A letter from ADIA Chair David Spriggs

 

Dear ADIA community,

We recently completed a review of the backbone functions and priorities for the year ahead based on feedback from ADIA participants and our sponsors. The review has taken into account the excellent work done by the collective voice team in defining a ‘call to action’, the desire to progress a national digital skills capability framework as well as the opportunities presented by the new Parliament.

In response we have identified the need for the ADIA to have a more active role in public policy engagement and I am very pleased to announce that with the support of our sponsors we have been able to add this capability to the backbone.

As of 1 July the ADIA backbone will be led by Ishtar Vij, Carolyn Hough and Ben Rice from Eloquium Group. Ishtar, Carolyn and Ben bring a wealth of experience in strategy, public policy, government affairs, stakeholder engagement and communications having held senior roles across a diverse range of government, corporate and not-for-profit organisations.

One of the first priorities of the backbone will be to support the collective voice team in progressing the ‘call to action’ and engaging with the incoming government.

The backbone will also continue to support the broader work of the ADIA including scheduling regular meetups, coordinating activities and continuing our regular newsletters.

We’ll also be looking to confirm members of the ADIA Governance & Strategy Committee for the year ahead in July, with the next meeting proposed to be held in August 2019. I’ll be reaching out to previous members and if you’re interested in being involved in the committee in the year ahead please let me know.

I would like to thank John Huigen who has led the development of the ADIA as our Alliance Facilitator. John’s passion and energy have built significant momentum for the ADIA with an impressive list of achievements. John will be stepping down from his day to day role in the backbone but will continue to be involved as a facilitator when called upon and as an active participant.

Finally, I would like to thank our sponsors Australia Post, Google, Telstra and Infoxchange who have supported the ADIA both financially and on an in-kind basis from the beginning.Without their support the ADIA would not be possible.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you as always for your support of the ADIA.

– David