5.23 — weeknotes — Kansas City!
I’ve been dying to say it all week.
I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore….
I have been privileged this week to go to Kansas City in the USA for the GMIS Conference, as part of the International work that Socitm does, as part of my Presidency. What a week!!
Arrived on Saturday evening and had some time to meet the rest of the Socitm and International delegation. Socitm is part of an organisation called Lola (Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Societies). Essentially organisations like Socitm from all over the world. There are members from: New Zealand, Sweden, Netherlands, USA, Belgium, Canada and of course the UK. The aim is that we are stronger than the sum of our parts and trying to work together to share experiences and expertise.
Sunday was a day sightseeing, hosted by Luke from Granicus who lives in Kansas City and have to say his tour was excellent. Went to a number of museums most noticeable the National WW1 monument but also Negro Baseball and Jazz. Thought the day you really got a sense of the history of the place and the economic and racial challenges. Then lunch at a BBQ place of which Kansas is famous for.
Monday to Wednesday was the conference itself… A packed agenda over the 3 days I have to say. A real mix of main sessions, workshops and networking. A different feel to a UK conference — the US audience is not afraid to ask questions and have that debate in the room — I think that is really healthy and something we can learn from! To many highlights to choose from but….
Ron the Memory Guy was a highlight. He was the key note on the first day. He was wandering around the hall whilst everyone was having breakfast saying hello and getting your name. Later on in his session he got everyone to stand up. He then told you to sit down when he got your name right. 200 plus people…. And he got everyone except 1 right (and even that was close — Todd not Tom!) Was just amazing!
The awards on Monday evening was another highlight. As we do with Socitm, GMIS take celebrating the successes of members really seriously. The awards were amazing. We were honoured to pick up one on behalf of London Borough of Brent for their data work. Well done Rehana and team…
The whole week was in the middle of some extreme heat warnings and it was interesting to see how their emergency planning kicked in. For the majority of the week temperatures were in the 40s and didn’t get much cooler at night. Schools shut early and cooling centres were opened. You certainly couldn’t walk anywhere outside without overheating!
We also had the AGM of LOLA where a number of updates from the member countries were given and looking ahead to a number of opportunities of collaboration. So much of the work Socitm has been doing with the policy themes and the Institute were so relevant here — a real opportunity to do something together in the future.
I was very proud to be part of the International delegation panel on Wednesday. Hosted by Clark from the US a number of questions around… Data Protection, Cyber Security, post pandemic working and AI. It wasn’t a very diverse panel but this was called out during the session and discussed. So feels like some inroads made there. Also gave me the opportunity to talk about the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy and approach from Hounslow — a number of people came up afterwards and talked to me about this!
Reflections…. I took a huge amount away from the week. The challenges and struggles across the globe are the same and there is real opportunity in coming together to help solve and learn from each other. There are things that we can do differently at Socitm to further improve the service to members. The conference was very much focussed on cyber and it really strikes me that the work the UK has been putting in over the past 10 years has been worth it.
Tune of the week: (can really only be one) — OFFICIAL Somewhere over the Rainbow — Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole
