The Local Directgov team will be at the Building the Perfect Council Website event again this year to give information about the Local Directgov application and how to make use of it to enhance your council's website.
The event will be held at the Olympia 2 conference centre in London on 16 July 2008.
The Local Directgov team will be available throughout the day to answer questions. We will also be running the following presentations in a breakout area:
10:30-11.10 - Local Directgov and Hampshire County Council: Local Directgov developments and joining up council services using Local Directgov links
The Local Directgov support team will be giving an update about what we are doing now and in the future and, in association with Hampshire County Council, we will be providing information about how to make the most of Local Directgov links and join up services between council websites.
12.30-13.10 - Businesslink.gov.uk and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform: businesslink.gov.uk and implementing the EU Services Directive Point of Single Contact
The EU Services Directive aims to make it easier for service businesses to expand across the EU and offer services cross-border. A key element of the Directive is the development by each Member State of Points of Single Contact which in the UK will be a single portal that informs service providers of the regulations that affect them in the UK and then lets them transact online with regulators. Ian Oliver of BERR will be giving a short overview of the Directive in the UK and in particular the impact of the portal on the business facing parts of local authority web sites.
Businesslink.gov.uk is the online gateway for businesses to access advice, guidance and transactions from the government and other bodies - allowing them to grow, prosper and comply, regardless of where they are in their lifecycle. As part of the government's service transformation policy, businesslink.gov.uk will become the primary access point for business interaction with government. Businesslink.gov.uk is the online channel for Business Link, which has local advisers in every region in England. Ann McMaster will be giving a short overview of the initiatives the programme is putting in place with the Business Link network and how they will interact with local authorities.
14.20-15.00 - Journey Planning just got easier with Transport Direct
The award-winning Transport Direct website provides journey planning for both car and public transport for the whole of Great Britain. It has great value to offer end users including maps, live travel, carbon counters, and car park information. If you need to give your customers directions to local events, the doctor, local library or any other public service, it's easy to create pre-set destination links that open the Transport Direct journey planner. This workshop will demonstrate how to easily implement Transport Direct tools within location-based services to enable 'customers' to make a decision about how they can get to a place and offer them choice in how they can travel.
15.30-16.15 - Directgov on web convergence and localisation projects
Paul Clarke, Strategy Review Lead at Directgov, will be talking about web convergence in practice: identifying propositions, achieving more than just moving websites around, and the future relationship of local authority services to Directgov under convergence. He will also discuss what Directgov means by "localisation", provide a vision for Directgov's development of localisation, and examples of current and proposed initiatives in this space.
Information about the event and how to register is on the event website. If you have already registered, you can log into the website and create your personal agenda for the day by selecting your workshop choices.
If you have any questions for the Local Directgov team please email us at localdirectgov@communities.gsi.gov.uk.
