Lovely Colorado
Had a blast at our Denver GovUp last week. It was a great mix of folks from local counties, City of Denver, MPA programs nearby, federal agencies like Interior, GAO, and GSA, and State of Colorado government. The awesome pound
A couple interesting observations from the night:
1. Help Each Other
There were 4 to 5 really interesting groups at the GovUp that hadn’t met before but all were government innovators from different direction. There was Young Government Leaders – Denver Chapter, the Open Colorado organization, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCCD) and a few others. It was great to see all the groups connect and agree to attend each other’s upcoming events. Good government is really an eco-system and we need to help each other out.
2. Just Do It
Michelle Hovat, CIO of City of Arvada, gave a great speech on all the great
work the city was doing as well as in partnership with local counties and the state such as:
- A great database information sharing called COPLINK that is helping law enforcement officers
connect databases to get bad guys quicker - A great use case of citizen engagement with idea platforms where they helped rename a city trail using Uservoice.
- A great partnership with individuals from local Colorado agencies known as Open Colorado that has recently applied for non-profit status and is working on the next Colorado CityCamp.
When asked how she was able to create so much innovation, Michelle’s advice was pretty simple to government innovators: Take a risk. Try it. Innovate.
By the way, if you’re from the Denver area or are a big fan of the Rockies, be sure to:
- Check out our Mile High GovLoopers Group.
- Find other Denver area members.
- And you can look statewide for Colorado GovLoopers.