Future of Innovation in Canberra

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network's  First Wednesday Drinks. I have been here since 2:30pm, for a World Cafe on the future of innovation in Canberra. A room full of people moved from table to table discussing what needs to be done to foster innovation, how that can be done and how to get the message out about doing it. It can be very frustrating at such sessions where there is a lot of ideas floated but you wonder if anything will ever happen. In this case we had the satisfaction of then attending the first Wednesday pitches and heard of real things making a real difference.

I did try to get a bit more creative with ideas, beyond the obvious of teaching innovation, I suggested turning CBRIN into a reality TV show, with the real life drama of turning ideas into products and services.
#fwconnect #canberra #cbrin

Documentary on Young Women in STEM

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) offices, where I am attending the screening of the documentary "Big Dream Movement" about seven young women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). The first was about Cassidy Williams, but I had difficulty understanding her Iowa accent and it was all a bit too "TED Talk". I found I could understand Martha Chumo from Kenya better. One of the later segments had a very disturbing scene where all the students of what appeared o be a school stood to first recite a pledge of allegiance and then some sort of religious prayer, coming out of a public address system (it all looked something from a totalitarian state). The segments about Asya Mohamed Al Jabri & Marwa Saud Al Habsi were a little less frantic and provided a nice change of pace. The documentary is informative, fun and would provide role models for young women to see it is okay to do technology (as much as an old male like me can tell). The documentary is glossy and predominantly US in outlook, but not annoyingly so. Some of the spontaneous scenes appear rehearsed, like a fictional documentary. One problem is that it is orientated to the "start-up" culture and it would be worth pointing out that there are still good STEM careers in traditional corporations and government.

Life Without Lanyards Launch

"You don't have to hate the public service to leave".

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN )office, where Kate Lundy has launched Matt  Fenwick book "Life Without Lanyards". The book is for those considering leaving government service and moving to the private sector. In the USA this would be for people "Inside the Beltway" in the UK it is for Sir Humphrey's frustrated staff. In Australia it is for those in Canberra.

Canberra is reshaping itself, partly through necessity, from a public service town, to an innovation centre.

ps: Matt said "You don't have to hate the public service to leave". Perhaps should be added "... but it helps".  ;-)

Sell Products Developed for ACT to Federal Government

The ACT Government is to establish a Small Business Research Partnerships Program to help small businesses in Canberra to produce products initially for the government but which can then be sold interstate. However, I suggest this program could look closer to home and target the needs of the federal government. The idea would be to find products which can be trialled in the ACT Government and then sold to the federal government, as that is a market right here were Canberra's small businesses are. In particular, the needs of the new Digital Transformation Office (DTO) in the Australian Department of Communications for delivering digital services could be addressed.

Helping Public Servants Set Up a Business

Greetigns from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), where  Dominic Campbell, CEO FutureGov and Mark Headd, Technical Evangelist Accela, are speaking on "Innovation in a public service marketplace". CBRIN has a ‘Public Sector Landing Pad’ (PSLP) program, to help former public servants who want to set up a business. With cutbacks to the Australian public service it is an ideal time to run such a program. There are thousands of ex-public servants who ideas and a considerable amount of capital, but no business experience.

Dominic commented he accidentally left the public sector and started a company FutureGov.

Innovation for Public Service Delivery

Dominic Campbell, CEO FutureGov and Mark Headd, Technical Evangelist Accela, will speak on "Innovation in a public service marketplace" at CBRIN in Canberra, 3:45pm, 26 November 2014.

"... two specialist innovators will explore what it means to innovate in a city designed for public purpose.  

Public service delivery is changing globally – innovative ways of working are being successfully explored – but what does this mean practically?

This facilitated conversation with two international practitioner experts who have “been there, done that” will give you the opportunity to explore and question what this means in reality... the opportunities and challenges, the potential and the pitfalls...."