Tom van Arman

In 2010 he founded Tapp, an award winning agency enabling local governments and industries to bridge the gap between the built environment and new digital landscape. Since then, Tom has been working with citizens and policy makers to develop ethical urban tech utilizing open data, A.I, and digital twins to create more livable and inclusive cities.

Tom is responsible for some of the highest profile projects for the City of Amsterdam Chief Innovation Office, AMS-Institute (Advanced Metropolitan Solutions), Amsterdam Smart City & Amsterdam Economic Board. In 2020 Tapp developed the worlds first privacy-by-design crowd insights monitor for policy makers and authorities to manage public space during the COVID pandemic and UEFA Cup 2020 (’21) Playoffs.

Tom’s unique approach to future city making has been featured in many international media outlets like The Economist, EuroNews, Deutsche Welle, ARTE TV, and Cities Today.

Popular topics:

• Responsible Sensing – Only a transparent city is a smart city
• Future-proof Cities in an age of rapid change
• Data as the new design tool
• Smart Citizen and Citizen Centric Design

Uber and AirBnB have disrupted our cities faster than planner and policy makers could have ever imagined. During the pandemic, citizens had to work from home, learn remotely. Tom talks about the major changes to employment, housing, transport, and energy that will occur until 2030 that will affect the daily lives of residents. How do we design in the 21st century when we are still using tools from the 20th century?

Tom’s is a story teller passionate about smart cities. His presentations are animated, funny and full of rich infographics and beautiful photos that describe real-world future city making projects and practices. Tom is a popular speaker for international conferences and regular lecturer for collages and universities asking: “What kind of future city do we want to live in?”