Sharing data across borders: Ottawa hosts international city exchange

Ottawa recently welcomed representatives from Kansas City, United States, and Marinilla, Colombia to share best practices in data management.

Earlier this month, Ottawa welcomed representatives from Kansas City, United States, and Marinilla, Colombia, for the fourth city exchange organized through Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works Cities network. This exchange brought together representatives from three certified cities to share best practices in data management, discuss common challenges and learn from one another. As one of the newest certified cities, Ottawa was proud to be the first Canadian city to host the event.

Ottawa earned Gold What Works Cities Certification last year, joining a network of more than 300 cities across North, Central and South America committed to using data to inform policy, allocate funding, improve services, evaluate programs and engage residents.

For Ottawa, the exchange was an opportunity to showcase its work while gaining new perspectives from other data-driven cities.

"The City Exchange embodies the strength of the What Works Cities Network by showing what's possible when dedicated city leaders come together to tackle shared challenges. By sharing ideas and insights, these cities accelerate progress and bring new approaches back to their communities," said Rochelle Haynes, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of What Works Cities.

During the two-day visit, representatives from the three cities exchanged insights on their respective data practices and shared successes and challenges with implementing data strategies. Sessions also focused on several emerging topics, including the use of artificial intelligence in data management and decision-making.

For Ben Dick, Senior Data Analytics Strategist, Service Optimization & Data Insights from the City of Ottawa, the exchange was a valuable opportunity to connect with and learn from other cities. “Municipalities often face the same challenges, and these similarities mean knowledge exchanges with other cities in person are extremely valuable,” he said.

Ottawa staff demonstrated that spirit of collaboration by showcasing several projects that use data to improve planning, services and outcomes for residents.

One of the projects highlighted for visitors was the recently launched GATS bike program. Building on last summer’s successful GATS mobile mapping project, the City is launching a bike-mounted mapping system equipped with a 360-degree camera and LiDAR technology to collect geospatial data along pathways and cycling networks to support the City's Digital Twin initiative and improve the inventory, planning and management of active transportation infrastructure.

Another project highlighted during the exchange was Ottawa Public Health’s (OPH) Healthy Babies Healthy Children home visiting program. As part of this program, OPH collects sociodemographic data from participating families to better understand who is accessing services and identify barriers affecting new and expecting parents. These insights have helped OPH tailor supports, expand language capacity, strengthen newcomer services and address other barriers facing families.

Together, these projects demonstrated the many ways data is being used across the City to inform decision-making and improve outcomes for residents. Seeing these initiatives firsthand gave the visitors a closer look at how Ottawa is using innovation to better serve its residents.

The projects left a strong impression on visitors. Juan David Gómez Giraldo, Director of Digital Innovation for Marinilla, Colombia, was particularly impressed by how Ottawa is using technology to improve services. “Ottawa is a magnificent city. I like how they leverage innovation and technological resources to benefit their citizens,” he says.

Reflecting on the exchange, Darrell Bridge, Senior Data Analytics Strategist, Service Optimization & Data Insights from the City of Ottawa, highlighted the value of learning directly from peers. “The city exchange has provided a wealth of practical lessons learned that are often difficult to gain from just reading online reports or attending conferences. We really got to know their cities, their staff, the environments they are working in and the goals and objectives they have to improve their cities using data.”

Beyond the discussions and presentations, participants also had the opportunity to experience Ottawa outside of the boardroom, with visits to Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal and the ByWard Market, where they enjoyed the city’s famous BeaverTails.

The visit also left a lasting impression on Connor Alexander-Kennedy, Senior Analyst with the City of Kansas City. "Novel is the word that comes to mind when I think of my experience in Ottawa, not just because of the existence of shawarma poutine, but because it faces so many of the same struggles other municipalities have—and Ottawa is using innovative approaches to be more efficient and effective,” he says.

Although the cities are separated by thousands of kilometres, the connections made in Ottawa will continue long after the visit, helping strengthen collaboration between cities committed to learning and data innovation.