Co-authored with Dani Schrakamp

We interrupt this program for a special message

This week we kicked off our presence at some exciting events to discuss ongoing issues facing city, country, public safety, and defense leaders across the globe.

We are at a unique point in the evolution of our world and industry. Each of us is becoming more reliant on digital technologies, unleashing new and exciting opportunities for change, yet creating an ever-growing critical need for heightened safety for communities and countries, and locked-down security for data and cyber networks.

Going digital at#dsei2015 and#SmartCitiesWeekDC

In this week's special edition post, our digital citizen has had the unique opportunity to join important discussions at Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) and Smart Cities Week.

First, our citizen will touch down in London to visit DSEI and the joint Cisco and Intel booth (N10-150) that is anchoring the newly launched Communications Zone.

Our citizen's first days at the show were a mix of discussions with customer delegations, strategic partners, and analyst groups that focused in on the secure communications and innovative technologies that underpin all public safety, national security, and defense operations at home and abroad. Our citizen is able to visit with partners like Forfusion to talk about mission-critical communications, in particular gaining key insight to the CTO's unique perspective. Stopping by any of the Cisco plus partner demonstrations and theater sessions in the Communications Zone is gleaning awareness and understanding to digitally enabled defense network and communications capabilities.

A quick hop to the other side of the pond, and our digital citizen is now at the Washington DC hosted Smart Cities Week.

The Smart+Connected Communities conversation is attracting a lot of event goer traffic, showing the possibilities for end-to-end connectivity across city cyber and physical environments. Our citizen was able to stop for a quick (or not-so-quick) chat with a city manager, touching on the rapid change of community culture impacting the importance of local governments and city leaders in adopting technology strategies. Meaning that elected leaders really must begin to watch trends to remain relevant and to be reelected.  Also, in summary, with each year comes a new generation of voters that dramatically changes the conversation from "what if" to "why not."  The millennial generation has grown up as a group of digital natives and has different expectations in terms of what's possible and what is needed, pushing the boundaries of traditional government.

Many of the conversation trends picked up on the show floor focused on the importance of how technology can enable better communication and collaboration with citizens to make communities and countries safer. Emphasizing, of course, how technology will not replace officers or military, but rather, enable agencies to more effectively use personnel where it's needed most. In both cases, city and country leaders are discussing strategies for using innovative technologies to improve outcomes across safety and security, like reducing crime and minimizing danger when disaster strikes.

Capping off the week in London will bring you theater presentations on Connected Defense, Military at the Connected Edge, Cisco and Partner solution demos, and much more. And in Washington, D.C., Cisco's Cliff Thomas will be telling the story of Barcelona's digital transformation and talk about how technology convergence is driving digitzation that enables new efficiencies, revenue streams, and engages citizens in unique ways.

Next Stop

Stay tuned for next Wednesday's post to discover more on human health and wellness in the digital world. And be sure to check back each week as we explore new themes, challenges and observations.

Additionally, you canclick hereand register now to get answers to your questions on how to digitize public safety and security.

Finally, we invite you to be a part of the conversation by using the hashtag#WednesdayWalkabout and by following @CiscoGovt on Twitter. For more information and additional examples, visit our Smart+Connected Communities page and our Government page on Cisco.com. Enjoy the Wednesday walkabout!