The City of Greater Geraldton will have access to IBM’s Smarter Cities experts who have moved in to help the town reach its technical and environmental goals.

This move follows the grant the Western Australian council received in March to participate in the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge.

Living and working in the town for three weeks, the team will help the town become carbon neutral through smart energy principles.

It will also look at recommendations for smart services options focusing on taking advantage of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

According to IBM, the team will help the council transform relationships between the city and its stakeholders including agencies, citizens and industry through smarter data exchanges.

IBM Centre for the Business of Government senior fellow from the US federal team in Washington, John Kamensky will be among the six national and international executives.

Others will include IBM senior strategy consultant Catherine Lord; director of software technical professionals and competitive sales Melissa Downer; executive IT architect Ann Valencic; A/NZ technical leader, smarter planet and cities technical leader David Yip and energy and utilities industry solutions manager John Constantopoulous.

Geraldton is the second Australian council to take part in the initiative in its two year history following Townsville’s selection in 2011.