The 14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research was a great success. Held at Laval University in Quebec City, the theme of this year's conference was From e-Government to Smart Government. The University, Quebec City, and provincial governments were all strong supporters of the conference.

This year's program was rich with accepted papers and workshops and panels that drew prominent speakers and vibrant participation. For CTG, a major highlight from the conference was winning two best paper awards:

• Ramon Gil-Garcia and Luis Luna-Reyes won Best Research Paper Award for Understanding the Co-Evolution of Institutions, Technology, and Organizations: The Enactment of the State Government Portal of Puebla
• Djoko Sigit Sayogo and Theresa Pardo won Best Management/Policy Paper Award for Understanding Smart Data Disclosure Policy Success: The Case of Green Button.

Currently, cities within the Capital Region are challenged in maximizing the use of this data because they lack the infrastructure needed to collect, share, and use data across jurisdictions. Creating a regional code enforcement shared service will support the resolution of recurring issues in a number of city departments and community organizations.

“A regional approach makes sense as each government wrestles with updating their code enforcement systems and processes all while facing similar financial constraints,” said Ann Thane, Mayor of Amsterdam. “We need to leverage our collective investments and approach this in a collaborative way so we can share the cost burden and the benefits.”

“A shared regional code enforcement repository will achieve savings and improve municipal efficiency through shared services, a key priority of this grant program,” said McCarthy. “The City is committed to working with other local governments in the Capital region to control costs while improving the quality of life and services provided to the residents of our communities.”

In addition, CTG had a strong presence in both organizing and presenting at the conference, as we have had for the past 14 years. Some of the conference highlights were:

Teri Harrison and Jana Hrdinova were Panel Chairs – producing five very strong panels, including a keynote panel on big data.

Sharon Dawes and Ramon Gil-Garcia, as in years past, organized and presented the Doctoral Colloquium.

Natalie Helbig and Theresa Pardo served as Track Chairs.

• Ramon and Theresa, together with two of our smart cities colleagues – Marie Anne Macadar from Brazil and Armando Aldama-Nalda from CIDE – organized a smart cities workshop.
• The CTG-led I-Choose team organized a panel focused on smart disclosure.
• Natalie organized a panel focused on policy informatics, with Sharon as a participant.
• Theresa participated on a panel organized by University at Texas at Austin focused on social media.
• The I-Choose team presented two posters by Luis Luna-Reyes and Nic DePaula.
• Ramon Gil-Garcia was part of team presenting two posters.
• The CTG team of Meghan Sutherland, Derek Werthmuller, Megan Cook and Mahdi M.N. Abadi presented a poster on a regional code enforcement strategy.
• Djoko Sigit Sayogo and Teresa Harrison's paper on Open Budgets and Open Government