Welcome to 2013!

We're kicking off the Gov 2.0 lunchtime event series for the year with two fantastic presentations:

• “R.I.P. to the media release, hello crowd sources” on the use of social media in real-time emergency communications by Darren Cutrupi of the ACT Emergency Services Agency, and
• "The British Invasion - how Gov 2.0 is taking the UK by storm" on the state of Government 2.0 in the UK, from British-based Ben Fowkes of Delib UK.

You can view some previous Gov 2.0 lunchtime event content at http://soundcloud.com/opengov/

Please note, we do not provide food or refreshments, however you are welcome to eat beforehand, or join us for lunch afterwards.

Date: 14th February 2013

Time: 1200 - 1300

Place: To be confirmed

Cost: Free

Format:

• Brief introduction and welcome: 2 mins
• Two excellent speakers to present some cutting edge talks. 20 mins each.
• Open mike for attendee lightening talks on cool projects they are involved with: 15-20 mins.
• Please note: No food/drink allowed.

Speakers:

Ben Fowkes leads the consultancy team at Delib UK, a digital democracy company based in the UK, helping governments, the NHS, the police and local authorities to take part in meaningful citizen consultation and engagement online. He has worked extensively with Scottish, UK, Canadian and Australian Governments, as well as private sector clients such as National Grid.

Ben speaks regularly to bodies in the UK about online engagement, most recently presenting to the UK police foundation at their third annual conference on connecting the police with the public.

Ben will be speaking about the Gov 2.0 situation in the UK. He will unfortunately not be able to speak about the UK GovCamp as it was delayed due to snow.

Disclaimer: This event's organiser, Craig Thomler, operates Delib Australia, a subsidiary of Delib UK, and is hosting Ben in Australia. Ben will not be giving a corporate presentation, instead focusing on the development of the Gov 2.0 movement in the UK.

Darren Cutrupi has been the Manager, Media and Community Information at the ACT Emergency Services Agency for the past nine-and-a-half years.

In that time he has taken the ESA from having no real system to provide the community with alerts, updates and warnings to now be an industry leader in the provision of timely and accurate public notifications of emergency incidents.

This includes the ESA website, social media accounts, an internal process the ESA calls THE SPOT (The Single Point Of Truth) and an internally designed app to take care of all the technical side of publishing and distribution information to a range of sources, platforms and people in real time.

Before joining the ESA, Darren spent fifteen years working in commercial radio in NSW, ACT, QLD and TAS, initially as an announcer then as a journalist at stations including 2UE, 2HD, 2CC, 2CA, 104.7 and MIX 106.3. Darren reported from the scene of the Old Canberra Hospital Implosion and won a radio industry award (RAWARD) for his work as the local journalist at 2XL Cooma during the Thredbo Landslide.

Darren has built several websites using WordPress and is also a massive Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles fan.