Stay ConnectedFrom the Wiki for local government innovation, the Govlaunch podcast shares the stories of local government innovators and their efforts to build better governments. Through conversations with cities and towns around the world, each episode explores creative solutions to the challenges communities face, and what local governments can learn from each other’s successes and failures.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Copyright: © 2021 Govlaunch Inc.
On this episode, Devta Kidd, Innovation Director for Bloomington, Indiana joins me to talk about low budget, impactful innovation that any local government can try. We'll talk about cross-departmental buy-in strategies for engaging the community and what questions we should be asking as we progress through a project lifecycle to ensure innovation remains at the center.
Featured government: City of Bloomington, Indiana
Episode Guests: Devta Kidd – Innovation Director
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The legal division is often assumed to be slow and archaic, even a barrier to innovation. In the City of Hamilton's case, this couldn't be further from the truth. The division has created model policies around some big disruptors, such as the sharing economy, that are now being replicated around the world.
Featured government: City of Hamilton, Canada
Episode Guests:
Monica Ciriello – Director Municipal Law and Licensing
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Back in 2019, the city of Montréal was a successful bidder of the Canadian government Smart Cities Challenge. This allowed Montreal to kick off a multi-year multi-project effort to tackle everything from food security to mobility.
Featured government: Montréal, Canada
Episode Guests:
Aldo Rizzi, Program Director – Smart City Innovation Program chez Ville de Montréal
Patrick Lozeau, Advisor in charge of data projects for Montreal in Common
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
With police forces in many local governments coming under major scrutiny, we'll hear how one government is looking at risk management, crisis management, internal audit, and ultimately ways to improve resiliency to drive impactful and equitable policing.
Featured government: Paris, France
Episode Guest: Inès Boubaker, Risk Manager, Paris City Hall
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Olivia dives into what this new tech is and what roles local government practitioners can play in these emerging spaces.
Episode Guests:
Dani Pico, Director of Community at Forum
Dani is a long time start-up operator focused on the education and innovation sectors. Currently, Dani is the Director of Community at Forum Ventures, an early stage fund and accelerator program focused on B2B SaaS.
Zachary Habayeb
Real Estate Tokenization in the UK
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Digital inclusion work is progressing in Detroit, and citizen-centered projects, and an understanding of their experience has been a major component of the city's success to date. Towards their goal of providing sustainable broadband access to residents via an automatic open access fiber network, Autumn and her team are finding creative ways to talk to residents and get their buy-in.
Featured government: City of Detroit, MI
Episode guests: Autumn Evans, Deputy Director of Digital Inclusion/Equity and Connect 313 Operations Director for the City of Detroit, MI.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
This discussion accompanies our new report: Innovation in Public Finance, which is now available at sapconcur.govlaunch.com. The guide features dozens of local government success stories and is made possible in part by SAP Concur, a company that's helping government teams around the world automate spending processes so they can run more efficiently.
Govlaunch is joined by a tremendous panel, including Hughey Newsom, Chief Financial Officer at Wayne County, Michigan, Sara Robinson, Finance Director for the City of Deer Park, Texas, and Jim McClurkin, Senior Director for Public Sector at SAP Concur.
More info:
Featured governments:
Wayne County, Michigan
Hughey Newsom, Chief Financial Officer
City of Deer Park, Texas
Sara Robinson, Finance Director
Discussion Facilitator:
SAP Concur
Jim McClurkin, Senior Director for Public Sector
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Siddy Holloway's work is centered around getting the public engaged in mobility through various forms of creative storytelling. With London being home to the world’s oldest underground transit network there is a lot of history and knowledge to reveal. Learn more about how London is sharing its public transit stories and how you may be able to engage with your community on the topic of mobility.
Featured government: Transport for London (Transport Authority for the city of London, UK)
Episode guests: Siddy Holloway, Engagement Manager at the London Transport Museum and co-presenter of UKTV's 'Secrets of the London Underground'
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Govlaunch co-founder James Alfano and Michael Pegues from Aurora, Illinois discuss the importance of cultivating public-private partnerships, seeing through the smart city hype, and tips for a strong foundation upon which is smart city or connected community can be built.
Featured government: City of Aurora, IL
Episode guests: Michael Pegues, Chief Information Officer at the City of Aurora
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Tanya joins the Govlaunch Podcast to share her story and to encourage other public sector leaders to think about ways that they can be cloud first, mobile first, and to incorporate omnichannel engagement and strategies for meeting the public wherever they're at 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
More info:
Featured government: King County, Washington, USA
Episode guests: Tanya Hannah, Director and Chief Information Officer
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
As countries focus their efforts on reducing their impact on the environment and cutting back their emissions, cities are an integral part of the solution. Olivia and Caroline dive into what cities are doing and what's still left to be done.
Episode guests: Caroline Brouillette, National Policy Manager for Climate Action Network Canada.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Kate Bender, Chief Analytics Officer for Kansas City, MO joins the Govlaunch podcast to talk about staff engagement, an increasingly important and timely topic as organizations navigate a return to work and high turnover. We'll learn how survey tools and data is helping drive internal culture change and promote retention.
Featured government: City of Kansas City, Missouri
Episode guests: Kate Bender, Chief Analytics Officer for Kansas City, Missouri
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this episode, Olivia's joined by Jeanne Holm, deputy mayor for the city of LA who's tasked with leading both the innovation and budget portfolios. As a notable figure in the data science space, she's currently leveraging data truths to debunk misconceptions in complex policy areas, such as homelessness. Jeanne has a unique public sector perspective of having gone from her role at NASA to local government.
Featured government: City of Los Angeles, CA
Episode guests: Jeanne Holm, Deputy Mayor of Budget and Innovation at the City of Los Angeles
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Olivia sits down with City of Toronto's Manager of Circular Economy and Innovation, Meaghan Davis. Toronto has been fostering a circular approach to many facets of its operations and as cities across the globe pay increasing attention to how their services either harm or help the environment, going for circularity is key. Olivia and Meaghan dive into Toronto's bold vision for a sustainable future, and how you may be able to incorporate more sustainable practices in your own local government.
Featured government: City of Toronto, Canada
Episode guests: Meaghan Davis, BA, MPL - Manager of Circular Economy and Innovation
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Social innovations are social practices created with the goal of extending and strengthening civil society. Montréal's action plan aims to encourage innovative initiatives that have a beneficial effect on the community by supporting social economy enterprises (mutuals and cooperatives), NPOs, and private entrepreneurship with a social purpose.
More info:
Featured government: Ville de Montréal, Canada
Episode guests: Cecile Vergier, Commissaire au développement économique - Innovation Sociale
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The Chief Data Officer for the City of Paterson in New Jersey joins the Govlaunch podcast. Paterson, like many cities across the globe, is looking to improve equity and outcomes for those historically marginalized. They've partnered with Bloomberg Cities on a variety of projects ranging from license restoration to a guaranteed income pilot. So let's get into these and how your local government may be able to explore similar initiatives.
More info:
Featured government: City of Paterson, NJ
Episode guests: Harsha Mallajosyula, Chief Data Officer
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Dr. Jonathan Reichental is the founder of human future, which is a global business and technology advisory investment and education firm. Former CIO for the city of Palo Alto in California and is also the bestselling author of Smart Cities for Dummies.
Reichental co-authored an activity book for kids with Brett Hoffstadt, Exploring Smart Cities Activity Book for Kids, which can be also purchased here.
More info:
Episode guests: Dr. Jonathan Reichental
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Dr. Jonathan Reichental is the founder of human future, which is a global business and technology advisory investment and education firm. Former CIO for the city of Palo Alto in California and is also the bestselling author of Smart Cities for Dummies.
More info:
Episode guests: Dr. Jonathan Reichental
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Dr. Jonathan Reichental is the founder of human future, which is a global business and technology advisory investment and education firm. Former CIO for the city of Palo Alto in California and is also the bestselling author of Smart Cities for Dummies.
More info:
Episode guests: Dr. Jonathan Reichental
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
When in crisis mode, structure and chain of command is paramount. However, innovation is not just nice to have in these moments...It's a necessity. Toronto's Fire Chief Matthew Pegg shares some leadership advice and tips for maintaining calm and driving innovation in times of crisis.
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Featured government: Toronto, ON Canada
Episode guests: Matthew Pegg, Fire Chief, General Manager of Emergency Management, and COVID-19 Incident Commander
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
As cities continue to leverage data for better decision-making and better outcomes, driving a data culture has never been more crucial. Learn about why local government practitioners should foster a data-centric culture of their own and the steps necessary to achieve this.
Episode Guests:
Adam Beck - Executive Director, Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand
Adam is the founding Executive Director of Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand, an organisation that is part of the world's largest network of smart cities practitioners and policymakers who's goal is to make cities more liveable, workable, and sustainable.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
We've had the opportunity to talk with governments of all sizes and companies ranging from seed stage to establish enterprise giants and know firsthand the difficulties in reaching the public sector. Geoff Milz from Colerain Township, Ohio, and Tom Carroll from Village of Silverton, Ohio, join us to talk more about the obstacles that keep them from signing on the dotted line and what organizations may want to consider in their approach to public sector sales.
Episode guests:
Geoff Milz - Township Administrator, Colerain Township, Ohio
Tom Carroll - Village Manager, Village of Silverton, Ohio
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Edd Elliot and Mia Millman from PUBLIC, Europe's leading GovTech accelerator and venture firm join the Govlaunch podcast to discuss the core skill set public servants will increasingly need as we move toward more data and technology driven organizations. They share how public servants can up-skill and become equipped to handle this increasingly digital and data driven space.
More info:
Featured: PUBLIC (public.io)
Episode guests:
Edd Elliott, Head of Growth, PUBLIC
Mia Millman, Programme Manager, PUBLIC School of Technology
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
With explosive growth in the GovTech marketplace and new technologies aimed to enable local governments to operate an entirely different way, we see tremendous opportunity to redefine public service as we know it. We talk about the state of GovTech and hear advice for those in public service navigating this increasingly complex and fast moving space.
More info:
Featured: PUBLIC (public.io)
Episode guests:
Edward Elliott, Head of Growth at PUBLIC
Johnny Hugill, Head of Research at PUBLIC
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Although local governments are notorious for planning, is there merit to learning how to effectively unplan? Listen in for tips on how the most innovative changes can come from taking away from processes versus adding more to them.
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Featured government: City of Toronto, Canada
Episode guests:
Denis Carr, Supervisor Open Data
Anthea Foyer, Sector Development Officer, IDM Office
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Eden Prairie has created an environment where frontline staff is empowered to experiment and innovate. From allocating time specifically to developing these bespoke innovations to ensuring innovation is embedded in the city's overall objectives, Eden Prairie has been recognized for its innovative spirit, most notably in the realm of public works. By taking a comprehensive approach to fostering innovation, this US city is ensuring the best delivery of services to its residents.
More info:
Featured government: Eden Prairie, MN
Episode guests: Rick Getschow, City Manager
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In the past four episodes, we've taken a comprehensive dive into the innovative work underway in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. As new leadership has brought a wave of new ideas and philosophies, we can see firsthand what's possible with the right structure and people in place to make it happen. Our hope is that Lancaster's story will inspire other local governments regardless of size to work toward breaking down silos, focus on accomplishing citywide goals, and really foster a culture of innovation.
More info:
Featured government: Lancaster, PA
Episode guests:
Danene Sorace, Mayor
Stephen Campbell, Director of Public Works
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Today, we continue our series with innovative city, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In this episode, I chat with Lancaster's police chief and fire chief about how all departments are coming together around the central goal of engaging the community and taking a more human-centered approach to city leadership.
More info:
Featured government: Lancaster, PA
Episode guests:
John Bey, Police Chief
Scott Little, Fire Cheif
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this episode, Jess King, Patrick Hopkins and Sharon Allen-Spann from Lancaster share how their roles are promoting more equality in government, from expanding language access to hiring practices that support more equitable governance from within.
More info:
Featured government: Lancaster, PA
Episode guests:
Jess King, Chief of Staff
Patrick Hopkins, Business Administrator
Sharon Allen-Spann, Leadership Development and Diversity Manager
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In Part 1 of our series on,the up-and-coming innovative city, Lancaster, PA, we talked with Mayor Danene about some organizational changes made to support open lines of communication internally and more effective engagement with residents. This interview with Milzy Carrasco, Director of Neighborhood Engagement and Chris Delfs, Director of Community Planning & Economic Development, we dive into some projects underway in their departments and more generally, how priority projects align with the city’s strategic goals.
More info:
Featured government: Lancaster, PA
Episode guests: Milzy Carrasco, Director of Neighborhood Engagement and Chris Delfs, Director of Community Planning & Economic Development
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In the weeks to follow, we’ll tap into some core strategies and projects that are defining this mid-sized city. From strategies to support inclusivity and equity to homelessness prevention to establishing a comprehensive plan, Mayor Danene Sorace has been busy.
At Govlaunch, we strongly believe that innovation can happen at all levels of government and across departments. And while we provide open tools for any public servant to reference as inspiration on their innovation journey, we acknowledge the work is hard if done in a vacuum. It's a lot easier to get there when leadership is fully on board with innovative new ideas, a more collaborative work style, and management by results.
More info:
Featured government: Lancaster, PA
Episode guests: Danene Sorace, Mayor
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Transport for London developed a creative approach to improving their procurement processes, cutting through bureaucracy that hindered co-developing solutions with the market.
More info:
Featured government: Transport for London, UK
Episode guests: Rikesh Shah, Head of Commercial Innovation
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Detroit is working tirelessly to implement a city-wide sustainable digital inclusion strategy on behalf of the a hundred thousand plus residents without fixed broadband access. From leveraging a creative win-win strategy for getting buy-in from important stakeholders to taking the time to discuss and engage locally with the community, the city of Detroit has already managed to shift the dial on digital inclusion in just over two years.
More info:
Featured government: Detroit, MI
Episode guests: Joshua Edmonds, Detroit's Director for Digital inclusion
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In part 1, we talk with Joshua Edmonds to learn about Connect 313 - Detroit's citywide, data-driven digital inclusion strategy. Joshua shares lessons learned and winning strategies for bringing various stakeholders together to improve connectivity and access to devices for Detroiters.
Directly reporting to the CIO at the City of Detroit, the Director for Digital inclusion is responsible for developing and implementing a citywide, sustainable digital inclusion strategy on behalf of the 100,000+ residents lacking fixed-broadband access. This position is a unique partnership between the University of Michigan and the City of Detroit with support from the Knight Foundation.
More info:
Featured government: Detroit, MI
Episode guests: Joshua Edmonds, Detroit's Director for Digital inclusion
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this episode, I have the pleasure of chatting with Sam Wells from Albany, New York, to learn about the work they're doing to make better use of their data in-house and to work more collaboratively across departments. The co-founder of Tolemi joins us as well and together we'll learn what made Albany choose Tolemi to help break down their data silos and unlock the power of their data for better decision-making and what you should know as well in your search for an appropriate vendor.
More info:
Featured government: Albany, NY
Government Guest: Sam Wells, Neighborhood Stabilization Coordinator
Featured Maker: Tolemi
Maker Guest: Andrew Kieve, Co-founder
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this episode, I have the pleasure of chatting with Collin Boyce, Chief Innovation Officer for the city of Tucson, Arizona, to learn about the work they're doing to build a strong data culture. Scott Morris from Qlik joins us as well and together we'll learn what made Tucson choose Qlik to help with end-to-end data management from analytics to community-facing visualizations and what you should know as well in your search for an appropriate vendor.
More info:
Featured government: City of Tucson, AZ
Government Guest: Collin Boyce, CIO
Featured Maker: Qlik
Maker Guest: Scott Morris, Field Sales Director, Public Sector
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Govlaunch is the wiki for local government innovation and on this short series, we’re talking all about data driven insights. I’ll be highlighting some of the innovators in local government leveraging available tools to better use various data sources, to make sense of their data in-house, and ultimately lead more efficient and resilient organizations.
Our goal is to expose local governments of all sizes to the tools available and to provide useful information about some of the leading products out there - so that you can spend less time researching products and asking the hard questions and hopefully get to make smarter, more data-driven decisions much faster.
More info:
Featured government: City of Miami
Government Guest: Mike Sarasti, Director of Innovation & Technology & CIO
Featured Maker: mySidewalk
Maker Guest: Stephen Hardy
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Take a deep dive into Wellington’s innovative efforts; from implementing a strong “Civil Defense” to establishing “rules as code”. If you don’t know know what these are, or really want to explore how to implement them successfully, this podcast with Innovation Lead Sean Audain of Wellington City Council, New Zealand is a must-listen.
More info:
Featured government: Wellington City Council, New Zealand
Episode guests: Sean Audain, City Innovation Lead
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In a previous episode, the city of Richmond joined us to talk about the revamp of their existing 311 service and their approach to vendor management more generally. The episode was a big hit, which doesn't come as a surprise. Local governments aren't necessarily looking for fancy new products. Sometimes the best solution is something already procured and just needs a product manager like Tina in Richmond to bring it to life.
More info:
Featured government: Richmond, VA
Episode guests: Pete Breil, Director of Citizen Services: Tina Haney, Product Manager
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this episode, Olivia from our team chats with the city of Helsingborg. This Swedish city is getting recognized for its bold approach to innovation with these efforts culminating in H22, which is both a movement as well as a citywide expo centered on innovation set to occur in 2022. One of H22’s many projects includes a new approach to sewer systems in cities.
More info:
Featured government: Helsingborg, SE
Episode guests: Kristin Engholm, H22 Project Manager
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Citizen engagement is top of mind for many local governments. And it should be. Local governments continue to grapple with communications strategies around COVID and the vaccine, are working with tightening budgets and are continuing to face pressure to innovate at the same pace as private sector companies. And building and maintaining trust with your community is key.
Interview with Joshua Silver, Lead Planner for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships for the DC Office of Planning and Dr. Benjamin Stokes, Founder of the Playful City Lab at American University.
More info:
Featured government: Washington, D.C.
Episode guests:
Joshua Silver, Lead Planner for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships, DC Office of Planning
Dr. Benjamin Stokes, Founder of the Playful City Lab at American University
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Citizen engagement is top of mind for many local governments. And it should be. Local governments continue to grapple with communications strategies around COVID and the vaccine, are working with tightening budgets and are continuing to face pressure to innovate at the same pace as private sector companies. And building and maintaining trust with your community is key.
Interview with Joshua Silver, Lead Planner for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships for the DC Office of Planning and Dr. Benjamin Stokes, Founder of the Playful City Lab at American University.
More info:
Featured government: Washington, D.C.
Episode guests:
Joshua Silver, Lead Planner for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships, DC Office of Planning
Dr. Benjamin Stokes, Founder of the Playful City Lab at American University
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The Helsinki Smart Region is a conglomeration of several municipalities in Finland working towards common goals: things like fighting climate change and improving mobility through innovation ecosystems that are cross-sectoral.
More info:
Featured government: Helsinki Smart Region
Episode guests: Venla Virkamäki, Strategic Advisor on EU Affairs Helsinki Smart Region
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
As cities with deep digital divides, populations of people that have been historically undercounted and forgotten, and at a time with heightened distrust in government, Philly and DC were able to overcome the odds to boost census participation through some creative, human-centered strategies. We dive into strategies pre-pandemic and their pivot post-lockdown and how lessons learned from their census work is driving future city wide engagement strategies. Read More.
More info:
Featured government: Washington, D.C. & Philadelphia, PA
Episode guests:
Stephanie Reid, Executive Director Philly Counts 2020
Melissa Bird, Executive Director, District Census 2020
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
As cities with deep digital divides, populations of people that have been historically undercounted and forgotten, and at a time with heightened distrust in government, Philly and DC were able to overcome the odds to boost census participation through some creative, human-centered strategies. We dive into strategies pre-pandemic and their pivot post-lockdown and how lessons learned from their census work is driving future city wide engagement strategies.
More info:
Featured government: Washington, D.C. & Philadelphia, PA
Episode guests:
Stephanie Reid, Executive Director Philly Counts 2020
Melissa Bird, Executive Director, District Census 2020
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this short series, we’re talking all about Citizen Engagement. I’ll be highlighting some of the innovators in local government leveraging available tools to better engage with the communities they serve.
Our goal is to expose more local governments to the tools available to help by efficiently providing useful information about some of the leading products out there. We’d love it if you could spend less time finding and researching products and hopefully get to launching your digital efforts to engage with your residents more quickly. Stay tuned for more episodes on innovators in local government across the globe. Read the Guide.
More info:
Featured government: Clay County, Florida
Government Guests: Samantha Radomski, Administrative and Web Content Specialist
Featured Maker: Granicus
Maker Guest: John Duckwitz
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this short series, we’re talking all about Citizen Engagement. I’ll be highlighting some of the innovators in local government leveraging available tools to better engage with the communities they serve.
Our goal is to expose more local governments to the tools available to help by efficiently providing useful information about some of the leading products out there. We’d love it if you could spend less time finding and researching products and hopefully get to launching your digital efforts to engage with your residents more quickly. Stay tuned for more episodes on innovators in local government across the globe. Read the Guide.
More info:
Featured government: Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Government Guest: Rick Getschow, City Manager
Featured Maker: Polco
Maker Guests: Matt Fulton and Michelle Kobayashi
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this short series, we’re talking all about Citizen Engagement. I’ll be highlighting some of the innovators in local government leveraging available tools to better engage with the communities they serve.
Our goal is to expose more local governments to the tools available to help by efficiently providing useful information about some of the leading products out there. We’d love it if you could spend less time finding and researching products and hopefully get to launching your digital efforts to engage with your residents more quickly. Stay tuned for more episodes on innovators in local government across the globe. Read the Guide.
More info:
Featured government: Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Government Guest: Milzy Carrasco. Director of Neighborhood Engagement
Featured Maker: CitizenLab
Maker Guest: Ben Gordon
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this short series, we’re talking all about Citizen Engagement. I’ll be highlighting some of the innovators in local government leveraging available tools to better engage with the communities they serve.
Our goal is to expose more local governments to the tools available to help by efficiently providing useful information about some of the leading products out there. We’d love it if you could spend less time finding and researching products and hopefully get to launching your digital efforts to engage with your residents more quickly. Stay tuned for more episodes on innovators in local government across the globe. Read the Guide.
More info:
Featured government: Portland, Maine
Government Guest: Jessica Grondin, Director of communications and digital services
Featured government board: Calgary Board of Education
Government Guest: Deb Hamilton, Community engagement consultant
Featured Maker: Civil Space
Maker Guest: Tim Booker, CEO
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this short series, we’re talking all about Citizen Engagement. I’ll be highlighting some of the innovators in local government leveraging available tools to better engage with the communities they serve.
Our goal is to expose more local governments to the tools available to help by efficiently providing useful information about some of the leading products out there. We’d love it if you could spend less time finding and researching products and hopefully get to launching your digital efforts to engage with your residents more quickly. Stay tuned for more episodes on leading citizen engagement tools and the innovators in local government putting their products to use. Read the Guide.
More info:
Featured government: City of Williamsburg, VA
Government Guest: Mark Barham, Information Technology Director
Featured government: City of Arlington, TX
Government Guest: Ryan Hunt, Managing Editor
Featured Maker: Citibot
Maker Guest: Bratton Riley
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this short series, we’re talking all about Citizen Engagement. I’ll be highlighting some of the innovators in local government leveraging available tools to better engage with the communities they serve.
Our goal is to expose more local governments to the tools available to help by efficiently providing useful information about some of the leading products out there. We’d love it if you could spend less time finding and researching products and hopefully get to launching your digital efforts to engage with your residents more quickly. Stay tuned for more episodes on leading citizen engagement tools and the innovators in local government putting their products to use. Read the Guide.
More info:
Featured government: Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council, UK
Government Guests:
Beverly Wilson, Insight and Intelligence Manager
Anna Miller, Research Team Manager
Featured Maker: Bang the Table
Maker Guest: Jonathan Bradley
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Olivia from our team chats with the City of San José . They were the first city in the U.S. to pledge to close the digital divide by establishing the Digital Inclusion Partnership, an ambitious cross-sector fund with the goal of ensuring every single resident has a working device and is connected to reliable internet. Read More.
More info:
Featured government: City of San José, CA
Episode guest: Jordan Sun, CIO
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this podcast we have a frank discussion with Scott Knebel, City Planner for Derby, Kansas and Assistant City Planner, Everett Haynes, about the roadblocks to innovation in small local governments, something which should resonate with governments of all sizes. Read More.
More info:
Featured government: City of Derby, Kansas
Episode guests:
Scott Knebel, City Planner
Everett Haynes, Assistant City Planner
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In this interview with Clayton Wehner, Marketing Strategy and Innovation for the City of Adelaide, we'll dive more into some recent projects from using Minecraft to engage with the community to working closely with a local startup to co-create an AI chatbot. We also talk about how Adelaide approaches innovation and perhaps more importantly, how they market themselves as innovators and how your city, regardless of size, can too!
More info:
Featured government: Adelaide, South Australia
Episode guests: Clayton Wehner, Marketing Strategy and Innovation
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Rebecca Woodbury, Director of Digital Service & Open Government for the City of San Rafael, CA, and Govlaunch dive into the city's progressive department focused on modernizing local government. Rebecca provides insights into the methodology around product management, making the end-user experience their top priority, and how San Rafael is working towards a more efficient, more digital, delivery of services. Read more.
More info:
Featured government: San Rafael, CA
Episode guests: Rebecca Woodbury, Former Director of Digital Service & Open Government
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In a prior episode, I spoke with Clark County, Nevada about their digital transformation underway. Clark County is home to over 2 million people, so it may be easy for smaller local governments to dismiss their efforts, assuming ample resources and staff have enabled them to be successful.
We now aim to bring hope to the small to medium-sized cities, councils, and towns who have overcome resource constraints to deliver superior digital services to the communities they serve.
Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with the City of Unley in South Australia to talk about their “do more with less” approach. We’ll chat about their work to deliver a new website in addition to other results-packed digital initiatives.
More info:
Featured government: City of Unley, South Australia
Episode guests:
Stephen Yates, Spatial and Business Intelligence Analyst
Alex Keay, Digital Transformation Lead
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Michael Healy joins Olivia from Govlaunch to talk about Christchurch’s innovative SmartView platform, which is a web based app they have developed that pulls together data from a range of public and private organisations and displays it in a way that makes information easy for locals and visitors to access.
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Featured government: Christchurch, NZ
Episode guest: Michael Healy, Smart Cities Programme Manager at Christchurch City Council
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
As we work with our community of local governments to build the largest free innovation resource, we love to see projects that inspire innovation in other local governments. Today, I chat with Michael Baskin who leads innovation for Montgomery County, Maryland about how they’re building what he calls a more human government.
Like Govlaunch, Michael is a believer in copying what works from others. In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at some of Montgomery County’s projects that have been inspired by others, proving that some great innovation can happen when leveraging resources already available. The best part? Nobody wasted time reinventing the wheel.
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Featured government: Montgomery County, MD
Episode guests: Michael Baskin, CIO
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Like every other local government, Richmond, Virginia has contracts with loads of vendors. And while we can agree that more than enough due diligence occurs as a part of the procurement process, it’s surprising how little ongoing review or vendor management is done once that contract is signed. As a result, local governments large and small are wasting an enormous amount of money on everything from unused features or duplicate tools to mismanaged licenses.
The City of Richmond’s Citizen Service & Response team aims to change this.
Pete Breil, Director of Citizen Services and Product Manager, Tina Haney join me today to talk about the work underway in Richmond to revolutionize their 311 service, a lot of which was done by the city itself - not the vendor.
So let’s see what the team in Richmond is up to and hopefully learn how your local government can use some of their strategies for more efficient and cost effective vendor engagement.
More info:
Featured government: Richmond, VA
Episode guests: Pete Breil, Director of Citizen Services: Tina Haney, Product Manager
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
At Govlaunch, we focus a lot on the culture of innovation and how this concept needs to be embraced by all levels of government and across departments in order to drive any real change. We appreciate the work of public sector innovation teams across the world, but have a hard time understanding how systemic innovation can blossom across an organization if left to a single department.
This interview dives more into a recent post by Saad Bashir on what is holding innovation back in the public sector and how Seattle is approaching internal team building and encouraging innovation from the ground up with results-oriented leadership (and some common sense).
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Featured government: Seattle, WA
Episode guests: Saad Bashir, Chief Technology Officer
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The goal of the social innovation initiative? A sense of community and collaboration to promote development of local nonprofits to ultimately strengthen the City. Launched in early 2020, Thrive Collaborative Center is the first co-working space in the Fox Valley area that supports the social sector. Read more.
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Featured government: Aurora, IL
Episode guests: Adrienne Holloway, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Episode guests:
Conor Dowling PHD, Smart Sandyford Programme Manager
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation
The Borough of Camden in the U.K. recently received funding from the central government as part of the COVID-19 Challenge to address the impact of the pandemic on public engagement in planning and place-making.
Today, I sit down with Jonathan McClue and Kirsty Paul to talk about the project, what inspired them to be one of the first local authorities in the UK to take this approach, and what’s next for the innovative borough of Camden. Read more...
More info:
Featured government: Borough of Camden, UK
Episode guests:
Jonathan McClue, Principal Planning Officer at London Borough of Camden
Kirsty Paul, Developments Plan Manager at London Borough of Camden
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In previous episodes, we’ve talked about how cities are addressing both opiate misuse and homelessness. We’ve covered everything from human-centered support programs to AI models aimed at homeless prevention. Today, Olivia from our team chats with Professor Monique Marks in Durban, South Africa to learn more about their first of its kind harm reduction initiative. Let’s learn how the COVID-19 crisis created an opportunity to shift culture and make the seemingly impossible happen in Durban. Read more.
More info:
Featured government: Durban, ZA & eThekwini Municipality, ZA
Episode guests: Prof. Monique Marks, Head of UFC@DUT
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
A few weeks back we chatted with Mat Daley, CIO for the City of London, Ontario, and skimmed the surface of an innovative project using AI to predict the likelihood of someone falling into chronic homeless.
It’s a tactic that could benefit communities around the world, so now we’re going straight to the source. In this episode, I sit down with Matt Ross, Manager of Artificial Intelligence and IT for the City of London to dive into this groundbreaking project and the use of AI in local government more generally.
More info:
Featured government: London, ON
Episode guests: Matt Ross, Manager of Artificial Intelligence and IT
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Corona has been working on some pretty exciting things...one of which is an entirely reimagined IT infrastructure. In partnership with Citrix, Corona has pioneered a new cloud-based VDI model.
Like most local governments, Corona didn’t necessarily have an emergency plan for a global viral outbreak. But they did have protocols for another risk: earthquakes. If a natural disaster struck, the city’s IT infrastructure couldn’t be onsite. So when the pandemic hit, Corona was already well on its way toward making it easy for staff to work from anywhere. Read More.
More info:
Featured government: Corona, CA
Episode guests: Chris McMasters, CIO
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Before a city gets to the shiny innovation projects, there are some major foundational pieces it needs to have in place. Now, these aren’t always sexy. They aren’t always even visible. But they’re critical for any city looking to establish long term sustainability, resilience and a culture of innovation. In this episode, Russell Rogers from Naperville, IL discusses how his city is going back to basics and laying the foundation for a future rooted in innovation. Read more...
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Featured government: Naperville, IL
Episode guests: Russell Rogers, IT Project Manager
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
In September 2019 Indianapolis unveiled its first bus rapid transit (BRT) route, built entirely around better buses. It's a great example of a simple and effective way to improve transit from a low-cost and green perspective — especially for other low-density cities that are looking to boost mobility without investing in costly rail-based systems. Read more...
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Featured government: Indianapolis, IN
Episode guests: Inez Evans, President and CEO of IndyGo
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The Ohio town introduced a simple, but groundbreaking approach to tackle the opioid crisis. Geoff Milz, Township Administrator, and Will Mueller, Assistant Chief Administrative Services talk about their award winning, low-tech, high-impact Quick Response Team model, as well as Colerain's budget friendly approach to innovation through projects large and small. Read more...
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Featured government: Colerain Township, OH
Episode guests: Geoff Milz, Colerain Township Administrator, and Will Mueller, Assistant Chief Administrative Services.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The city of Rochester, MI recently reconstructed an entire street — from the sidewalk to the street to the water, sewer, lighting — all at once. We'll catch up with Blaine Wing and Gordie Wilson to talk about the city’s award-winning work, and what it takes to build connections inside and outside the local government. Read more...
More info:
Featured government: Rochester, MI
Episode guests: Blaine Wing, Rochester City Manager, and Gordon Wilson, Executive Vice President, Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick, Inc.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The City of Edmonton developed advanced AI software to predict whether home builders will pass low-risk inspections. This software enables the city to automatically pass inspections for builders with good track records. We'll catch up with Ben Gready and Juan Monterrosa to discuss how this software frees up staff resources to focus on more complicated inspections that pose a higher risk to public safety and shortens timelines for builders.
Read more about Edmonton's AI framework and data-driven solutions.
More info:
Featured government: Edmonton, AB
Episode guests: Ben Gready, Data Scientist at the City of Edmonton, and Juan Monterrosa, Director of Codes and Inspections at the City of Edmonton
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
To serve its massive citizen base and local government workforce, Clark County’s IT department is blending technology solutions with good old fashioned in-person time. We'll catch up with Nadia Hansen to talk about the county’s hybrid approach to digital transformation — from telework for government workers to citizen services.
More info:
Featured government: Clark County, NV
Episode guest: Nadia Hansen, Chief Information Officer for Clark County
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
The City of Darwin in Australia recently introduced a large-scale smart lighting initiative, saving citizens an estimated A$600,000 in annual rates. We'll touch base with Joshua Sattler to shed light on the project's impact beyond cost savings and explore Darwin's leading approach to smart city innovation overall.
More info
Featured government: Darwin, NT
Episode guest: Joshua Sattler, General Manager for Innovation, Growth and Development Services at the City of Darwin
Read more about Darwin's big-picture plans for its smart city program.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Louisville recently implemented an innovative pilot focusing on smoke alarms in vacant buildings with help from an unconventional source – hackers! Louisville's Innovation Delivery Team, with support from different partners including fire industry professionals, sponsored a hackathon to see if anyone from the local community could come up with an inexpensive, wireless fire detector that could communicate via Wi-Fi or cellular networks. Through this process, hardware was developed (the device is named CASPER) and is now helping to quell fires in abandoned buildings throughout the city.
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Featured government: Louisville Metro Government
Episode guests: Ed Blayney, Civic Technology Manager for Louisville Metro Government.
Read more about how Louisville is taking a page from the tech world, organizing collaborative challenges to tackle everything from fire prevention to the digital divide.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
When it comes to leveraging technology and getting the most out of their people to drive innovation, London, Ontario, stands out. We dive into the City of London’s strategy, centered on digital services and giving their people autonomy and full support to succeed. We cover a few of the neat projects in the works from use of AI and predictive analytics for insights on those at risk of falling into homelessness to an INFOSEC clearinghouse with potential to be leveraged by other municipalities.
More info:
Featured government: London, ON
Episode guests: Mat Daley, Director of Information Technology for London, Ontario
Read more about how London takes technology beyond its city limits, from information security and AI to big-picture thinking around leadership, the city pairs technology with a thoughtful management approach to drive results beyond its borders.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
Beyond attracting startups to the community through a newly launched tech accelerator, the Town of Innisfil, ON is embracing startup thinking and culture internally, to make local government more efficient. This includes using problem- and solution-validation, and building momentum for change by focusing on small wins. We'll catch up with Dan Taylor and Jelmer Stegink to talk about how local governments can shift their approach to problem solving.
More info:
Featured government: Innisfil, ON
Episode guests: Dan Taylor, Economic Development Catalyst at Town of Innisfil, & Jelmer Stegink, Investment Accelerator at Town of Innisfil
Read more about how Innisfil is using lean startup methodology to manage and drive innovation.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
When it comes to traffic management, Cranberry Township, PA sets the example. The town sits at the crossroads of major routes in Western Pennsylvania, putting it in the risk zone for major congestion. To combat this, Cranberry has always taken an innovative approach to traffic management — and now they’ve rolled out a new system that will notify them of potential backups even faster.
More info:
Featured government: Cranberry Township, PA
Episode guests: Jason Dailey, Director of Public Works, and Kelly Mauer, Assistant Director of Public Works
Read more about how Cranberry Township gets creative across local government.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
When faced with unsatisfying options to improve the procurement process, Mississauga chose to design its own. We'll catch up with Brian Smith to talk about how to decide whether to use a product or build one yourself, and what it takes to bring a new tool to life.
More info:
Featured government: Mississauga, ON
Episode guest: Brian Smith, Senior Buyer and eBidding Lead at the City of Mississauga
Read more about how Mississauga is modernizing its procurement process.
Visit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation.
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