The Center for Digital Government announced this week the winners of the third annual Government Experience Awards (GEA) which included the City of Mesa receiving a 3rd place honor in the Overall City Government Experience behind Riverside, CA (1st Place) and San Diego, CA (2nd Place).
“This is great news and consistent with what we do as one of the best-run cities in America.” Mayor John Giles said. “The City’s emphasis on the use of technology in delivering services to, and engaging with, our residents is part of our overall Smart City initiative and master plan.”
The GEA awards recognize the achievements and best practices of states, cities and counties that are radically improving the experience of government and pushing the boundaries of how citizen services are delivered.
“This year’s results are evidence that state and local government agencies are continuing to grow the sophistication of their digital experiences,” said Dustin Haisler, chief innovation officer for the Center for Digital Government. “The Government Experience Award winners from this year are not just leveraging innovative tools like chatbots to amplify their reach, they are also going the extra mile to build a proper foundation to support the future and ensure citizens get the right information at the right time.”
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on information technology policy and best practices in state and local government.
“We have an amazing group of talented and skilled digital government advocates in the City of Mesa working in many departments to bring exciting and new ways of doing business to our community.” Mesa City Manager Chris Brady said. “One of the benefits of these types of award programs is that it allows us to evaluate our efforts through the submittal process, receive feedback from industry professionals and compare where we are with other municipalities.”
Mesa also received a Government Experience Innovation Award for its User Behavior Flow pilot program which is a strategy that uses analytics to look at trends and patterns in digital engagement with website and social media users.
“When we rolled out the Smart City Master Plan earlier this year, we knew that bringing technologies, programs and data together under one cohesive effort would provide responsive solutions to enhance our interactions with our residents, businesses and visitors.” Chief Information Officer Travis Cutright said. “This is exciting for our team, but we still have much to do.”
For more information about Mesa’s Smart City master plan go to www.mesaaz.gov/about-us/smart-city.
