I attended one day of the three day conference of the Minnesota City/County Management Association (MCMA) at Cragun's resort in the Brainerd Lakes area. I came back earlier today to attend the Police Department's annual awards recognition event. I'll tell you more about that event tomorrow.
At the conference I participated as a speaker on a panel about the use of technology to help build "community" in our communities. This is Chaska City Administrator Dave Pokorney. Dave was a speaker on the same panel. Dave spoke about the way Chaska uses its municipal Wi-Fi system to build community. I talked about, what else, the way I use my blog to build a sense of community in Eden Prairie.
There were two other speakers on the panel. A duo from Stearns County that talked about the way they use their website for community-building and a speaker from Golden Valley that told us about a community-building software they use called "i-neighbors".
Whether we use technology or we go about our community-building the old fashioned way (newsletter, cable tv, etc.), it's an important task for any city, especially for suburban cities.
