr. Caldwell said. 

Mr. Cheng, the innovation chief from Taoyuan, which like Atlanta is home to his region’s largest airport, agreed that governments must keep solutions at the forefront and that international collaborations like those fostered by the conference are invaluable.

“Technology is simply a means, not an end, that is to say we want to raise the awareness of our public servants in Taoyuan city government that can actually use smart ways to solve problems. This is actually why we promote the use of AI,” he told Mr. Caldwell. “I’m really looking forward to more exchange and more stimulus from your input.” 

The economic section of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Atlanta helped recruit journalists and public officials from Georgia to participate in the March 19-22 conference.