Chris Dymond, the New Director of the Master’s in Global Smart City Management

Chris Dymond becomes the academic director of the Master’s in Global Smart City Management. He is in charge of the next edition of the master that will start in November 2021. Chris Dymond has been part of the faculty board of the program as a professor since the May 2020 edition. His particular vision of the role that digital capabilities play in the development of areas and smart societies will definitely enrich the program’s hands-on approach. Master’s in Global Smart City Management is built around a holistic approach and provides the participants with transversal competencies necessary to manage the smart city environment whether they’re service providers, public officials, technology developers or startuppers.Chris Dymond has spent most of his career leading digital application development teams and creating innovation-positive work environments in technology companies. He started out as a software engineer and designer having originally studied Computer Sciences but returned to university in mid-career to study interdisciplinary Humanities at the undergraduate level, and gain a master’s degree in Global Politics and International Relations. For the last 10 years, his primary focus has been on applying his diverse knowledge to cities and other places. He is the founder and director of Unfolding, a consulting firm that helps people better understand technology and innovation. With Unfolding, they have provided interactive workshops on a range of tech innovation topics for almost a decade now. Chris Dymond is a Smart Societies Consultant for Perform Green that advises places on digital development across a number of different domains. Chris focuses on economic development, SME engagement, digital leadership & capacity building, innovation ecosystems, and digital strategy & master planning. Chris is also the co-founder and director of Sheffield Digital, an independent trade association that works to create the best possible environment for setting up and growing digital businesses in Sheffield and the surrounding region. He runs regular SmartSheffield meetup events and helps to organize the Sheffield Things Network, which is developing a community-owned city-wide Internet of Things Network. Since 2018, Chris Dymond has been an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Sheffield Business School, acting as a mentor to the next generation of founders, where he also teaches Design Thinking and Digital Ecosystems Analysis. The intellectual background of Chris and his wide range of hands-on experience from designing and building software to managing people and growing companies makes him the ideal academic director of our Smart City Management master’s.“How should progress be articulated in a vision of a smart city, so that activity can be aligned positively with this progressive future?” Chris asked in his Medium article some years ago. He argues that in a smart city “we must move away from thinking of people as consumers of goods and benefits, and towards an active vision of the human person as a ‘doer’, with the ability to convert resources into utilities.” For him, this is where our vision of progress should be anchored. His main areas of expertise are related to Place-based Digital Strategy Development, Smart Cities, Smart Societies and Civic Tech, Digital Capacity Building, Digital Economic Development and Policy, Foresight and Scenario Planning, Innovation Processes and Culture, Stakeholder Engagement and Network Building.On Monday, March 22, you’ll have a unique opportunity to see Chris in action, as he will analyze India's National Smart Cities Mission, also known as "100 Smart Cities Mission" in a special two-hour case study session. Sign up here