In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have a brilliant chat with Kim Houghton, the Chief Economist Officer at the Regional Australia Institute. Now this is another audio from the YouTube series I've been doing catching up with previous podcast guests and although Kim is not a previous podcast guest he is a good friend of the Smart Community Podcast. When we recorded this in mid April 2020, Kim was in quarantine in a hotel in Hobart. I am pleased to share an update that he is out of quarantine and everything is going ok. In this interview Kim and I discuss what COVID has exposed for us, particularly in regional areas, such as connectivity issues, lack of digital literacy and the re-emergence of the decade old conversation about the digital divide in regions. We talk about online learning tools and the wider implications of that for those who don't have reliable internet, plus the need for capacity and confidence building in digital skills for both young and old in regional and underserved areas. Given Kim was in quarantine at the time of recording, we also talk about the challenges of isolation, working from home and the power of digital connections, plus how we can make digital a tool that works for us, rather than being slaves to it. We finish our chat discussing the opportunities and challenges showing up in this crisis around the idea of regional resilience, plus why we all need to be mindful of Digital Etiquette. As this was not a normal podcast interview, Kim didn't tell us how we can connect with him but you can find him on LinkedIn. As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it. Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Kim on LinkedIn Connect with me via email: [email protected] Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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