🌟 CityCamp Gainesville 2025 – Follow Up & Recap 🌟

What is CityCamp? It’s a community-led UNconference where residents, students, technologists, and civic leaders set the agenda together.

At unconferences, attendees come up with their own session ideas day-of and participants vote on what they want to do and disucss. CityCamp events have been hosted in cities across the world over the years, and this year Gainesville joined the movement for the first time.

This event was made possible through the partnership of Florida Community Innovation (FCI), a nonprofit building civic tech and student/volunteer-led solutions to community challenges; QueerCoded @ UF, a University of Florida student organization supporting the personal and professional growth of LGBTQ+ students in computer science; and the Alliance of Civic Technologists, a national network of volunteers advancing civic innovation and public-interest technology.

Together, these partners created Gainesville’s first-ever CityCamp.

Over the course of the unconference, participants dug into a wide range of topics, and we strove of a mix of discussion and action.

We explored the connection between rising urban heat and gun violence, and how climate resilience and safety planning are linked. We discussed housing ordinances in Gainesville, analyzing how current regulations affect housing supply and what reforms might create more equitable access. Ethical adoption of artificial intelligence was another theme, where participants drafted principles emphasizing privacy, accountability, and thoughtful engagement. The Florida Resource Map was enhanced with LGBTQ+ resources, validating data and identifying gaps that remain. Cybersecurity in queer spaces sparked conversations about digital safety, especially in communities balancing both professional and social growth.

Other sessions spotlighted grassroots solutions to food insecurity through community fridges (including celebrating a new grant FCI and other partners have received for a Gainesville community fridge from the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area), the potential of translation technology to make healthcare more inclusive for multilingual communities, ideas for improving Gainesville’s public transit system, and approaches to democratizing finance so that economic tools are more accessible and equitable.

Thank you to all who attended and contributed to the energy of this first CityCamp Gainesville. With your creativity and commitment, we’ve shown what’s possible when communities come together to imagine new ways of shaping civic life.

Missed CityCamp, but want to be part of FCI’s projects that are changing Florida for the better? Volunteers in Gainesville and beyond can sign up today!