In a rapidly changing world, seconds count. You can’t miss this conversation.

It used to take years for revolutions to organize. The American Revolution took seven years; the Greek Revolution took eight years, and the French Revolution took ten years. Today, revolutions take only a few days. Consider the 82 day Orange Revolution; the 28 day Tunisian Revolution; and the 18 day Egyptian Revolution.

In early November, as part of DCWeek, Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Immigration Community of Interest Network (iCOIN) hosted a panel and demonstration in which social media pioneers agreed that the time to take our rapidly changing world serious is here. The internet, social media, open platforms, and improvements in technologies allowing mobile access are changing our lives from the way we pay our bills to the way large organizations interact with their customers. In an era of budget crises and tough public criticism, what can the public sector learn from this rapidly changing world? Can public sector agencies embrace disruptions and revolutions in technology to better meet their missions? In short, the answer is an unequivocal yes. But first, the government should consider making some big changes in the way it thinks and operates.

On Tuesday November 8^th, Deloitte Consulting LLP hosted federal agencies and departments at the City Club in Washington, DC to discuss how social business technologies and open platforms could improve one of government’s biggest challenges—connecting and engaging with citizens. Deloitte’s Unlocking the Power of #Social Business to Meet Immigration Challenges brought together an excellent panel with diverse perspectives. The panel included current and former government executives and leading minds on social business, including Carmen Medina (@milouness), Doug Palmer (@dv_palmer), Giovanni Rodriguez (@giorodriguez), Neil Bonner (@irishprince), and Andrew Einhorn (@ohmygov). The event concluded with a demonstration from OhMyGov’s Andrew Einhorn and Mark Malseed on how data from social media could transform public sector business. The panel delivered some key takeaway messages, in less than 140 characters of course. Carmen Medina suggested that public sector agencies should strive to continue “doing work that’s official, but less formal” and that leaders in the public sector “must be comfortable with evolving uncertainty in the decision making environment.” Doug Palmer of Deloitte proposed that one way an agency can get started is by “piloting, failing, learning, perfecting, and then rolling out new ideas.”

The conversation motivated the audience such that the event hashtag #SBIG11 was trending on Twitter in Washington, second only to Election Day. A few audience members were so inspired that they created social media accounts as they listened to the panel. That alone demonstrates the power of #social. Populations can be moved in a matter of seconds.

Learn more about Deloitte’s work with immigration: http://ow.ly/7HDfv

Learn more about Deloitte’s work with social business: http://ow.ly/7Lbs5

Learn more about Deloitte’s work on innovation in government: http://ow.ly/7ITQu

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