Digital Mission Blog
The Digital Mission series is run by Chinwag to support UK-based digital companies expand into new markets and attract overseas investment.
Deadline Extended for Digital Mission to Washington DC
We've had a few requests for more time to apply for the Digital Mission to Washington DC (11 - 15th July) and although time is now tight, we thought we'd be generous and allow another 5 days. The application deadline is now Friday 17th June.
There's a lot of fantastic events and activities planned for the mission, as well as some brilliant partners. There's been so many exciting announcements regarding the mission the past couple of weeks, we've attempted to re-cap everything below.
Digital Mission to Washington DC, taking place 11th - 15th July, is ideal for companies interested in digital government and social innovation who are looking to expand into the US market either directly or through partners.
There's a stellar line-up of partners for the Mission, including the US Department of State, U.S. General Services Administration, The Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Blue State Digital, the State of Maryland, Microsoft, and Deloitte.
The latest additions to the line-up include a breakfast session at Affinity Lab, with great new speakers from iStrategy Labs, Big Window Labs, as well as final night event sponsors Beekeeper Group and Rock Creek on board.
If the fantastic schedule isn't enough to make you hit the 'apply' link straight away and you need a little more persuassion, Future Gov's Dominic Campbell recently wrote "Digital Mission to Washington DC: Top 10 Reasons Your Company Should Apply".
Photo (cc) Alienswede
Digital Mission to Washington DC Confirms Events at US State Department, State of Maryland, Microsoft and Deloitte
Last week we promised you some exciting news about the up and coming trip to Washington and we would hate to disappoint.
Just in case the top 10 reasons to head over to DC weren’t enough, we’re excited and delighted to announce a stellar line-up of partners for the Digital Mission to DC, including the US Department of State and a range of federal government agencies, Blue State Digital, the State of Maryland, Microsoft and Deloitte.
Along with our partners, Future Gov, Bright Lemon and Kathryn Corrick we have been working away to secure some of the most influential organisations and government departments for July’s mission visiting the US capital from 11-15th July. Applications close on 10th June, with a limited number of spots available.
This is just part of what the mission companies can expect during the week with more events and partners still being confirmed, watch out for a further announcement next week. It’s going to be a packed five days!
As well as the main agenda, we have built in the time and opportunity to connect those on the mission with specific contacts through FutureGov’s local DC network, giving you the chance to hold meetings with individuals and organisations who have caught your eye and might have particular interest in what you have to offer.
Here’s an outline of what’s planned so far:
Monday 11th July
After a few drinks and a chance for everyone to meet up on Sunday night, Monday morning see the group off to Microsoft’s offices for the essential “Doing Business in the US” masterclass. The speakers are still under wraps but expect top-flight legal advice, industry analysis and insight with a focus on digital government and social innovation including;
- Legal issues of setting up and doing business
- Industry trends
- Investment landscape
- Ex-pat advice
- Where to find support
Come with notebooks/iPads/tablets at the ready.
As the first evening draws in it’s time to kick off the mission in style with an exclusive VIP reception. Some of the most influential bodies from across government and the digital sector will be making an appearance at the reception, where mission companies will have the chance for a speedy pitch to the assembled audience.
And that’s just day one!
Tuesday 12th July
Tuesday morning sees the group take to the road and head to Annapolis for a briefing and tour led by Maryland’s first Chief Innovation Officer, Bryan Sivak, discovering how innovation is being brought into the heart of government and how technology is enabling this.
Back on the coach and back to Washington for Tuesday night’s activities at the well known digital gathering, DC Tech Meetup for a chance to meet and geek out with the movers and shakers on the DC tech scene from politicos to techies to social innovators and more besides.
Wednesday 13th July
Typically, by Wed morning, the blackberries are all a Twitter, and everyone’s inbox is overflowing - you know the office will be missing you by now. The morning is left available for your own plans, whether that’s catching up on work, or if you want to schedule your own meetings with the help of well networked mission organisers FutureGov.
The afternoon sessions lift the lid on the government and digital ecosystem in DC with a series of industry briefings hosted at Deloitte’s offices in Rosslyn, just over the Potomac River from downtown DC.
Starting off with a look at Transparency and Campaigning, with leading agencies Blue State Digital (the guys behind the 2008 Obama Campaign) and Echo Ditto (equally well versed in the political and non-profit campaigns scene) it’s a chance to get the Washington perspective on the overlap between the digital sector, government and politics.
Following this will be an in depth session on Gov 2.0 (from data to apps to competitions and more) with the inside track from a range of government agencies as well as high profile local companies such as Rock Creek, Govloop and Phase one, discuss the huge changes in government over the last few years and how government engages through technology.
After a spot of early evening Social Innovation speed-networking back at Deloitte, there’ll be a chance for networking, followed by a few drinks in historic Georgetown.
Thursday 14th July
Thursday sees the doors of US government thrown open, with two in-depth briefings
with the US State Department at their base in central Washington, DC.
The first session will be on the use of emerging technology for diplomacy by the International Information Programs Bureau’s Office of Innovative Engagement and the second,on the professional exchange programs run by the Education and Cultural Affairs Bureau.
This is a unique opportunity to get inside government and meet a well-connected team who, not only are experts in their field, but also have a stake in purchasing decisions.
Thursday evening is the last official mission night and we want to go out with a bang. The night’s activities are still under wraps but be prepared for a special grand finale!
Friday 15th July
With all the official mission events finished, Friday morning will give you a chance to catch up on work, arrange some meetings and follow up on contacts made during the week.
And for those after a spot of culture, it’d be a shame to leave without seeing some of the best sights in DC. Friday morning is a chance to explore sights of Washington before heading back to the UK, or if you fancy spending the weekend, what a perfect way to start.
The above activities are just the start, more events, speakers and opportunities are still to be announced so make sure you keep updated with the Chinwag blog and Twitter account.
Next Steps
If you are interested in coming on the mission, please help us by filling in the short application form. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes and is an important part of the process of helping us target the organisations and contacts you’d like to meet whilst on the mission.
Applications are open until the 10th June - so don’t miss out.
For more details on the schedule check out the Digital Mission to Washington activity page.
//Apply for the Digital Mission to Washington, DC
Photo (cc) Waldron H Leard / Ana T. Gallant
Digital Mission to Washington DC: 10 Reasons Your Company Should Apply
Not long now until a group of digital government and social innovation geeks pack their bags and head over to the US with FutureGov and the Digital Mission gang to learn how things are done on the other side of the pond – and hopefully show them a thing or two as well with the best of UK digital innovation.
But before all of that, I thought I’d fill you in on a good few reasons why we thought a Digital Mission to DC would be such a good idea…
1. Gov20
The Washington scene (perhaps unsurprisingly) is widely credited with giving birth to the phrase “Government 2.0”, or #gov20 for short all you twitter hashtag fans.
For Washingtonians, and now far more besides, the term gov20 (now WeGov thanks to our friends Andrew and Micah) captures a change in how government uses online to open itself up, using the web to bring a more human face to government, listening to, talking to and engaging with citizens online through a bunch of jazzy new web 2.0 technologies.
What is perhaps a little surprising is that it wasn’t in fact the Federal Government (that’s Central Government to us Brits) that led the charge in DC, rather the work of DC city government’s Vivek Kundra from a good few years ago now, moving over to become Chief Information Officer at the White House following the election of Barack Obama in 2008. He is now joined by other heavy hitters from local government, with Aneesh Chopra coming on board as CTO from the State of Virginia joined more recently new leaders such as Chris Vein, ex-CIO of San Fran and now Deputy CTO for Innovation in government. Local government rules ok!
Back in March 2009, Gov20 Camp marked the beginning of big things, helping to usher in a new wave of digital government. The event attracted an impressive 500 people mostly from DC but many from elsewhere, giving a kickstart to the mass movement you see booming today.
Federal government itself has consolidated this movement through high level policy directives (first on opengov and now customer service) from people like the now advisor to the UK government Beth Noveck providing leadership cover for digital innovators to think big and get creative in government. They’ve also supported experimentation, for instance pushing all big Agencies to adopt tools like Ideascale to test out new approaches to bringing new ideas into government from citizens. All of which has been ably supported by a strong network of New Media Directors in posts across government owning the agenda and pushing it on.
There’s plenty continuing apace from some of the larger government suppliers too, with Microsoft’s recent launching their Innovation Center downtown and even Twitter now having a representative in DC. Other major players on the scene include Deloitte (including gov20 stars such as Bill Eggers and the GovLab team there), Booz Allen Hamilton, Phase One (oh and Phase2), Forum One and more are in town taking innovation to scale, working with agencies to make the most of the opportunities.
DC even has its own roving ‘in house’ reporter in the shape of O’Reilly’s Alex Howard (@Digiphile to you and me) who is doing a great job of reporting on all the big news coming out of DC in the gov20 world.
2. Online campaigning
DC is the original home of the wonk. You can’t so much as get a cab without being caught in a conversation on Healthcare while listening to CSPAN (cabbies are the biggest wonks of all in DC).
Hardly surprising then that you’ll find some major players in the online political scene here too, with the likes of Blue State Digial (the guys behind the Obama campaign in 2008), Edelman and others big news. But DC is also blessed with a bunch of smaller, younger upstarts like Echo Ditto and Beekeeper Group, representing a vibrant political and social campaign scene in DC.
3. Transparency
Not only is DC home to gov20 but also the home of the transparency and opengov movement. This is down in no small part to the likes of the world leading work of the likes of non-public Sunlight Foundation and the public labs and elections team at Google DC.
Locally, DC city government was also long time lead in publishing open data and globally major institutions like the World Bank lead by example from their DC base through projects like their Apps for Development programme.
DC really is the home of ‘open’.
4. Social innovation and non-profits
While government looms large in DC, there’s also plenty of progressive people getting creative in the local community too, sparking new social organisations and collaborations.Many based out of creative like Affinity Labs and the upcoming Hub DC, social innovators are working to improve the city for local communities, for instance the H Street Project, and getting creative with it. A personal favourite of mine is the daily look into the lives of DC residents by the People’s District and hyperlocal blog Greater Greater Washington.
Then there are the big players on the social innovation scene making national change based out of DC, from the Corporation for National Service (and their UK emulated initiatives such as AmericCorp and SeniorCorp), the White House’s Serve.Gov Presidential priority project and others like the New Organizing Institute. And private sector players like the Google non-profit team, recently launching their offer to the non-profit scene.
FutureGov has even had a go at social innovation matchmaking in DC with the launch of Simpl with DC city government, showcasing and bringing together a range of individuals and organisations in DC thinking creatively and making social innovation happen.
5. Open source
Once an impossibility in government, under the Obama administration open source has become a must. No longer an exception, open source is now central to all government strategies and readily available through initiatives such as apps.gov.
Drupal are kings with companies like Rock Creek leading the charge, with other platforms like Wordpress coming up on the inside with recent high profile uses in government for instance the CFPB site that launched earlier this year.
6. Data
Whether Big or Open, data is where it’s at in DC right now. Leading the charge are Todd Park and team at Health and Human Services. Building on the work of the White House and their data.gov initiative, HHS have launched Health.Data.gov.
Where HHS is leading the pack many Agencies are now following, for instance the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau setting its stall out to be a Big Data driven agency with technology and data at the heart of everything it does.
And this is just scratching the surface. DC is stuffed full of opportunities for data dudes to geek out that’s for certain.
7. Cloud, mobile and apps
Apps for Democracy, building on the work in the UK of the Cabinet Office with their Show Us a Better Way initiative, sent DC app crazy. This was shortly followed up by Apps for America from the Sunlight Foundation and now there is a whole range of initiatives out for developers to play with, from Apps for Communities from the FCC to Apps for Healthy Kids from US Department of Agriculture.
Many of which are mobile (see what I did there?). The likes of GSA’s @Gwynnek are working on making mobile a key future platform of government services delivery. Still in early stages and a real opportunity to support government to deliver on its aspirations.
All of which is being supported by increasing amounts of work to bring the cloud to government. People like @MaryDavie, again at the GSA, are pushing this agenda at some pace, recently leading by example by moving their Agency’s email over to Gmail. More and more government websites are also finding themselves in the cloud, a trend set to continue.
8. Startups
Once a digital startup wasteland, 2011 appears to be the year of the startup in DC. Super charged by recent events such as the accelerator hosted by iStrategy Labs, as well as the odd incubator popping up such as Clay Johnson’s Big Window Labs, the start up scene is really beginning to take off. And that’s not forgetting long standing shared workspaces such as Affinity Labs of course which has been bringing people together for some time now, collaboration space soon to be added to by the forthcoming Hub DC.
9. Meet ups
DC is a mighty sociable place. Rarely does a night go by without someone putting on a meet up (or two) of some sort or other, bringing together the politicos, techies and social innovators. Whether just a small and informal drink or the huge DC Tech Meetup, you won’t be short of an evening out.
10. Sightseeing
White House, Capitol Hill, Lincoln Memorial, the Mall, the Monument, the Smithsonian, Georgetown, Old Town Alexandria…
Need I say more?
DC crew help me out here. I’m sure I’ve missed a tonne of great work and great people making it happen. Get commenting!
See you in July if not sooner.
// Apply for the Digital Mission to Washington
Photo (cc) Vinoth Chandar
Digital Mission to Washington, DC 2011 (11th - 15th July) Applications now Open
We are very excited to announce that applications for the Digital Mission to Washington, DC taking place 11th - 15th July 2011 are now open.
This trip is ideal for companies interested in digital government and social innovation who are looking to expand into the US market either directly or through partners.
Alongside a hectic programme of events there will be a chance for companies to interact with the US Government and key players within the digital space.
We have been working hard with our friends at digital government consultancy FutureGov, community builder BrightLemon and digital media consultant Kathryn Corrick in order to bring you this mission that helps bridge the gap between government and digital.
The programme of activities will help turbo-charge this effort, with the opportunity to meet a host of key contacts from Washington’s digital government scene.
The programme will include:
- Masterclass sessions on setting up and doing business in the US
- VIP networking reception and company showcase
- Sessions covering contracting with the US Government
- Industry briefings
- Pitching events
- Roundtable meeting
- Networking events
This Digital Mission has space for up to 20 companies that meet the entry criteria. Entries will be judged by a Digital Mission advisory board, comprising of experts from across the digital industry.
Applications for this mission are open until Friday 10th June. The form is pretty painless to fill out and shouldn't take more than 20 mins to complete.
You can find more information about why your company should apply, info on the application criteria and access the application form from the Digital Mission to Washington page.
If you have any queries, drop an email to the logistics team: mission
chinwag [dot] com or call Francesca on +44 (0) 20 7183 2923.
// Apply for the Digital Mission to Washington
Photo (cc) Monika and Tim
Vodafone Mobile Clicks Competition Opens With €225,000 Prize Fund for Mobile Developers
Thanks to our friends at Momo London for the heads-up that applications are now open for year's Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition.
The competition is open to startups from seven countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Turkey or the United Kingdom) and has a rather juicy €225,000 up for grabs for the leading mobile site, service or applications.
Judging takes place over three rounds with the seven finalists, one from each market, competing live at the PICNIC festival in the Netherlands. Entries are judged on the following criteria:
- Originality, creativity and innovativeness
- Technical and operational feasibility
- Economic and financial viability
- Value to end-users
- The quality of the management team (e.g. their experience, knowledge, skills, relationships)
The competition is pretty much string-free, although you'll signed up for publicity if you win, with no claims on the IP or strings on the cash if you win.
The closing date is midnight CET on 12th June 2011. The Momo London blog has an excellent summary of the competition and entry criteria.
Good luck! Let us know how you got on.
