Connect with us on Wednesday, April 8 for “Civic Tech: Tech for Social Impact”, where we will explore how civic technologies can make it easier for people to find and use services, engage with governments, and self-organise to deliver socioeconomic change in their communities. 

Hosted by The Centre for Civic Innovation with support of University of Technology Sydney (UTS), this event is designed to raise awareness about the potential of Civic Tech and support investment into its development in Australia. We will also be announcing some Civic Tech incubators on the night. 

The event will be held online at 5.30pm-7pm (AEDT). We will have an amazing line-up of speakers and founders who will share their stories on the night, including:

• An international panel with Tiago Peixoto from the World Bank and Rebecca Rumbul from My Society

• An Australian panel with Amelia Loye from The Centre for Civic Innovation, Matt Sawkill from Code for Australia, Nigel Abbott from Fundsition and Stephen Rutter from the Scale Institute

• Seven founders of Civic Tech companies in Australia.

This great lineup will be facilitated by Ross Dawson, globally recognised as a leading futurist and board member of Centre for Civic Innovation.

Civic Tech is a global social movement, which has been less developed in Australia until now.

In Europe, My Society has run the annual TicTec The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference since 2015. Google and Facebook sponsor the event which features Civic Tech experts from the World Bank, The United Nations, Open Government Partnership and international leaders as well as public servants, technologists and investors. It also showcases tools being used to address social challenges in communities across the globe.

In Taiwan, there is a week-long festival called Civic Technology Fest, and Civic Tech is still a hot topic at South By South West (SXSW).

Local governments across Europe, America, Africa and India also encourage Civic Tech’s development and purchase solutions to address issues in their communities. Some are working with the community in labs established through social impact investment and community grants like this lab set up in Nigeria or this Civic Hub in Hackney in the United Kingdom. Others are setting up their own incubators like San Francisco’s Office of Civic Innovation.

Social impact investors and philanthropists are also interested in these solutions, with some like the Knight Foundation forming funds to accelerate their development or establishing labs in communities across the world. Universities have also been known to incubate and sponsor the development of these solutions, and many of these universities are offering solutions to communities and counties across Europe.

In Australia, there’s been a surge of hackathons, but the pathways for civic innovators who want to develop the technical solutions conceived and built during these events are unclear.

The Centre for Civic Innovation wants to help change that. We are currently building up a network of organisations in Australia to support the development of Civic Tech and using this information to map potential pathways for civic innovators in Australia.

This event will be the first in a series of events by The Centre for Civic Innovation, which will explore how civic innovators can contribute to their community.

It would be great to see you there!

Amelia Loye,

Executive Director, Centre for Civic Innovation