Federal Challenge & Prize Community of Practice Quarterly Meeting

Tuesday, February 27, 2018 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET

Hosted by Digital.gov and the Challenge & Prize Community of Practice

This quarterly meeting brings together federal employees from a range of agencies to discuss trends, success stories and lessons learned in the use of crowdsourcing competitions.

Agenda

Time Topic
8:45 am Registration and Networking
8:55 am Introductions and Program Updates
  • Kelly Olson, GSA
9:00 am Executive Update from the White House
  • Matt Lira, White House Office of American Innovation
9:25 am The DARPA Design: From Infectious Disease to Underground Infrastructure
  • Col Matthew Hepburn, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
9:45 am Using Legal Authority: Joint Venture Partnership + Other Transactions
  • Lauren Schmidt, Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx)
  • Greg Capella, Department of Commerce
10:10 am Networking break
10:30 am Accelerating for Action: How Agencies Use this Industry Model
  • Moderator: Jack Bienko, Eisenhower Fellowship
  • Panelist: Sandeep Patel, Department of Health and Human Services
  • Panelist: Jennifer Garson, Department of Energy
  • Panelist: Nancy Merritt, National Institute of Standards & Technology
11:15 am Helping Hands: Spotlight on Humanitarian Efforts
  • Lorin Kavanaugh-Ulku, U.S. Agency for International Development
  • Devorah West, U.S. Agency for International Development
  • Edward Elliott, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
12:00 pm Event concludes

At this meeting, attendees will:

  • Meet and greet the Special Assistant to the President for Innovation Policy and Initiatives and hear his vantage point from within the White House Office of American Innovation.

  • Hear how a DARPA challenge to forecast the spread of infectious disease is pinpointing where to perform clinical trials on a new vaccine for the chikungunya virus.

  • Learn about using challenges in humanitarian efforts.

  • Explore the role of accelerators in advancing research and fostering entrepreneurship through a panel discussion featuring the Small Business Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

  • Examine how agencies are using different legal authorities, including the Joint Venture Partnership and Other Transaction authorities.

And as always, there will be plenty of time before, after, and in between these presentations networking with new and familiar colleagues across the government with a shared commitment to thinking outside the box to solve problems.

Who Should Attend

Members of the Federal Challenges & Prizes Community of Practice, program managers, contracting and procurement staff, communications teams, legal staff, and other federal employees who manage or work on crowdsourcing, challenge, and incentivized prize competitions, and other open innovation practices. We also welcome our colleagues from the citizen science and ideation communities of practice to join us for the training and networking.