Intranetcamp

Below is the text of a successful grant application.

Description of the proposed Event: The event will be an unconference for people working on public sector intranets.

In Government, there is no community for intranet professionals and we come from a range of different professions (internal communications, knowledge and information management, digital). We want to create an event that will break down these barriers and get people meeting and talking to each other.

We have had 70 people register their interest in the event already. We hope we can use the event to be the start of a sustainable community of practice for intranets.

How much they want: £300

What they would use the funding for: Ideally we would like to book an external venue that has space for the unconference activities we would like to run.

If we are not able to afford or secure a suitable external venue, then we will try and make do with a room in a government building. In this case the funding would go towards providing food for our attendees. People have registered their interest from all over the UK. Providing some refreshments may make the event more appealing to travel to London for.

About them: I’ve worked in government for the past few years but have recently joined the Digital, Data and Technology Civil Service Fast Stream. This means I get the privilege of working across many different government departments over the next 4 years and trying out a range of jobs.

At the moment I work at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). I’m working in their Knowledge and Information Management team on the FCO intranet.

I’m inspired by the collaboration that goes on across government in the digital space. However, when it comes to intranets, there is no go to forum to get help from our colleagues in other departments. The FCO is particularly cut off from the outside world for ‘security’ reasons. We can’t access Slack, Basecamp, Trello, Google Drive etc.

This has all driven me to team up with some great people from Department for Transport and Ministry of Justice to host an unconference as the start of what we hope to be a thriving community.