Since February 2023, aconium GmbH has been working with the district of Meißen, Wirtschaftsförderung Region Meißen GmbH (WRM) and Daten-Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen (DKSR GmbH) to develop a digitalization strategy as part of the “Smarte.Land.Regionen” model project of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).
The second Citizens’ Dialogue on November 16 in Coswig gave citizens the opportunity to get to know each other before and after the event “Die Hacker kommen! – Digital? But safe!” event organized by the Saxon State Chancellery, citizens also had the opportunity to discuss the project “A digitalization strategy for the district of Meißen”.
The event, which was held in cooperation with the adult education center in the district of Meißen and the large district town of Coswig, informed citizens in an entertaining way about the importance of handling their own data and digital devices securely to protect against cybercrime. Events of this kind are valuable initiatives to provide experts and laypeople alike with up-to-date tips and to raise awareness of the topic. The fields of action of the digitalization strategy for the district of Meißen also include security and data protection topics as well as the promotion of digital skills.
Project team members Christine Melz-Dürnagel and Claire Piqueret Rose presented the Meissen district’s digital strategy project and gave citizens the opportunity to find out about the current status of the project. One of the aims of the citizens’ dialog was to explain the visions and planned measures to date and to obtain the citizens’ opinions on them, as well as to ask for further suggestions.
On the one hand, the discussions showed that important needs have already been recognized with the identified measures, while on the other hand, other important focal points in the field of economic development were also mentioned and indications were also given of the need for improvements to existing digital applications.
The creation of a digitalization strategy should form the starting point for the intelligent, sustainable and digital development of the region northwest of Dresden with its 28 towns and municipalities and around 240,000 inhabitants. The focus here is particularly on the areas of public services, economic development and administration.
A wide range of individual projects and impulse projects are to be coordinated and brought together in a structured roadmap for the digital transformation of the entire district. In order to create a holistic basis for an integrated planning and implementation process that is geared towards the individual starting position of the district, it is essential to involve a wide range of regional stakeholders from business and society.
The participation phase for citizens with expert workshops, digital labs and digital workshops as well as an accompanying online participation process and online retreats ends in December. On the Saxony citizen participation portal portal, further measures could be located on the district map until the end of November and previous measures could be voted on until the end of the year. Saxon municipalities can use the Free State’s participation portal and have already set up their own portals for their projects. These portals can be used to launch surveys, discuss urban land-use plans, track planning procedures, announce events and publish notices. The identified ideas for measures will be developed and transferred into a digitalization strategy in the process phase from 2024. A workshop to draw up the catalog of measures will follow.
Together with Daten-Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen DKSR GmbH and in close coordination with Wirtschaftsförderung Region Meißen GmbH (WRM) and the district of Meißen, aconium is organizing the entire development process of the digitalization strategy, from the conception and participation process to the editorial finalization. The work packages of aconium GmbH include project management and project control, a preliminary and target analysis, the participation phase and finally the process phase of strategy formulation and collection of measures.