Our July newsletter is live!

Hi there!

How's your summer treating you so far? The end of July is the perfect time to look back on recent exciting events and get ready for August. 

What have we done so far? We continued to push our boundaries and expand our knowledge to support our clients in the best possible way. Our partnership with ‘We Do Democracy’ brought to life an engaging workshop, reiterating the power of active participation and citizens’ assemblies. After a fruitful EU meetup earlier this year, our U.S. team got together in Seattle to brainstorm and bond. 

Our commitment to innovation also brought about the launch of our Participation Anonymization  Feature, enhancing user privacy and platform inclusivity. Read on to find out how this can help you unlock even more participation..

Finally, we’re happy to share more about Vienna’s climate action project that got recognized with the Austrian Administration Award 2023.

As we gear up for the rest of the summer, we're excited about the opportunities ahead. Here's to a successful August!

🔔 Boost engagement with anonymous participation

Is your community worried about giving their honest opinions while engaging with you on divisive topics? Our latest feature can help: Participation Anonymization.

Boost community engagement by encouraging more residents to participate openly and confidently - because community engagement is about giving everyone a voice 🗣️.

Watch the video in our blog article to learn more about this game-changing feature.

Don’t miss out on these pieces

Congratulations, Vienna Climate team!

Bravo, Vienna Climate Team, for their Austrian Admin Award 2023 🏆 win and nomination for Innovation in Politics Awards, driving Vienna to climate neutrality by 2040! We are thrilled to be part of the inspiring City of Vienna ‘Climate Team' initiative 💚 🎉. Read our blogpost to learn all about the case.

6 best performing platforms of June 

Get ready for some community engagement inspiration! We're excited to showcase 6 inspiring projects that took place across CitizenLab platforms in June. 👀

🇺🇸 City of Allen, TX asks residents to participate in surveys about funding priorities and its parks and public facilities.

🇳🇱 Utrecht collects ideas for the urban development of a neighborhood to make it greener and more integrated with local infrastructure

🇬🇧 West Oxfordshire District Council creates a community forum to combat climate change together with residents

🇳🇱 Culemborg and its residents work together to make New Year’s celebrations safer and more enjoyable for all

🇧🇪 Leuven invites residents to nominate and vote for 5 local sustainability heroes

🇫🇷 Antony surveys its residents to refine the redesign of a controversial and congested street

How to build a culture of engagement and tackle the public trust problem

In an era where trust is crucial, the need for building a culture of engagement between community members and governments is particularly strong. Our Co-Founder, Aline Muylaert, recently shared a game-changing article on Apolitical that dives deep into this topic. 🚀

Discover how to gain public trust, empower community members, and strengthen the civic fabric of our society.

Don't miss out and read the article! 🔗

CitizenLab on the Road: Copenhagen Vlog Part 2

🎥 Vlog news, part 2 is up!

In case you missed it (part 1 of our vlog), our Co-founders have been visiting some important clients and partners in Denmark, we got it all on camera and turned their adventures into a vlog. 

Our co-founders Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, and our Danish partner Søren Kielgast are back with the next chapter of our vlog series!

Join them as they explore the City of Copenhagen and meet our new client. 🚀

Watch part 2 now.

Conference Time ⏰

Our colleagues Vanja Pantić (Communication Lead) and Zelda Bas (Government Success Manager France) both had the pleasure to speak at different events.

Our colleague Zelda Bas spoke alongside Alexis Prokopiev, Clémence Pène, and David Cormand on how to better mobilize youth in the European public debate. To answer this question, Zelda reflected on her experience designing and implementing the Conference on the Future of Europe 🇪🇺#COFE and shared best practices from the communities and organizations she supports at CitizenLab. 

Special thanks to Métropole Rouen Normandie and Décider ensemble, for this 7th edition of the Rencontres, and to the Association Civic Tech Europe - ACTE for the invitation.

Vanja Pantić spoke at SoClab Foundation about the power of online participation and exploring solutions implemented by European local governments.

She shared some insights into CitizenLab's global network. Like learning how we can leverage global learnings to drive local innovations in community engagement and communications.

These were the takeaways from the session:

- Participation is an ideal starting point for implementing technology in the public sector 💻, primarily because it enhances efficiency, scalability, and strengthens community bonds 🌐.

- It’s important to build a culture of engagement that sparks excitement about participation, fosters effective communication with residents 🗣️, leverages collective intelligence to improve decision-making, and celebrates outcomes.

- There is great potential in learning from peers across borders 🌍. Small communities might gain more from the experience of a similar-sized community abroad than from a larger city in the same country. A compelling reminder to share best practices and lessons learned openly, for mutual benefit 🤝.

Special thanks to Dr. Katarzyna Sztop-Rutkowska from SocLab & Artur Kacprzak, our CitizenLab partner in Poland for including us in the inspiring event.

In honor of ‘Take your pet to work day’, meet our furry friends 🎉🐶🐱🐾

Working remotely means we can honor our furry friends every day! At CitizenLab our pets are a big part of our team - we even have a #petsofCitizenLab Slack channel. Here’s a sneak peak into the behind the scenes, where colleagues share the most adorable videos and photos of their fur babies.