World Governments Summit

World Governments Summit turns a conference stage into a listening feed. Its episodes are recordings of individual summit sessions, and the titles carry the edition year, as in WGS 2014, WGS 2015 and WGS 2016. Each one brings its own speakers, its own moderator and its own room. The formats shift from episode to episode: a plenary speech, moderated panels, a workshop held in collaboration with Google, an on-stage interview. What keeps coming back is the question of how governments serve their citizens. The plenary with Francis Maude comes at it through UK public sector reform after 2010, arguing that reducing the deficit is not the only prize and that 21st century services must be cost-effective, sustainable, faster and more responsive. Governments everywhere, the speech holds, face squeezed budgets, rising expectations and low growth, and they need a new paradigm built on user need. A 2014 panel reaches the same question by an unexpected route. Lara Habib, who introduces herself as presenting Business News at Al Arabiya News Channel, frames a debate around learning from hotel industry leaders: can government bodies match hotel standards, and can citizens be treated as guests? She traces the premise to a vision she attributes to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and she tells the room that questions will be taken throughout. The smart cities panel seats Xavier Trias, Mayor of Barcelona, beside Gunso Kim, Deputy Mayor for Information and Technology of Seoul, and Sir Edward Lister from London. Its moderator opens by working the room, asking for a louder good morning and holding back the applause. Not every session stays on services. The 2016 conversation with Paul Kagame is an interview about growth. It opens on a line from a 1970s song, 'What have you done for us lately?', and then asks whether Rwanda can hold growth of 7 to 8 percent. Kagame answers that the growth comes from within, resting on security, stability, the rule of law and the resilience of Rwandans, and he names a target of 1,240 US dollars in GDP per capita by 2020. In the Google workshop, a speaker from the company passes on a challenge from its CEO: aim to improve things tenfold, not by ten percent. The session titled 'WGS 2015 - Innovation in Education' begins with an invocation and formal greetings, then shows the audience a picture of the Sahara and asks them where it is. The register is formal and ceremonial, thick with honorifics, thanks for kind introductions and courtesies to the UAE's leadership. For a first listen, the Kagame interview is the most direct, and the hospitality debate shows the service agenda most plainly.