Purpose
Canada is facing a generational challenge. This country, and its the public sector, it must meet this moment while navigating workforce adjustment, budget reduction, and a rapidly evolving international and technological landscape. We will need to be more imaginative than ever to do what matters most better, because we know that we cannot simply do more with less. Inspired by UKGovCamp and the OneTeamGov Unconferences, Gov Action Cafe is a 1-day participant-driven gathering for the doers and the helpers to connect, collect, and turn ideas into relentless implementation.
Logistics
- Location: Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch, Room B125
- Address: 120 Metcalfe, Ottawa ON K1P 5M2, Canada
- Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026
- Start time: 10am (10:15am welcoming remarks)
- End time: 4:30pm
- Registration link: GovActionCafe 2026 · Luma
- Capacity: 25 attendees
What Should I Expect during the Event?
What to Bring
Please come with a strong sense of curiousity, a willingness to learn from others, and your ideas for how the public service could tackle one of the critical challenges we’re facing in Canada.
You are encouraged to consider:
- the seven priority areas outline by in the Mandate Letter | Prime Minister of Canada
- radical collaboration: what does a true “one team” approach look like?
The Format
This event will be utilize a “Pro Action Cafe” format. Participants will play one of two key roles:
- Owner: champion a specific idea/challenge throughout the day, gathering input from the expert contributors in the room
- Contributor: move between tables to offer your expertise and insight to the product/project owners
Please feel free to play the role that feels best for you. After the event, all of artifacts will be available to everyone and we welcome (and encourage!) owners and contributors alike to move forward with the projects/products, or walk away with the friends you made along the way.
- The pitch: at the beginning of the day, participants interested in being Owners will pitch their ideas to all participants and add it the wall titled “Marketplace of Ideas” .
- Owners will be assigned a table and participants will have time to review each idea.
- Participants will then “vote with their feet” and join a table. To move forward to round 1, the owner must have 2 to 4 contributors at their table (in other words, no more than 5 people at each table).
- During the round, participants are welcome to move to another table with less than 5 people. At the beginning of the second and third round, participants will be asked to rotate to a different table to ensure ideas are cross pollinated and owners benefit from as many participants as possible.
Chatum House Rule
To ensure the free exchange of ideas, participants are asked to observe the Chatum House Rule. In other words, participants are welcome to share the wisdom gained, but never the identity or affiliation of the speaker.
Photography & Consent
We encourage photos to be focused on the “work” (eg. posters, sticky notes, ideas, the “Harvest” wall). Please respect the “Traffic Light” system appearing on participant name tags or obtain explicit consent before taking or tagging photos of colleagues:
- Red Sticker: “I do not want to appear in any photos. Please blur me or keep me out of the frame.”
- Yellow Sticker: “I am okay with group photos, but please don’t tag me or take close-ups.”
- Green Sticker: “I am happy to be in photos and tagged.”
At the beginning and end of the day, the organizer will welcome participants to move in or out of frame for group photos that will be shared on social media (untagged).
Draft Agenda
| Start | End | Allocated | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 | 10:15 | 15 minutes | Check-in |
| 10:15 | 10:45 | 30 minutes | Welcome to the Group & the Pitch |
| 10:45 | 11:15 | 30 minutes | Marketplace of Idea |
| 11:15 | 12:15 | 60 minutes | Round 1: What is the deeper purpose of this project? Why is this important? |
| 12:15 | 13:15 | 60 minutes | Lunch Break |
| 13:15 | 14:15 | 60 minutes | Round 2 Discussion: How will barriers and risks be addressed? What resources are needed? |
| 14:15 | 15:15 | 60 minutes | Round 3 Discussion: What are the concrete next steps? |
| 15:15 | 15:45 | 30 minutes | The Harvest (synthesis of the outputs and outcomes into a wall of actions) |
| 15:45 | 16:15 | 30 minutes | Debrief, gratitudes, and “one thing I will do on Monday.” |
Can I Help with the Event?
Thank goodness you’re here. This event is entirely run by Volunteer so any help is welcome! Please contact me at heidiwwj@gmail.com for more info.
There’s a few ways to help:
- Contribute to offsetting the event costs
- room booking
- office supplies
- Send a personal invite to a pal to attend the event with you
- Share your experiences with GovActionCafe2026
- Volunteer with:
- designing branding materials for social media
- checking in participants
- collect and synthesize outputs digitally throughout the day; creation of Harvest wall after round 3
- prepare banners, posters, and other materials for event day
- Contribute to some nice to have features for the event
- Coffee and snacks for participants (target: 25 people)
- Lunch for participants (target: 25 people)
- Stickers, pins, or other merch