On Demand
Welcome to AccelerateGOV 2023.
Watch on-demand below.
Opening Address
Speaker:
Keynote One
Speaker:
Clare Martorana
Federal Chief Information Officer, United States of America
Knowledge is power: Deploying Data
Today’s information management technologies offer huge opportunities in government. Data has enormous potential to improve the analysis of social, economic and environmental challenges; inform policymaking and service design; strengthen public administration and operations; and appraise the public service’s impact and effectiveness. The ability to gather and process vast amounts of data can enhance evidence-based policymaking, for example, while information gathered in real time can be used to adjust business processes and working practices – continuously improving existing services. This session will consider how government can realise these opportunities, exploring key topics such as workforce skills, staff tools, common standards, and the issues around connecting federal, provincial, territorial and municipal services.
Speakers:
Nadia Ahmad
Chief Data Officer & Head of Evaluation, Global Affairs Canada
Alexandra Dykes
Director of Performance and Oversight, Information and Data Governance, Data and Digital Policy Sector, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Canada
Gayan Peiris
Head of Data and Technology, Chief Digital Office, United Nations Development Programme
Train and explain: digital skills for everyone
When in 2013 Kevin Cunnington became Director General of Business Transformation at the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions, he soon realised he’d make slow progress until the senior leadership team and service owners understood both the potential of digital technologies, and how working practices and organisational processes would have to bend around their requirements. His solution was the Digital Academy, which focused on training non-digital public servants in the nature and needs of digital tech; and Cunnington found that once about 10% of the whole workforce had been through the Academy, resistance to change diminished rapidly. At this workshop Cunnington – who subsequently led the Digital Academy’s expansion across the UK Civil Service – will explain what he learned along the way.
Speakers:
Kevin Cunnington
Former Director General, Government Digital Service (GDS), United Kingdom, and Expert Advisor, Global Government Forum
Vigdís Jóhannsdóttir
Chief Marketing Officer for Digital Iceland, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Iceland
Richard Gunson
Expert Advisor, CHR Solutions
Automation for the People: Using RPA in public service
While Artificial Intelligence algorithms evolve over time – making their operation unpredictable and sometimes opaque – robotic process automation (RPA) is a much more straightforward technology. Taking on repetitive, highly codified administrative tasks, RPA can speed up service delivery while producing efficiency savings. Nonetheless, it must be applied carefully – ensuring the algorithm isn’t generating discriminatory outcomes, for example, and protecting public servants’ ability to oversee decision-making. At this workshop participants will examine international case studies of the use of RPA in public services, and consider the policy, regulatory, skills and technical issues around deployment.
Speakers:
Kathleen Butler
Director General, Digital Services Directorate, Assessment, Benefit, and Service Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Elise Legendre
Chief Data Officer, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Amira Musse
Director, Strategy and Innovation, Finance and Procurement Services, Natural Resources Canada
Barna Gaál
Head of International Relations Office, Digital Hungary Office
Kyle Thomas
Global Industry Leader, Public Sector Regulatory Agencies, Appian
knowledge partner:
Applying AI intelligently: Use cases and risk management
Artificial Intelligence technologies have huge potential to assist public servants – guiding decision-making, supporting analysis and targeting enforcement work, for example – but they also present a unique set of risks. Where ‘learning’ algorithms evolve autonomously, for example, public servants may struggle to explain how decisions have been made; and where AI systems are ‘trained’ on historic case management data, they may learn to ape the discriminatory behaviours of their human predecessors. To address such challenges, great care is required – both in the tasks allocated to AI, and in how AI systems are developed and managed. This workshop will explore where and how best to introduce AI technologies, and consider how emerging systems of standards and regulation could assist officials and build public confidence.
Speakers:
CHANG Sau Sheong
Deputy Chief Executive, Government Technology Agency, Singapore
Benoit Deshaies
Director, Responsible Data and Artificial Intelligence, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Brian Epley
Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer, Department of Energy, United States of America
Ima Okonny
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Data Officer, Employment and Social Development Canada
Trent Gray-Donald
Distinguished Engineer, IBM Data and AI
knowledge partner:
Data and you: What Canada’s new Data Strategy means for public servants
Canada’s data strategy for the federal public service envisages a data-powered future, with implications for most public servants. It explains, for example, that individuals with data management responsibilities will provide input into programs and policies throughout their development, with data requirements and outputs considered from the off. And it promotes close partnership working between data specialists and other public professionals, arguing that “it is imperative to close the gap between data experts and those developing and delivering policy, services, research, projects, and initiatives.” At this workshop, you’ll explore the data strategy’s goals and requirements with a senior Canadian public service leader.
Speakers:
Stephen Burt
Chief Data Officer of Canada
Tom Dufour
Director General, Strategic Data Management, Statistics Canada
Kara Beckles
Chief Data Officer, Privy Council Office, Canada
Michael Langton
Strategy Lead, Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, Converge Technology Solutions
knowledge partner:
Serving every citizen: Adoption and accessibility in online services
Digital technologies have the potential to improve service delivery for everyone. But if careful attention is not paid to inclusiveness, they can remain inaccessible to society’s most vulnerable. And where a significant proportion of users don’t take up new digital services, public bodies can miss out on planned cost savings and public benefits. At this session, panellists will explore how best to encourage the adoption of digital services, and to remove the barriers that can constrain access. Topics will include citizen benefits and user-focused design; effective communications and marketing; and the provision of direct support to help on-board marginalised communities and those with limited digital skills and tools.
Speakers:
Vigdís Jóhannsdóttir
Chief Marketing Officer for Digital Iceland, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Iceland
Mark Vermeer
Director Digital Government, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Netherlands
Ashley Belanger
Director, Digital Credentials, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Transforming together: Managing and commissioning digital projects
Public servants working in fields such as finance, procurement and project management play as critical a role in transformation programmes as their digital colleagues; but in many cases, their systems and working practices have not been updated to reflect changes in technology – leaving a mismatch between government-wide business processes and best practice in digital transformation. Existing approaches to business planning and spending approval, for example, often lack the flexibility central to ‘Agile’ project management. Governance frameworks may mitigate against the cross-departmental collaboration required to realise the benefits of digital transformation. Tendering rules designed for major outsourcing programs can squeeze out small suppliers, while making it expensive and time-consuming to buy simple tools and services. And long-established procurement rules may not address emerging priorities, such as reducing energy use and recycling old IT equipment. At this session, panellists from a range of disciplines will discuss how government-wide systems can be improved to strengthen transformation programs.
Speakers:
Marc Brouillard
Chief Digital Officer, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada
Sylvain Bélanger
Executive Director and Chief Information Officer, Information Management and Technology Directorate, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Anthony Sheehan
Chief Digital Officer, Courts Administration Service Canada, Canada
Safe investments: Cyber-security as a catalyst of business transformation
Public servants often struggle to secure capital investment to improve staff tools, strengthen back office systems and bolster service delivery. Elected leaders and service managers are, however, acutely aware both of the cyber threat, and of the reputational damage caused by service outages – making cyber-security and operational resilience potent elements of any investment strategy. As national digital leaders explained in Ottawa last year, cyber-security can become “the point of our spear, carrying behind it customer experience and IT modernisation.” At this workshop, the participants will consider how transformation programs can best be used to guarantee services’ security and continuity in these turbulent times, and explore the implications for business planning and service design.
Speakers:
Matt Davies
Chief Technology Officer, Shared Services Canada
Ann Dunkin
Chief Information Officer, Department of Energy, United States of America
Karl Hoods
Group Chief Digital and Information Officer, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero and Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, United Kingdom
Matthew Leach
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Knowledge partner
A helping hand access for all
Many of those most dependent on the public sector face particular barriers to accessing digital services, with older, poorer and more remote communities often lacking the necessary skills, confidence or tools. To help these heavy users of public services to get online, governments must provide active, personal support – or risk exacerbating inequalities, while failing to achieve the ‘channel shift’ essential to recouping investments in digital services. At this workshop a senior digital public servant from one of the world’s leading nations will explain how they provide face-to-face support to assist commonly-excluded groups into the digital world.
Speakers:
Angela Copeland
Chief Information Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Ontario Ministry of Health and Ministry of Long-Term Care, Canada
Dr Inshan Meahjohn
Chief Executive Officer, National Information and Communication Technology Company Limited (iGovTT), Trinidad and Tobago
Adapt to serve: Supporting public sector innovation
In today’s turbulent, fast-changing world, organisations thrive when they draw on the expertise and enthusiasm of every staff member, empowering people to recreate policies and systems in response to new challenges. This demand sits awkwardly with rigid public service hierarchies and rules – but governments must develop ways to experiment, innovate and adapt, or risk finding themselves increasingly unable to meet the public’s needs. Reforming the approach to risk management and value for money, for example, can create more space for the experimentation and iterative development central to innovation. Improving the understanding of technologies across the workforce can accelerate digitally-enabled reforms, as can training digital leaders in the softer skills around organisational change. Dedicated innovation programs can capture and promote great ideas from the workforce; and leaders can show the way forward, pushing for change in public service cultures. During this session, panellists will debate how to create more responsive and adaptable organisations and services.
Speakers:
Franco Chirichella
President and Chief Executive Officer, Innovapost Inc., and Chief Digital Officer, Canada Post
Brandon Lee
Director General, Grants and Contributions Transformation Bureau, Global Affairs Canada
Innocent Muhizi
Chief Executive Officer, Rwanda Information Society Authority, Rwanda
Attracting an audience: The power of user-centred design
Digital services become popular and widely-adopted when they are easy to use, save citizens time, and improve the quality of service delivery. Singapore, for example, has been highly effective here, building online services that are highly-rated by users and offer clear benefits: its Singpass digital ID app, for example, has a 4.7 star rating on Google Play, and eases people’s interactions with businesses as well as government bodies. Among the most important tools in realising these goals is user-centred design, a methodology that forces designers and developers to build services around the needs and interests of users rather than providers. At this workshop a senior digital leader will discuss the concept, and explore how public servants are putting the theory into practice.
Speakers:
Christine Bellamy
Director, GOV.UK, Government Digital Services, United Kingdom
Ryan Hum
Chief Client Experience Officer and Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Citizen Service Branch, Employment and Social Development Canada
Aaron Jaffery
Director General, Service Experience Design and Delivery, Service Canada
Katja Väänänen
Head, Digitalization Unit, Public Sector ICT Department, Ministry of Finance, Finland
Andrew Lewandowski
Digital Experience Advisor to the Federal Chief Information Officer, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, United States of America
Mark Sullivan
Strategic Lead, Digital Identity, Canadian Bank Note Company
Knowledge partner
Women’s Network Launch Event
Established by Global Government Forum, the Global Government Women’s Network is a community of women in civil and public services around the world. The network will bring members together to advise and support each other as they navigate their careers and to help ensure that women in government enjoy the same respect, opportunities and influence afforded their male colleagues and have an equal voice in decision making
Speakers:
Nadia Ahmad
Chief Data Officer & Head of Evaluation, Global Affairs Canada
Vidya Shankarnarayan
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Information Officer, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Mehnaz Tabassum
IT Project Manager, Corporate Services Sector, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Noreen M. Hecmanczuk
Senior Advisor to the Federal Chief Information Officer,
Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, United States of America
Across and beyond government: Working in partnership for the public
The era of stand-alone, ‘vertical’ public services, provided by organisations operating in glorious isolation, is coming to an end. To meet people’s needs in the round – and to squeeze out the vast inefficiencies in traditional delivery models – public servants are working together ‘horizontally’ across organizational, hierarchical and disciplinary boundaries, building services around the interests of citizens rather than providers; many are also finding new ways to work with provincial and territorial administrations, businesses, charities and community organizations. Digital technologies have huge potential to support this shift – but the agenda faces challenges in fields such as skills, culture, and systems of financial and political accountability. At this session, panellists will explore how best to support collaboration and partnership working across and beyond government’s traditional boundaries.
Speakers:
Dorothy Eng
Executive Director, Code for Canada
Isabelle Tanguay
Chief Information Officer and Director General, Information Management and Technology Directorate, Department of Finance Canada
Paul N. Wagner
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Noreen M. Hecmanczuk
Senior Advisor to the Federal Chief Information Officer,
Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, United States of America
Michael Kolm
Partner, Government and Public Sector, EY
Knowledge Partner
Cyber-security: A task for every public servant
Governments are experiencing a rapid rise in cyber attacks, with one report finding a 95% increase during 2022. Many are designed to extract money – either via infesting public systems with ‘ransomware’, or by stealing and selling information. Others are mounted by governments, with countries such as Russia and China seeking to disrupt national infrastructures, access secret material, and flood social media with misinformation. Public sector suppliers are also targeted: earlier this year, UK outsourcing firm Capita admitted that hackers had accessed data on its clients and staff. Meanwhile, nations are becoming ever more vulnerable: as the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security points out, rapid growth in the use of digital technologies means that “the threat surface available to malicious cyber actors has expanded since 2020.” Faced with such a wide range of threats, public servants must respond on an equally broad front: this panel discussion will explore how staff in all roles and disciplines can act to protect their organizations, colleagues and citizens.
Speakers:
Nadine Boudreau-Brown
Director General, IT Transformation and Modernization Services, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Simon Llewellyn
Director, Security Architecture, Canadian Cyber Security Centre
Owen Lamb
Cybersecurity Specialist & Sales Engineer Leader, Rubrik
Knowledge Partner
Too clever by half? Deploying AI in the public sector
Over recent years, public service leaders and technologists have been considering whether and how to deploy Artificial Intelligence in policymaking and service delivery – wrestling with the challenges it presents around transparency, accountability, equity and ethics. Meanwhile, many public bodies have begun using robotic process automation (RPA), a less risky and complex technology. With the emergence of advanced, readily-available tools such as ChatGPT, these issues become more pressing: there are obvious opportunities in fields such as research, evidence-gathering and text production – but should public servants be pursuing them? In this session, panellists will debate how best to take advantage of AI and RPA technologies, both within digital operations and – more informally – by non-IT professionals accessing ChatGPT and similar services.
Speakers:
João Dias
President, Administrative Modernisation Agency, Portugal
Joel Martin
Chief Digital Research Officer, National Research Council Canada
Vidya Shankarnarayan
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Information Officer, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Eric Hysen
Chief Information Officer, Department of Homeland Security, United States of America
Brian Mycroft
Chief Technologist, Federal Government, National Security and Defence, Amazon Web Services Canada
Knowledge Partner
Planning for uncertainty: A new approach to project management
Traditional public service business planning, spending approval and project management processes typically require planners to define at the outset exactly how new services will operate. This ‘Waterfall’ approach to project management is fine when building a bridge – but digital services both require and catalyse behaviour change among users, and this is hard to predict. So digital best practice involves ‘Agile’ project management, under which developers test and iterate their way towards the best solution. The tension between these approaches puts obstacles in the way of digital programs; but some governments have found ways to square the circle. At this workshop, a senior digital leader will discuss how governments can combine elements of Waterfall and Agile – offering flexibility to digital leaders, while providing finance leaders with certainty over costs and timescales.
Speakers:
Scott McNaughton
Director, Digital Investment Office, Government of British Columbia
Mehnaz Tabassum
IT Project Manager, Corporate Services Sector, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Len Bastien
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Staying close remotely: How to make hybrid working a success
The pandemic prompted a wholesale shift to remote working, and the world of work will never be the same again. People now expect to split their time between office and home: to remain competitive in the jobs market, public employers must meet those changed expectations. Hybrid working can also improve productivity, whilst strengthening workforce diversity by dismantling barriers to employment. But these new ways of working bring their own challenges in fields such as collaboration, team-building, skills development and personnel management. To work effectively in dispersed teams, public servants need suitable tools, skills and working practices, while managers must develop new ways to lead, inspire and align their staff. In this workshop, participants will consider the skills and tools they’ll need to operate effectively in this irreversibly changed working environment.
Speakers:
Mackenzie Lambe
Chief Information Officer, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Darcy Pierlot
Chief Information Officer, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Equipping public servants to succeed
“Public servants face ongoing challenges accessing the tools necessary to do their jobs,” says Canada’s data strategy for the federal public service. While governments have invested in public-facing services, many internal systems still rely on outdated technology: as former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick noted on leaving government, “the plumbing and wiring of the public service is very difficult to get attention and investment for, and that’s why we’ve had terrible rust-out problems”. To bolster cyber-security, enhance efficiency and improve services for citizens, public servants need modern tools and systems – enabling them to realise the potential of data, streamline organisational management, bolster collaboration and cut the time spent on repetitive, low-value tasks. During this session, panellists will discuss how to secure investment for staff tools, prioritise spending, and give public servants the skills to take advantage of new capabilities.
Speakers:
Chief, Enterprise Information Management, Corporate Services Sector, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Canada
Group Chief Digital and Information Officer, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero and Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, United Kingdom
Chief Data Officer, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Incentivising alignment: Forging a united leadership team
Cross-government initiatives can fall flat when organisational leaders have diverging priorities, so some governments are introducing reforms to align their goals. New Zealand, for example, has introduced reforms to create a single public service leadership team – adjusting performance management systems so that agency chief executives are incentivized to work together in the pursuit of shared objectives. The UK’s ‘Digital Roadmap’ was developed alongside departmental leaders, who are collectively responsible for delivery. And in Canada, the CIO’s office is expanding its role in appointing and managing digital leaders across government. At this workshop, a senior official will lead a discussion on how best to get top officials across government pulling in the same direction.
Speakers:
Liz McKeown
Executive Director, Digital Talent and Leadership Sector, Treasury Board Canada Secretariat, Canada
Honey Dacanay
Director General, Digital Policy, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Chris Thorn
Chief Digital Officer, Digital, Data & Technology Services, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), United Kingdom