Watch Fergal Coleman and a panel including John Nevins, Sekhar Vanka, Michael Fagan and Ashay Prabhu as we discuss how the latest wave of disruptive technologies will impact the local government sector.
About this webinar
The Macroeconomic shifts associated with the latest disruptive technologies will impact every local government. Senior leaders, including politicians, CEOs and General Managers, must consider how their organisations will be affected and fast-track plans accordingly.
This webinar is a must-watch for CEOs, senior managers, and digital and IT leaders in every council looking to build an organisation of the future.
Moderator: Fergal Coleman
Panellists: John Nevins, Sekhar Vanka, Ashay Prabhu, Michael Fagan
This event has passed. The recording is below.
Why watch?
You’ll hear about disruptive technologies you need to watch out for including AI, Infrastructure modelling, robotics, blockchain, and more.
We’ll look at how councils will operate differently in the future and imagine a future where:
- Smart contracts make property transactions, permits, and licence applications significantly more efficient.
- AI based modelling platforms enable funding decisions and scenarios to be automated.
- Robotics improve services and worker safety in areas like waste management, street cleaning, and maintenance of public spaces.
- Civic engagement and community consultations are enhanced through AI driven digital platforms.
- Rates are paid in crypto currencies.
- Digital wallets facilitate easier and more transparent payments for council services.
- AI and predictive analytics inform urban planning decisions.
We’ll discuss some of the factors that make successful digital transformation so difficult in local government and how they can be overcome.
And finally, we’ll provide insights on how councils can plan for this change and what simple and practical next steps they can take.
Our Panellists
Join the Connected Citizen moderator Fergal Coleman and our expert panellists for an exciting and thought-provoking discussion.
John Nevins
John Nevins has been Chief Executive Officer at the City of Kingston from May 2005 for 14 years. Before joining Kingston, John spent the previous 10 years working in local government in metropolitan Melbourne.
John is an insightful, results-oriented leader, with extensive experience as a CEO and diverse public sector experience. John has an established track record in corporate and operational leadership and driving financial strategies that secure the long-term financial performance of large, complex organisations. John is a strong advocate for embracing digital technologies to improve public sector service delivery, during his time at Kingston, John mobilised the organisation to identify digital solutions to improve service delivery and engagement with the community including online consultation platforms, chatbots to respond to customer enquiries and digital tools that eliminated the need for paper building plans.
John is the current Chair of Symphony3.
Ashay Prabhu
Infrastructure modeling specialist who pioneered strategic asset management in Australian governments and is also an International Advisor to the Govt Finance Association in the United States (GFOA). Ashay's passion is in Al based SAM platforms- that can model the future and provide politicians with future choices- from climate, risk and vulnerability perspective. This platform will enable cities globally in strengthening financial planning, credit rating for municipal bonds and become an integral part of setting rates and charges.
Michael Fagan
Michael Fagan has over 25 years’ experience and is a seasoned Non-Executive Director serving on multiple Boards and as an advisor to CEOs and Managing Directors.
As Chief Transformation Officer for Village Roadshow, Michael led the transition from public company to Private Equity ownership, re-architecting the organisation for a digital future and completely overhauling physical and technology operations throughout the country. This included a rebuild of network and infrastructure, migration of core services to Cloud, and a complete Cyber uplift.
Previously he was Chief Technology Officer for the Kmart Group - a $10bn retailer consisting of the Kmart, Target and Catch brands in Australia. Kmart is part of Wesfarmers, a US$70bn retail group. As CTO he led the IT, Advanced Analytics, Engineering, Data and Product Management teams supporting 50,000 employees in 500+ stores delivering more than ten million customer interactions every week and selling one billion units each year.
Sekhar Vanka
Sekhar is a hands-on CTO with many years’ experience leading technical teams in SaaS organisations focused largely on asset management. Recent roles included working with Assetic, Brightly and Siemens. He has played a critical role in envisioning, architecting, and executing SaaS solutions in all these roles. Local governments, utilities, and transport companies around the globe use these solutions, transforming how they manage and optimise their infrastructure assets. Sekhar believes a critical part of his role is ensuring the business stays at the cutting edge, and he is constantly evaluating emerging technologies and trends and making strategic recommendations for their adoption. Sekhar recently joined Symphony3 as its Chief Technology Officer.
About the Big Ideas Report
The Annual ARK Invest Big Ideas report is well-known to tech investors looking to understand the coming wave of disruptive technologies. Every year the report highlights “the technological breakthroughs evolving today and creating the potential for super-exponential growth tomorrow.”
“…. convergence among disruptive technologies will define this decade. …. major technology platforms—Artificial Intelligence, Infrastructure/Climate Modelling, Public Blockchains, Multiomic Sequencing, Energy Storage, and Robotics—are coalescing and should transform global economic activity. Technological convergence could create tectonic macroeconomic shifts more impactful than the first and second industrial revolutions. Globally, real economic growth could accelerate from 3% on average during the past 125 years to more than 7% during the next 7 years as robots reinvigorate manufacturing, robotaxis transform transportation, and artificial intelligence amplifies knowledge worker productivity.”
About the Connected Citizen Webinar Series
The Connected Citizen Webinar Series, brought to you by Symphony3, is a platform for discussing digital transformation and disruptive technologies within the realm of local government. This series curates sessions with industry and technology experts from across the globe, and senior leaders and managers within local government. It encourages diverse thinking and fosters honest and open dialogues on all things digital. The goal is to equip local government leaders with the insights and knowledge necessary to navigate technology and business decisions effectively. Ultimately better digital strategies and decisions positively impact local communities, enhancing the quality of life and accessibility to services for all citizens.