Avatar Project International Event “OPEN GOVERNMENT & SMART COMMUNITIES 24th – 27th May – Schio (Vicenza) – ITALY

The Avatar Project International Event

OPEN GOVERNMENT & SMART COMMUNITIES

Is starting next week! If you are into digital transformation field, open government or smart communities do not miss the chance to register here

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What are Open Government and Smart Communities? Why are both of them connected to each other?

Before discovering the event agenda and what we are planning for these 4 days, let’s explore these two topics.

Open government is a broad concept that involves multiple dimensions and is easily declined in a variety of definitions.

The OECD defines open government as “a culture of governance based on innovative and

sustainable public policies and practices inspired by the principles of transparency, accountability, and participation that fosters democracy and inclusive growth.

New technologies and digital transformation are key aspects leading to open government, boosting data and information availability, while fostering new ways of shared decision making.

Within the AVATAR Project, a partnership between 12 medium and small size towns committed to open government has been established, to promote the culture of opendata and spread the use of digital public services among citizens.

Surpassing the traditional administrative boundaries, the 24 month project has seen an intense collaboration between each municipality acting as a “smart community” aimed at fostering the digital culture for citizens, firms and civil society organizations.

ALDA, through its operative branch ALDA+ has participated in AVATAR organizing more than 100 events in the target area and coordinating the project in collaboration with local authorities, civil society organization and a variety of stakeholders from different sectors: school and education, ICT firms, and informal group of citizens.

We believe that AVATAR will gain great value with the contribution and commitment of EU

partners who believe in the powerful opportunity of digitalization as a mean to:

  • improve, reinforce and enlarge participation in local self-government;
  • promote a consistent, transparent and efficient relationship between citizens, civil society organization, local stakeholders and public administrations, according to the Council of Europe 12 principles of Good Governance.

AVATAR project (www.avatarlab.it) is funded by the Veneto Region (Italy) through the

European Regional Development Fund, with the aim to reduce the digital divide and spread

the culture and the use of digital tools for transparency and efficiency. The coordination of AVATAR is managed by the Municipality of Schio in collaboration with other 11 municipalities, 4 expert bodies and numerous partners belonging to 5 key sectors: training and education, social health, business, third sector and public administration and citizens services.

We believe it is important to learn and share experiences and practices in order to create a collaboration between different realities to share approaches and future project ideas. This will lead to greater coordination and harmonization of activities and practices, which will benefit not only the implementation of the project per se, but also the involvement of citizens of small and medium sized cities.

THE INTERNATIONAL EVENT AGENDA

Tuesday, 24 of May 2022

  • Morning/early afternoon: guest arrival and accommodation at Schio Hotel
  • 14:30: private Shuttle Bus departure from Venezia Marco Polo Airport (to be decided according to participants flight schedules)
  • 17.30: first meeting at the FaberBox – InnovationLab in Schio, project presentation and events agenda
  • 18:30: Mini hackathon challenge presentation
  • 20:00: Dinner in Schio downtown

Wednesday, 25th of May 2022

  • From 9.30 to 16.30: Mini Hackathon on open government for smart communities (13:00 lunch break at the FaberBox campus in Schio)
  • 17:30: guided visit at the FaberBox
  • 18:00: shuttle bus departure from Faberbox to Thiene downtown
  • 18:30: guided tour and aperitivo
  • 20:00: – dinner in Thiene downtown

Thursday, 26th of May 2022

  • 9:30 -13:00: Pitch of the hackathon results, networking activities
  • 13:00: lunch
  • 15:00 – 17:00: International Conference on Open Government and Smart Communities
  • 18:00: shuttle bus departure from Faberbox to Valdagno downtown
  • 18:30: guided tour and aperitivo
  • 20:00: dinner in Valdagno downtown

Friday, 27th of May 2022

  • (optional) Guided tour in the morning
  • Lunch
  • Shuttle Bus Departure (to be decided according to participants flight schedules)

We are looking forward to meeting you soon! Register and join us in Schio (Vicenza) Italy

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