Week 29: a chance meeting at the AI for Good Summit
I’m working with GovTech Barbados to help them get their first team in place and start building some beacon services. It’s a swirly, circular engagement that keeps on giving.
Before I get into that, I want to say thanks and goodbye, for now, to my Public Digital colleague Gurps, who’s been so great on this engagement while balancing lots of things. I’ll miss working with you, and I hope you have a good break over the summer.
This weeknote covers the last two weeks, which have been about:
- sifting CVs for the roles we’re hiring for
- a chance meeting with our Barbados clients at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva
- two weddings, one couple
- a call with Open CVRS about digital public goods
- working out how to get a team in place to start doing the work
Sifting CVs
I always find sifting CVs hard. Every CV represents a person I want to treat with respect and compassion, and that weighs heavily on me. We’ve been iterating our thinking as we go, and that feels like playing with people’s hopes and dreams.
We received over 300 applications across seven roles. It’s good to know there are people interested in the user-centred design roles, and we’re now looking at how to bring people in and start building longer-term capability for GovTech. Right now, though, we’re focusing on recruiting local developer talent.
The AI for Good Global Summit
Organised by the United Nations, the summit has been running since 2017. It was my first visit, and I was there to network and make new friends in Geneva, as I think there’s a market for transformation work in the NGOs based there. Team Barbados had other plans. The CEO of GovTech was there, along with the Minister and the Permanent Secretary. I bumped into them in the corridor and arranged a chat. Several rearranged times and locations later, we eventually met on Friday lunchtime.
We had a good chat. It was a good opportunity to watch the CEO tell the Minister what we’ve been doing and what we plan to do next.
Two weddings, one couple
Alongside all the Barbados and Geneva shenanigans, one of my best mates was getting married later that day. I needed to get the 4:30pm train to the wedding, and there was no other really viable way to get there. With the Barbados meeting getting pushed further and further back, my stress levels rose.
The wedding was a two-in-one affair: a blessing and a Nepali wedding.
Open CVRS
Earlier this week, Abisola, Gurps and I had a call with Open CVRS, who build a digital public good for civil registration. We talked about collaborating with them in Barbados. It’s early days, but we’ll see.
Getting a team in place
Towards the end of the week, we had a call with the CEO of GovTech about the next phase. I’m not counting any chickens yet, but fingers crossed, we’ll start work in August.