Itron President and CEO Philip Mezey recently spoke to the importance of creating smarter communities at two national conferences: the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC) winter meeting and the National Governors’ Associations (NGA) winter meeting in Washington, DC.

NARUC is a crowd we know very well – representing our customers’ state economic regulators (e.g. public utility commissions). The significance of their role and impact in our business cannot be understated. Securing a general session panel for Itron’s CEO to share ideas on smart communities, along with the CEO of Exelon Utilities, Anne Pramaggiore and NARUC President Nick Wager, is a direct result of our many years of support and collaboration with NARUC.

At the NGA winter meeting, Philip spoke on a panel with Cathy Engelbert, CEO of Deloitte, that was moderated by North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a former Microsoft executive. During this fireside chat, the executives shared best practices and the group discussed a vision for smarter states built on solutions that can help governors transform how government interacts with citizens and businesses. This was the first time an Itron CEO has presented in front of the nation’s governors.

In 2018, NGA launched its Smarter States, Smarter Communities initiative, which is designed to educate, accelerate and replicate efforts by states across the nation. Governors have significant convening authority to bring the right parties to the table to create smart communities that work for the greater good, a vision that Itron is proud to sponsor.

Itron is leveraging intelligent technology to connect people with data to create smarter communities and reduce the impact of urbanization. Technology can unlock the power of smart communities, but funding and cost recovery challenges can create headwinds in multi-jurisdictional environments. Public-private partnerships are one collaborative model that have been used to build multi-purpose infrastructure projects across a range of jurisdictions.

As government officials and regulators face increasing pressure to achieve sustainable growth and cost-effectively build resilient infrastructure, these high-profile speaking engagements enhance Itron’s position as a thought leader in the space.