I’ve always been a humongous Todd Park fan.
I first met him briefly about 4 years ago when he spoke at a Gov 2.0 Expo dinner where, without a microphone, he got a crowd of 50 people enchanted in his vision for government innovation. It’s not every day you see someone with so much passion and energy for public service. And he’s a perfect fit as the White House Chief Technology Officer.
Fast forward 4 years later and Todd Park is keynoting at our Next Generation of Government Training Summit. He is arguably the best speaker and, in addition to his energy, I love his practical tips like “find the 2 people who have already had your idea” or “ask at any meeting who are the top 2 smartest people they know.” You can watch his talk below:
That’s why last Friday I was honored to spend time with Todd Park and his staff, talking about the power of collaboration within government. It was music to my ears as he discussed how much power government had within its own agencies and employees. He talked about the need to improve the sharing of best practices, ideas, and connecting the innovators.
I told him that’s what I’ve spent the last few years of my life dedicated to achieving with GovLoop — and that’s what we do every day. We focus on being a knowledge network for government – from our blogs/discussions to guides/online trainings to mentor programs – our goal is to help government innovators connect and learn how to do their jobs better.
Todd got super excited and said “Let’s join GovLoop right now!” He got on his computer, joined GovLoop, and was cruising around on the site. Honestly this was one of my overall highlights to be in the Old Einsenhower building with GovLoop.com on his computer screen going through the joining process.
So I’m honored that Todd joined our community here – make sure to friend Todd on GovLoop (and the rest of OSTP team including Seth, Arianne) and let him know how you and GovLoop are making government more awesome!
That’s awesome, Steve. Certainly validates that vitality of your community when folks like Todd join-up.
I love the measurement of Mass x Velocity = Impact…and if you can get the government moving forward with a lot of velocity (since it has such large Mass) then it can have major impact. The one thing to remember is that a mass at a high velocity can also end up creating a larger mess when it smashes into a wall. So it’s important to make sure that we’re moving forward…doing it with a steady increase in velocity…so we can maintain that speed and impact that Government has for long term. If we launch Government with aircraft carrier speed, we might successfully launch…but we increase the likelihood that we’ll crash.
I’m all for the Digital Government Strategy and improving Government…always have been a fan of moving Government forward. I just hope we do it wisely.
Scott, I think that was a great metaphor as well.
So glad to hear. When I watched him present at NextGen I tried to find him on GovLoop to friend him because I really liked what I was hearing. I am excited to be able to do it today and to congratulate you, Steve, on making the GovLoop Community an even more exciting place!
Very cool Steve! GovLoop definitely has a place in government and it was easily recognized by the United States CTO.
this. is. rad. congrats, Steve! And welcome OSTP team!