Press briefing with Dave Cole of the NJ Office of Innovation

Dave Cole, Chief Innovation Officer for the State of New Jersey, presents the newly published 2025 Impact Report from the New Jersey Office of Innovation. The report highlights how the state is using technology and human-centered design to improve services for New Jerseyans, from Summer EBT access to business permitting to state agency call centers.

Dave discusses the office's work on:
— Multilingual access and translation services
— AI implementation in state government
— Business.NJ.gov platform improvements
— Call center modernization
— Summer EBT program success
— Human-centered design approach to government services

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This press briefing was hosted by the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University for local, hyperlocal, community and ethnic media in New Jersey.

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📚 MATERIALS:
— 2025 Impact Report: https://innovation.nj.gov/impact-repo...
Office of Innovation contact: [email protected]
— NotebookLM (Google account required): https://notebooklm.google.com/noteboo...
— My Career NJ portal: https://mycareer.nj.gov/
— NJ Business portal: https://business.nj.gov/
— Transcript and summary notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z...

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🗣️ About the speaker:
Dave Cole serves as Chief Innovation Officer for the State of New Jersey and a member of Governor Murphy's Cabinet. He leads the Office of Innovation in its mission to drive innovation in government and improve the design and delivery of policies and services to New Jersey residents, businesses, and institutions. Dave joined the Office of Innovation in 2020 to help the state respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, where he served as technology co-lead for New Jersey's vaccination program. Prior to his work in New Jersey, Dave served as Senior Advisor to the Chief Information Officer and Deputy Director of New Media during President Obama's first term, where he introduced open source technology to the White House.

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🎬 CHAPTERS:
— 0:00 Introduction and welcome
— 3:14 Dave Cole begins presentation - Office of Innovation background
— 6:25 Human-centered design and technology approach
— 10:15 2025 Impact Report overview
— 14:30 Summer EBT program success story
— 19:45 Multilingual services and translation capabilities
— 24:20 Business.NJ.gov platform and permitting improvements
— 29:10 Call center modernization and AI implementation
— 34:15 Data-driven decision making and metrics
— 38:50 Q&A begins
— 39:20 Question about AI tools for government communication
— 42:15 Question about translation services for ethnic media
— 45:20 Question about state contracts for ethnic media organizations
— 49:12 Question about business registration support for Korean business owners
— 50:26 Closing remarks and transition to Governor-elect Sherrill

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