HOT TOPIC WEBINAR: Humanizing Local Government: Building Trust with Residents in the Disinformation Age

Trust in local government is at an all-time low. Despite extraordinary efforts from public officials to earn community goodwill through transparency, residents are routinely underinformed and often intentionally misled as to what decisions are being made locally, why, and by whom, leading to widespread mistrust. The advent of generative AI and the amplification power of social media threaten to make trust-building an exponentially more difficult proposition for local officials.

This panel will explore the concept of “humanizing” local government, its remarkable benefits for communities, and the most effective (and ineffective) approaches to achieving it. Panelists will share essential best practices in government humanization, success stories from their own work as government leaders and technologists, and insights on how municipal leaders can make immediate progress in their own communities. If cutting through disinformation to build better relationships with residents is important to you, please join us.

Moderator:

Mark Friese, COO, Rep’d

Panelists:

Katrina Thompson, Mayor, Village of Broadview, IL

Bret Prebula, City Manager, City of Clayton, CA

Rachel Stern, Founder and CEO, Govtech Ventures