Unbounded Challenges Demand Unbounded Solutions

Celebrating 10 Years of GovMaker

The challenges we face today are messy, wicked, and complex. They don’t recognize the boundaries of our departments, organizations, sectors, or disciplines. The same applies to people’s lived experiences. No single department or organization can fully meet our needs through a major life event. Because of this, our responses to these challenges must also be unbounded.

Marlieke Kieboom in a recent GovMaker Podcast episode, where she shared her visionary idea for a Ministry of Unbounded Affairs. It’s the kind of thinking we aimed to nurture when, ten years ago to the day, we hosted the first-ever GovMaker Conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Our goal was to foster relationships, practices, and solutions that transcend boundaries — enabling collaboration across sectors, departmental silos, and perspectives.

On November 24th, 2014, we kicked off with opening remarks by then Deputy Premier Stephen Horseman. The lineup was incredible:

• Paul MacMillan, author of The Solution Revolution, shared his insights as our Day 1 keynote, even joining Terry Seguin on InfoAM.
• Christian Couturier laid out a bold vision for an Estonia-inspired X-Road infrastructure for GNB.
• Beth Noveck delivered a keynote, weaving in Alden Nowlan’s poetry, with a heartfelt introduction by Rene Boudreau (who convinced me we could even get someone at Beth’s level by the way).
• And Jerry Koh nicefutures closed the conference with a session that paved the way for NouLAB’s launch at GovMaker the following year.

The spark for this event came from Bill Mackenzie, then NBSPRN Director of Partnerships. Charles Finley and Joeri van den Steenhoven started the GovMaker Conference in Ontario in 2013 and generously offerend us stewardship of the brand when we shared our intention to establish an Open Government Conference. From there, Lorna Brown, Shawni Beaulieu, and later Jared Morrison added their talents, from organizing to branding, ensuring GovMaker became something extraordinary.

Over the past decade, GovMaker has welcomed participants and speakers from around the world, catalyzing countless new connections, ideas, and collaborations. How many participants found inspiration, tools, or entirely new ways to imagine the future? How many left believing a better way was not just possible but achievable?

This milestone wouldn’t have been possible without the vision and support of Katie Davey and the Pond-Deshpande Centre. To this day, GovMaker remains a platform for public servants and passionate changemakers to convene, reflect, and chart a path forward. For those who seek it, GovMaker sets the table for innovation in the coming year. I hope it serves this same purpose this week when the conference kicks off on November 27th at the Fredericton Convention Centre. We’re thrilled to welcome a long-time champion of Open Government and Public Innovation: none other than Premier Susan Holt.

To everyone who has been a part of this journey: thank you for your courage to transcend boundaries, your hard work, and your belief in a better future. Here’s to ten more years of unbounded innovation!

#GovMaker10 #PublicInnovation #Collaboration #OpenGovernment