More than 20 mayors discuss use of Polyteia platform at Baden-Württemberg Municipal Day in Stuttgart

On February 12, 2019, Polyteia and the Gemeindetag Baden-Württemberg organized a workshop entitled "Making data usable for decision-making". With registrations from around 20 cities and municipalities, the maximum number of participants was quickly reached shortly after the invitations were sent out.

As part of the "Cities and Communities 4.0 - Future communities" funding program of the Ministry of the Interior, Digitization and Migration, Gemeindetag Baden-Württemberg is hosting workshops to bring innovative municipalities and young IT companies to the table.

The goal of the workshop was to find out together in which areas and in which form data could be helpful in municipal decision-making processes.

We must also dare to do something in digitization and not be afraid to make mistakes. It's just important that we don't all make the same ones.

— Roger Kehle
President and Chief Executive Officer Gemeindetag Baden-Württemberg

Roger Kehle, President of Gemeindetag Baden-Württemberg, opened the workshop with a plea for more courage in digitalization and an openness on the part of municipalities to cooperate with young IT startups such as Polyteia, which often offer flexible and custom-fit solutions for cities and municipalities. Raimon Ahrens, mayor of Rudersberg, the first pilot municipality of Polyteia in Baden-Württemberg, gave a short presentation on why he had decided to use data with Polyteia in Rudersberg.

Decisions that administration and municipal council have to make are becoming more and more complex. Polyteia helps to make well-founded decisions and to transparently involve the citizens.

— Raimon Ahrens
Mayor of the municipality of Rudersberg

Afterwards, the municipal representatives exchanged ideas and shared their experiences at group tables on various topics such as business, infrastructure and urban development, education and social affairs, and budget. Together, the participants identified which key figures are important for their areas of activity and where corresponding data sets could be available.

Faruk Tuncer, Managing Director of Polyteia, then presented the possibilities already offered by the Polyteia intelligent control platform with its daycare, demographic and school modules. Ilona Benz from Gemeindetag Baden-Württemberg then explained the funding opportunities offered by the Future Communities program for municipalities that decide to work with Polyteia.

Afterwards, during a lunch snack, there was the opportunity for a direct personal exchange between the municipal representatives and Polyteia, where concrete points of contact and next appointments on site could be discussed and agreed upon.

As a prelude to the workshop, Gemeindetag published the article 'Smart Control is the Future of Administration' by Polyteia's Managing Director Faruk Tuncer in the Second Edition of the association's magazine 'Die Gemeinde'.