At the beginning of February, we held a second discussion webinar, “Assessment and solutions strategy development on the topic of E-government and citizen inclusion” as part of Sofia’s participation in the European Commission’s 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) project. ICC aims to support and promote the innovative and smart urban development and unites representatives and experts from over 120 cities worldwide.

Conducting seminars with local stakeholders’ participation is part of the project methodology developed by the EC, and the workshop was the second event organized in Sofia by our team within the ICC.

The meeting’s focus was on upgrading and supplementing the results of the first seminar, “Needs Assessment Workshop: E-Government and Citizen Participation in Sofia,” on assessing the needs of Sofia and stakeholders in the field of “e-government and citizen participation.”

The aim of the second discussion was to define and map specific priority among the solutions/tools/concepts proposed by the local ecosystem during the first seminar. We discussed both the so-called quick wins that can be implemented within the next 6 months and longer-term projects that could be implemented before the end of the project – in the next 15 months.

As in the first seminar, we applied a methodology and tools specifically developed for the purposes of the initiative by the EC and the ICC team. We made a detailed analysis of the maturity of all priority solutions, including SWOT analysis, analysis of the ways and resources needed for their implementation, defining the specific steps and expected results, etc.

The analysis of the local environment and the priority decisions discussed during the two seminars will become the basis of the development of a strategy (action plan) for the implementation of these decisions under the ICC project, which will be followed until the end of Sofia’s participation in ICC in the next 15 months. This will be the most important document developed by Sofia under the project, as it will set the activities and results that the city will have to achieve under the European project.

We would like to thank the participants in the meeting who shared their valuable feedback with us – representatives and member companies from the the Biotech and Life Sciences Cluster Bulgaria, Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies – BAIT, the Bulgarian Association of Robotics and Automation – PARA, the Bulgarian Convention Bureau, the Bulgarian Employers’ Association Innovative Technologies – BRAIT, The Bulgarian Fintech Association,  the Artificial Intelligence Cluster – Bulgaria, as well as representatives of the Bulgarian Center for Not-For-Profit Law (BCNL), Vision for Sofia and Sofiaplan, Resonator, the Fund of Funds.

We believe that we have yet again had a fruitful discussion and managed to outline the priority solutions, the ways for their best implementation, and start preparing the plan for their implementation.

The readiness that the participants shared to continue their participation in the project is very important for us. Without their critical assistance and active stance, it would be impossible to implement new mechanisms for the optimisation and expansion of the level of participation of the citizens of Sofia in issues related to the development of the city, urban decision-making and the control of its implementation.

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The conclusions and proposals from the two ICC seminars will be included in the report-analysis of Sofia’s maturity in the field of “Citizen Participation”, part of the EC methodology of the project, which will be prepared by the team of Innovative Sofia.

We will present the main aspects of the analysis during the upcoming second ICC City Lab – a 4-day meeting of the cities participating in the ICC project, which will take place between 16-19 February 2021. We invite you to join the 1st day. The programme is open to the general public from 13:00 to 15:30, while the remaining three days of the event are only for project participants. Find out more about the event and a registration link here.

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