_posts/2016-03-24-video-highlights-from-18f-speeches-over-the-last-year.md
---
title: "Video highlights from 18F speeches over the last year"
date: 2016-03-24
authors:
- andre
tags:
- video
- events
- second anniversary
excerpt: "Over the past year, members of our distributed team have given
talks in over 30 locations about how we’re changing government digital
services. Topics have ranged from how we work to how we help the
government build and buy software to how people can join the 18F
team."
description: "Over the past year, members of our distributed team have given
talks in over 30 locations about how we’re changing government digital
services. Topics have ranged from how we work to how we help the
government build and buy software to how people can join the 18F
team."
image: /assets/blog/anniversary/speaking-locations-map-fy15-16.jpg
---
*A map of where 18F staffers spoke about our work in 2015 and 2016. This
map only records one dot per city, so multiple events only appear as a
single dot.*
One of the benefits of working on a distributed team is having people
all over the country to speak about 18F’s mission and work. And they
have. Over the past year, members of our distributed team have given
talks in more than 30 locations about how we’re changing government digital
services. Topics have ranged from how we work to how we help the
government build and buy software to [how people can join the 18F
team](https://pages.18f.gov/joining-18f/). If you weren’t able to
attend one of the dozens of events our staff spoke at in the last two
years, we’ve got some video highlights below.
How we started
--------------
If you’d like to know more about the basics of 18F and how we got
started, your first stop should be to watch our co-founders Hillary
Hartley and Aaron Snow present to California’s Little Hoover Commission
about the ideas that started 18F, the principles that guide us, and the
work we do.
<iframe width="800" height="450"
src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/c1MCyS-O_3Y"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen title="Hillary Hartley & Aaron Snow – Improving Federal Government Digital Services – UX Showcase (2016)"></iframe>
Team culture
------------
We’ve also been doing a lot of talking about 18F’s culture and what it’s
like to work here. Jennifer Thibault recently spoke at Design Driven NYC
about [how our design team works while being distributed across the
country](https://youtu.be/IF3UNx8tvss?t=6s). Additionally,
Nicole Fenton talked about [the importance of writing in our design
process](https://uxlx.23video.com/video/12821711/words-as-material) at
the User Experience Lisbon conference.
Building lean
-------------
Hillary recently gave an overview of [how we built a lean startup
inside the government](https://youtu.be/10u-mqd3V9A?t=59s), while
Garren Givens — the director of the Presidential Innovation Fellows
(PIF) program — talked about using a [lean approach to designing the
highly-competitive program](https://youtu.be/10u-mqd3V9A?t=7m36s) that
brings technologists and innovators into the federal
government.
Our agile approach is not limited to software; in this talk,
our Talent Director Jen Tress
talks about [speeding up hiring to grow our
team](https://youtu.be/10u-mqd3V9A?t=16m24s). You can also watch
Infrastructure Director Noah
Kunin explain the [bureaucracy hacking we did to get to
cloud.gov](https://youtu.be/10u-mqd3V9A?t=31m50s), and designer Nick
Brethauer discuss [how our product teams use lean
UX](https://youtu.be/10u-mqd3V9A?t=40m5s).
Supporting change
-----------------
While we are very proud of the work we’ve done at 18F, improving the
federal government’s digital services is a huge challenge being worked
on by numerous organizations. Hartley from 18F recently joined Lisa
Gelobter, the chief digital service officer at the Department of
Education, and Haley van Dyck and Mikey Dickerson, founding members of
the U.S. Digital Service, for [a talk about how all of our
organizations are improving the government’s online
services](http://www.c-span.org/video/?402281-1/improving-government-online-services).
We’ve got many more events lined up for our staff in the coming year. If
you have an event that you’d like an 18F staffer to come speak at, you
can email us at [18f@gsa.gov](mailto:18f@gsa.gov) with the details,
and we can see if we can pair you with a speaker.