GovInsider’s Festival of Innovation 2025 wrapped

“The question is not if we should adopt innovations, but how well we can harness them to serve our people better,” said Singapore’s Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Desmond Tan. 

He was speaking to more than 2,100 audience members who represented 410 agencies across 27 countries at GovInsider’s annual Festival of Innovation 2025. 

Three months ago on this day, the event showcased a mix of tech and strategy sessions from around the world to foster public sector innovation and sustain positive change in society. 

You can find the related articles and video recordings of all sessions compiled below: 

FOI exclusive interviews

These interviews were done on the sidelines of the event to capture the key government strengths and innovative approaches from global leaders. 

1. Malaysia’s National AI Office’s Chief Sam Majid on the country’s ambitions to be a global leader in responsible AI innovation 
2. Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD)’s Rachelle Mendoza on leveraging local biodiversity for local healthcare needs
3. Singapore’s Public Service Division’s HR Chief Low Peck Kem on how HR has evolved from a regulator to an enabler role 
4. Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA)’s Non Arkara and NZ tech startup JIX Reality’s Sakthi Ranaganathan on unexpected cross-border collaboration to champion a new innovation model to tackle smart city governance 
5. Dutch Government’s Anita Wehmann on the next leap of cybersecurity in post-quantum cryptography 
6. Laos’ Digital Government Center’s Deputy Director General Vannapha Phommathansy on the country’s digital government priorities and challenge
7. Malaysia’s Jabatan Digital Negara’s Director-General Dr Fazidah binti Abu Bakar on the country’s digital government priorities and challenges 

Talent and skills in a future-ready public sector workforce

• Panel on how AI could enable a skills-based workforce, involving public sector HR, social services, higher learning, union and tech leaders 
• Panel on how GenAI could enhance employees' productivity and learning, involving higher learning, public sector training, and tech leaders 
• Panel on pushing diversity and inclusion beyond hiring quotas, involving govtech, public sector HR, and data leaders 
• Presentation on how Singapore meaningfully engages and prepares public officers for long careers by public sector’s HR deputy chief 
• Presentation on the imperative of upskilling to meet changing citizen needs by Avepoint 

Driving efficiency in government with AI 

• Panel on where public sector stands on agentic AI, involving healthcare, defence, infrastructure and tech leaders 
• Panel on balancing AI and business value and impact, involving govtech, manpower, education, and tech leaders 
• Presentation on how AI fosters inclusive service delivery to vulnerable groups by Azerbaijan’s State Social Protection Fund 
• Presentations on GenAI use cases in the government by Synapxe, Changi General Hospital, IMDA and IBM 
• Presentation on how enterprise AI enables better citizen experiences by SAP
• Presentation on how GenAI can ease information management by OpenText 

Building resilient and secure governments 

• Government keynotes on trends and evolving role of the government by Singapore’s Senior Minister of State Desmond Tan and Montenegro’s former Minister of Public Administration, Digital Transformation and Media, Tamara Srzentić 
• Panel on sustaining public sector innovation, involving healthtech, govtech, data, economy development, and UN leaders 
• Fireside chat on how data helped optimise national healthcare budgets by Singapore’s Ministry of Health and Civica 
• Presentations on how respective governments tackled ‘wicked problems’ by Indonesia’s Nusantara Capital Authority and GovTech Bhutan 
• Presentation on aligning sustainability with economic goals by Malaysia’s Iskandar Regional Development Authority 
• Presentation on enabling visibility into AI-powered software development by GitLab 
• Presentation on tackling legal risks around GenAI by IPOS International 

Citizen-centricity at the heart of public service 

• Panel on adapting tech for a citizen-centric service delivery, involving healthcare, research, urban planning and govtech leaders 
• Panel on humanising tech amidst a tech-powered government, involving social services, aged care and tech leaders 
• Panel on the changing faces of civic engagement today, involving healthcare advocacy, govtech and civil society leaders 
• Presentations on user-centric tech in public service by GovTech Singapore, Open Government Products, and Japan Digital Agency 
• Presentation on one-stop shop government services by Laos’ Digital Government Centre
• Presentation on public trust and citizen-centricity as key to digital services by Adobe 
• Presentation on simplifying digital services for effective outreach by WalkMe 

You may also be interested to find out more about the winners at the FOI awards and the inaugural GovMesh event co-organised by GovInsider and interweave.gov, a closed-door roundtable discussion among selected digital governments.