This year’s annual conference of Major Cities of Europe (MCE) has been hosted and organized together with the Municipality of Leipzig and LECOS at the Kongresshalle from May 28th to 30th. The overarching theme of the conference has been “Are we ready? Taking the digital city to the next level”.

Close to 200 delegates for 18 countries gave unanimous very positive feedbacks

The conference has been a considered as unique opportunity:

• – to interact and exchange directly with other European municipalities in a non-commercial environment,
• – to discuss about the real challenges that municipalities currently deal about digitization,
• – to test ideas with ‘digital leaders’ from cities across Europe,
• – to understand how to involve citizens in designing and achieving better outcomes,
• – to see how to use data and information more effectively,
• – to hear the truth, not the spin,
• – to be informed, to be challenged, to be involved – and to have fun.

The topics for the different sessions of the conference included:

• – City Data: Swimming in the data sea – are you waving or drowning? Is the increasing importance of city data in taking strategic decisions built on solid foundations?
• – Digital Developments and how to set up business cases: Are we ensuring that digital developments are prioritised and driven by public value and supported by solid business cases?
• – Digital government in practice – where are the citizens? How do cities engage citizen’s in their decisions and practical implementations?
• – New technologies, new opportunities and innovation – seeing beyond the hype. These technologies not always produce the expected returns. We reviewed cases concerned with technologies.
• – Collaboration and co-creation – the road to heaven or the highway to hell? Ensuring that all required actors and skills contribute, including internal and external organisations, public and private players and academia, start-ups and SMEs should result in a win-win model for all engaged players.
• – Internal and external skills: are local governments fit for the future? What are the key skills that must be guaranteed, do we have them or how to create them?
• – World Café: On the third day the programme included the World Café. Several hot topics were proposed to many different discussion tables. It has been the key final opportunity to share views and experiences.

Finally, we have announced the 2019 conference that will be hosted by the city of Venice from June 13th to 14th. Information about the programme and logistics will come soon.

We hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you at next year conference in Venice. For further information about our activities contact us at info@majorcities.eu

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