For westcoasters interested in and thinking about open government and open data there will be a conference in the pacific northwest bringing together key actors in the area.

Called OpenGovWest will be taking place on March 26th and 27th. A number of interesting people will be in speaking and in attendance include Andrew Hoppin (New York State Senate’s CIO), Sabra Schneider (Webmaster, King County), Bill Schrier(CIO of Seattle) and David Hume, Executive Director, (Citizen Engagement).

There is also, at the moment, an early bird registration that last until March 10th with the discount code of 7gh9.

The conference will be taking place at Seattle City Hall (and will be the first time City Hall chambers will be used to host a conference – it is a beautiful room, which is a bonus…

Some other info for open data and open gov geeks like me…

• You can follow the conference on Twitter @opengovwest
• The conference hashtag is #ogw
• Sponsors who are interested can find out more about sponsoring here.
• Again, you can register here.

It is great to see a conference of this nature coming to the west coast. Big kudos to Sarah Schacht, the Director of Knowledge As Power, who has made this conference happen.