Ottawa, February 9th 2010

A group of city practitioners from the PLUS Network met in Ottawa Canada to launch a dialogue on the theme of implementation – the theme of the PLUS Network’s 2010 Conference which will be held in Ottawa in September 2010. While many cities are moving from planning to implementation, there are still many members of the Network that are undertaking implementation without having undergone a comprehensive planning exercise.

This can be due to limited resources or to the challenges brought on by rapid growth of their cities that draws staff away from the ‘luxury’ of thinking and planning for the future. By virtue of necessity some cities have to take the leap straight into implementation.

The workshop focused on how to enhance our implementation whichever of the paths we have taken to get there. The participants discussed the need for a shared language and the possibility of developing a diagnostic tool to assist Network cities to improve their implementation performance through a better understanding of the context of their city and their work.

Participating cities included: Saint John, Canmore, Iqaluit, Calgary, Whistler, Ottawa, Gatineau, Niagara (all from Canada); Montpelier, USA and Dakar, Senegal.

If you would like further information on the workshop or the follow up work please contact Patricia Gordon at the PLUS Network. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .