Denver GovUp RoundUp – Just Do It & The Pound

Lovely Colorado
Had a blast at our Denver GovUp last week. It was a great mix of folks from local counties, City of Denver, MPA programs nearby, federal agencies like Interior, GAO, and GSA, and State of Colorado government. The awesome pound below says it all…

A couple interesting observations from the night:

1. Help Each Other

There were 4 to 5 really interesting groups at the GovUp that hadn’t met before but all were government innovators from different direction. There was Young Government Leaders – Denver Chapter, the Open Colorado organization, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCCD) and a few others. It was great to see all the groups connect and agree to attend each other’s upcoming events. Good government is really an eco-system and we need to help each other out.

2. Just Do It

Michelle Hovat, CIO of City of Arvada, gave a great speech on all the great
work the city was doing as well as in partnership with local counties and the state such as:

• A great database information sharing called COPLINK that is helping law enforcement officers
  connect databases to get bad guys quicker
• A great use case of citizen engagement with idea platforms where they helped rename a city trail using Uservoice.
• A great partnership with individuals from local Colorado agencies known as Open Colorado that has recently applied for non-profit status and is working on the next Colorado CityCamp.

When asked how she was able to create so much innovation, Michelle’s advice was pretty simple to government innovators: Take a risk. Try it. Innovate.

By the way, if you’re from the Denver area or are a big fan of the Rockies, be sure to:

• Check out our Mile High GovLoopers Group.
• Find other Denver area members.
• And you can look statewide for Colorado GovLoopers.