Within our Office of Innovation we have four teams: Performance Excellence, Smart Cities, Research & Development, and Digital Inclusion. These teams all have their own focus and objectives, but all of them align in the fact that their overall mission is to improve the quality of life of our residents, whether that be directly or indirectly. We execute that mission by not only working internally with all of our City of San Antonio departments, but also utilizing partnerships with external stakeholders that vary from public sector, to private sector, to educational sector. This inclusive approach allows us to ensure we don’t get stuck in an echo chamber, while also pushing us to break the tradition of government working in silos. A common misconception is that “Innovation” is driven by technology. Innovation within the City of San Antonio is driven by people. Our efforts are targeted at solving for challenges that our residents deal with now and challenges that we project we will face as a community in the future. We do this work by focusing on listening to our external partners, our fellow City of San Antonio departments, and most of all, our community members and residents.