So as you know we’re in Milwaukee this week for the ICMA’s  97th Annual Conference. I’ve never been to the city before so thought I’d do my homework. I knew it was the home to Harley Davidson and some great breweries but that was about it. Turns out it’s the US’s 28th largest city by population and has one of the highest per capita student populations in the country.

Now clearly Milwaukee has a proud industrial heritage. And walking through the city a lot of its history is very much in tact. But as with any industrial city it’s had its challenges as manufacturing takes up a smaller proportion of our GDP. But Milwaukee has also seen a cultural renaissance with the building of the new conference centre and the Riverwalk.

So what better place then to hold the conference?  All of the city managers gathering here this week have faced challenges over the past few years. And let’s be honest – continue to face them. Every community is focused on jobs and providing better services to its citizens against a backdrop of continuing economic uncertainty.

But don’t mistake that for doom and gloom. If you look around you’ll find a lot of innovative approaches to these issues that people in central government right around the world would do well to take notice of. So I’m really looking forward to the week. Time to interview lots of really interesting people, talk to old friends and meet some new ones. Not to mention the trip to the brewery! But what I’m looking forward to the most is the opportunity to witness this pioneering approach first hand.

Watch all our conference interviews and reports on www.icmatv.com.

Follow us on twitter @ICMATV and the conference using #icma11

Coming back this autumn from the International City and County Managers Association Conference in San Jose was a good opportunity to look at the challenges facing community leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

WebsEdge/Government produced a series of programmes for both the ICMA and Britain’s LGA earlier in the summer. We interviewed a wide variety of politicians and community leaders and visited towns and cities throughout the two countries. There were clear similarities of approach to the problems caused by the global economic slowdown but there also some significant differences in emphasis.

In America it’s fair to say the harsh economic climate has been a reality longer as far as local government is concerned. Cities get a chunk of their funding from states and that has been cut back in recent years. So there’s a feeling that to some extent they have weathered the storm. They have made the necessary cuts to spending and are in better shape for the upturn when it comes. Whilst in England we’ve just had the Government’s Spending Review, which heralds substantial cutbacks to council grants. And whilst plans have been drawn up there is a distinct feeling of unease in town halls throughout the country.

The big worry in the United States is unemployment. At 9.5 % of the population it has remained stubbornly high. That has a profound effect on city government – both from a financial and a community cohesion point of view. So the focus now is on creating jobs.

As with many other facets of the relationship between the two countries there is more that unites us than divides us! There is a big emphasis in both the UK and US on professional management in town halls. If we can recruit, train and motivate the best minds into local service we’ll do the best we can for our citizens.

There’s also a focus on community. It goes under different names, ‘total place’ ‘big society’ and many others. But the sense is the same. If we coordinate the efforts of the entire public and voluntary sectors we can eliminate waste and provide better and more efficient services. What started out as a response to financial hardship has become a clarion call for better services and community engagement. And you never know, it may just work!

How’s everything in your business? Getting back to normal or still stuck in the recession? Indeed does anyone know what normal is any more!

Well it’s our busy time of year here at WebsEdge. We’re currently working on tv projects ranging from university admissions to crime and law enforcement. And we’re on our travels too – Liverpool in September, Beijing in October and New Orleans in November amongst many others.

To kick this season off I’ve just come back from Montreal where, for the fourth time, we’ve been producing a series of tv programmes for the International City Managers Association Annual Conference. Before and during the event we talked to city managers from all over the world. And of course the main subject for conversation was the recession.

What really surprised me was the amount of consensus. Everyone it seems has been effected by it. Everyone feels the worst is over and yet everyone is wary about the recovery. What shape will it take and how will we even know it’s here?

Not surprisingly being in Montréal we worked with quite a number of Canadian cities. And it was really refreshing to do so. Canadian cities, it seems are investing heavily in their communities future and they can afford to do that because the recession in Canada has been less severe than in many other countries. And that I think says a lot about their desire to build a sustainable future without getting too involved in economic bubbles that all too often leads to economic bust.

So what’s caught my eye this week here at WebsEdge? Well it’s interesting. The headlines are full of news of the iPlayer and the iPhone. And as regular readers will know I’m a great fan of both devices.

But what’s really grabbed my attention is the work that’s being done to help communities engage using on-line video. More often than not it’s actually practical applications that are making a difference. Let me give you some examples.

We’re currently working on an initiative with Norfolk, Virginia to let job applicants get more of a feel for both the city and the job specification through the use of on-line video. Straightforward enough you might think. But it’s actually making a real difference to their recruitment. They’re finding it much easier to get people to relocate after watching the video.

Another is the work we’re doing with the International City Managers Association based in Washington DC. We’re helping them run a simple competition where young people can upload their own videos and have people vote on them. Again, nothing too complicated but it facilitates two way communications and lets people feel a part of things.

And I think this is the way things will develop. There’s a great demand for top quality content delivered on-line – be in Doctor Who or CNN’s Doctor Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Literally millions of people a month are consuming television in this way. And running alongside that you’ll see lots of different communities coming together in a very 21st century way through the growth of on-line video.