Local governments are leaders in data informed design for civic innovation and service delivery.

Please join us for a DiD Community Conversation with Story Bellows and Dave Kaldor as they share insights about their works leading data informed design and civic innovation in local government and public institutions.

This session will be online so all welcome! 830am Tues 23 May (AEST) / 630pm Mon 22 May (EST)

Story Bellows is one of the USA’s top civic innovators, working to turn urban challenges into people first solutions with positive outcomes for all.

As a partner with Cityfi, Story is focused on organizational change management, civic engagement, and public-private coalition building. Before Cityfi, Story was the Chief Innovation and Performance Officer for Brooklyn Public Library, where she implemented a new organizational strategy across the institutions sixty-plus branches ensuring the library was positioned to deliver excellent service in a rapidly changing urban environment. She launched and directed the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Philadelphia, where she developed mechanisms for entrepreneurs to work with the city to tackle shared challenges. She has also served as Director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a National Endowment for the Arts leadership initiative, where she was afforded the opportunity to work alongside more than 200 mayors nationwide. She also led the research efforts of a large Chicago-based architecture, planning, and engineering firm, exploring how design could respond to issues like future of work, education, and healthcare.

Based in New York, Story works with cities and companies across the country and, increasingly, globe. She has spoken and is recognized internationally as an expert on innovation in large public institutions. She is a graduate of Colgate University and holds an MSc from the London School of Economics in City Design and Social Science. Story both loves cities and the middle of nowhere. Usually she can be found living in some large city (she’s covered quite a few), though she and her family have been testing out rural living since the beginning of the pandemic.

Dave Kaldor leads the City Futures Design Lab at the City of Hobart.

Dave is a systemic designer and venture builder, working with communities and organisations to imagine and build the dynamic systems we need to thrive in a changing world. Over a decade of practice in participatory design and social innovation – including transforming education outcomes with First Nations young people in Australia; innovating out of crisis with earthquake-affected communities in Nepal; and shaping new approaches to housing and employment with people exiting the Australian justice system.

City Futures design lab at City of Hobart is being established to support Hobart’s people to innovate on systemic urban challenges. We are working with our city's creative problem-solvers, community champions, venture builders, experts and decision-makers to explore and design new approaches that shape a thriving city.

The team is currently focused on:

Place transformation: How will our city systematically collaborate to define shared visions for change in high-value places, implement tactical changes to test and learn with the community, and gather the data and insight to shape evidence-informed plans for long-term investment.
Resilient systems: How will our city respond creatively to ongoing disruption and change across systems to demonstrate new possibilities, shift behaviours and accelerate transformation towards the systems needed to support urban growth and community wellbeing through the coming decades?
Stories of people, place and possibility: How will our city support and amplify diverse voices to share the stories that define our city, its histories, and its possible futures.

This conversation will be facilitated by Bonnie Shaw, a co-founder of Place Intelligence and the DiD. Bonnie is a respected leader in data informed design and decision making. Before Place Intelligence Bonnie helped to establish and lead Australia's first (and multi-award winning) Smart Cities Office at the City of Melbourne.

This event is online only and will run for approximately 1hr