FWD50

What a way to kick off our third and final day at #FWD50 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.

#FWD50 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'!

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 #FWD50 where we will continue to strive to answer our fundamental question: How can we use technology to make society better for all?

Day 2 at #FWD50 2023 and we're bringing more incredible content for all our in-person and virtual attendees!

Kicked off the morning with another keynote by our Content Chair and Founder @acroll, following up with presentations by Tom Loosemore (Partner, Public Digital), Aaron Reich (CTO, Avanade), Mirko Kleiner (Lean-Agile Procurement Alliance), Martha Edwards (Service Designer, BC Public Service), Peter Near (Field CTO, VMware), and Catherine Luelo, the CIO of the Government of Canada!

That's a wrap for Day 1 at #FWD50 2023! And what a day it was; asking ourselves questions on digital transformation, service delivery, digital maturity, Indigenous knowledge, team management, user research and more within the context of public service and government!

The fun doesn't end there - tonight at 6PM, grab your tickets for 'Glorious Blunders: A Public Service Fail Fest' at the Three Brewers in Ottawa (https://www.fwd50.com/session/1245/glorious-blunders-a-public-service-fail-fest)

They're back! Join hosts-with-the-most Amanda Bernardo & Rob Butler at #FWD50 this year at our in-person Workshop and Industry Innovation stages. https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/1979/amanda-bernardo https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/1987/rob-butler

It's been a full house this morning to kickoff Day 1 of #FWD50 2023.

We opened with our welcoming keynote from Co-Founder and Content Chair @acroll, The Hon. Anita Indira Anand (President, TBS), Kris Lovejoy (Global Practice Leader, Security & Resiliency Kyndryl), Robyn Scott (Co-Founder & CEO Apolitical), Jacqueline Lu (President & Co-Founder Helpful Places), @sboots, Jennifer Pahlka, and The Hon. Terry Beach (Minister of Citizens’ Services, Government of Canada).

Former head of the Ontario Digital Service and now CEO of U.S. Digital Response, Hillary Hartley is no stranger to #FWD50. She's part of the crew taking over the stage for this year's Regional Digital Government Summit! https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2027/hillary-hartley

As the Minister of Citizens' Services, The Honourable Terry Beech will be discussing how to transform service delivery for Canadians at #FWD50 2023. https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2061/the-honourable-terry-l-honorable-terry-beech

Day 2 at #FWD50 2023 has wrapped!

From excellent keynotes in the morning to main stage takeovers (thank you Public Digital, the crew at RDGS, and the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation), to interactive workshops taking place in-person and online (shout out to Apolitical), we couldn't have asked for more inspiring content on digital government!

We're adding Christine Lau and Anna Wong, directors from the Service Health Office of the CIO and Digital Talent Development to the #FWD50's mentor lineup to tackle your hardest questions. https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2053/anna-wong https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2058/christine-lau

British Columbia's lead designer for the public service, Martha Edwards, has tackled digital ID, cybercrime, and even Brexit. Learn from her on how to move the dial on digital trust in a few days at #FWD50! https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/1999/martha-edwards

A founding part of the Ontario Digital Service, today Katy Lalonde is the Assistant Deputy Minister of Digital Innovation and Product. Another one of our on-site mentors this fall at #FWD50! https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2026/katy-lalonde

How do we document industry's impact on indigenous communities while respecting First Nations' data sovereignty? Delta Flood, Marie-Ange Gravel, and Sean Power tackle this onstage at #FWD50! https://www.fwd50.com/session/1185/open-science-and-indigenous-knowledge-challenges-and-solutions

Tomorrow, the main stage kicks off at 10AM EST—giving you all an extra hour of sleep—as we conclude the final day of the conference with keynote talks from Nele Leosk, John Cousens from Google Cloud, Riley Ohler, Alexis Wichowski, and #FWD50 favourite Honey Dacanay!

Lastly, we want to thank our wonderful sponsors for helping us make #FWD50 a success! https://www.fwd50.com/partners

Dr. Morgan Kahentonni Phillips and Brad Greyeyes-Brant share the stage with other great panelists tomorrow at #FWD50 to discuss the challenges and solutions of sharing Indigenous owned data. https://www.fwd50.com/session/1185/open-science-and-indigenous-knowledge-challenges-and-solutions

Perennial FWD50 expert, workshop organizer extraordinaire, and former Mattel creative lab organizer Ramy Nassar returns to #FWD50 with workshop on designing for resilience, exclusively online. https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2056/ramy-nassar

#FWD50 is made possible with the support of our incredible presenting partners, VMWare and Qualtrics. Main stage kicks off in 2 days! https://www.fwd50.com/buy-tickets

As the executive director of product of Alberta, Blair Neufeld's role is to re-imagine how government delivers services to Albertans by designing and developing products with small agile teams. He'll discuss practices and tools to attract, retain and develop digital talent at #FWD50! https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2013/blair-neufeld

Canadians are moving more of their government interactions online and have increasingly high expectations for what those digital services should look like. Peter Near, Field Chief Technology Officer at VMware Canada will join our host Alistair Croll on stage to talk about delivering a digital foundation for Canadian citizens at #FWD50! https://www.fwd50.com/speaker/2068/peter-near