Melbourne, the capital of Australia's state of Victoria and a city of nearly four million people, is often touted as the city of festivals. Indeed, a US visitor to the city wrote on her travel blog that just during the week of her visit there were five simultaneous festivals taking place: film, fashion, food, flowers and comedy.

It should be no surprise, then, that the state's public service chose to launch its ambitious new Innovation Action Plan by running an Innovation Festival. In late February 2010, the Department of Premier and Cabinet, the Victoria Public Service (VPS) brought together hundreds of public servants from across the state administration for three days of presentations, seminars and workshops. According to Maria Katsonis, a senior official and one of its key sponsors, the Action Plan was the first document she was aware of that had been signed by every chief executive of the VPS. Aiming at bringing the public service's innovation efforts to a new level, the Action Plan addressed four interrelated themes: creating stronger networks between people, ideas and opportunities (through new collaboration software and by creating an Advisory Group to steer the implementation of the plan); building innovation capability (through recruitment, skills development and making innovation tools available); enhanced reward of best practice (through challenge and awards programmes); and, finally, by opening up and sharing information and data across the state government. The ambition of the plan was clear: ‘Making innovation an integral part of how we approach our day-to-day work will result in better policies, better services and better value for the community’ (VPS, 2010).

As they gathered for the festivities, the public officials were exposed not only to the new plan itself, but to a substantial series of events that were designed to help them see what innovation could mean to them in practice. From the dilemmas of using new social media in government to how to involve citizens in the innovation process, the festival became a starting point for what would be a challenging but exciting journey. With the Action Plan, the VPS did something that more and more governments around the world have realised is necessary.