Smarter Canberra: Civic Tech for a Changing City Centre

​Canberra’s city centre is changing quickly — as a place to work, live, visit, gather and move through. The 2026 Chief Minister’s Challenge asks how smart city and civic technology approaches could help make the city centre more connected, inclusive, safe and efficient. This workshop brings that question into the room with people who can test it from different angles: community access, place and culture, public spaces, data, delivery, and everyday civic experience.

​Rather than starting with technology for its own sake, the workshop will ask where smarter use of data, digital tools and connected infrastructure could make a real difference for Canberrans. Participants will work through practical provocations, challenge assumptions, and help identify a small number of priority directions that could be developed into pilot ideas for the ACT Government and the Pearcey Foundation’s final report to the Chief Minister.

​The Pearcey Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded in 1998 in memory of a great Australian ICT pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey. The Foundation operates broadly across the Australian Information Computing and Telecommunication (ICT) technologies sector, from celebrating achievements through national and state awards to being involved in debate and public policy on critical national issues such as productivity, the digital economy and national infrastructure.

​AI CoLab events are intentionally open and collaborative. We capture photos, audio, and AI-generated transcripts so we can remix key insights for the AI CoLab Alliance community. This is always done in line with the Charter’s values; transparent, ethical innovation and knowledge sharing to accelerate collective learning (see join.aicolab.org). By participating in an AI CoLab event, you agree to your contributions being captured and shared in accordance with this policy.