In this episode of Smart in the City, we travel to the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg in Germany to explore how a mid-sized municipality is driving digital transformation through a human-centric approach. Petra Schwerdtfeger, Smart City Officer for the City of Aschaffenburg, shares details on the city’s "Dialog City" strategy. This initiative focuses on integrating digital and analogue worlds to ensure technology serves the common good and remains accessible to everyone.

The conversation highlights the successful implementation and replication of the Smart Data Dashboard and the AschaffenBürgerGIS, both built on Open-Source technology. Petra provides insights into the practical benefits of city-to-city collaboration, explaining how Aschaffenburg adapted existing solutions from Münster and Hamburg to save costs and avoid reinventing the wheel. We also examine the realities of municipal decision-making, the importance of data sovereignty, and the challenges posed by limited internal resources when accelerating urban change.

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• (00:00:00) - Intro
• (00:01:57) - Teaser question: If Aschaffenburg were a type of plant, which plant would it be and why?
• (00:03:08) - Guest background
• (00:04:21) - Aschaffenburg's Dialogue City Strategy
• (00:06:16) - Replicating Smart City Dashboards
• (00:08:57) - AI and Digital Twins
• (00:11:59) - Open Source GIS Implementation
• (00:15:25) - Balancing Storytelling and Utility
• (00:18:18) - Tech Sales to Municipalities
• (00:19:56) - Avoid Reinventing the Wheel
• (00:21:43) - Public Sector Staffing Challenges
• (00:24:15) - The Smart Start Program
• (00:25:30) - Segment: Shout Out
• (00:27:32) - Ending question: “To you, what is a Smart City?”