City of Toronto Briefing events looks at digital acceleration and innovative procurement in terms of COVID recovery.

TECHNATION has continued with its ongoing partnership with the City of Toronto, but in early spring, partnered to offer comprehensive programming focused on post-COVID Response, Recovery and Re-build.

The largest event included Setting the Stage, a
special Re-Imagine the City of Toronto briefing
event with forward-thinking City of Toronto leaders sharing their COVID-19 response and recovery approach as they rebuild government services.

This curated dialogue brought government and industry together to learn how the technology community can provide business value, identify specific opportunities for co-creation and to cultivate a more effective partnership-based approach.

Topics throughout the series included/will include:

• Sharing of the City’s COVID response and recovery plans for the next 3 – 6 – 12 months;
• Outlining of the City’s Rebuild approach with a strong digital footprint;
• How ‘agile procurement’ is defined post-COVID; and
• How should industry plan differently and how can government and industry collaborate andco-create in new ways.

  TECHNATION and the City of Toronto have worked together to host three events in this new series and will conduct a planning session in July to map out the extended series for Fall 2020.

  TECHNATION and City of Toronto kicked off the Re-imagine series on April 15, 2020. Industry thought leaders from member companies Lixar, Tata and TELUS presented via a virtual session, to present proven digital technology case studies and forward-thinking concepts that could have a direct and positive impact on the transformation of the City going forward. The focus was on generating ideas and actionable examples from the private sector in accelerating delivery of services digitally and this series will continue in 2020-21.

  On May 11t we hosted the large scale Setting the Stage event that included almost 150 members of TECHNATION and the broader tech community. The goal was to create an open and transparent value exchange between industry and government and identify opportunities for innovative, citizen- centric solutions and collaboration, and co-creation.

  City of Toronto presenters included: Josie Scioli, Deputy City Manager, Corporate Services, City of Toronto; and Lawrence Eta, Chief Technology Officer, City of Toronto CTO. In attendance for the Q&A session included Heather Taylor, CFO and Andrew Flynn, Controller, City of Toronto.

TECHNATION Industry Insider – Member Newsletter

Thank you to our sponsors Microsoft, Aptum, Pure Storage and Tanium for your support.

Immediately following the City of Toronto briefing, presenting sponsor, Lisa Carroll,
National Public Sector Lead, Microsoft Canada, led the TECHNATION City of Toronto Procurement Improvement & Innovation Working Group to help drive the work of Canada’s largest city towards agile, problem-based procurement practices that have the potential to take advantage of the technologies our industry has to offer. The conversation was driven around finding concrete recommendations for the City of Toronto team. This is an outcomes-based process, that will culminate in a TECHNATION Thought Leadership Recommendation document to be circulated to both the federal and Ontario Public Sector Business Committees.

We believe that through effective partnerships between the public and private sectors, the goals of the City’s Technology Strategy can be achieved.

In July, TECHNATION staff and the City of Toronto will work together to identify activities and events for Fall-Winter and begin planning and program design.