Me and Ken were certain from the start that we wanted certain things from this event.  We chose a Saturday so that people who can’t blag innovation through their job role could come.  We wanted the involvement of senior management and frontline staff.  We wanted involvement from elected members.  Sadly, we failed a little on point 2 (more on that later).  However, the Saturday worked wonders and we had just under 80 people meet at York’s National Railway Museum, including a number of elected members who attended a parallel session facilitated by Cllr Tim Cheetham (Barnsley) and Cllr Simon Cooke (Bradford).  I certainly felt that the attendence of so many elected members really enriched the debate and the audience.  It was nice to break away from a techie/comms event and get more input.

This event’s timing was crucial.  The first LocalGovCamp since the election, we knew about the cuts and efficiency drives that lie ahead.  Innovation isn’t just something that will happen now.  It’s something that has to happen.

I’m not going to try and summarise everything that happened on the day.  There’s plenty about it on the website and we’ll be adding a lot more very soon.  You can also check out Dave Briggs summary here.  I think I’ll keep this blog the way I like it and make it all about me.

I ran two sessions on the day.  The first, run with Al Smith and Ben Proctor, looked at emergency planning and the role of social media in this.  Ben has some background in the emergency planning process and Al led a similar workshop at UKGovCamp, so we were off to a good start.  We didn’t just talk about social media – we spoke about the role innovation could have in mapping resources, mapping crisis points and giving staff the opportunity to work from home.  The conclusions were that emergency planning chiefs really need to take the role of social media more seriously – a hard challenge when so many heads of communications and chief executives seem to ignore it, or treat it as a novelty comms issue.

I thought this workshop would be the bright one of the day.  However, I never expected my session on “Just a game?  Do social and geo-dependant games have an impact in local authorities”  I based it on my recent blog post and the response I’d received from it.  The workshop was very popular and the discussions from it spilled over into the after event drinks and then into the twittersphere.  It’s clear that this is a can of worms that’s been opened and that gaming can, and is, having an impact on local authority activity.  Additionally, there was talk of developing gaming content for local government engagement processes.   However, progress was hampered.  Firstly, there were concerns expressed about security in some games and, more importantly, the perceived security risks that many council gatekeepers might have in allowing their implementation.  The final point was asking how we could expect council chiefs to take games seriously when they don’t even really take social media seriously.

See the theme here?  I was disappointed that we hadn’t managed to get the chief execs and directors we hoped for along – it’s their drives that shape the organisation.  I was also disappointed that we didn’t have many frontline workers there – the people who can tell you what works and what doesn’t on the ground.  Social media, social gaming, innovation, mobile devices, mobile working and new models of communication simply have to be taken more seriously, not just be enthusiasts, but by the people that really matter.

We’re already looking at how we can put our heads together to plan the next move.  Its clear that, in Yorkshire & Humber and beyond, there are real issues and that the debate is starting to move forward.  However, as the situation becomes urgent, the debate needs to reach the senior areas of local authorities.

I’d be interested to know ideas people might have of how we move this forward – post them here, on the LGCYH website or in any other place you think people look.  The key message for me is this:  Look what we can achieve working together.  Now let’s widen that net so that everyone can get involved.

Sadly, neither of the stories looked at facebook and innovation from the point of view of adults.  It’s generally accepted that young people should be contacted through social networking (65% of councils agree, according to the MJ article) but I wonder how that would change if it was looked at from an older persons perspective?

Steve Dale looked at this during an IDeA presentation recently (I wasn’t there, I just read the blogs and slides), citing Ofcom statistics that even in the ‘over 65′ catagory, 3% of people have a social network profile.  In America, facebook recently released statistics showing that, while 52% of facebook users are in the 18-25 catagory, only 15% are under 18.

My own facebook network backs this up.  Using the wonderful socialistics application, I can see that, while unrepresentative of society as a whole, of my 261 friends, only 9% are 18 or under and 18% are over 40.  As websites like Forces Reunited become more social, maybe we can expect these figures to rise.  Certainly, as the 50+ year olds become the 60+ year olds, the next decade will see social network statistics soar amoung older people.

That’s why I was drpessed to see that only 33% of councils have actually tried contacting young people using social networks.  Indeed, my local authority colleagues report that facebook is dismissed at best and blocked at worse.  If  we’re missing out on this obvious community, we’re certainly missing the failed to reach groups.