The Digital Marketplace
An event hosted by Stratford on District Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council on 12th March 2010 at the Heritage Motor Centre, Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwick, CV35 0BJ from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
Why?
Both Stratford and Solihull were awarded Beacon status for their work in respect of digital inclusion. However the work we are doing with our partners plays an essential part in the transformation of our Council services. We are using this event to share this work and demonstrate some of the key projects in respect of transforming service delivery and increasing digital inclusion around the needs of our customers.
Our partners which include the NHS, NHS Direct (West Midlands) Coventry and Wolverhampton Universities, Warwickshire Police, Volunteer Action, BT, the West Midlands Ambulance Trust, members of our LSP and Councils from across the West Midlands region, as well as key private sector suppliers will be present to demonstrate the work we are doing to improve the quality of life for our residents and workers and improve the experiences for visitors.
You will also have an opportunity to see the work we are doing with our communities in respect of increasing local participation and to provide our residents and communities with the tools and capabilities to solve their own problems.
The marketplace will have the following themes:-
·Promoting and enabling independent living
·Increasing public participation in the way services are delivered and developed
·Increasing opportunities for learning and increasing knowledge
·Strengthening the Local Economy and encouraging investment
There will be over 70 market stalls showcasing our work with officers on hand to provide advice and guidance to local authorities on our approaches, successes and lessons learned.
You will be able to meet with strategic leads from our councils and partners, elected members as well as the opportunity to discuss projects with development and delivery officers ranging from Total Place, front line service delivery improvements, community projects, deprivation mapping, self-managed community learning programmes, the Warwickshire Direct Partnership which uses a single CRM across all Councils in Warwickshire, through to our regional plans for providing a single regional solution in respect of the increase of migrant and transient workers and our joint work with universities in respect of e-tourism
There will be demonstrations covering areas such as intergenerational work, independent living solutions, connecting our communities programme, joint work with social housing partners including rural community housing projects designed to improve skills and job opportunities, providing free or subsidised broadband in high-rise blocks, interactive poster developments using RFID technology through to our plans in respect of e-tourism and integrated health services.
We will showcase the work we are doing on increasing back office efficiencies and automation to reduce duplication. You will have the opportunity to see demonstrations on how we have automated certain key administrative systems (mileage, subsistence, annual leave, sickness) which have reduced administrative burdens significantly through to the plans we have for developing a single 'tell us once' system across all service areas, interactive on-line public participation meetings and the work that we have done using Lean Systems Thinking in areas such as Planning, Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services and life events.
The following link provides a snapshot of an earlier marketplace event held in 2008. Whilst this event was much smaller, the following provides a flavour of what you can expect:- http://blip.tv/file/1625240/
Highlighting Issues
The event will be covered by the Municipal Journal and Birmingham Post as we want to use the event to highlight the growing issues for rural areas in respect of skills gaps, poor connectivity and lack of knowledge about services against our plans to improve quality of life through our partnership plans and activities. Through this event we aim to :-
·Raise the profile of digital inclusion as a relevant topic to local authorities and their partners
·Position digital inclusion as relevant to CAA and the performance management framework
·Engage senior level representatives from local authorities, their partners and sector organisations to highlight the growing issues for rural areas in accessing services and increasing skills and job opportunities
·Highlight the importance of robust connectivity to rural economies and their development and prosperity.
Picture: A busy marketplace fruit stall surrounded by customers with thanks to alessandro_pinna for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.
| What next? • Subscribe to iNews • E-mail us your ideas/thoughts | More Articles • Are You Experienced? • Who said all pop-ups need to be blocked? • All consuming Google? |
Will there be a space for people coming along to put up posters about their own initiatives? Or will people be able to make comments on the stalls / overall event. I hope so - a day like this deserves to be as interactive and creative as possible!
Jon Harvey
http://smallcreativeideas.blogspot.com/
jon@jonharveyassociates.co.uk
Firstly thank you for promoting our event and yes our aim is that it is fully interactive and you will be able to provide feedback throughout the day, comment via Twitter and for those who prefer more traditional approach there will be feedback forms and of course officers from both councils and our partners will be present to assist and further explain the work we are doing and what we are trying to achieve for our communities.
Balvinder - forgive me for 'nudging' you a little but you say that officers and partners will be present " to assist and further explain the work"... This and other words like 'showcase' and demonstrate sounds one way.
Where will the citizens get a chance to explain what they want and for them to assist the council and its partners in providing them (the public) with more of what they need and want...?