UK Govcamp 2020: Reflections
A day of community and friendship
I went to UK Govcamp 2020 on 18 January. It was at the Ministry of Justice building in London. It was the second time that I’d been to the event, which is an unconference. I wanted to go because I went last year and I had a brilliant day.
Also loads of people who I think are amazing were going to be there.
I had a great day.
It was a different experience to last year. I’m thinking about different things as the result of having a new job, and my state of mind is a bit better.
The main thing that struck me about UK Govcamp this year was the large number people at the event who had given up their time and energy to help me over the past year when I was at the lowest professional ebb I’ve ever experienced. I felt very grateful, and I felt part of a community. I also felt the unconditional support of some friends — friends who I met on the internet but are a bit more than ‘internet friends’ nowadays. Thank you friends.
I kind of wanted to be fairly quiet and just be in the environment. I didn’t feel the need to experience big new ideas on the day, although I know they were there to be experienced. I heard good reports about Cate’s session, John Sheridan’s session, and Richard Pope’s session¹, for example. I have no doubt there were other big ideas around too, in addition to ideas of other sizes.
Something that leapt out at me about the day was how hard the team work to make it as inclusive an event as possible. From the creche to the pitching to the food and so on — this is for everyone. At UK Govcamp you can have the day you want to have. No two attendees’ experiences are the same. There is so much to choose from, and there’s no point in regretting the things you didn’t go to. You don’t even have to go to any of the sessions. Oh, and you won’t get to talk to everybody that you wanted to.
I think UK Govcamp would be a great day to re-live, ‘Groundhog Day’ style, over and over and over again. And when you found a way to break the loop² I’m confident you’d have soaked up enough information and experience to solve all the problems in UK public service.
Pitching
Amanda’s introduction and compering throughout the pitching was some seriously special business. Funny and clear, warm and encouraging. Generous. I had a look through the photos from the event and the section at the beginning gives a sense of the enthusiasm and enjoyment from the team and the positive atmosphere of the first part of the day.
The pitching was epic and the variety was amazing. I noted that at the end of it they reported a 45:55 female:male gender split for pitches, which was an improvement on previous UK Govcamps. I think the continuous encouragement from Amanda for people to pitch worked. Watching from the side of the room, I thought the demographics of the queue at the end was different to the beginning — an unscientific observation but hey I’m pretty sure I’m right. And I thought there was a large number of first time UK Govcampers in the room — another positive sign.
I decided not to pitch myself because I have more than enough of a voice and my idea didn’t have enough of the spirit of contributing something positive. I nearly went up, late on, but then I thought better of it.
Sessions
I sat out the first session because I was a bit fried. I spent some time upstairs with folks. I understand this is called ‘corridor camp’.
Then I went to:
- A diversity and inclusion session (notes here)
- A session about business models and data models (notes here)
- A session about open approaches (notes here)
- Louise and Lizzi’s Book Camp (notes here)
I got something out of all of the sessions. It’s not a competition but the book one was my favourite. Louise put the full list of books that people recommended in the session on Twitter.
I have a few reflections on the sessions overall. First, I would have liked more time for all of them, for a variety of reasons. More time because the topic was so broad and you want to do it justice, or because it took a while to find a common understanding and thread to explore as a group, or because the conversation took a while to get going, or because I could listen to people talking about books they love all day.
Second I struggle with ‘the rule of two feet’ whereby it’s really ok to get up and leave. I don’t disagree with the rule at all, but when people get up to leave I start freaking a bit because I imagine a spontaneous exodus happening where I’m the only person left. I think this is because I am so very English. Could I just get up and walk out without bowing and apologising twenty times? This is definitely an area for personal development.
Third, I find it hard to parse the session grid and make choices. If I get to go to UK Govcamp again I would either like somebody to choose for me, or to roll an 11-sided dice. Actually it’s totally the dice. That’s a great idea, well done Dan.
Despite saying up there ☝️ that there’s no point regretting the sessions you didn’t go to I don’t understand why I didn’t go to Sam’s session on telling stories. Thankfully Sam did an excellent write up:
Conversations
I think I said hello and met more people than last year. People came and said hello to me too, that was lovely.
I had some great conversations during the day and at the social afterwards. Highlights included:
- Talking with Edafe about our shared data challenges and the prospect of ‘governance as a product’.
- Learning about the nose of the cheese from Angharad.
- Dan saying hi and checking in, remembering the conversation we had last year.
- Reassuring Luke about his career because he is young and has a PhD in maths.
- Talking about data magic and plans with Peter. Also I subjected him to my opinions about what good democratic transparency would look like.
- Meeting Vicky who’d recently started work in my former department — nice to see somebody from the UK Parliament at the event.
- It was a real treat to hang out with Esko who is a special soul.
Final thoughts
I did not get any swag³.
Lunch was nice. So nice that I wrote ‘lunch was nice’ in my notebook. Not everything goes in there so you’d better believe it was a nice lunch.
My sincere thanks to the organising team, the camp makers, the sponsors, and all the attendees for making the event possible. I really hope I can go again.
Footnotes
¹ Cate’s session notes here. John Sheridan’s session notes here. Richard Pope’s session notes here.
² Having a ‘perfect’ UK Govcamp by introducing Andie MacDowell to service design or something.
³ Except one solitary sticker from @jukesie.
