2014: Future Trends
Number One Future Trend: Evolution of the Innovation Officer
- Achievement: In the past two years, more than 20 cities, states and school districts have added innovation officers to their municipal leadership teams. From Boston to Kansas City to San Francisco, the twin pressures of tight budgets and citizen expectations have propelled public officials to embrace innovation as a strategic priority.Fortunately, this vanguard of innovators is seeing signs of initial success.
Number Two Future Trends: ELEVATION OF VIRTUAL EVENTS AND TRAINING
- Achievement: In a GovLoop survey of 335 government employees, 9 out of 10 said that they are more likely to attend virtual training versus in-person events in the coming year. Another 90 percent of employees said they valued online training because it “reduces out of office travel time and saves money” for their agencies. We published these and other survey results in a guide titled, “Building Better Conferences and Training: The Value of Virtual Events in Government.”
Number Three Future Trend: Sequestration and Shutdowns
- Achievement: In a recent GovLoop interview, Tech America’s Trey Hodgkins and Robert Haas reviewed the results of their annual forecast and suggested that sequestration will not stifle innovation, but stimulate it. “Historically, what we have seen is significant periods of innovation occur when the budgets are at their lowest.” In a separate interview, 30-year government veteran Alan Balutis shared a similar sentiment. “When the real fiscal crunch happens, budget pressures, sequestration, fiscal cliff – whatever you want to call it. We will need to re-think the way we do business,” said Balutis. “This will drive innovation.” Let’s all hope they’re right, because Continuing Resolutions and shutdowns seem to be the new normal.
Number Four Future Trend: Open Data as Innovation Driver
- Achievement: Open data is nothing new. Data.gov was launched in May 2009 and there are dozens of examples where citizens and hackers have leveraged public datasets to create apps that improve our communities. As we mentioned as one of the 5 Trends from 2013, the White House put some additional heft behind the concept by making open and machine readable the new default. As a result, we’re thinking 2014 will mark a new high water point for innovation around open data.
Number Five Future Trend: Agile Acquisition
- Achievement: Agile acquisition can likely save the government billions of dollars (yes, with a “b”). For those unfamiliar with the term, agile basically means iterative, incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. However, when it comes to gathering requirements for an acquisition, government “often spends far more time than we should defining up front requirements,” said Retired Coast Guard Captain Daniel Taylor in an August 2013 interview with GovLoop’s DorobekINSIDER.
For more on all of these innovative programs download our guide: 20 Innovations that Mattered in 2013.
Do you think there was a more buzzworthy trend? Let us know in the comment section.