That will make TiECon one of only a handful of conferences in the country including a focus on government-facing technology and its business culture. The components of the track, which will happen the morning of May 5 in Santa Clara, Calif., will cover government’s needs, the funding and venture capital ecosystem, and the international outlook.
Samir Mitra, chair of the gov tech track, said TiECon is interested in including conversations about the space going forward. That’s because of a growing demand in the marketplace driven by the expectations of citizens and advances in innovation in places like Singapore and Estonia.
"The expectations are focused on convenience, less time and ease of interaction," Mitra told Government Technology via email. "Again, here the mobile phone apps that we use a lot like Uber, Spotify, ApplePay, touch-button [for ID], etc., have changed the bar in people’s minds. My daughter always asks me … 'Can’t we pay for highway tolls through a mobile phone, when I pay for Uber transport that way?'"
Those components will feature some prominent voices in the emerging gov tech space, including:
- Ann Dunkin, chief information officer of Santa Clara County;
- Hardik Bhatt, chief information officer of the state of Illinois;
- Jay Nath, chief innovation officer of San Francisco;
- Ron Bouganim, founder and managing partner of the Govtech Fund;
- Venkatesan Ashok, consulate general of India; and
- Siim Sikkut, chief information officer of Estonia.
