Every year, local governments spend huge sums of money through contracts, on everything from pencils and paper to major infrastructure projects. Open contracting is the idea that by making information about these contracts easily accessible, residents can better understand a government’s objectives, and community members—including vendors—can more effectively participate in this powerful way that governments deliver products and services.

Open contracting can also bring benefits to governments themselves. Improving the contracting information that’s available online can help vendors and community stakeholders better understand past projects and see metrics for how contract performance is measured. This process can help vendors create more competitive bids and help cities solicit better proposals on public projects.

On Tuesday, June 5, join the Sunlight Foundation’s Open Cities team, the Open Contracting Partnership, Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab, and the City of Glendale, Arizona for a webinar discussion about how open data can be used to improve contracting outcomes, including tips for how cities anywhere can use this approach.

Participants will learn about an open approach to government processes, the role open data can play in results-driven contracting, and how the City of Glendale is doing this work in a new project launching later this summer.

We want to hear from you about how to make this event as useful as possible. If you have questions for the panelists in advance, email us at or Tweet them to us. We look forward to having you join the conversation on June 5!