In March 2012, 10 challenging results for the NZ public sector were announced by Prime Minister John Key. These results are grouped into 5 themes: reducing long-term welfare dependency, supporting vulnerable children, boosting skills and employment, reducing crime and improving interaction with government.

With a strong focus on accountability, the progress Government agencies make against these targets will be published, and they’ve been given 3 to 5 years to achieve them. This is enough to keep a public servant awake at night.

If you look at the Better Public Services programme as a "system of systems", then you can easily see the inter-relationships between each theme. If you boost skills and employment, you may reduce crime. If you reduce long-term welfare dependency, you may support some vulnerable children. If you improve how the public interacts with government, you would make cost savings which could then be invested to deliver better health and education services.

To state the obvious, our world is a "system of systems" and the work of the International Society of Digital Earth offers the public sector some big and fresh thinking on how to apply this "system of systems" approach to achieve targets.

When Wellington City Council and Land Information New Zealand submitted our bid to co-host the 4th Digital Earth Summit, it was our vision to create an environment where those who are responsible for setting and implementing New Zealand government policy could share, learn, explore and be challenged. I am so pleased to see this vision becoming a reality.

We have just announced another keynote speaker, Simon Lloyd-Evans, Chief Information Officer at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (Building and Housing). Simon is leading the work on GeoBuild™ the Ministry’s strategy to take a holistic and interoperable approach to the building and construction system to encourage improvement in performance and productivity.

GeoBuild™ will create a national information exchange framework that digitises building, geographical and environmental data. The information will be available online for uses affecting the built environment, and ultimately the whole environment. The first step in this strategy is the design of a nationally consistent on-line building consenting system. GeoBuildTM is a fine example of a "system of systems" approach which has touch points right across government and industry. It fulfils the Government’s Challenge 10 "Transactions with government completed easily in a digital environment".

I’d like you to be in the room to hear about this and other Resilient Cities initiatives and to contribute your thoughts, so please register today.

You’ll sleep better tonight for doing so.

Registration information: Member NZ$645 | Non-member NZ$695 | Student NZ $275 (includes welcome reception and conference dinner) | prices exclude 15% GST