Edge of Government Series
Why Transformative Innovation Happens at the Edge
In partnership with the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation
Wednesday, Mar 25, 2026
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Speakers
What to do next
- Explore the Edge of Government hub to learn more about our partnership with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation, including the Edge 50 list, case studies, interviews and upcoming masterclasses.
- Register for our upcoming event Creating Safe Space for New Ideas in a Risk-Averse Culture
Resources
Event Description
Some government initiatives gain traction and reshape how systems work. Others, equally promising, stall or quietly disappear. The difference is rarely the quality of the idea alone. Genuinely transformative change rarely starts at the centre of a hierarchy. Instead, it happens at "the edge": the frontlines, the gaps between departments, and in partnership with citizens.
Through real initiatives that moved beyond pilots, insights will be shared into the signals that an idea is worth the risk, the conditions that help it survive and the common reasons initiatives fail before their value is recognised. The edge is treated not as a place of rebellion, but as a source of learning for solving problems at the centre.
In this session, we’ll hear about public sector innovators that have created and institutionalised approaches for the “centre” of government to identify the edges. You'll learn how to spot the signals of a winning idea and how to use your position at the edge to build something that lasts.
Image credit: Unsplash
Speakers
Abeer Tahlak
Director of Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation
UAE
Renae Hanvin
CEO and Founder, Resilient Ready
Australia
Myles Delfin
Founder, The Bike Scouts Project
Philippines
Abeer Tahlak, who supports the vision and agenda set in the UAE government to make the UAE one of the most innovative nations within both her roles as Director of the Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation & previously the Director of Possibilities at the Ministry of Possibilities where she supports the Deputy Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Strategic Affairs of the UAE in leading & managing the operations & the teams within both organizations.
Renae Hanvin, the founder and CEO of Resilient Ready, is a certified social enterprise focused on reducing the social and economic impacts of disruption and disasters. An Adjunct Research Fellow at Flinders University, Renae works at the intersection of policy, practice and measurement to help governments and industry invest more effectively in resilience. Renae created Australia's national Social Capital + Social Infrastructure Measurement Framework and has developed a global-first online mapping tool to measure connections, trust and cooperation between people as well as places that foster connections at the SA1 or neighbourhood level. Putting people connections as key to resilience.
Myles Delfin, founder of Bike Scouts. He has created the first true Filipino-led social platform for social teamwork or “Bayanihan” (A Filipino word that means “people helping each other solve local challenges in their own community) that helps people become movers of true community-based resilience using bicycles, people power, and community-made technology. Myles worked previously as a Creative Director in the design and advertising industry handling both local and multi-national brands and businesses in addition to being a contributing writer and photographer for various print and online publications.
