United States
Dale Ross
70,685 (2017)
Christina Richison
Improve service delivery
Improve internal government operations
Anticipate and manage future challenges
Focus on measurement
Dedicated innovation team
Leadership from Mayor
Culture of innovation in city
Support from outside city administration
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” - Thomas Edison
Georgetown’s Business Improvement Program (BIP) tears down department silos by forcing cross-departmental review of projects. The BIP coordinator teaches project management skills to team leaders, and ensures the teams comprised of the correct technical experts that can provide citywide feedback. The format also requires weekly and monthly status and progress meetings, formal stakeholder recognition, risk management planning, and other documentation to ensure projects can survive staff turnover.
Note: The City Innovation Snapshot (PDF version) was produced in 2019 and some aggregate findings have been updated with the latest survey results below.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Georgetown has an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to 20% of cities surveyed, Georgetown approaches innovation capacity from a holistic/macro level.
As an independent team, Georgetown’s dedicated team for innovation led by a Business Process Consultant.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Its innovation activities also include facilitating organizational change within the municipality; and rethinking the city’s approaches to financing and partnerships.
Like 81% of cities surveyed, Georgetown has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Georgetown has developed partnerships to promote its innovation capacity with other public agencies, private firms, not-for-profit organizations, and city residents/resident associations. To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with academia and think tanks to collect and analyze data as well as with other cities.