Smart Dubai Hosts ‘Happiness Meter Storytelling Workshop’ For Government Entities

The Smart Dubai Office (SDO) held a “Happiness Meter Storytelling Workshop” on Monday, September 24, 2018, at its Training Center in the Dubai Design District (d3), bringing together six government entities.

The event was attended by H.E. Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General at the SDO and CEO of the Dubai Data Establishment, and His Excellency Wesam Lootah, CEO at the Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG), while the SDO’s Director of Smart Services Department Hessa Al Balooshi opened the workshop with an introduction to the journey and major milestones of the Happiness Meter project, as well as the objectives of the storytelling workshop. A member of Al Balooshi’s team then went on to give a detailed presentation showcasing the Happiness Meter’s achievements, key statistics, an overview newest features and projects.

The participating Government entities shared their experience with the Happiness Meter, revealing the best practices that helped increase customer satisfaction and improved service delivery. The six entities comprised of the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA); Dubai Police; Dubai Courts; Dubai Municipality; Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA); and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Housing Establishment (MRHE). The targeted audience, meanwhile, included “Happiness Champions” (nominated from 41 entities to work towards making Dubai the happiest city on earth), as well as officials from Smart Dubai’s upper management, and participants from several government and semi-government entities.

“At Smart Dubai, we have always made clear that technology was not our end goal; it is a powerful means that we embrace and develop to serve our community and, most importantly, spread happiness among the citizens, residents and visitors of Dubai,” said H.E. Wesam Lootah. “Driven by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, we have set an ambitious goal to raise the Happiness Index levels in Dubai to 95% by 2021 and have launched a bundle of services and initiatives to reach our target.”

“The Smart Dubai Office has been committed to implementing a happiness agenda that runs parallel to the city-wide shift towards smart technology,” Wesam Lootah added. “With that in mind, we launched the Happiness Meter in 2015 across various government and private sector entities. The Happiness Meter has come a long way since then and is now implemented in 162 entities, 921 service centres and 789 websites and mobile applications. It has registered a total of 20.11 million votes since the launch with an 89% happiness rate.”

The Happiness Meter was one of Dubai’s first strategic “smart city” initiatives; it is the world’s first city-wide live sentiment capture engine collecting customer feedback and creating a map of happiness across the city through the centralised data dashboard. This, in turn, allows private and government entities to gauge and rank customer experiences within industry sectors and geographic areas, and include numerical data about happiness in the UAE in their decision-making process.