Fact: Every GovCity experience is different.
Cohort 1: Austin 2019 SXSW
You can’t entirely claim it was a motley crew that walked into Capital Factory bright-eyed and ready for something, but you can claim it was a curious bunch of mavericks, bold skeptics and infinite minds that sat down for Day One. Half were federal, half were from regions of the commercial and entrepreneurial space no one imagined would join us. From Reddit, Death Water, Spartan Race, Red Hat, Ad Council, Texas A&M University and so many other seemingly disconnected but yet, perfectly paired external voices. Those external voices met an ambitious group of civil servants from all kinds of agencies, Census Bureau, many from DoD and all branches of the military, various pockets of the Department of Homeland Security, General Services Administration, even the Presidential Innovation Fellows found their way into this room. We learned a lot in this experience, namely, to make sure we actually introduce everyone. Yes, it’s true, we were so excited to begin, we actually just…began! Noted, never do that again. Eventually just about everyone met each other, but we’re still receiving feedback forms on that mistake. #Failure.
Since that day, we’ve grown in size, awareness and we’ve even established some written thoughts around what we believe this ecosystem is capable of accomplishing. But to dare suggest we understand enough about what’s being built inside this special ecosystem to develop a vision or a mission would be dismally underestimating the possibility. And so we won’t. We couldn’t even begin to try.
Cohort 2: Boston 2019
In November of 2019 we convened again. This time we called ourselves a cohort, and it felt as such. Nestled in the warmth with cold Boston outside the doors of the Red Hat Open Innovation Labs, more than 60 individuals, this time mostly federal and academic faces, spent 48 powerful hours together. We “graduated” this cohort to be called the GovCityCouncil officially over a beautifully classic dinner, one you’d be surprised to find this many “disruptors” (those who are confused by us would be surprised, at least) in a fancy room like this. Don’t be fooled – we all like process, systems and tradition. We just do not like bad process, systems and traditions. Boston had a unique personality all to itself, quite different than the first GovCity, which was an unofficial graduation executed over tacos and margaritas around 2am, gleefully celebrating that a tribe had been born – or that it always existed and we had just found it. We didn’t know why, but we all knew it was important.
Our second cohort left Boston even more charged than the first, if that’s even possible. It can only be assumed because this gathering was slightly more organized, more concentrated, less distracted with the disconnection from a massive conference like SXSW. But also because many of our alums from the first GovCity joined us this time as leaders, organically immersing the new faces in the group as if they’d known them forever. They served as owners within GovCity 2. They led packs of thinkers, each intentionally scattered all over the city and given their assignment to arrive to X location prior to our first meeting together. During their initial moments together as a pack, they all spoke openly, encouraged the conversation, and much like the first time GovCity became an experience, this group (new and alum) didn’t focus on what we were up against – this group was positively obsessed with the act of defining what we were FOR. The experiment that was GovCity 2 was a massive success. No, we can’t share the metrics, we watched them unfold.
