Innovators from across the globe came together to share their work and connect with government leaders and investors on September 13th, 2017 at the Hammer Theatre in downtown San Jose, California. Innovate Your State, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public participation and government outcomes hosted the 3rd Annual Civic & Gov Tech Showcase partnering with City of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and supported by Microsoft, Knight Foundation and Comcast.
In the November 2016 election, voters in California approved the first ever crowdsourced idea to be put on the ballot. Prop 54 - The “California Legislature Transparency Act” is based on an idea that was submitted by Sam Blakeslee to the Fix California Challenge, Innovate Your State’s online crowdsourcing contest with the intention of finding ideas on how to fix California’s governance problems.
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, recognized Innovate Your State’s Fix California Challenge as part of the 2017 Bright Ideas in Government initiative. The Fix California Challenge is part of a cohort that includes programs from all levels of government — school districts, county, city, state, federal agencies, and tribal nations, as well as public-private partnerships — that represent the next horizon in government work to improve services, solve problems, and work on behalf of citizens.
OpenGov and Innovate Your State announced that five California counties - Kern, Sutter, Placer, Napa and Mendocino - accepted grants offered by Innovate Your State to use the OpenGov platform for financial transparency and performance intelligence. With the addition of these organizations, there are now 17 California counties that have deployed, or are in the process of deploying, OpenGov to give over 10 million residents instant access to their county’s finances in an intuitive, digital format.
In 2015, Innovate Your State hosted the first annual Civic Tech Showcase at Hero City in San Mateo. The event brought together entrepreneurs, investors, and government leaders to showcase innovation and encourage collaboration and support of new technologies to improve government. The event included pitches from 20 dynamic organizations each working to innovate government in an unique way and companies that showcased their offerings to investors, government leaders, and community advocates.