SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his San Francisco counterpart, Ed Lee, said at a news conference Friday that they are sponsoring a pair of technology summits over the next year.

The mayors said the "digital cities" summits — one in New York in September and another in San Francisco early next year — will seek to find ways to use technology to solve problems the cities face.

The mayors made the announcement after touring the office of San Francisco-based mobile payment company Square with co-founder Jack Dorsey, who also helped found Twitter. Both mayors lauded Square's ability to boost commerce in their cities.

Bloomberg pointed to power outages and dangerous winds and flooding from Hurricane Sandy as examples of issues the summits would seek to address. Lee emphasized San Francisco's recent partnership with companies like car-sharing service Lyft to assist with transporting people in post-earthquake scenarios.