FWD50

Nov. 6-8, 2023 | Ottawa and online

FWD50 took place on November 6-8, 2023 in Ottawa's Lansdowne Park. See the Agenda.

There have been 272 posts and 905 favourites with the hashtag #fwd50 on Mastodon.

"At the end of the day, empowering our teams is really just about confronting and dismantling the structural things that disempower them." @honeygolightly #fwd50 @fwd50

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"You're always navigating the tightrope of, respecting the institution that you're trying to subvert." The brilliant @honeygolightly at #fwd50 @fwd50

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If you'd like to catch up on #fwd50 Mastodon posts from the past few days, check out fedidevs.com/fwd50 ! You can filter by date and account as well. Thanks to everyone posting here! 🎉 @fwd50

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"When we take our teams' experience for granted, we set up subconscious expectations to accept substandard public service." @honeygolightly #fwd50

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My takeaway today so far at : Risk aversion is the enemy of innovation within the public service (in Canada, at least. The Estonian public service seems to be )

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@honeygolightly speaking at is using the example of digital teams but a lot of what she is talking about applies to every functional area in government

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I just spent an hour at a workshop on data and analytics where I was ostensibly an expert. Instead, I got to cohost and moderate a discussion among the extraordinary conferees at , who quickly shared the depth and bread of their expertise in public service, & tried to nurture open conversations that created far more value than we captured. A reminder of what a privilege it is to be here & of the latent & applied knowledge within this community.

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Loved @honeygolightly ‘s talk - it was honest and authentic, full of heart and not short of challenge to the digital gov orthodoxy - brilliant! #FWD50

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Always “bring the human into the work.” So much focus on user needs, loving your users, but Riley reminded us that our teams are human, too.

Indeed, the best teams I’ve been on have “loved” each other as much as their users. Caring for each other, having each others’ backs, and generally focused on health and belonging.

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Watching the introverts introvert @honeygolightly weaponising her awkwardness at #FWD50 ❤️

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Many thanks to Alistair, Rebecca, & the entire @fwd50 staff for putting on an excellent event that connected online & offline participants with ideas and to one another — and to all of the public servants here who show up every day to listen, engage, & build better societies.

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That is #FWD50 all done for me - finished with a lovely bunch of round table chats about hiring, retention and more.
Thanks to all my Canadian crew for a great 3 days and to the organisers for a wonderful and well run event! See you next year maybe 🤔

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What a way to kick off our third and final day at 2023!

We've had our host @acroll set the stage for Nele Leosk (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia) to summarize Estonia's digital development over the past 30 years, followed by a chat with John Cousens (Google Cloud), Honey Dacanay (McMaster University) dropping some big truths about Canada's digital journey, and finally Riley Ohler (J5 Design) sharing an incredibly powerful reminder to design with compassion and empathy.

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Thank you to Riley Ohler for a powerful, moving presentation on the human experience. 💖 #fwd50 @fwd50

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Loving (and crying through) Riley Ohler’s talk “Designing My Grief” - services are about the human experience. Love. Connection. Community.

fwd50.com/speaker/2005/riley-o

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Wrapping up at #fwd50 and @acroll is thanking the volunteers and crew. Amazing work by everyone involved. 🙌 @fwd50

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And most importantly, a huge thank you to all our attendees from all over the world who have tuned into the conference both in-person and online! We appreciate the support and we cannot wait for the next edition of where we will continue to strive to answer our fundamental question: How can we use technology to make society better for all?

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2023 has officially wrapped! 🥳👏🏻

We've closed this edition of the world's leading digital conference with engaging talks by government leaders from Canada and Abu Dhabi, a professor from Columbia University (Alexis Wichowski), an online workshop with Ramy Nassar, an in-person workshop with Code for Canada and the popular 'Mentor Meetups'!

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“I think it's worth it, I think we are worth it, and I look forward to seeing what kind of technology we build.” Dr. Alexis Wichowski #fwd50 @fwd50

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This afternoon at #fwd50 I am a 'mentor' talking about hiring and retention over in the Workshop space fwd50.com/session/1229/mentor-

I will have cookies and stickers in an attempt to bribe people to come say hello so I'm not Billy No Mates for an hour

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