A guest post by Secretary Glenys Beauchamp PSM, Department of Industry and Science
I’m writing to encourage you to get involved with the GovCamp Innovation Dialogues this year being held in each capital city as part of Innovation Month 2015.
As Secretary of the Department of Industry and Science, I am pleased to again be closely involved with Innovation Month. In 2015, the Month has the theme (and ambition?) of ‘Dream, Dare, Do’ and will run between 3 to 31 July.
I and other agency heads and senior champions for innovation within the public service are currently considering how we can strengthen the Public Sector Innovation Network. I would like everyone in my department to see innovation as a part of how they do their job, and feel they have the confidence and skills to do so.
We should not think for a moment though that public sector innovation is just about those of us who work within the Australian Public Service. It is about everyone. What we do in the public service matters to all, and the ideas for how the public sector can do things better will come from all sectors.
The GovCamp Innovation Dialogues events, running from the 14th to the 31st of July, are an opportunity for us to bring together interested parties from different sectors to talk about this – how we can all work together in new ways to improve public sector outcomes.
Being a part of Innovation Month, these events are also about trying something a bit different. They are about having different types of conversations – involving public servants from all tiers of government, as well as those from industry, academia and not-for-profit organisations.
I hope these events will also serve to start ongoing relationships and discussions in each city. Public sector innovation is a national process, and we need the ongoing perspectives and contributions of those outside of Canberra.
The outcomes from the conversations and other Innovation Month event will feed into discussions with my colleagues about how we can continue to support and strengthen the innovation capability of the public sector.
For those of you in Canberra, you might also like to come along to hear me speak at the launch of Innovation Month on the 6th of July, or at the IPAA Breakfast event on the 14th of July.
I look forward to finding out more from these events about the different experiences, opportunities, challenges and successes involved with trying to do things differently in the public sector.
(Please note: the Department of Industry and Science is a major sponsor of the Innovation Month 2015 GovCamp Dialogues.)