Call for blogs: Building the Smarter State Campaign Week 2020

18 Aug 2020 12:54 PM

On the 7 – 11 September we are delighted to be running a Campaign Week in the run up to techUK’s sixth annual flagship Building the Smarter State conference which is taking place online from 16 – 17 September.

For the last five years the conference has successfully attracted digital leaders from across the breadth of the public and private sectors to showcase how technology is shaping today and tomorrow’s public services – helping to build a smarter state.

Returning for a sixth year, this year’s conference is looking at the role digital plays in driving business change across Government, the future of transformation in Government, the legacy of COVID-19 in terms of procurement and innovation, and the enabling role of tech in informing what the smarter state will look like.

Last year’s conference explored the twin themes of People & Places, exploring how public services are being transformed by technology and what that means for the future of the public sector workforce, with the campaign week focusing on what the smarter state will look like and the technologies that will help make this vision a reality. You can find the blogs from last year’s Campaign Week here.

Through blogs and case studies this week (7 – 11 September) will look at what the smarter state might look like, how technology can drive business change across the wider public sector, how technology can improve citizen outcomes and keep us connected, how the gap between digital and policy can be bridged in order to transform public services and the lessons learnt from COVID-19 - the legacy it has left on procurement and innovation and how this can be harnessed in building the smarter state.

Themes:

  1. Future gazing: What does the Smarter State look like?
  2. Tech as an enabler: The role of technology in driving business change across the wider public sector
  3. People: Improving citizen outcomes, staying connected and creating safe places
  4. Bridging the gap: The tech bringing together digital and policy & transforming public services
  5. COVID-19: Lessons learnt, the impact on procurement and innovation and how this can be harnessed in building the smarter state    

If you would like to contribute to this campaign week, we would require a blog piece of around 400-600 words, a blog title, and a 150-character description for the sub-title. You can read our contributor guidelines in more detail here. The blogs will feature on the techUK website and be promoted via Twitter throughout the week. If anyone is interested in contributing a blog for one or more of the below themes, please do send your blog through to sophie.james@techuk.org no later than Friday 4 September.   

You can follow the conversation on Twitter @techUK #techUKSmarterState