As Tim O’Reilly noted, government, at its core, is about doing together what we can’t do alone.

In the past few years, New York City has positioned itself as a premier city for technology startups and technocratic government policy. In 2012, with 1 in 5 new jobs in America were created in NY State, New York led the nation in new job creation. At the same time, NYC further cemented its roots in innovation through a first-in-the-nation open data legislation and further expanding entrepreneurial opportunity for all.

2013 is a critical time for innovation and having businesses involved. This conversation will layout the landscape of opportunity and engagement, including these issues:

• How in 2013, citizens will change the course of history — this year’s election and the next administration.
• How 2012 was a turning point for bottom-up and top-down collaboration (a la Super Storm Sandy).
• How NYC is using collective action to innovate and solve challenges (BigApps, Open Data Poli Hack, and Reinvent Payphones).
• How tech and social entrepreneurs will cement the dual opportunity of economic opportunity for all New Yorkers and build a better democracy.

Code For America and IDEO will present their perspectives and initiative for how citizens and businesses can innovate government, followed by interaction amongst a panel of experts:

• Noel Hidalgo, Code For America’s NYC Program Mgr. & Executive Dir. of Open NY Forum
• Beth Viner, Associate Partner, IDEO
• Jessica Lawrence, Executive Director of New York Tech Meetup
• Lara Torvi, Communications Manager, Governance and External Affairs, NYC Dept of IT and Telecomm
• Betsy Scherzer, Senior Project Manager, NYC Economic Development Corporation
• Daniel Latorre, Founder, of The Wise City. Senior Fellow, for Digital Placemaking at Project for Public Spaces