Today got off to an energizing start with a New Professionals Breakfast at 7:00 am. Yes, you read that right - 7:00 am. The session was organized by New Professionals and provided them an opportunity to meet and discuss issues with senior public servants, otherwise known as "experienced" public servants. The session was a two-way learning experience and there was lots of discussion on key questions such as how does one acquire political acumen, how do you deal with requests from on-high that don't really make sense, and what is the best piece of advice that someone gave you as you progressed in your career.
We then moved on to the Opening Remarks from the illustrious MC (me!) who tried his best to recap the previous day's activities and then introduced the 2 keynote speakers for the first plenary sessions on "Service Delivery in a Networked Public Sector". The delegates heard from Alan Latourelle, CEO of Parks Canada and Beth Bell, partner IBM Global Business Services. The presentation by Beth was quite interesting as it addressed IBM's own transformation and how they applied those experiences to their advisory services including for Service Canada and Service BC.
The concurrent sessions on public service delivery were all well attended. The adjudicated paper session on Horizontal Policy was so well attended that the session had to be moved to bigger meeting room.
The keynote speaker in the afternoon, Chief Ovide Mercredi spoke with passion about the issues that affect the aboriginal community and the way that successive governments have ignored the promises made in signed treaties. The afternoon concurrent sessions on challenges and opportunities in a networked age were also very well attended.
The presentations of the finalists for the 2007 IPAC Award for Innovative Management featured 3 incredibly innovative and creative initiatives. The theme for this year's award is "New Service Breakthroughs with Technology". The award is co-sponsored by KPMG and IBM, Canada. The 3 finalists are LearnNow BC, from BC Education, the Provincial Wait Times Information Systems fronm Cancer Care Ontario and the Nunavut Community Skills Information System from Nunavut Education. You can read the backgrounders on the finalists on our website. The Gold, Silver and Bronze award winners will be announced at the Wednesday Luncheon.
The highlight of the day was the President's reception and Banquet. We were honoured to have the Lt. Governor of Manitoba, the Honourable John Harvard and Her Honour Lenore Berscheid attend the Banquet. Other distinguished guests included Paul Vogt, Manitoba's top civil servant, Howard Pawley, former Premier of Manitoba and Lloyd Axworthy, President of the University of Winnipeg. The meal was extraordinary!! After the meal, the awards part of the evening began with the Parenteau award for the best French language article in CPA in 2006 go to Lise Prefontaine and the Hodgetts award for the best English language article in CPA in 2006 going to Ian Clark and David Trick.
Carol Layton then announced that our highest award, the Vanier Medal was awarded to the late Joe Galimberti. Carol Galimberti and Tony Galimberti received the award on behalf of her husband and his father.
The formal part of the evening continued with a speech by Carol Layton on her last year and an introduction of IPAC's new president, Louis Borgeat. Louis then had the opportunity to toast Carol and to highlight his priorities for the next year. Look for an article by Louis in October's issue of PSM.
Once again, the Manitoba organizing committee went above and beyond the call of duty. It was another fantastic day of thought provoking presentations, discussions and networking. Kudos to Manitoba!!
It's close to 1:00 am now and as don't seem to have as much energy as I did when I was younger it is time for me to sign-off. Don't miss my final post on Wednesday night/early Thursday on the last day of the conference.
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