EWRC 2020 - BRIDGING CITIZENS WITH SMART COOPERATION

Last updated: 23 Nov 2020

Every democratic community demands the active participation of its citizens in shaping the community. Partners will present how to examine and analyse the priorities in cities/communities using citizens' input, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Communication, thus enabling and stimulating inclusive democratic processes. Data collected from citizens can feed into the advocacy initiatives and daily political decision making but very often the concerns are how to avoid the misuse of such information and support for example the priorities created by the citizens. During the session, we will explore some solutions on how to stimulate and help citizens build local projects and initiatives as well as the assistance of authorities or agencies in developing local and international projects. Finally, we will discuss how COVID-19 has influenced citizenship initiatives and how cities can learn from that, for example, how to engage better with citizens in emergency situations.

Partners presented how to examine and analyze the priorities in cities/communities using citizens’ input, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Communication, thus enabling and stimulating inclusive democratic processes. Current rising trends and answering how to increase citizens’ engagement in shaping their communities while developing SMART cities, real-time information, decentralizing data centers and decision making were presented by OTB as well as Smart Solutions for the Metropolitan City of Venice. UBC as the leading network of cities in the Baltic Sea Region with around 100 member cities and 7 working Commissions presented active promoting capacity building among cities, regions, businesses, and academia. EPA presented successes achieved as results of creating online platforms for learning and specialization and involving citizens in local and regional work which generated communities of practitioners that continue to participate in further development.

Take away message

Think about sustainability and innovation as the main factors to develop SMART communities for the future. - watch now


Borut Cink, Policy advisor, Out of the Box International, Belgium.
Dino Babić, President, European Projects Association, Belgium.
Lucia Fedrigoni, Officer, Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy.
Mantas Jurgutis, President, Union of the Baltic cities, Poland.
Ivan Orović, Head of Administrative Department, Municipality of Fažana, Croatia.
Marko Paunović, Director, Out of The Box International, Belgium.