Photo credit: Techwire
By Dave G. Cornejo, MBA, CSM
For over 30 years, Sacramento has been home to some of the largest and most-anticipated government technology conferences on the west coast. This year’s Digital Government Summit was no exception.
About the Event
Hosted by Government Technology/e.Republic, the summit included key state and local government executives, technologists, and industry specialists to address the most important policy, management, and technology issues surrounding the future of digital government in the State.
This year’s event included an impressive line-up of guest speakers like Governor Newsom’s Advisor on Innovation and Digital Services, as well as representatives from the Department of Technology, the Government Operations Agency, and more.
Key Takeaways
Some of the most interesting topics from the breakout sessions included:
- Re-inventing Customer Services
- AI (machine learning and predictive analytics)
- Census 2020
- Autonomous vehicles
- Design Thinking in Action (putting focus on people when designing new services and products)
The overall theme for this year’s summit was on customer-centered technology, so it was not surprising that a large crowd gathered to hear the latest chapter on the Governor’s plan for the Office of Digital Innovation (ODI).
Governor’s Goals
Summit attendees learned that Governor Newsom wants the State to be more innovative on how it interacts with clients. He believes government is not focused on customers like private industry and he wants that to change.
Some of ODI’s innovation goals include the following:
- Encouraging agile and modular approaches to project management, rather than “waterfall” models.
- Bridging silos, not blowing them up.
- Developing talent, creating a community, and investing efforts in a culture change.
Final Thoughts
Working for a private sector consulting firm that supports many state public sector agencies to digitally transform, it was encouraging to hear the innovation-focused message from the Governor’s office and other guest speakers and summit attendees—and to know that we are on the same page when it comes to using technology to better serve Californians.
About the author
Dave G. Cornejo is a retired State executive having served as an Assistant Executive Director over Administration and Information Technology, Chief Financial Officer, and a Fiscal Division Chief. In these capacities, Dave successfully oversaw the implementation of multi-million-dollar technology projects. Dave has also taught Computer Information Science and Business courses as an Adjunct Professor with the Los Rios Community College District and served as a loaned executive to the California Performance Review team. Dave currently serves as a Financial Analyst for one of our public sector health care clients.