Cities of Excellence in the Public Sector, Bilbao, 4-5 Junho-2012

EIPA, the European Institute of Public Administration joined with the City Council of Bilbao to sponsor a  Knowledge-Transfer Conference on Cities of Excellence in the Public Sector: The Innovation Front with their New Practices and Formulas, to celebrate and disseminate the best practices identified within the context of the 3rd European Public Sector Award -  EPSA 2011
The EPSA awards have reviewed more than 600 projects, about 40% are presented by local and municpal authorities.
The 2-day event at the AlhóndigaBilbao,   includes a session focusing on the lessons learned from the experience of three cities, Bilbao, Mannheim, Birmingham, with discusstion from one of the EPSA 2011 evaluators Mariana Abrantes de Sousa who participated in the selection the nominees which were then presented to a jury for final decision.
4-June-2012,  15h-17h  
Panel: New Approaches and Practices to Strategic Budgeting and Service Review - Three Initiatives, One result!Introductory remarks and chaired by: 
Michael Burnett (UK), Expert & EPSA Theme Leader, EIPA Maastricht 
Political Management based on Economic Stringency and Strategic Budgets – EPSA 2011 Winner
Carlos Urgoiti (ES), Director of Budgets and Accountancy, Bilbao City Council 

Change2: Achieving More Together - EPSA 2011 Nominee/Finalist
Ulrich Hörning (DE), Head of Administrative Reform, Mannheim City Hall, DE
Birmingham City Council Business Transformation Programme – EPSA 2011 Best Practice Certificate
Elena Martin (UK), CHAMPS2 Team, Birminghan City Council, UK 
Voices and opinions from the EPSA evaluators
Mariana  ABRANTES de Sousa (PT), EPSA 2011 Evaluator, 
 PPP Lusofonia, Algés, Portugal
See presentation http://recs.it/userfiles/10-Abrantes_cities_excellence_eipa_june_2012%20v2.pdf

Source:  For the progrm and  more information on the  Knowledge Conference http://seminars.eipa.eu/en/activities09/show/&tid=5058
EPSA 2011  http://www.epsa2011.eu/
Transparencia municipal -Bilbao , www.bilbao.net

The winners of the EPSA 2011 were: 

PSA 2011 Award Winner under Theme 1: Bilbao City Council, Spain

EPSA 2011 Award Winner under Theme 2: Portuguese High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue ACIDI, PORTUGAL

EPSA 2011 Award Winner under Theme 3: Department for Environment Protection, City of Vienna, Austria