Last month I had the privilege of being invited by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau’s International Government Communication Centre (IGCC) to train government communications professionals in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Just like in most growing economies, digital citizen behaviours and expectations are changing at a rapid pace while the government attempts to keep up.
This post features my key takeaways and notes from two events I attended earlier this month here in Ottawa.
1- Public Sector Social Media (#cbocsocial) –“Where Canada’s social media leaders gather to discuss the most effective strategies for the most powerful media.”
2- Forward 50 (#fwd50) – “A three-day conversation on digital transformation held in Canada’s capital city, bringing together citizens, the public service, elected officials, technologists, and innovative thinkers from around the world.”
Both events were geared at the public sector, albeit very different audiences were present for each. The first event (#cbocsocial) attracted many comms folks along with those responsible for running their organization’s social media channels. The second event (#fwd50) had many senior government leaders, program and policy folks, as well those interested in the general advancement of government through modern disruptive tech. Ideally, I would love to one day see these audiences overlap a bit more at each others events to build up cross-functional learning and reduce existing silos. I do realize however that with limited training/conference budgets it’s wishful thinking on my part. Nonetheless I found both events very valuable. Here are some of my high-level key takeaways from each along with general notes from specific sessions.
Hey folks, so I got back from my 10-day Vipassana Meditation Retreat last week and must say i feel fully re-charged, super-positive and healthier than ever. Overall it was an absolutely life-changing experience. For any of you interested in finding out more about what it was like, I’d be more than happy to chat about it offline.
In the meantime, I wanted to share my rough notes with you from the Digital Governance Forum, which I attended this past week here in Ottawa.