It’s a big week for the public interest technology sector — the Code for America Summit is upon us! Several USDR teammates will be presenting at this year’s conference, and even more will be there to check out sessions and social hours.
We’d love to say hi! Check out the places we know we’ll be this week. Keep an eye out for the USDR teammates on the ground:
USDR teammates attending the summit: Hillary Hartley, Tina Walha, Jessica Watson, Krista Canellakis, Rebecca Heywood, Marcie Chin, Ty Hendrickson, Aditya Sridhar, Madel Leal
Sessions:
Shared principles to modernize hiring and recruiting
Tuesday, May 16, 11:30 AM — 12:30 PM in Congressional A & B
Rebecca Heywood, Governments Team Lead, U.S. Digital Response
Angelica “Angie” Quirarte, Federal Partnerships Director, Tech Talent Project
Alex Lawrence, Chief People Officer, City of Boston
Michelle Kwasny, Research and Design Strategy, Bloom Works
A number of cities and states are in the midst of rethinking their hiring and recruiting systems and processes. What are the challenges they face? What steps are they taking? What has worked thus far? And, how might we learn from each other’s mistakes and successes? Based on our collective knowledge, can we devise a shared set of principles to guide this work?
Beyond heroics: Burnout in public interest tech and what we can do about it
Tuesday, May 16, 4:00–5:00 PM in the Palladian Room
Tina Walha, Chief Partnerships Officer, U.S. Digital Response
Ayushi Roy, Deputy Director, New Practice Lab, New America
Corey Mahoney, Director of Content Strategy, Bloom Works
Public interest technologists have been in crisis mode — especially under the stressors of COVID-19 — to show what’s possible, navigate rapid change, and make government work in new ways. Many have risen to the occasion for weeks or years. What happens when adrenaline wears off, brains and bodies tire, or heroics aren’t enough? This workshop will focus on preventing and recovering from burnout personally and as a field. How do we mature into a field where people can spend a career? We’ll discuss experiences, share resources, and make space for participants to share ideas for how to design practices and organizations for sustainability.
Open Social Hours:
People of color social hour
Tuesday, May 16, 6:30–8:30 PM at New Heights Restaurant
An inclusive event for anyone who identifies as a person of color — including Black, East Asian, Indigenous, Latinx, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and other underrepresented groups — hosted by Code for America and Nava PBC. RSVP here.
Work on things that matter: a networking hour
Wednesday, May 17, 4:00–5:00 PM at Omni Shoreham Hotel
Have you ever considered using your job to make positive, lasting change in the world? Now more than ever, we’re seeing growing numbers of professionals bringing best practices from the tech industry to government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and public benefit companies to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The hosts, Code for America and United States Digital Service, will have folks from their recruiting teams to help answer any questions you may have about getting involved. RSVP here.
FailFest
Wednesday, May 17, 7:00–9:00 PM at Open City
Failure is inevitable — rather than hiding those failures or pretending they didn’t happen, let’s celebrate and learn from them! Join us for a FailFest, hosted by the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation, where we invite you to share some of your most frustrating civic/government tech failure stories in an open-mic, off-the-record format. RSVP here.
HOPS Rooftop Social Hour
Wednesday, May 17, 5:30–7:00 PM at Roofers Union
USDR is joining the Humans of Public Service and our civic technology friends for a hosted social hour celebrating the public servants who build and transform government systems. While this event is invite-only, we hope to see you all either at the event or nearby!
Hosted by:
The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Coding it Forward
U .S. Digital Response
Govern for America
Partnership for Public Service
Technologists for the Public Good
Tech Talent Project
