What We Do

There are lots of people in and around government who care about making it work better.

TransformGov Talks provide a space for those people to meet. Each monthly meet-up features presentations and discussions about innovation in the public sector or great examples of impactful delivery of policy or services. This is followed by plenty of time to chat after - with free pizza!

If you’ve ever been to UKGovCamp, OneTeamGov or similar events, you’ll know the energy that comes from meeting and sharing ideas with fellow reformers. We want to maintain that energy throughout the year by developing this new community.

Whether you are (or used to be) a civil or public servant, an external consultant or practitioner; hail from academia, a think tank or civil society - if you care about reforming the public sector so it works better to serve the public, we’d love you to join us.

Meet The Organisers

David

David Durant is a long-time supporter of the government technology and transformation communities, starting with National Hack the Government Day and Young Rewired State back in 2009.

Since then he has worked for mySociety, the Greater London Authority, HackIT (Hackney Council digital team) and most notably spent five years working for the Government Digital Service.

David has been on the committee for GovCamp, the UK’s largest government-focused unconference, for several years, focusing on volunteer management.

His main hopes for TransformGov Talks are (1) to ensure there is a good mix of future proposals and examples of real-world transformative delivery and (2) to reinvigorate the in-person government transformation community, which he feels has been lacking since the pandemic.

Derek

Derek Alton is passionate about making government work better for people and the planet. He has spent the last 15 years exploring this work from different angles, both inside and alongside government.

After studying public sector innovation in academia, Derek spent 6 years at the heart of digital transformation work for the Government of Canada. Through this work, he became connected to global communities like OneTeamGov and got hooked.

In 2022, he moved to the UK to do this work full-time as Community Insights Lead at Apolitical, connecting public servants around the world with innovative ideas and practices to improve government.

Gavin

Gavin Freeguard has spent most of the last decade thinking about how better use of data and digital could help make government work better for the people it serves.

A freelancer, he was previously programme director at the Institute for Government (where he is still an associate), and is policy associate at Connected by Data, special adviser at the Open Data Institute and member of the Public Digital network.

He has also done work for organisations including mySociety, Full Fact, the Ada Lovelace Institute and Apolitical, and in previous lives worked for the Labour Party, the Media Standards Trust and the Orwell Prize.

He is also a member of several advisory groups to government around data and information and the steering group of the Open Government Network. He tries to make data fun through the Data Bites event series and the ODI’s occasional data gameshow, the Data Game.

Duncan

Duncan Kavanagh is a New Partnerships Manager at Apolitical.

He is driven by the opportunity to bring Apolitical’s exceptional learning offering to public servants globally, helping the team to build and maintain high quality partnerships with a variety of stakeholders.

He has a degree in Psychology from University College London, and has worked previously in Market Research, Data Insight and Audience Intelligence.

Georgia

Georgia is a PhD researcher at LSE, studying personal data stores amidst the broader question of how the (changing) value(s) of data, alongside 'decentralisation', are forging new relations between individuals and society.

During her PhD studies she has been a Research Fellow with the Open Data Institute and assisted the Data for Policy community with communications.

Prior to returning to education during the pandemic, Georgia worked for a number years with startups in the media and technology ecosystem as an Analyst and Brand Partnership Director.

In another life, she was a sixth form teacher.

She is still passionate about equipping the next generation with the mindset and skills required to meet future challenges and is currently a school governor with the Harris Federation.

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