Zipcar and the Sharing Economy: What Can Government Learn?

Date: 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 1:00pm to 2:30pm

Location: 

Online Webinar

About the Webinar
As governments around the world work their way out of the financial crisis, one thing is certain: sharing resources, functions and services is the new normal. This is even truer in the consumer marketplace, where the “sharing economy” has spawned a new type of customer who prefers buying in “pieces” rather than “wholes.” A big example is car sharing, where people purchase time blocks (an hour, a day) for a car instead of purchasing their own car that would often sit idle.


This webinar will look at how Zipcar has built the world’s largest “platform” for sharing and how government is applying the Zipcar and sharing economy model to transform operations and citizen services. The webinar will be moderated by Antonio Oftelie, Fellow at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University.

Panelists include:

  • Dan Curtin, Vice President of Operations and Service Quality, Zipcar

  • Greg Wass, Chief Information Officer, Cook County Illinois

Panelists and the audience will address critical questions such as:

  • What can innovators in government learn from the growth of the sharing economy and an example like Zipcar?

  • How can government leverage the model for more effective and efficient citizen services?

  • How should we change our organizations and cultures to prepare them for the sharing economy?

presentation-oftelie.pdf2.6 MB
presentation-curtin1.pdf1.13 MB
presentation-wass.pdf579 KB