Celebrating Excellence in Agile Smart City Piloting in the Czech Republic

🎁 Some teams did not have to wait until Christmas for extraordinary “gifts”. We are pleased to introduce the overall winner of the Czech 🇨🇿 Open Call for agile Smart City pilots: 🏆 YoungLink.cz (Dušan Brabec), and the recipient of the special award for an “agile approach”: 🏅 nextdrop s.r.o. (Petra Drexler, Pavla Stuhl, František Mach).

The award ceremony itself was largely symbolic. The real achievement, however, had come earlier—and was earned the hard way. All six supported teams, which together received a total of EUR 97,000 to run innovation experiments in real-life settings of Czech municipalities and regions, succeeded in exceptionally strong competition. A total of 55 applicants submitted proposals, highlighting the high quality and intensity of the selection process.

Our sincere appreciation and recognition also go to Glassiteca, EnerCo Solutions, PalmApp, and ExoTech Solutions s.r.o. Special congratulations to EnerCo Solutions, the winner of the “Sustainable Energy” category.

At the same time, our close cooperation with our partner SCII / SMART CITY INNOVATIONS INSTITUT z.ú., the organiser of the Czech Smart City Awards, represented a valuable opportunity. Introducing the special category “Agile Pilot” not only increased visibility and recognition for piloting teams, but also created space for reflection on what truly determines success once an idea becomes a solution—and implementation brings an entirely new set of challenges.

We consider the following factors particularly important for successful piloting:

• resilient leadership and the ability to stay two steps ahead, even when facing demanding questions and supervision,

• readiness to co-finance meaningful interventions from one’s own resources,

• timely, clear communication with fast response times,

• professionalism and composure in navigating administrative requirements,

• precise and autonomous management of relationships with local stakeholders.