My highlight from the GOVIS 2016 conference was the number of attendees who donated their conference bag to Wellington decile 1 and 2 schools, up until the moment a conference attendee told me that he had put a $2 coin in his conference bag before handing it over to us. I am definitely one of those people who used to love getting unexpected cash in birthday cards or magazines and this unexpected boon care of one generous guy really did make my week.
How ‘disruptive innovation’ inspired us to get conference bags to kids.
The GOVIS conference is an annual meeting of minds from within New Zealand Central Government data and information professionals. This year’s focus was “Disruptive Innovation” and the list of presenters was charged with sharing either their recent disruptive innovations or their view (strategically) on where next to go for New Zealand Government regarding disruptive innovation. http://www.govis.org.nz/Home.aspx
I am most grateful for one anecdote in the presentation made by Dame Diane Robertson, who is the Chair the Data Futures Partnership. The Partnership are an independent group pulled together by the NZ Government to develop innovative solutions to current (and future) data related issues http://datafutures.co.nz/.
Dame Diane shared with us a story where she was approached by a couple of homeless people who wanted to discuss her role in the Data Futures Partnership. They let her know that they were happy with her appointment (which is fantastic; people taking the time to give your their endorsement), their next point is enlightening. They wanted Dame Diane’s view on how data modelling will affect their lives and whether “useful” outcomes will come from the data. There was an implication that their “accurate” data will not be supplied if “useful” outcomes are not expected.
This reinforces, for me, the drive for fair and equitable collaboration with all key stakeholders in data related actions/tasks/development. If people don’t believe in your motivation they cannot be expected to help you, especially if it requires them making themselves more vulnerable.
Data to decisions – Mel
Mel blogs about how data is used to make better decisions.