AccelerateGOV showcases how to make transformation happen in government

The audience at AccelerateGOV in 2024.

Public servants from across the Government of Canada and beyond will gather in Ottawa today to hear and share insights on how digital transformation is driving improved public services.

Now in its fourth year, AccelerateGOV brings together public servants from around the world with an interest in digital government transformation, with sessions focusing on making digital transformation happen in public service; how to rewire government to make the most of AI – and how AI is being put into action; and how digital transformation can help boost government resilience in uncertain times, among other themes.

Over 4,000 public servants have registered to attend the event, where senior figures from the Government of Canada and international public service innovators will discuss how to make change happen.

Welcoming delegates to the conference, Dominic Rochon, chief information officer of Canada said that – as governments everywhere work to deliver better, more efficient and resilient digitally enabled public services – AccelerateGOV is an opportunity to learn from one other, across insightful discussions on accelerating digital services.

He said: “With a stellar list of speakers lined up, we’ll explore real-world artificial intelligence use cases and what it takes to make digital transformation happen in an increasingly complex and fast-changing world.”

Inspiring content for public servants

The conference will include content across a host of different stages, with keynote and panel discussions from inspiring innovators, and impact sessions and roundtables to provide in-depth insight on government transformation.

Sessions will examine how to rewire government to achieve true digital transformation; boosting public servants’ skills to create a digital, sustainable public service; and how governments can remove friction to enable a seamless service delivery.

This year for the first time, the AI Avenue exhibition and showcase space will provide an opportunity to hear from public service innovators from across the Canadian public service and beyond on how they are developing – and deploying – artificial intelligence in their work, through a series of short, impact-led sessions on how organisations are making artificial intelligence work for them.

Speakers from the Government of Canada include Rochon, the deputy minister and chief information officer of Canada; Scott Jones, president of Shared Services Canada; Arianne Reza, deputy minister, Public Services and Procurement Canada; Luc Gagnon, chief technology officer for the Government of Canada; Paul Wagner, chief executive officer, Canadian Digital Service; and Caroline Xavier, chief, Communications Security Establishment, Canada.

The conference will also bring together international government innovators to share their insights with Canadian officials. These leaders will share insights on how their governments are making progress on transformation – sharing both insights on obstacles they face and how they have overcome them.

They include: Ryan Alvin R. Acosta, commissioner, Civil Service Commission, Republic of the Philippines; Yuriy Matsyk, advisor of the digital infrastructure development, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ukraine; Christopher Wodtke, from the new Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation, Germany; and Sota Mizushima, chief product officer, Japan’s Digital Agency.

Plus, the conference will hear from public servants from the provincial and local levels of government in Canada. View the full list of event speakers here.

You can view the full agenda for AccelerateGOV and the participating speakers on the event website. The conference is the premier event for digital transformation in government and is supported by knowledge partners, including platinum partners AffinitiQuest, IBM and Global Relay; and Gold Knowledge Partners Dell Technologies; Blueprint; Kyndryl; Deloitte; Dayforce; SAS; Workday; IGEL; Commvault; Levio; AltaML; VidCruiter; DXC; Quantexa; and ProofNetwork.

Find out more about the event’s full range of knowledge partners here.

Public Service Data/AI Challenge winner to be revealed

The conference will also close with the announcement of the winner of the Public Service Data/AI Challenge – organised by Statistics Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Global Government Forum, and supported by TBS and knowledge partners IBM, Dell and Nvidia. This year, the competition received over 150 entries from federal public servants on how government can improve its use of data and artificial intelligence. We recruited volunteers to join the originator of each idea to take forward the best ideas in interdisciplinary, cross-departmental teams, with the goal of catalyzing reforms and improving public services.

After stages of research and development, eight teams of public service volunteers pitched their ideas to the judges at the semi-final: four were selected to move forward, and at the grand finale at AccelerateGOV, the four finallists will make pitches and a winner will be chosen. Find out who this year’s winner will be – and learn more about the final teams and the Public Service Data Challenge Finale here.

AccelerateGOV speakers share insights

On the eve of this year’s AccelerateGOV conference, we asked the event’s speakers to tell us what digital transformation topics they’re most looking forward to discussing, and the insights that will help drive their priorities forward in the months ahead.

Read these exclusive GGF articles to get inspiration from those who are speaking at the conference:

The first AccelerateGOV Bitesize Insights article ‘Advancing transformation is a team sport’ focused on interoperability, shared services, and digital sovereignty.

The second AccelerateGOV Bitesize Insights article ‘Leveraging collective expertise’ covered artificial intelligence, focusing on how to navigate the complexities of rapidly evolving technology, bake in ethics and responsible use, and ensure that AI delivers measurable value.

The third article, ‘Avoiding failure of imagination is critical’ pulled together responses from 10 of the speakers from Canada and other countries on a range of topics – from people, change management and collaboration, to AI, digital wallets, cybersecurity, the reimagining of government services of the future, and more.

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