Our 2018 budget was committed, but then Kirsten Wyatt contacted me about #ELGL18 Conference, and we had to participate. We were responsible for a full day of Tech Lab innovation programming for local government leaders.
Living, breathing software & mobile apps is our world so it would have been all too easy to default to just talking tech. But, we did the opposite.
We spent 90% of the day talking about culture, people and ways to make deploying new tools successful, all as part of the process towards digital transformation. Our team worked with a lot of government leaders to create an amazing day filled with so many different sessions. Going into the conference my goals in no particular order were:
✔Only my 2nd in-person event (3rd if you count #CithHallSelfie day), but with such an amazing digital community I feel this weird level of connection. This event is about face-to-face meetings and deepening those relationships.
✔With the goal of being interviewed on GovLove Podcast by the year 2021, I’m planting the seed in the hosts that “I’m cool”
✔Grab an early morning run where I totally disconnect and soak up as much that beautiful, golden Colorado air and sunshine. ☀
✔Make the most interesting, fun, non-salesy one-day dive into technology and how cities/counties can create the culture where innovation can thrive.
Leave the Sales Pitch at Home
There was a lot that went into the planning of these sessions and a lot of great connections created! Our team wanted to make sure we included some government leaders in the sessions and it wasn’t all about vendors trying to sell. We get it—government officials get sold to all the time so why would they want to get sold to during a conference they are attending to learn and hear what their peers are doing?!
[bctt tweet="Government officials are attending conferences to learn and hear what their peers are doing! Stop being so salesy ;) " username="Rock Solid"]
Recruit the Experts
We knew we wanted to anchor the day with a tech panel of experts from Innovation, Communication, and Technology departments. The highlight for us was the tech lab panel that we put together: Paul Clanton, MS-IS, MBA, Kelsey McAuliff, Benjamin Irwin, and Allison Hamilton Scheck hit it out of the park.
Is it time to early to start planning for #ELGL19?
