One of 11 innovative ventures in our 2020 AI for Good cohort, Hello Lamp Post helps cities better engage with their citizens.
Hello Lamp Post work with urban planners and Governments around the world to engage local people in designing and shaping their neighbourhoods, so everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute to change.
Their accessible community engagement tool helps those responsible for shaping urban spaces, to interact with the people that live in them, empowering the voices of local communities.
Once activated, Hello Lamp Post software allows anyone, anywhere to have a conversation with an object in the street – it could be a park bench, a statue, or a tree, for example. But this playful engagement via a mobile phone isn’t for novelty value. It has a strong social purpose by helping those responsible for shaping urban spaces, to interact with the people that live in them, providing a valuable feedback loop, empowering the voices of local communities and feeding valuable data back to the city decision makers.
Towns and cities have historically been developed by the few, not the many with high barriers to engage in community decision making. Hello Lamp Post have created an accessible community engagement tool that means urban environments can better serve the people that use them.
Since joining the programme, the team told us their AI capabilities and functionality have improved, allowing the platform to answer around 90% more questions asked by users. They now have an effective framework for measuring social impact; both for local authority customer teams and for wider society. Hello Lamp Post have since raised their first round of funding, confirmed three new customer contracts, and in response to COVID-19, launched a new product to help public communication and engagement for essential council services, relieving pressure on busy council teams.
“The quality of start- ups in the cohort was impressive. It really helped that the companies were all at similar stages and not competing. This allowed everyone to open up and continuously share experiences, which is incredibly liberating for an entrepreneur. We’re happy to have been part of the AI for Good programme and are excited to have Microsoft and Social Tech Trust as close advisors on our journey going forward.”
Tiernan Mines, CEO, Hello Lamp Post
Hello Lamp Post has been deployed in over 25 cities around the world including Vancouver, Singapore, Malmo, Summerside, Belfast, Mesa, Sydney and London. One of their UK collaborations includes working with The London Legacy Development Corporation, to build a legacy for the Olympic Park by developing a dynamic new heart for East London, creating new opportunities for local people.
Engaging the community and bringing equality and accessibility to the process was vital to achieving their ambitious goal of transforming East London – one of the most challenged areas of the UK – into a “world-class, sustainable and thriving neighbourhood”. In this project alone, Hello Lamp Post facilitated 4,165 interactions and ensured community engagement was inclusive and accessible, which was previously not possible.
Case study published October 2020.