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Open Americas

América Abierta

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

After two years of online events and trying to open our governments from our homes, the Open Government Partnership, ABRELATAM Condatos, the OAS and the Government of the Dominican Republic in partnership with Camara TIC are coming together to host the Open Americas regional meeting. We are excited to bring the open government community together again in one single event.

From September 26 to 29, come to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and join reformers from government, civil society, academia, the private sector and more to exchange ideas, create alliances and seek solutions to build a more open, more participatory and more inclusive region in a post-pandemic world.

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Register here

More information on registration, agenda and logistics will be published soon.

Call for Speakers (now closed)

In line with the principles of collaboration and participation that characterize these spaces and organizations, we seek contributions to build a thematic agenda that reflects the interests and priorities of the regional community.

We invite people interested in attending to complete the following form, select their topics of interest and/or add those that are relevant to them, as well as apply with their possible contributions to the agenda in up to three topics of the 4 pillars that have been identified for #OpenAmerica.

We seek to create a more dynamic and collaborative agenda, experimenting with more participatory and exchange sessions, and not exclusively the traditional exhibition model. In order to determine the content, design and speakers or facilitators of the sessions, the Organizing Committee, with the support of an Advisory Committee, requests proposals for contributions in the following thematic areas: democratic governance, data and innovation, anti-corruption and sustainability. Likewise, the areas of gender and inclusion will be cross-cutting themes that must be considered in all the previous areas.

Registration for the event will open later, so we invite you to participate in this call for speakers, even if you are not absolutely certain of your attendance.

Selection Process

The Organizing Committee is responsible for designing the agenda. This Committee is made up of representatives of the General Directorate of Ethics and Government Integrity (DIGEIG) of the Government of the Dominican Republic together with the ICT Chamber (civil society), the Open Government Partnership, the Department for Effective Public Management of the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Latin American Initiative for Open Data (ILDA). This team will be assisted by an Advisory Committee created especially for this event, bringing together regional leaders who promote and support the government and open data agenda.

Key dates and milestones include:

Dates Milestones
May 19 Launch call for speakers and applications for scholarships
June 24 Call for speakers and scholarships closes. 
June 27 to July 22 Deliberation and agenda design
July 25 Deadline to contact speakers and scholarship holders
July 25 to August 26  Co-create sessions per speakers
August 29 Publish the event agenda

Once the call for speakers has closed, the Organizing Committee, with the support of the Advisory Committee, will design the sessions according to the most proposed and priority topics on the open government and open data agenda, and will select groups of speakers, led by a facilitator.

The selected speakers will be contacted by email before July 25 and will have two weeks to confirm their participation, including those who require scholarships for transportation and lodging. The selection of a proposal or participant does not guarantee economic support for transportation and lodging by the Organizing Committee. Upon being notified of acceptance, they will receive additional details on the design of the sessions, including points of contact for content and logistics. The result of the selection will be published on the website as soon as all the speakers and facilitators are confirmed.

The facilitator of each session will be responsible for its design before the Organizing Committee and must send a proposal co-created with the rest of the participants. The Advisory Committee will suggest formats for the sessions to the facilitators, without prejudice to their proposing others. Special emphasis will be placed on promoting dialogue rather than exhibition, the exchange of ideas with the public, as well as external participation through questions, interactive formats or the use of online tools, and the search for concrete results with each session.

Selection criteria

In the call for speakers form, we invite each person to indicate the topics they would like to address based on a list of pre-established topics. In turn, each applicant must detail their specific contributions in a maximum of three topics.

Once the list of selected and proposed topics is available, the sessions that the Organizing Committee considers pertinent will be designed in order to ensure the following criteria in each one:

  • involvement of the speakers in projects of the selected topics, stories, experiences and valuable learning to share,
  • ability to extract concrete results from the session (products, recommendations, etc.)
  • diversity of views, positions and perspectives on the subject,
  • diversity of countries and regions represented,
  • diversity of sectors, actors and social groups represented, and
  • gender balance

Facilitation roles will be offered to people who have indicated their willingness to assume such responsibility, a condition that will also be taken into account at the time of selection. Any of the groups formed to participate in a session can decide by consensus to change the person designated as facilitator or to share the role.

Scholarships

Priority for travel and lodging support will be given to those who have been selected for roles as speakers or facilitators and do not have the means to access the event on their own. For the rest of the selected people, the same detailed criteria will be applied for the selection of speakers, facilitators and the design of the sessions.

Open Government Partnership