Eyal Feder, CEO, Zencity

Founding COO of Tel Aviv University’s Interdisciplinary Research Center for Cities and Urbanism. Eyal also served as the Executive Director of The Garden Library, a community education nonprofit organization in Tel Aviv. Eyal has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s Future of Cities advisory board and was the youngest board member of the Israeli Planning Association. Eyal speaks and lectures frequently about how governments can build trust and improve decision making by engaging with the community using digital tools.

Jennifer Sourdellia, Public Information Officer City of Seguin

Jennifer has been the public information officer for the City of Seguin since Dec. 2018. Prior to that, she was with the City of Victoria for more than seven years. She is an experienced communications and marketing professional with a demonstrated history of working in municipal government and higher education. Jennifer is a graduate of the TCU Certified Public Communicator program and is skilled in media relations, internal and external communications, social media content creation/management, crisis/emergency communications, and website management.

Kevin Lyons, CEO, Flashvote

From data to democracy, Kevin Lyons studied lots of nerdy things in two PhD programs so you don’t have to. Now he is a sought after keynote speaker and educator on government topics in the US and Canada. Why? Because after 30 years learning about good governance from Nobel prize winners and top practitioners, he can finally explain everything you need to know in terms of pizza and beer.

He is Co-Founder and Chief Scientist for Governance Sciences Group, and co-inventor of the FlashVote survey system that collects statistically valid community input in 48 hours for government decision support. He has formal training from the Business and Public Policy Ph.D. Program at UC Berkeley, and from the Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program at UCSB, where he also learned to surf.

Aly Van Dyke, Director of Communications and Public Engagement, City of Georgetown

Aly is the director of Communications and Public Engagement (CAPE: The superheroes of the city!). She started in Georgetown in January 2020, just in time for the pandemic. Prior to Georgetown, Aly worked in communications for the cities of Austin, Texas, and Topeka, Kan., where she honed her skills in strategic communications planning, social media management, media relations, marketing, and campaign management.

Aly earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and spent the first half of her professional career working for newspapers, primarily covering local government and special projects (ask her about restaurant inspections sometime, preferably not over lunch). She was named in the Top 100 Local Government Leaders by Engaging Local Government leaders and has presented to numerous conferences and journalism classes about City communications and newswriting. Her Tweetalong concept – shadowing City crews about their day to share their stories, personalities, and dedication – was selected as a Case Study by the Alliance for Innovation’s Transforming Local Government group.

Aly lives in Georgetown with her precious dog, Cooper. She grew up in Kansas, where most of her family still lives. She’s an amateur Tarot reader, loves sparkles, glitter, rainbows, unicorns, and bubbles, and is always down for food, drinks, and new adventures.

Ryan Murray, Assistant Director of Community Research, ETC Institute

As the Assistant Director of Community Research at ETC Institute, the nation’s leader in administering statistically valid surveys, Mr. Murray has made significant contributions to municipalities nationwide. Since joining ETC Institute, an organization founded in 1982 with the mission to help communities make better decisions through a resident-driven, data-focused approach, Mr. Murray has led over 1,000 statistically valid survey projects. In the past five years alone, he has conducted over 40 surveys in Texas, providing invaluable insights and data to help local governments improve their communities. Additionally, Mr. Murray serves as an elected official in his own city, bringing a unique perspective and dedication to public service.

Matt Smith, Communications Manager, City of DeSoto

Matt has more than 30 years of frontline experience in government & political communications and broadcast journalism and has developed and managed high-profile media and public affairs operations in several US cities.

As the Communications Manager for the City of DeSoto, Matt is responsible for the city’s communications operations, media relations, and advising DeSoto’s Senior Officials on communications. As Chief Public Information Officer he oversees a network of departmental communications officers.

Matt earned his BA in Communications from Loyola University of Chicago and started out as a broadcast journalism serving as a news and religion correspondent for the UPI Radio Network and other networks and reporting from US cities and abroad from London, Rome, Paris, Jerusalem and the Vatican.  He later transitioned to the media side of government, serving first as Chicago Mayor Richard M.  Daley’s News Analyst and later as a departmental Communications Director for the City of Chicago for more than 20 years. Matt was a founding member of Bill Clinton’s 1992 “War Room” and was the Director of News Analysis for the national campaign. He also worked for Regan Bush ’84 and was a Senior Advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential Campaign.

Matt is a proud TAMIO and 3CMA member who received his Certified Public Communicator (CPC) designation from TCU’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication He is FEMA-trained in emergency communications and has expertise is in strategic communications, media relations, crisis communication, public speaking, and speech writing. He also completed three out of four levels in Chicago’s Second City Players Workshop which produced many of America’s top comedic actors including Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Peter Boyle, Shelley Long, Tim Kazurinsky, Bonnie Hunt and George Wendt.