Today we’re excited to announce the launch of the Go London Social Innovation Competition, led by NHS London in partnership with the Greater London Authority and Transport for London. The Go London Social Innovation Competition is a call for ideas to get Londoners more physically active. Great ideas can come from anywhere and we’re after either existing or entirely new and innovative bright sparks.

‘How do you know it works?’ is one of those annoying questions that people seem to ask about social media. For some reason they’re never satisfied with ‘it just does’ as an answer, so our next event is a dream-team partnership between FutureGov and Measurement Camp to get to the bottom of social media measurement.

Inspired by much of what was emerging out of the US as well as some of our own homegrown intiatives, I felt moved to pen what I rather grandly called a “Digital Innovation Strategy for London”. Intended in the first instance to clear my head and organise my thoughts, I ended up passing it on to some senior London government colleagues for thoughts on how we might make some of it happen. In the spirit of the reviews of 2009 that are going around at the moment, I thought I would share one of the versions of what I wrote (with the help of my trusted co-conspirator Carrie) around this time last year and leave it to you to decide whether I was on to something or whether I was missing a trick - and how much has come to pass.

As the keen followers of this blog will know, we like to organise (and attend) the odd event or two here at FutureGov. From FutureGov Network meet ups, to Gov2Gov events, to online film premieres, to lending a hand at bigger events like Gov20 Camp, Reboot Britain and Social Innovation Camp, we love getting out and about listening, learning and sharing. At all of these events and more besides, there has been a rapid growth in real time reporting on the goings on during the sessions due in no small part to the explosive adoption of tools like Twitter.

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

Last week FutureGov took on a race against time. We got the call on the FutureFone (a bit like the Bat Phone but more futuristic) that 50 bloggers from around the globe were descending on London for the G20 Summit the following week and there was a party-shaped hole in their schedule. ‘Quick!’ we cried, ‘to the FutureMobile!’ Then we realised we don’t actually have one of those yet, so we got on the phone and called everyone we know instead.

Well that was a lot of fun! After a successful outing last time round at the first ever Social Innovation Camp, leaving with first prize with co-founder Denise Stephens for Enabled by Design, I thought why not give it another shot?

It’s not often events run at 6pm on a Monday appeal enough to get you to give up your evening, but this week I attended (and enjoyed!) an evening run by London’s Regional Improvement Partnership (Capital Ambition) entitled “The Challenge of the Governance of London”.

Set up in early 2006, Capital Ambition is one of nine Regional Improvement Partnerships around the country with the remit of coordinating improvement work across London’s public sector, including the 33 London boroughs, London Councils, the Greater London Authority and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

No mean feat you might say. However, Capital Ambition and the bodies it supports have seen a number of successes in the last 2 years, with the majority of London’s councils now either said to be improving well or improving strongly according to their regulator the Audit Commission, while similarly London now has only one 1-star rated council (assessed on a 0-4 scale where 0 is poor and 4 is excellent).