“I’m very pleased that we were able to move up seven spots in just one year. Behind this result are many dedicated colleagues who are making our administration a little more digital every day. We can be proud of that, even though we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” says Maral Koohestanian, Head of the Digital Department.

Wiesbaden also recently showcased its digital initiatives at the Smart Country Convention in Berlin. From Tuesday, October 13, through Thursday, October 15, the state capital presented the “Stadtlabor2Go” project from the Department of Digital Transformation. The city was represented with its own exhibition space at the joint booth of the Hessian Ministry of Digitalization and Innovation.

A city lab is an open space where government, academia, and the urban community come together to test new ideas, initially on a small scale. In Wiesbaden, this is the “Zukunftswerk”; in Mönchengladbach, it is the “stadtlabor.mg.” Both were modeled after the CityLAB Berlin run by the Berlin Technology Foundation, whose approaches the two cities adopted and adapted to their own needs.

The three partners are now collaborating on the “Stadtlabor2Go” project. They exchange experiences and proven formats, draw on each other’s ideas, and further develop them for their respective cities. These include, for example, test sessions for AI chatbots, digital consultation hours for older adults, and participatory workshops for citizens.

“With Stadtlabor2Go, we’re demonstrating how much we can achieve when municipalities share their experiences and jointly develop good ideas. We don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel. “I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Hessian Ministry of Digitalization and Innovation, which gave us the opportunity to present our project at the Smart Country Convention,” Koohestanian concludes.