THE ORIGIN OF GOVCITY

It all started when…

Born in late 2018 and officially launched in 2019, GovCity arrived at SXSW in Austin, Texas, a complete unknown. We were gifted free space to operate within Capital Factory and worked fiercely to create an experience with no ultimate understanding of our mission, but realizing it was critically important to withhold our need to figure it out immediately.

Everyone you ask about GovCity, will explain it differently. And if you ask us about GovCity, we’ll tell you that’s exactly how we like it. We prefer to be intentionally vague, not only because it attracts the boldest, most creative and curious minds, but because we hate expectations. Not because we don’t have high standards, but because we like to blow them away. As humans, we understand that every little slice of information is an opportunity to talk yourself out of something that intimidates, frightens, or freezes the best of all of us. And we want to save you from yourself. So we are…intentionally vague.

Then there’s the fact that every single GovCity, is different. We can’t tell you what to expect from start to finish, because we’ve purposefully created a scenario for you (and us) in which we’re all going to find out at the very same time.

Of our origin story, we’re not entirely sure the moment GovCity fully came to be even a fleck of what it is today. It could have been in the two years Molly Cain worked at Homeland Security, immersing into the culture and observing common and frequent obstacles that plague even the most tenured civil servants. The hacks, legal loopholes, trust exercises and lengthy workarounds to preserve projects becomes nearly a job itself when an organization is as large as this. The realization that finding – or for some, building -- an ecosystem with which to trust and rely on, a group that understood the power an infinite momentum could have on a longterm challenge, is well worth the elbow grease necessary to pick the football up and run it just a bit more down the line before handing it to the next person. How so many things would be different in a government scenario if only there was a supportive culture that was for something and not always serving against. To be sure, those ecosystems do exist, they’re scattered throughout the government, local, state and federal. Innovators, disruptors, mavericks, change agents, however they define themselves, do eventually find each other. And they are finding each other.

But what if there was a way to find the others, that have found each other? And in the process, encourage and invite the rest of our infinite minds out to join us? What then, if we began to form the ecosystem that unites in many ways, but under one roof? The outputs from this collaboration have so much potential, we don’t have enough room to muse about it. If you were to force us to identify the reason we exist, it is to continue working on our thesis. Every day, it defines itself but spreads further.

Perhaps we were founded inside that Lyft ride shared by Molly Cain and co-creator Chris Denson on a random evening after a day spent at the Indiana State Day of Innovation on a small college campus in Indianapolis. Or earlier in the day when Denson interviewed her for the Innovation Crush podcast and they realized through shared excitement over the entire conversation that they’d be woven together in some way from that day onward. In what? They had no idea. But definitely something, as they found themselves five hours later snapping out of it only to discover they had been non-stop ideating and musing about absolutely…well… everything.

It had to have been earlier than that, because a month prior, Cain posted an unassuming Google doc on LinkedIn, requesting those interested in participating in a shared experiment to happen at SXSW 2019, to provide their contact information. Over 90 people filled this form out, titled “GovCity” at the top, with absolutely no information or details to give them any reason why they should do this. But they did anyways.

Or the month before that, when the GovCity.com URL was purchased. There had to have been a reason that happened – we just can’t remember the moment it became so alarmingly and beautifully unclear to pursue it.

Fast forward to the week Denson phoned Cain after their first meeting and expressed interest in joining her on any “interesting projects you might be working on.”

“As a matter of fact, I have this wild idea.”

Maybe that’s the day GovCity was born. The day a second visionary joined the first, in a wild idea. Every innovator knows this is the day the best things are born.

What we know for sure, GovCity came alive officially in Austin on March 12, 2019 during SXSW. When the wild idea received its first dose of confirmation that it was indeed an experiment. And step one of the experiment was, “Will anyone show up?”

And they did.

You can’t entirely claim it was a motley crew that walked into Capital Factory bright-eyed and ready for something, but you can claim it was a curious bunch of mavericks, bold skeptics and infinite minds that sat down for Day One. Half were federal, half were from regions of the commercial and entrepreneurial space no one imagined would join us. From Reddit, Death Water, Spartan Race, Red Hat, Ad Council, Texas A&M University and so many other seemingly disconnected but yet, perfectly paired external voices. Those external voices met an ambitious group of civil servants from all kinds of agencies, Census Bureau, many from DoD and all branches of the military, various pockets of the Department of Homeland Security, General Services Administration, even the Presidential Innovation Fellows found their way into this room. We learned a lot in this experience, namely, to make sure we actually introduce everyone. Yes, it’s true, we were so excited to begin, we actually just…began! Noted, never do that again. Eventually just about everyone met each other, but we’re still receiving feedback forms on that mistake. #Failure.

Since that day, we’ve grown in size, awareness and we’ve even established some written thoughts around what we believe this ecosystem is capable of accomplishing. But to dare suggest we understand enough about what’s being built inside this special ecosystem to develop a vision or a mission would be dismally underestimating the possibility. And so we won’t. We couldn’t even begin to try.

In November of 2019 we convened again. This time we called ourselves a cohort, and it felt as such. Nestled in the warmth with cold Boston outside the doors of the Red Hat Open Innovation Labs, more than 60 individuals, this time mostly federal and academic faces, spent 48 powerful hours together. We “graduated” this cohort to be called the GovCityCouncil officially over a beautifully classic dinner, one you’d be surprised to find this many “disruptors” (those who are confused by us would be surprised, at least) in a fancy room like this. Don’t be fooled – we all like process, systems and tradition. We just do not like bad process, systems and traditions. Boston had a unique personality all to itself, quite different than the first GovCity, which was an unofficial graduation executed over tacos and margaritas around 2am, gleefully celebrating that a tribe had been born – or that it always existed and we had just found it. We didn’t know why, but we all knew it was important.

Our second cohort left Boston even more charged than the first, if that’s even possible. It can only be assumed because this gathering was slightly more organized, more concentrated, less distracted with the disconnection from a massive conference like SXSW. But also because many of our alums from the first GovCity joined us this time as leaders, organically immersing the new faces in the group as if they’d known them forever. They served as owners within GovCity 2. They led packs of thinkers, each intentionally scattered all over the city and given their assignment to arrive to X location prior to our first meeting together. During their initial moments together as a pack, they all spoke openly, encouraged the conversation, and much like the first time GovCity became an experience, this group (new and alum) didn’t focus on what we were up against – this group was positively obsessed with the act of defining what we were FOR. The experiment that was GovCity 2 was a massive success. No, we can’t share the metrics, we watched them unfold.

We’re embarking on a new adventure for GovCity 3.

In March of 2020 we’re meeting once again at SXSW in Austin. This time we’ve flipped the script, but because this is an ongoing experiment, we’re keeping our favorite parts to continue measuring the outcomes.

On March 13, our 60-person cohort will be meeting in Austin and jumping into an entirely new experience together. We’ll begin our adventure as a cohort in an intimate setting with our small group, but we will spill out into the streets of SXSW through the weekend with a special closing as we’ve come to expect from each other.

This is the way of GovCity, to jump on board because it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. But more importantly, the people who journey with us.

To be continued….

(last updated: January 18, 2020)