For all the challenges and heartache caused by the pandemic, COVID-19 has had an upside for public sector organizations: It forced them to embrace technology at a previously unimaginable level so they could keep employees safe at home and still deliver the services both required and demanded by citizens.
On Feb. 9 senior leaders from across Western Canada including mayors, big city CIOs, and businesses focused on the public sector market will gather virtually to discuss how to maintain the momentum and push further toward digital government goals.
Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, Surrey, BC Mayor Doug McCallum, BC’s Chief Digital Officer Jaime Boyd, Calgary CIO Jan Bradley, and Vancouver CIO, Catherine Chick, headline the participants for the three-hour virtual event.
Rob Meikle, a nationally recognized CIO with roots in the public sector, will moderate a Town Hall discussion open to the entire audience. Samantha Liscio, ITWC’s 2020 CIO of Year, will moderate one of the panel discussions.
“The public sector is often criticized for its inability to embrace technology to move quickly,” says conference host Fawn Annan, President and CEO of ITWC. “But there are stunning examples of success in Western Canada and we are going to highlight them.”
There will also be frank discussions about best practices for doing business with the public sector and examples of innovation and collaboration practices embraced by some institutions that can be shared across the rest of the West or Canada as a whole.
Four examples of Western Canadian innovation to be highlighted include virtual policing in Winnipeg, an emergency alert system with global implications, a tablet-based HR tool in use in Saskatchewan, and an AI-fueled app that find potholes before they develop.
