A bit like back in March this year, it seems event time is upon again here in FutureGov Towers. So here’s a quick post pulling it all together and letting you know where you can find us in case you fancy coming along and joining in the fun!

Leading from the Front - Real Reform in Public Services, 18th June

I’ll be heading down to NESTA to hear Phillip Blond and Jamie Bartlett of Demos talk about leading from the front, “a major new project in partnership with NESTA which will set out a radical new agenda for the reform of public services… ‘Leading from the Front’ is part of the Progressive Conservatism Project at Demos, which is exploring the ways in which conservative philosophy, politics, and policy can serve progressive goals.”

National Graduate Development Programme (ngdp) alumni conference 2009, 18th-19th June

An event close to my heart this one. It was the NGDP that kick started my career in local government (and fellow FutureGov-er Carrie’s for that matter). The ndgp alumni conference includes an interesting collection of speakers including Sir Clive Woodward, Ben Page from IPSOS Mori and Irene Lucas, Chief Executive of South Tyneside Council - who are also hosting the event in the rather fantastic Sage Centre in Gateshead (or Newcastle Gateshead depending how PC you’re feeling!).

Looking forward to seeing some of my colleagues fromthe first year intake of the graduate scheme as well as meet some of the others who have gone through it since.

Local Government Barcamp, 20th June

Born of the GovWeb Barcamp back in January, the Local Government Barcamp (sorry #LocalGovBarcamp ) is the first of its kind in the UK. Interestingly when we visited the US to go to Gov20Camp in March, there was also a splinter group of local gov geeks interested in forming their own posse to look at how to best use social media at a local level to better connect and collobrate with local communities.

And as organiser Dave Briggs points out, it comes with all the benefits of an unconference, with “no advance agenda. Content (eg presentations, discussions, demonstrations, workshops etc) is suggested and scheduled on the day by participants. Session length is whatever’s needed, spin-off conversations develop, and if there’s time and interest, follow-up sessions can be slotted in.”

Social Innovation Camp Scotland, 19th-21st June

Even in what is an amazingly packed weekend of five or more social innovation and government related events, Social Innovation Camp Scotland is definitely a pretty big deal. Having now completed two very successful events in London (with two FutureGov projects - Enabled by Design and AccessCity - taking part), the Social Innovation Camper van takes to the road and heads north of the border looking for more internet enabled social goodness.

Carrie will be our social innovation ambassador over on the weekend.

Commentariat vs Bloggertariat: Who is winning?, 22nd June

Edelman, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Editorial Intelligence and Total Politics host a conversation on the battle for the audience, mainstream media versus the new media upstarts.

Featuring:

• David Aaronovitch, Commentator, The Times
• Martin Bright, Founder, New Deal of the Mind, and Blogger, www.spectator.co.uk
• Iain Dale, Political Blogger and Publisher, Total Politics
• Mick Fealty, Political Blogger, Slugger O’Toole and The Telegraph’s Brassneck Blog
• Anne Spackman, Comment Editor, The Times

Learning to Listen, 23rd June

The first of a couple of FutureGov events coming up this month, Learning to Listen (in partnership with 6consulting) “introduces some of the key tools on the web for listening to and getting insight from what citizens are saying online.  With case studies and practical exercises this workshop will show you how to make sense of the web and use it as a springboard for engaging with citizens.”

We will also have Merici Vinton, Obama campaign’s North Carolina Director of New Media, joining us to speak about how local opinion was guaged on the campaign, how social media was used to communicate, and the impact it had on President Obama’s election campaign.

Open to all interested local govers out there.

Government 2.0, 24th June

I been lucky enough to be asked to take part in what is quite a seminal event down under, the inaugural Web 2.0 in Government conference. A packed agenda (starting at 8.30am?!), I’ll be putting in an early morning shift to talk to James Dellow from Headshift in Sydney in the closing slot to the event (no, no time travel required, just good ol’ Skype - a conference first for me so fingers crossed it all works and I remember to get out of my PJs first!).

In a session titled “Fear and Loathing in Cyberspace: the changing relationship between the governed and the government”, I will be sharing my views on web 2.0 in government, the key benefits and issues and how things are panning out both in the UK but also the US and elsewhere in Europe.

Club of Amsterdam presents “The Future of Connectivity”, 25th June

On 25th June, FutureGov will be off to current clients the RSA to hear from some leading speakers from the Club of Amsterdam: “an independent, international, future-oriented think tank involved in channelling preferred futures”.

As the introduction to the event outlines:

“The interconnectedness of the world, scarcely imaginable a generation ago, continues to fire our imagination as newer, smarter connectivity inspires and reshapes our lives.  Ever increasing connectivity has been scrutinized by academics, researchers, journalists and hosts of others. Falling between the cracks is the essence of the connectivity itself. Where now for the devices, networks, software, and dynamics which define our patterns of connectivity?”

The event features heavy hitting futures thinkers including:

• Egbert-Jan Sol, CTO, TNO Science and Industry, co-founder/1st chairman, DSE
• Peter Cochrane, CEO, Cochrane Associates
• Hardy Schloer, Owner, Schloer Consulting Group

VRM Hub, 25th June

The end of June sees another in the monthly instalments of VRM Hub, led by Adriana Lukas and given a public sector twist by Carrie Bishop. If you want to find out more, take a look at either the project blog or Adriana’s own blog, or better still for the public sector take on it read a great post from Carrie explaining all.

All are welcome, encouraged in fact, to drop by and find out what all the fuss is about.

Gov2Gov, 26th June

In what is hoped to be the first in a series of events around the world, the second FutureGov event of the week comes in the form of a never before seen combination of the US State Department, UK central government, the Greater London Authority, Six Degrees PR, the Social Media Club and - me!

As we say in the introduction to the event:

“Today social media enables citizens to discover, connect, and share with others from all over the world, without regard to international borders. They teach, support and learn from one another, all without seeking ‘permission’ from any formal ‘institutions’. Meanwhile, many of the people inside government are already using the same tools as these citizens for similar purposes - to connect, engage, and build communities of interest. In the process they are reinventing the role of government and with it the very nature of civic engagement.”

Generously hosted by the Candian High Commission, we will be discussing the changing nature of civic engagement and the relationships between citizens and their government, exploring what governments from around the world can learn from each other.

PDF Conference New York 2009, 29th-30th June

You might remember back in May we gave away a prize for someone to fly to Washington DC to attend the Politics Online Conference.

Well after a mini-date clashing drama and a little negotiation, we were happy to transfer winner Liz Azyan’s trip over to go to the Personal Democracy Forum conference in New York at the end of June instead. Liz will be social reporting her way round the conference, grabbing the great and the good of the digital democracy world for interviews and articles, all of which will be blogged here straight after the event - so watch this space.

I will also be heading over to NYC with Liz as I have been lucky enough to be awarded a Google Fellowship at the event, so I’ll let you know exactly what that means when I get back.

If you’re in the area, come and say hi! It looks like the conference will be well worth the trip.

Reboot Britain, 6th July

This year’s 2gether Festival comes in a very different form, but it looks like Steve Moore, NESTA and the team have pulled off what looks to be another action packed event, this time in the form of Reboot Britain:

“We face an unprecedented set of challenges: a decimated economy, ever increasing demands on our public services and trust in our political system at an all time low. But instead of more pessimism, how can we begin to punch through the gloom and take advantage of the radically networked digital world we now live in to help revive our economy, rebuild our democratic structures and improve public services?”

Stuffed full of well known high calibre speakers, the day will consist of a mixture of more structured panels and peer to peer sessions aimed at learning and sharing, including a round up session we are hoping to host on the future of local government, local politics and local media relations.

Enhancing local democracy, 7th July

We’ll be partnering with Barnet Council to take a quick trip down to Local Government House to run a workshop on the learning we picked up implementing a number of social media (and other on and offline engagement) tools together over the past year at this South-East Employers run event.

Ones we’re sad to miss…

UnSheffield, 19th-21st June

Going from strength to strength and now a regular in the events calendar is Unsheffield, “a participatory unconference that builds on the success of BarCamp Sheffield and GeekUp. From 19 to 21 June 2009 the Showroom Cinema hosts a gathering of the finest grassroots geeks, creative visionaries, innovative entrepreneurs and a host of talented technologists. This year’s theme is Future Users of Cool Technology and will appeal to anyone who’s interested in making technology useful and impactful - not just geeks.”

ScotWeb2, 19th June

Vying for attention with Glasgow’s Social Innovation Camp Scotland (although falling quite nicely just before the kick off to SICamp) is Edinburgh’s ScotWeb2. Born from a seminar on 31 October 2008 when about forty people with an interest in Scotweb2 met in Edinburgh, “Scotweb2 is an opportunity for people interested in social media in Scotland and elsewhere to interact online”.

London mobile portal event, 7th July

“If you are interested in developing public or voluntary services for mobile or handheld devices then this event is for you. You will hear about:

• Lessons learned from the Newham mobile portal trial with TfL - have a look at www.mynewham.mobi Opens in a new window and learn how your organisation could adopt the same standard
• Directgov’s plans for going mobile see www.direct.gov.uk/mobile Opens in a new window for the current version
• Mobile Report IT - pan-London problem reporting system, focused on street-scene/environmental issues
• And a range of other mobile applications

And will be able to discuss in groups what the next steps for public and voluntary service providers should be.”