European Cities Conferences

Vienna is the European Capital of Democracy 2024/25 and will serve as the center of a diverse program focused on democracy and participation for one year. The European Cities Conference on January 30 and 31, 2025, will provide a space for exchanging experiences, mutual learning and looking beyond one's own horizons. Experts and decision-makers from the City of Vienna and its partner cities will discuss best practices, collaboration with different target groups and the right tools for democracy and participation.

In the course of the dynamic development of urban areas, major European cities are constantly facing new challenges, particularly in the planning and implementation of major events. The complexity of such events requires a networked mindset and close cooperation between event organizers, civil protection organizations and the city administration.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which was also classified as a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO for three years, represented a major challenge for the public health authorities of all countries. As part of the European City Conference in November 2023, the City of Vienna Health Service looked back on the pandemic together with experts from other European cities and discussed what we can take away for the future in terms of knowledge from the past years.

During the European City Conference "The City as an Employer" in April 2023, the City of Vienna and its partners from the Network of Cities analysed the opportunities and current challenges faced by city administrations in the field of human resources. Well-functioning city administrations are a major asset for the quality of life in cities. On the first conference day, 26 April 2023, the development of the labour market, demographic change and the resulting impacts on the public sector were discussed in expert presentations, and also the recruitment, promotion and management of employees were discussed in international panels, with best practice examples being presented as well. During the subsequent get-together, participants had the opportunity to participate in an informal exchange. The second conference day, 27 April 2023, was dedicated to the new requirements of the world of work and how we can shape them together. We took a look at modern working models, trainee programmes and talent management, new findings from psychology and behavioural economics, as well as the possibilities of international knowledge exchange.

At the European Cities Conference "Networked help" on October 24th and 25th, 2019, the City of Vienna and its partners from the international communication network exchanged views on the very important cooperation between professional and voluntary organizations and the city administration. Other key topics included measures to raise awareness of the potential dangers of everyday life and the right behaviour in emergency situations, as well as the invaluable importance of volunteers for society. At the end of the conference, a delegation composed of representatives from other partnering cities across Europe visited the "Vienna Safety Festival" in front of Vienna City Hall. The festival represents the largest exhibition on safety and public health in Austria with participation from "Die Helfer Wiens" (The Helpers of Vienna) and all Viennese emergency services. Once again the main focus lied on the mutual exchange of knowledge between key actors at home and abroad.

What will the European municipalities look like in the year 2030? In the context of the European Cities Conference on June 18th and 19th 2019, the City of Vienna wanted to look into the future with its partners and speak about essential aspects of digitisation.

The implementation of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations (UN) on a local and a communal level – that was the topic of the European Cities Conference from October 9th to 10th in Vienna. The topics ranged from UN organisations in Vienna to the European Commission to the numerous representatives from the Central and Southeast European dialogue cities. The first conference day was dedicated to building bridges between the participating cities and the United Nations headquarters in Vienna, followed by a visit to the UNO headquarters. Additionally the presented SDG projects of the UN organisations that are resident in Vienna rounded off the understanding for the UNO and the sustainability agenda. How the goals will affect a sustainable development of the cities and which meaning these goals will hold for the future of the cities was discussed on the second conference day. The conference was organised by the City of Vienna and its Eurocomm-PR cities network with support of the United Nations in Vienna.

At the beginning of March 2018, the European Cities Conference series invited experts on the subject of data protection to Vienna. In the Wappensaal (coat of arms hall) of the Viennese town hall a general idea about the topic with discussions about technological solutions to the law enforcement of data protection was offered on the first day. Concrete examples about the business location Vienna, as well as open data initiatives from the Western Balkans were presented. The workshop on the second day triggered a very detailed and constructive discussion about the technological and organisational implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation in the individual cities and regional authorities, and the qualification of the employees was a central topic.

Currently everyone is talking about "shared economy". How can public administrations and municipalities play a part in this topic, which advantages and challenges need to be considered? The ECC focuses on this topic on March 7th and 8th.