A National Dialogue on public sector innovation

Throughout July, GovCamp Australia will be hosting a National Dialogue program on innovation leadership for the public sector.  This program of discussion events is designed to give public sector professionals from Federal, State/Territory and local governments a fresh opportunity for outreach, mobilisation and participation in their capital city.

Themes of co-innovation and innovation leadership are intended to establish a challenging context for discussion, raising for debate whether innovators are by nature a type of informal peer leader who may inspire, encourage and mobilise others.  The theme will be explored through broad questions as a way to elicit localised issues and experience.  These may include, for example:

  • What is the current culture of public sector innovation? What are the barriers to and conditions for PS innovative programs?
  • What are the emerging trends for innovation practice in other sectors?
  • What are examples of cross-agency and cross-sector collaboration in public service innovation?
  • What are some contemporary & emerging examples of public sector innovation in practice?
  • How can public sector innovation translate into improved service delivery and agency performance?

GovCampAU Innovation Dialogues: State and Territory sessions throughout July

Open conversation events will be held in capital cities around Australia throughout July as part of Public Sector Innovation Month.  Unlike a conventional GovCamp, these half-day events will be convened during the work week and bring together Federal APS practitioners, together with people from state and local government, industry and civil society.  These events will stimulate discussion, debate and sharing of knowledge about public sector innovation, as well as highlighting cases from within and outside the sector for innovative delivery of public policy and services.

Each Innovation Dialogues event will be a facilitated discussion session held partly in ‘unconference’ mode of a GovCamp event.  The format is envisaged as:

  1. Opening panel – featuring innovation leadership guests
  2. Conversation café segment – to stimulate interaction and focus the topic
  3. Unconference format discussion streams
  4. Closing roundup session

In the spirit of ‘’social knowledge, the discussion in each location will be captured using social tools, and the local co-hosts of each GovCamp event will contribute to a national leadership roundtable event hosted from Canberra as the official closing event for Public Sector Innovation Month.