‘A celebration of Government willingness to listen and lead in the Identity field:’ Think Digital Identity For Government racks up another successful ID day

A highly useful day – and easily the best one yet.

That was the feedback we have been getting – and still are – on last Thursday’s Think Digital Identity For Government 2020 conference in Westminster.

With delegates braving Hurricane Dennis as well as all sorts of more political storms and upsets, the day still managed to offer the UK Digital Identity community their only public sector-focused compendium of all that really matters – and will matter next – for the fast-emerging UK ID national ecosystem.

MC-ed once again by the impeccably professional and courteous David Bicknell from GlobalData, one of the best-informed commentators on the UK public sector IT space, the show proved once again to be a must-see for both UK and international public sector ID practitioners, policy makers, designers, researchers and vendors.

Over the course of this week we’ll be reviewing the sentiments and conclusions of speakers, but today we’d just like to quickly share the immediate post-conference impressions of participants.

Elizabeth Wilson, Head of Digital Identity (Whitehall), Department for Culture Media and Sport

“A great event with lots of relevant and useful content on Digital Identity. Think Digital brought coherence to an agenda which covered DI from a delivery, concept and international perspective and did it very well. The most compelling takeaway for me? That the sectors are fully aligned on the need for meaningful collaboration and interoperability to ensure a thriving ecosystem.”

Cheryl Stevens, Deputy Director, DWP Digital

“A great conference with a great atmosphere that really focussed on the citizen more than any previous ones, as well as diverse topics getting covered that all relate to, but weren’t specifically Identity, was fantastic for a broader view. The day really showed how important this event is for public and private sector alike.” 

Kevin Cunnington, Director General, International Government Services

“I enjoyed the event; there was a good breadth and depth to the discussion. For me, the big takeaways were the need for a good communication campaign around the importance of Digital Identity, and the need for a range of training courses on digital identity for government officials.”

Colin Wallis, Executive Director, The Kantara Initiative

“What’s unusual about this conference is the way that the seemingly innocuous combination of civil service and industry speakers provokes so much interesting discussion. Last week’s event was no exception; the Common Law nations’ development of digital identity without National Identity cards contrasts markedly from its neighbouring Civil Law nations that baseline off them, and our late afternoon discussion on which way the UK might lean ‘post-Brexit’ will linger in the minds of attendees for weeks to come.”

Paul White, Chief Marketing Officer, ID vendor Folio

“At a crucial time in the UK’s path to Digital Identity, this was an ambitious forum that engaged a wide community and left few question marks over the direction we are heading in.”

Anders Henrikson, ID vendor Verisec AB Chief Operating Officer

“This was a great opportunity for us to announce the launch of Freja eID UK to so many of the key stakeholders in central government.”

All great stuff, but we really ought to include this brief round-up of reactions to the day with this insight from independent Identity Researcher Arwen Smit, a very popular panelist on the day:

“Thanks for having me, and I was so inspired by the event I’ve dedicated a post to it, and started an Identity lexicon project in search of a common ID language.

“I also think the conference was a celebration of Governmental willingness to listen and lead in the Identity field. Next year’s challenge is going to be to keep in mind both the real world benefits for individuals, as well as the cultural signals embedded in governmental decisions.”

That seems a great basis for us to explore, in the next couple of days, some of the themes that came out of the show in greater depth.

We would also like to thank our lead sponsor Accenture for all their great help and support both leading up to the conference, and on the day itself.