50 on Fire will bring together D.C.’s best and brightest to recognize the disruptors, luminaries and visionaries that are pushing our city forward. Buy your tickets now and join us on Dec. 10 at Howard Theatre for the celebration and winners reveal.

Washington, D.C. is unique as the spot where government and advocacy work mix and mingle, creating fresh innovations and drawing some of the most talented people in the country to the area. Whether its promoting technological solutions for government problems from within, building systems for more efficient government data analysis or offering a place for entrepreneurs with ideas on improving how federal agencies work, there’s a spot for all of them around D.C. Check out our 50 on Fire finalists in government and advocacy to see just what that innovation looks like.

Aaron Snow, 18F – Snow is the executive director of 18F, part of the General Services Administration working on building digital tools for the government. A former Presidential Innovation Fellow, Snow has led 18F to create programs and apps that make government functions easier and less complicated to run yet capable of expanding their scope.

Accenture Federal Services – Accenture Federal Services applies Accenture’s solutions to government. Almost 6,000 employees handle management consulting, operations and use advanced data and technical solutions to help out almost every part of the federal government. Accenture has been used to improve healthcare, information technology and long-term strategy for federal agencies.

Eastern Foundry – Eastern Foundry is a startup hub and accelerator in Virginia and now D.C. focused on government-facing startups. Just a year old, Eastern Foundry has made a name for itself, hosting its first Foundry Cup for startups dealing with PTSD in June, leading to $16,000 of investment in the winners. The new second location and expansion of its team speak to Eastern Foundry’s long-term plans to grow its presence in the area even more.

Emily Rasowsky, Women In Tech Campaign – Rasowsky runs the Women in Tech Campaign, launching the All Women in Tech company to help build a community of women in tech and encourage more women to enter the field. She’s been named a WWPR emerging leader and done all of this extraordinary work this while working full time to help Social Driver grow its own social media campaign work and its Pop-Up Innovation Lab.

Gary Shapiro, CTA – Shapiro is president of the Consumer Technology Association (formerly CEA). He’s helped build the group into one of the most influential tech industry organizations in the country, working with more than 2,000 companies to come up with coherent policy goals that the CTA can push for on Capitol Hill. He’s been named one of the most influential lobbyists around by The Hill and sits on national and regional boards promoting innovation and technological solutions to community issues.

GoodWorld – GoodWorld does “hashtag philanthropy,” using software to turn Twitter into a way to donate money to charities. It’s a way to turn supporters of charities on social media into actual givers, getting concrete support at the moment when people want to give it before they forget. This year it raised a $1.7 million seed round and grew from 3 to 15 employees.

Halcyon Incubator – Halcyon is an incubator for startups focused on social enterprise. It’s graduated four cohorts of startups with a wide range of innovative ideas on improving people’s lives and the world’s health. Each startup gets a $10,000 stipend, free housing and office space, leadership coaching, complimentary strategic, legal, accounting and PR resources. As each cohort graduates, Halcyon is building a impressive social good startup mafia.

ImpactHub DC – social enterprise incubator and co-working space ImpactHub DC is one of a network around the country run by MissionHUB. Thanks to new leadership from Beth Flores, ImpactHub is charting a path for growing in both size and breadth. It’s been adding new companies and seeing some existing companies reach new heights of success.

Lindsey Schuh Cortés, BlueLabs – Schuh Cortés is the new CEO of BlueLabs, which does data collection and analytics for political and other campaigns. Founded by President Obama’s original campaign data experts, the company has been growing fast this year, with new team members and new clients rolling in ahead of the big election next year.  Schuh Cortés is responsible for building and capitalizing on that success with tangible results based on the data analytics the company does.

Mach37 – A cybersecurity startup accelerator, Mach37 has graduated some very impressive companies that are continuing to thrive after graduation. More than half have received seed funding, and its growing network of mentors and advisors make it possible for the percentage of success to rise from there.

Mayor Bowser – Mayor Muriel Bowser has made it a priority to promote the city’s tech industry in her plans for improving the District. That has meant new civic programs during the InnoMaytion event and making an effort to reach out to tech companies and incubators to seek out ways for them to work with the city. She’s offered tax breaks to keep some of those companies in the District, and is partnering with Howard University to build a new startup space.

Megan Smith, The White House – White House CTO Megan Smith has been a dynamo in pushing for using tech to improve government. She’s gone to meet with tech startups and entrepreneurs about ways to integrate technology into government solutions and has been a major catalyst in efforts to expand diversity in the tech sector.

Obsidian Analysis – A government and business consultancy, Obsidian has had a very busy year, almost doubling its team size and signing on some important new clients, getting named one of the fastest-growing companies in the country by Inc. magazine.

Presidential Innovation Fellowship – The Presidential Innovation Fellows program is built around the idea of bringing innovative entrepreneurs into the government for a while. They bring ideas and energy and get to help the country while building a useful network with civil servants and other leaders that can be a big help in their later careers.

QuorumAnalytics – Quorum applies data analytics to the world of politics. The company started at Harvard University but moved to D.C. earlier this year, adding new team members and signing on a bunch of new clients. It offers an online legislative data analysis and aggregation platform that provides quantitative insight for qualitative policy questions.

Seamus Kraft, OpenGov Foundation – Kraft is the executive director of the OpenGov Foundation, an open source lawmaking process, where citizens across the country could contribute, in real time, to pending legislation. The organization has found a growing success in bringing its platform to more and more people, adding a lot of voices to legislative debate.