October 31, 2016

Municipalities a key focus at GovMaker III

Fredericton, NB – GovMaker III: Open Government from Theory to Practice offers a rich vein of content for municipalities who want to engage in an accelerated learning curve on Open Government. Attendees will encounter the best practices and lessons learned of those at the forefront, and see what happens when engaged citizens use government data to create valuable insights.

Nigel Jacob, Co-founder of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston, will bring the opening keynote. A Canadian working in the United States, Nigel was an audience favourite at the Canadian Open Data Summit in Saint John in April. He did not hesitate to come back to New Brunswick to bring his practical story of open government innovations at the municipal level from his pioneering work in Boston. “If you missed Nigel in April, you are lucky enough to have a second chance to hear him talk about Boston’s people-centric approach, which has resulted in numerous leaps forward in how they interact with their residents,” said Nick Scott, Executive Director of GovMaker host, the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network.

Participation is a key theme at GovMaker III, and NB municipalities can hear from one of their own when Dieppe shares their participatory budgeting process. Another key participatory activity is GovMaker’s Open Data Visualization Challenge (ODVC) in partnership with the UNB Faculty of Business Administration, which will demonstrate the power of open data, open government, and an engaged citizenry. Participants from across the country will use their creativity and imagination to build an infographic poster featuring data from municipal and provincial governments and other organizations. The visualization can be used to communicate a story, policy options, or a new idea.

Judges of the final round of the ODVC include four of New Brunswick’s mayors. After their adjudicating task, Don Darling (Saint John), Mike O’Brien (Fredericton), Dawn Arnold (Mayor, Ville de Moncton), and Cyrille Simard (Mayor, City of Edmundston) will gather for a panel discussion around the challenges and opportunities faced by New Brunswick’s municipal governments. Hance Colburn (CBC, Saint John) will take questions from the audience and ask a few of his own for a thrilling and enriching discussion that is one of the largest public gatherings of NB’s municipal leaders.

“I urge municipalities, in New Brunswick and beyond, not to miss this opportunity to join the latest conversation on open government. With so much content aimed specifically at their context, municipalities will leave us with the tools and connections they need to go to the next level,” concluded Scott.

Sponsors for GovMaker III include Diamond Sponsor, The Government of New Brunswick, as well as the Government of Canada, GTEC, Pond-Deshpande Centre, and Canada’s Open Data Exchange.

Tickets for GovMaker III can be obtained at: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/conference-govmaker-conference-tickets-26538221535 The agenda can be found at: http://www.govmakerconference.ca/timeline/

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Media contact:

Nick Scott

NBSPRN

506-453-6507

About GovMaker

GovMaker is the premier Open Government conference in eastern Canada. GovMaker advances open government theory and practice by mobilizing knowledge, creating cross-sector relationships, and building the capacity of citizens and governments to engage in open dialogue, open data, and open collaboration.

About NBSPRN

NBSPRN is a partnership between the Government of New Brunswick, the University of New Brunswick, Université de Moncton, Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB), and New Brunswick Community College (NBCC). NBSPRN seeks to advance citizen-engagement and evidence-based policy development through cross-sectoral collaboration.