Get involved in Innovation Month
The annual Innovation Month continues in July 2025, with an exciting program of events to take part in.
The theme this year is Risk. Resolve. Results. It’s about understanding that doing new things involves risk, but with courage the public sector can innovate within the guardrails, and get better outcomes for Australians.
Innovation Month is a month-long celebration of creativity, innovation and engagement. It is a cross-public sector event series, designed for open collaboration across all agencies and levels of government.
It is led by the Innovation community within the Digital Profession, but events are free and open for all local, state and federal government employees to join.
Why is innovation important?
Innovation by Australian government employees is vital in the current rapidly changing environment, with the advancement in technology and changing citizen expectations creating new challenges and opportunities.
Every part of the public sector has a shared responsibility to think about how we can do things better, and often that will mean thinking about doing things in new ways.
Innovation Month 2025 events
There's a range of events coming up that you can take part in this year. These include the return of the very popular Bureauvision AI song contest, a leadership panel discussion ‘Boundary pushers, rule keepers: how to move the needle, without making the headlines’, a Women in Data and Digital event on innovating for impact, and more.
Stay tuned for a full list of Innovation Month events to come soon - available on the Members' Community Platform, Digital Profession LinkedIn, or for download from this page.
If you haven't signed up to the Members' Community Platform (MCP) yet - it's a great way to connect, collaborate and develop your capability to innovate.
Sign up to the Members' Community Platform
If you would like to get involved, or organise your own Innovation Month event in your agency - join the Innovation Community or email digitalprofession@apsc.gov.au.
Highlights from Innovation Month 2024
In 2024, over 7,000 people participated in Innovation Month, with over 20 events on offer. The theme was 'explore, engage and embrace' with a strong focus on generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Highlights from the month included:
- Bureauvision AI song contest - an extremely successful event that showcased the hidden talents of the APS and celebrated the quirks of public service life
- 'What's next for AI in the public sector?' leadership panel discussion providing insight from AI leaders and experts
- 'Making innovation stick' leadership panel discussion about making innovation an integrated part of how public sector agencies work.
The events also spurred substantial growth in the APS Professions, with many people joining the Members' Community Platform.
You can read the full Innovation Month 2024 report to learn more.
Innovation month history
Innovation Month originated in 2011, as Innovation Week at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. It became the cornerstone event of the APS Innovation community, and is now a collaborative effort across Australian government jurisdictions and agencies to share and try new things.