The proposed workshop will address various aspects of innovation and human centred design in the public sector. Initially an approach for public sector innovation using co-creation methods will be presented. Several examples with a focus on digital collaboration will show cocreation methods in action (including digital formats). Based on this, participant's perspectives as well as best practices will be gathered and discussed. In an interactive session, potential use cases for co-creation of digital public services will be identified and challenges in engaging citizens, entrepreneurs and government body employees will be determined.
The proposed workshop will pursue the following goals:
• Present an approach to innovate public services by developing digital solutions together with users (citizens, entrepreneurs, government body employees).
• Show examples for co-creation in public sector innovation with a focus on digital collaboration services.
• Discuss approaches and examples by gathering multi-dimensional perspectives of workshop participants and exchanging best practice experience.
• Identify and discuss further use cases and criteria for co-creation in public sector innovation.
• Determine challenges when including civil society and governmental bodies in development of public sector innovation.
After the short initial presentation, focus will be set on discussion and interaction: 1) Inspiration: presentation of example approach and projects (15 min).
2) Reflection on presented contents, participant perspectives and best practices (15 min).
3) Interaction in one or several groups, depending on the number of participants (tbd). 4) Wrap-up (5 min).
The workshop will start with a presentation, that will show an example for innovation management in public administration. It will address the topics trend scouting, design thinking, game storming, financing, prototyping, sandboxing, and open innovation.
Several examples in development of digital solutions for public services with a focus on collaboration services will be shown. One example will be a service for virtual C2G interactions in official issues. Another example will show a solution for secure decision making in virtual meetings like town councils. A special focus will be set to digital co-creation formats, which drastically grew in relevance during the pandemic lockdowns.
Depending on the number of participants, the interaction (3) will be carried out in breakout sessions in order to discuss several of the topics mentioned above. Questions that will be discussed in the workshop and potential breakout sessions will be:
• What are potential use cases for co-creation, and which criteria can be applied for selection?
• What are the challenges in co-creating service for public administrations?
• Which effect will the pandemic situation have in a long run (e.g. remote and hybrid formats)?
In the case of a fully digital conference, interactive sessions will be carried out using a digital whiteboard like Miro, Mural or Collaboard. Presentation and results will be documented and shared with participants.
Gerhard Embacher-Köhle is digital strategist, co-creation and innovation expert as well as design thinking facilitator and trainer. He is responsible for innovation management at the Austrian Federal Computing Centre and its co-creation space "BRZ Innovation Factory". In a decade of experience with numerous areas of public administration he developed profound know-how in developing ideas and digital solutions for innovative public services together with citizens and other stakeholders. He holds a degree in Business Computing and previously worked as a Business Analyst and Consultant in several national as well as international projects.