Sessions & agenda
We’re putting together a full day of sessions and conversations. A full day of keynotes and panel discussions — exploring the big questions around citizen communication, crisis preparedness, and innovation in the public sector. As a bonus – the morning after is hands-on: practical workshops where you work through real challenges together with peers from other municipalities.
Citizen 2026 | Full event info and sign-up
Session 1: Who owns the communication?
The strategic case for independence
- With Astrid Haug - one of Scandinavia's sharpest voices on digital sovereignty and Anette Dey - Head of Communications at Bydel Frogner, City of Oslo.
- Further, Huddinge's Ola Gäverth - with a strong experience from both public service media and public sector and Monaghan County Council's Carmel O’Hare will bring an Irish perspective to the panel.
- Are municipalities too dependent on platforms they don't control? This session makes the strategic and democratic case for owning your own channels - and what it looks like when you actually do it.
Session 2: From broadcasting to dialogue
Co-creating communication with the community
- With Pascal Tshibanda - Head of Communications at Norrköping Municipality, and Petra Sintorn - Head of Unit at Botkyrka Municipality and doctoral researcher in public sector digital transformation.
- Moving from one-way information to genuine two-way communication. What does it take in practice, and what changes when residents become part of the process?
Session 3: When it really matters
Communication in crisis
- With Edvard Unsgaard - former political journalist, Moscow correspondent at Sveriges Radio, and Press Secretary to Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
- When something goes wrong, the quality of your communication infrastructure is exposed. This session looks at what separates institutions that hold up under pressure from those that don't.
Session 4: Building faster
Agile innovation and the new technology landscape
- With Kjell-Vidar Åhman Teig and Morten Holst from Innocode, and Lars Petter Kjær, who leads communication and digitalisation at Sandefjord Municipality.
- Can municipalities actually move fast? A practical session on how to innovate with the tools available today — without waiting for the perfect conditions.
Workshop Morning, 10:00–13:00
The second day is an optional bonus, for those who have the time - and would like to get into operative details - learning from each other.
- Hands-on and practitioner-led. You choose your track across two rounds of workshops, depending on where your municipality is in its journey.
- For those just getting started, there's a guided session on the key decisions you need to make, how to structure your content, and how to get the first residents on board. For those further along, peer learning sessions with municipalities who have been running a citizen app for a while — what content gets opened, what gets ignored, and how to build a rhythm that lasts.
- There's also a rapid innovation workshop led by Morten Holst and Kjell-Vidar Åhman Teig — you bring a real problem from your municipality and work through a prototyping process together. The goal is a testable concept by lunchtime. No technical background needed.
More speakers and session details to be announced!
CITIZEN 2026
Speakers and panelists
We are gathering the strongest voices in Nordic and European public sector-communication. Names and descriptions are updated continously, as we agree with new speakers!
