I am excited that DrupalGovCon is sold out with a stunning 600 attendees.
I wish we had an event of a similar scope here in Europe. While every governmental project is unique there's always room for the transfer of knowledge, ideas, or wishes.
As Joey Tribbiani once said 😉
"(...) through this having and giving and sharing and receiving, we too can share and love and have and receive."
In each of the European states, we have tons of projects that we as tax-payers have founded over decades. Looking at many projects I personally participated in we can greatly improve how we collaborate.
1. Rather than starting each project with a blank page we could start to accept the knowledge others already gathered. opensource can be a fantastic start for most projects. As a Drupal community, we already have plenty of talks, case studies, or even code distributions you can learn from - either from your local market or other European states.
2. Provide small but meaningful improvements. Maybe an inherited project doesn't fit the bill straight away and approaches things differently than what your project requires. Rather than complaining about that try to understand what was the reason someone approached it differently than you. Ask questions, and provide feedback. Finally, treat what you've received with tender loving care.
3. Share your incremental improvements with others. This is perhaps the most important step of the cycle as it enables one to keep iterating over and over. You will be surprised how often your past work not only impacts your future projects but can also positively impact the projects of others.
Meanwhile, I wish a fantastic conference to everyone coming to Bethesda this year.