Local Government is Looking Ahead: A Brief Review of ICMA 2024

I was delighted to spend time at the International City/County Managers Association annual conference last week. I walked away feeling energized about the future of local government.  

In the sessions I attended and the conversations I held with local government leaders, several themes became clear. 

Local government leaders are looking for ways to change

From AI to Finance to Operations, city leaders are looking for new ways to operate in the current environment. They are facing unique challenges including workforce issues, new community needs, tight revenue and loads of technology options. In particular, technology can feel overwhelming and costly, so leaders want to make the right decisions for their community. 

On display were technologies that can improve community engagement, deliver training, analyze data, provide insights, conduct research, and so much more. But it's clear that technology can’t solve everything. Government leaders were concerned about buy-in from their employees, delivering on the promise, and of course cost. 

At Brightly, we understand those concerns and try to address them with accessible devices (smartphones) and easy interfaces along with measurable results all at a reasonable price.

Sharing best practices is critical for growth

Government needs early adopters to test ideas and evaluate results. There were numerous examples of communities that were sharing their experiences, their successes and their challenges. This helps everyone. Washoe County shared their early experiences with AI saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff time. 

Several city leaders shared their efforts around a new way to budget programmatically to lead to clear and measurable results. A county in Nevada talked about how the are addressing severe weather events. A city in Ohio talked about a different way to manage capital projects. 

These sessions were all well attended, and the audience was engaged. At our session, we had over 150 people attend at 8:30 in the morning – all eager to learn and share their perspectives.

Good data is king

Everywhere I went and nearly every talk I heard emphasized the importance of good data. Good data is the foundation of all insights, can guide good decisions and can prove a business case so your stakeholders and constituents understand. But collecting data without a clear purpose is a waste of time. 

Define your objective, determine the outcome’s you want to measure and then be sure to collect the data needed to track progress. Lastly, make sure you have broad buy-in from the executives all the way down to your field staff.

Brightly's Asset Management for Government solution

Brightly understands how to track asset data and provide insights that help local governments streamline operations and, at the same time, inform their capital plans with asset health, prioritization, costs, and timing so can make smarter, more informed long-term decisions. Washoe County in Nevada, for example, is using Brightly to track their county maintenance operation and have seen great results.

You can read their full success story here. Here's a blurb that highlights how Business Intelligence Program Manager, Aaron Smith, and his team are using data gathered from Brightly's software to support funding requests and enhance decision-making: 

“Using [Brightly], along with two years of data, Smith and his team created an “infrastructure health card” for all buildings and assets. Now, when they make a funding request, they use the system’s data and prediction tools to show the committee “what the future looks like based on different funding scenarios,” Smith says. With that evidence in hand, the department has recently been approved for capital funding requests.”

See how Brightly's Asset Management for Government solution can give you a crystal ball to predict asset lifespans -- and learn four more benefits of letting Asset Management drive your capital plans.