The organizers from Slovak financial weekly magazine “Trend” invited the representatives from the local governments from many cities in Slovakia. Among their speakers there were mayors from the cities Prešov (Andrea Turčanová), Nitra (Jozef Dvonč), Hlohovec (Miroslav Kollár), Banska Bystrica (Ján Nosko), Prievidze (Katarína Macháčková), as well as from Kláštor pod Znievom (Erika Cintulová), Píla (Radovan Mičunek), Nové Mesto nad Váhom (Jozef Trstenský), Liptovsky Mikuláš (Ján Blcháč). The conference attracted 107 participants from local governments all over the country.

The topics discussed at the conference included as follows:

Connecting citizens and with local governments to provide two ways communication

The points of view were different. Some representatives had the opinion that the personal meetings and open office hours provides the most adequate answers. The others  mentioned social networks such as Facebook as another solution as it was mentioned by one major that “Much more people visit Facebook city page then official website with email contacts”. The solution which could really look like the step to the Smart Governance is  “Odkaz pre starostu” (“Message for mayor”) was recommended by some mayors.

Making Smart regions:

There was interesting presentation “Smart city + Mestský región = Smart región” by Viktor Nižňanský (Director of Komunálne výskumné a poradenské centrum) and Silvia Ručinská Univerzita P.J. Šafárika v Košiciach) .

The project “Benchmarking of Slovak cities” and decentralisation theme were mentioned in the presentations. Also was pointed out that Slovak cities and towns can work on smart city theme and be competitive with other cities in Europe but on the basis of joint engagement. It is possible to solve modern challenges together as a Smart Region.

The event program included the presentation of Smart City Monitor solution (Pharos Navigator) by Mr. Serguei Golovanov, GOLEM IMS GMBH. 

He provided brief overview of the solution and draw attention of the audience to the topics of “How to involve citizens in city life, make tourists feel comfortable and have the advanced technology  assisting the municipality administration in city management” — "Smart obyvatelia a mestský  manažment v intelligentej spoločnosti: ako začať jednoducho, s nízkymi nákladmi, vytvoriť nové pracovné miesta a stimulovať rozvoj podnikania?" (pdf). He argumented that the municipality or regional administration should play the major role providing the smart community with the platform answering to the interests of all  stakeholders: local and regional governance, residents, businesses, visitors and tourists. External information  service providers located in many cases in different countries mostly do not have capacity and interests to present real time events answering to local content and objectives of communities.

However  effective implementation of rich information services leads to real positive impacts in increasing in city’s economic developments, income, business climate, investments, attractiveness for tourists, enriching and enhancing life of citizens.

The real value of the Smart City Monitor solution is that any city from really small town to large  city and region can make easy and inexpensive first steps in the practical implementation Smart City concepts right now. It would attract young specialists in the local Smart City Team and provide jobs starting small and growing along with the implementation of the advanced urban model for local communities.