Technologies, Humans, and Good Vibes: UKGovCamp2026 Wrap-up
Posted on 16/02/2026 by Daisy Wu (she/her)
What a weekend! A HUGE shout-out and thank you to everyone who made UKGovCamp 2026 a massive success! This year was extra special because we moved the venue outside of London for the very first time, and it was a huge success in attracting people from all over to come together in Birmingham.
The day kicked off with a brilliant opening ceremony featuring Katy Fox FCIPD, CPO of Birmingham City Council, welcoming everyone. Then, one of our organisers, Irman, guided us through the unconference format and the all-important session pitching with lots of laughter!
As always, the sessions cover a massive range of topics. We had everything from the hottest word in government right now, “AI,” to deep dives into human-centred approaches.
Here’s a quick look at the kind of topics:
- Design and Delivery: Getting practical with service design, prototyping, and making design collaborative.
- Governance and Decision-Making: All about influence, leadership skills, and navigating tricky power dynamics.
- Technology and AI: How AI is being used in government, agentic AI, and keeping control over emerging technologies (digital sovereignty).
- Procurement and Suppliers: Reforming old processes and building better relationships with suppliers right from the start.
- Data and Knowledge: Shifting from just pushing documents to creating smart knowledge hubs and using evidence to measure what matters.
- Inclusion and Accessibility: Digital inclusion critiques, design centred on disability, and making sure recruitment is inclusive.
- Culture and Wellbeing: Workplace wellbeing, retention through coaching, and supporting reformers.
- Infrastructure: Shared tooling, GDS support, open source, and government-wide platforms.
- Sector Applications: Everything from transport and digital identity to cross-government sharing.
- Alternative Formats: We even had some experimental learning like “failcamp”, “hopecamp” and “megagames”.
The full list of session topics and notes, which includes links to a Google Doc with discussion summaries for every session, is available at ukgovcamp.com/grid
A massive round of applause to every single person who participated! Unconference is a collective effort, and it would be impossible without you. And of course, a huge thank you to the organisers, sponsors and volunteers for making this event so smooth and accessible to everyone.
The overall vibe of the event was incredible. It was described as one of the favourites, with a great venue, appropriate sponsor involvement, and an atmosphere full of energy and possibility.
Meanwhile, we did receive some suggestions for improvement (like the pitching session being a bit too long, some rooms being too large for group discussions, and comments on session quality), which we absolutely appreciate and will be working on for the next event.
If you were an attendee and haven’t given your feedback yet, we would love you to do so: https://forms.gle/uJPDnRC9uXNMU8T1A (Please note that this is a Google link. If you can’t access Google, please try with your personal devices.)
And to our wonderful volunteers and sponsors, we’ll be arranging a separate session for more detailed feedback soon.
Finally, have a look at some amazing reviews and reflections from our sponsors:
Public Digital: Our reflections from UKGovCamp 2026
Methods: What UKGovCamp26 reminded us about building better public service
Register Dynamics: UKGovCamp 2026: Threat models, procurement, and hope
See you all next year!
(Photo credit: Ashlie Camp)