Julia had the honour of delivering the keynote address at the Fifth Edition of the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment in Muscat, Oman, on 11-12 January 2016. Speaking before a packed audience of government entities, civil society representatives and private sector stakeholders, Julia used the address to stress the growing importance which the UN eGovernment Survey is placing upon open, collaborative and citizen centric government. ‘To achieve the ultimate target of making citizens happy,’ Julia argued, ‘government must constantly keep pace with the rapid pace of digital transformation. Mobile, Open Data and Cloud have transformed our interactions with each other and the business community. World leading public administrations know this and aspire to offer services that are as good as, if not better than, those offered by internet giants like Amazon, Apple and Google.’ Following her address, ITA, Oman’s central eGovernment agency, invited Julia to host a special workshop with their national portal team to review international best practice in key areas such as citizen engagement and Open Data. Julia concluded her visit with a closing speech on the innovative use of social media to engage citizens and improve service delivery. A brief post-event interview with Julia is available here.