The global health crisis has highlighted the role that local governments play in many aspects, as they have largely been in charge of managing the COVID-19 emergency. Furthermore, and due to the changes brought about by the pandemic, we are in the process of rethinking the city in terms of planning, mobility, public space and immediate access to services. Digital technology can help us to rethinking processes, which offers essential new components for the coordination and integration of efforts in urban areas.

Regarding this, we feel the urge to give technical and political city officials a space for sharing their experiences, concerns, and ideas. That urge has impulsed the Metropolis learning forum, which will pave the path for global knowledge sharing. Rather than a one-way conduit for information sharing or a repurposed business conferencing tool, the peer-to-peer will enable discussion between city officials, allowing them to learn from each other while creating a community. 

On the occasion of the celebration of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day on 17 May, we organised a webinar on the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation in metropolitan spaces. This event gathered city officers from Brussels, Grand Paris, Barcelona (metropolitan area), Córdoba, Toronto, Harare, Nouakchott and Belo Horizonte, who shared their experiences on how their administration is adapting to this new digital reality. 

At the same time, in this event we launched live the Metropolis learning forum on digitalisation, in which members invited to the session have started the debate in all or some of the questions available at the forum. 

For further information, you can read the concept note of this session in english, spanish or french; you can also consult the program of the session.