Social Media Week

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