Executive Summary

In May 2017, The Rockefeller Foundation (RF) and 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) launched the CityXChange program by hosting the inaugural CityXChange summit.

Now in its second year, CityXChange invites city leaders from around the globe to collaborate with technology innovators on solving tough urban resilience problems. We believe cities and the technology industry have much to gain from each other, but too often lack the insight, tools and structures to collaborate effectively. We hope that CityXChange can provide a venue and framework for bridging those critical gaps.

At the first CityXChange Summit, participants focused on identifying common barriers to partnership between cities and startups, while developing tactics for overcoming those barriers. The 2018 CityXChange Summit challenged participants to put the ideas developed the previous year into practice, with the goal of helping cities make progress towards solving a specific core resilience challenge. We also explored some of the key emerging technologies that can support cities’ efforts, from blockchain to machine learning.

This playbook provides a summary of key learnings and approaches developed by the participants of CityXChange. The 2018 edition of the CityXChange playbook builds on the work of the 2017 edition, with new ideas, refinements of old ideas, new examples, and new sections based on some of the conversations that occurred at the 2018 CityXChange summit. We hope that the strategies provided in the playbook will foster future successful city/ tech collaborations within the 100 Resilient Cities network, and among global cities more generally.

The goals of CityXChange:

• Determine how to help startups better succeed in developing and deploying solutions to real urban problems
• Provide a forum where city leaders, VCs, and startups can come together to learn about challenges and opportunities that city/tech partnerships face
• Give city leaders an opportunity to gain the insights of technology leaders on how to think differently about their cities’ specific resilience challenges
• Generate concrete and sustainable partnerships between cities and resilience-focused startups
• Build enabling environments that can bridge gaps between cities and startups
• Enable the sharing of insights and models across a wide network of cities and tech innovators, expanding opportunities for collaboration and improving success rates