Public Sector Innovation Conference : My Thoughts

I was lucky enough to get tickets to attend the 5th Public Sector Innovation Conference in mid March of this year. The conference was held at the RSA and was an overview of some of the great work that is currently happening, as well as some insights into work that is going to be happening in the not too distant future.

The conference was hosted by Mark Thompson and included presentations from Paul Scully MP, Alex Davies Jones MP, Theo Blackwell MBE and other fantastic speakers. It also included some excellent panel discussions.

The topics were varied and covered many areas. The talk by Theo covered London as a Digital City. There was a great overview from Prof. Neil Lawrence on the release of AI into the public domain, as well as an overview of refactoring what it means to Learn rather than Fail in Agile from Elizabeth Vega MBE. The panel discussion on Innovation, and what means to do innovation within the central and local Government, was really insightful. The last talk on how digital change is leaving some people behind was a real eye opener - something that will stay with me for a long time.

As mentioned, there was a well balanced representation of local and central Government, however, it became clear to me that the funding gap was quite large... it was also very clear that innovation needs to be balanced by the rules surrounding spending public money (Section 151 Officer was brought up several times!).

Something that also came though, and this is just my personal view, was frustration from many of the speakers that more could and should be done in this space. There was frustration of not going fast enough, how more should be done to provide more diverse service, as well as the need to do more to support those who don't have access to digital platforms, or who don't have the skills to carry out the tasks online.

I was also fortunate enough to speak to some people during the coffee breaks and lunch - there were some very exciting small firms who had some really compelling offers and services to help local Government. I was also able to speak to some people who are making some really positive change within their roles in Government too... making a real difference!

I took a lot from the conference, and I must add that if you get the chance to attend anything hosted by Digital Leaders then you really should see if you can make it.

It was a great day, and after listening to about eight hours of talks, and it may sound like a long time but the day flew by, my takeaways were pretty clear. There is some really passionate people who could, and quite frankly want, to do more to help us a citizens within the UK using innovation as the vehicle to do it - but they feel hampered by the pace of change, the processes they have to navigate and, dare I say it, the culture in which they work that (perhaps unintentionally) acts as a barrier to rapid progress. They were making progress, but they felt they could do more. Collaboration was one such topic that came up time and time again, but I am going to save my thoughts on that for another post in the near future.

I must though say, having worked in private sector for many years, that the public sector concerns and frustrations about pace, collaboration, freedom to experiment, lack of funds, and so forth, are just as common in the private sector as they are in the public... what was clear though, is those people are, just like me, positive disruptors who want to positively influence change for the better - and in a good way, they just won't take no for an answer!

It was a great day, great to hear such exciting work and great to meet some fantastically passionate people!

Sue Keogh Ren Yi Hooi Polly Morgan Ruth Cookman Michael Beaven Robin Knowles Lewis Anns Rishi Sharda David Worsell

About the Author

John Kendrick is a passionate believer in getting stuff done! He leverages his many years (yes he is now getting old!) experience in Agile, Digital Operations, Cloud, Business Change and Innovation approaches to provide the support and help needed to deliver change at a pace that wouldn't have been thought possible.

He was an SME assisting in the publication of ITIL 4 Foundation, ITIL High Velocity IT and has spoken at conferences including SITS and acts as an SME in Agile and Modern ways of working. He is an Managing Director at a global boutique consultancy called Credera (www.credera.co.uk)