GovTen
Nominate
About

Why does GovTen exist

Local government is where most of what people actually experience gets decided, and it is the least-covered tier of public administration there is.

The reasoning

A list is only useful if you can check it

GovTen publishes the rubric before nominations open, names an independent Chair who holds final authority, redacts entries before judging, and publishes the funnel afterwards.

Award programs that charge an entry fee end up measuring which agencies had budget for an entry fee. In a sector where a rural county's whole communications budget is smaller than one gala table, that is not a small distortion — it is the entire result.

Who runs it

GovTen is published by CityData.AI, which reaches more than 100,000 subscribers through its monthly newsletters on parks, mobility and local economies. That audience is why this program can reach agencies in thirty-five countries without an advertising budget.

CityData.AI also sells software to local government. We think naming that plainly and constraining it is better than hiding behind a foundation, and the constraints are written down, enforced by an independent Chair who does not work for us, and published in full.

The independence architecture

Who does the work

Independent Chair
Final authority over judging, ties, and whether a category is publishable. Not an employee, contractor or shareholder of the program administrator. To be announced.
Eight judges
Two per category. Unpaid. Recruited from outside the vendor community, and bound by the Judges’ Charter.
Editorial Director
Owns the rubric, the screening standard and the annual report. To be announced.
Program administrator
CityData.AI staff handle outreach, screening, translation, and logistics. They do not nominate or score entries.
Contact

Who to write to

Real addresses, answered by people. Judging questions go to the Chair, everything else goes to the program administrator.

General

hello@govten.com
Two working days.

Judging & results

chair@govten.com
Monitored by the independent Chair only.

Integrity concerns

integrity@govten.com
Unwanted sales contact, invoices, badge misuse.

Press

press@govten.com
One working day.