Innovation is one of those buzz words that means many things to countless people. In what I believe to be the most salient meaning, author Scott Berkun simply defines it to be, “significant positive change.”

I recently had the opportunity to attend a white boarding exercise sponsored by Esri and ICMA at Esri’s corporate headquarters in Redlands, California. As the meeting kicked off, we had the chance to introduce ourselves and share our expectations for the day ahead. While we each brought our own set of challenges and desired outcomes to the table, in reality they were all variations of the same theme. Everyone there, from cities and counties, large and small, to the private sector partners, were all there to improve the quality of life for their constituents through collaboration and innovation.

During the first half of the day, we were able to see some of the amazing work that the Local Government Solutions team at Esri is creating for their customers. What impressed me the most was the team’s creativity and willingness to problem solve while addressing the various needs of local government clients. They gave us an introduction to the ArcGIS Solutions website, a space that pulls together a wealth of information and ready-made maps and apps for any local government to use.

The second half of the day was focused on brainstorming future applications around three common themes: civic engagement, community resiliency, and economic development. I was lucky enough to be a part of a discussion around community resiliency. At first, our group struggled to try to come up with an app that would address such a broad topic. We came to the conclusion that resiliency was really a measure of a community’s ability to mitigate and respond to any type of disaster. With that in mind, we put together a template that would assist local governments in assessing their readiness to respond to a natural disaster. Similar to a wiki or knowledge-base, we felt this template could be used to plan for any type of disaster and be used in responding to and communicating resources during an event. The greater the collaboration among all resources (local governments, faith-based organizations, hospitals, etc.), the greater the resiliency of the community. We felt, if developed right, this template, or app, could be used to enhance the resiliency of a community in any state of vulnerability, such as infrastructure, climate, economic recovery, etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time participating in this brainstorming exercise. I was energized by the enthusiasm and desire to serve our communities. It is exciting to get together with others, if only for a few hours, and share a common belief in continuously improving the quality of life for each of our citizens. To me, I saw innovation taking place, or in other words, significant positive change. What more could one ask for?