A Recap of FedTalks 2011

Last week, over 1,000 government and technology leaders gathered in Washington DC’s historic Warner Theatre to talk about how technology and innovative solutions are transforming the way government works. The speaker lineup at Fedtalks, dubbed “government rock stars” by Chris Dorobek, featured innovators, advocates, and technology evangelists that are working to serve the public in ground-breaking ways.

Aneesh Chopra helped to kick off the morning with an energetic speech about entrepreneurs working to develop creative solutions to our nation’s most pressing issues. He told the story of Victor Garcia, a Mexican immigrant who came to the US as a young boy. Garcia grew up in Texas and enrolled in a technical institute in California with hopes of designing vehicles. Last year, he responded to and won DARPA’s public challenge to “conceptualize a vehicle body design for two different missions—Combat Reconnaissance and Combat Delivery & Evacuation.” Garcia then delivered a prototype of his creation, the Flypmode, to President Obama within five months.

Other notable speakers highlighted the tremendous efforts for innovation in federal agencies via challenge.gov and at the local level by turning the spotlight to Victor Garcia and individuals creatively solving problems in local communities with the use of public data.

Best Buy CTO and founder of Geek Squad Robert Stephens framed the conversation to forecast the future of technology and customer service from both the public and private sectors. Stephens predicted a shift toward anticipation where both government and the private sector are equipped to anticipate the needs of users prior to contact. In this model, the needs of citizens, consumers, and the public as a whole would be better served by entities that predict their needs and mobilize to appropriately respond to those needs before an interaction occurs.

One thing is clear; government is changing and recognizing the need for openness and innovation to better serve the public. The message at FedTalks 2011 was both hopeful and encouraging. As government agencies make data more available and accessible through avenues like data.gov and public challenges, they are engaging their constituents in new ways and moving us toward a more participatory and open democracy.

For more information on FedTalks, check out FedScoop’s Storify of the event.

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