EXCITING SPEAKERS LINE UP EDGE 2013

Rory Mair CBE – Chief Executive Officer Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)

Rory Mair was appointed as Chief Executive of COSLA in April 2002.  This was an important appointment for COSLA following the fundamental review of its purpose and structures.  Prior to this appointment, Rory had spent five years as Director of Aviemore Projects for Highlands & Islands Enterprise.  This post was designed to create the circumstances to re-establish Aviemore as a tourism destination of international quality prior to the establishment of the forthcoming Cairngorm National Park.

Previous to this, but following local government re-organisation in 1996,  Rory spent a short time as Strategic Director for Social Strategy with Fife Council. This post sought to pull together as one cohesive unit the major Council services such as Housing, Social Work, Education and Leisure.

Before local government re-organisation, Rory was appointed Chief  Executive of Ross & Cromarty District Council and was, at the time, the youngest ever Chief Executive in British local government.

James Murdock – Director of Multimedia Content, New York Public Library

James Murdock is The New York Public Library’s director of multimedia content. In addition to managing video production for NYPL, his department produces collections-based digital publications including the award-winning free iPad app Biblion: The Boundless Library; the iBook and ePub periodical Point; and special collections websites such as John Cage Unbound: A Living Archive. Before joining NYPL in 2008, James was a print and broadcast journalist specializing in the arts and humanities, having served as the news editor of Architectural Record magazine. He is the co-author of Serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians.

Annie Mauger – Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)

Previously Annie worked in libraries in England and Scotland, becoming Head of Libraries and Heritage for the City of York Council in 2000. She was Chief Executive of the Museums, Libraries and Archives (MLA) Yorkshire until its closure in 2009 and since has been working as a consultant to charities and public sector bodies on partnerships, governance, change management and libraries. She has also been Acting Chief Executive of a refugee charity in Yorkshire.
www.cilip.org.uk

Marshall Breeding – the creator of the Library Technology Guides website.

Marshall writes a monthly column for Computers in Libraries, is a contributing editor for Smart Libraries Newsletter published by ALA Techsource, he has written the Automation System Market place feature published in Library Journal for the since 2002,  written 7 issues of Library Technology Reports, is on the editorial boards for Information Standards Quarterly published by NISO and Electronic Library.  He has edited or authored six books and over 450 articles, book chapters, columns, or essays.    He is a frequent speaker at library converences, throughout the United States and internationally, including Colombia, Chile, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, the Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, The Netherlands, Iceland, Israel, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.  In December 2008 Marshall spent three weeks in Argentina as a Fullbright Senior Specialist.  He speaks on issues involving many aspects of library technology and the library automation industry.

Richard Watson -  author, speaker and thinker who helps companies to think further ahead.

Richard  particularly emphasis’ on uncovering future growth opportunities and risks. He is the founder of nowandnext.com, a website that documents global trends and a member of Futures House, a specialist scenario planning consultancy.

Richard is the author of five books including Future Files: 5 Trends for the Next 50 Years and Future Minds: How the Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It. Richard has worked with, amongst others, State Libraries New South Wales, London Business School, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, General Electric, The Kings Fund, Dept of Education, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

Brian Gambles – Director for the Library of Birmingham, one of Europe’s foremost cultural developments.

Brian has recently been appointed as Chief Executive of the newly formed Library of Birmingham Development Trust. Due to open in June 2013, The Library of Birmingham will rewrite the book for library and archive services. Brian has a long-standing interest in new models of library service for changing times and changing communities. He is passionate about the need for radical change in the library service to secure its position in the 21^st century urban landscape.

Brian has a national profile in public libraries, has authored several articles and has delivered many conference presentations in theUK, Europe and theUSA, on the future of libraries and their impact on learning, skills and economic regeneration.

Natasha Innocent – Demand Stimulation Lead, Broadband Delivery UK.

Natasha Innocent leads demand stimulation for the superfast broadband roll out at Broadband Delivery UK. Her role is to work with Local Authorities to make sure local people and businesses recognise the benefits a faster and more reliable broadband infrastructure will bring, as it becomes available in their areas.

Prior to joining BDUK Natasha worked for Race Online 2012, the campaign set up by Martha Lane Fox to get as many people online by the time of the Olympics. She was Director of Community Partnerships at Race Online 2012 and was responsible for developing the successful Go ON campaign in partnership with Liverpool City Council which saw the number of adults who had never gone on the internet, in the city, fall from 29.1 percent to 17 per cent (the national average) between 2011 and 2012.

Neil MacInnes – Head of Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester Library.

Neil MacInnes has worked in public libraries for over twenty-five years: twenty in Glasgow and the last five in Manchester. He supportedGlasgow’s Library Modernisation Programme, and more recently, Neil led the Capital Programme inManchester; an ambitious plan to modernise, refurbish or replace all of the city’s libraries. Now, as Head of Libraries, Information and Archives, Neil is working on his biggest project to date: leading the library team and managing the three-year refurbishment and redesign of Manchester’s iconic and well-loved Central Library. Neil is a member of the Greater Manchester shared service project board.

Paul McNeil – Scottish Football Association, Regional Manager, Ambassador for Dyslexia Scotland

Paul is dyslexic and has been Regional Manager (West) for the Scottish Football Association since 2006.  Within this role he is responsible for the delivery and development of the Youth Action Plan and he operates at different levels within the sports industry and local government to drive forward the development of the Scottish FA Region. The main targets are to increase participation; recruit and retain volunteers; develop club infrastructures; coach education and development of players.

Mark Turley – Director, Services for Communities, City of Edinburgh Council

Mark graduated in Psychology from the University of Leicesterin 1981 and began working for Sheffield City Council in the same year. In 1990 Mark graduated with a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Sheffield Business School. After progressing through various management positions Mark was appointed Deputy Director of Housing for York City Council in 1990.

In December 1993 Mark began working for the City of Edinburgh Councilas Director of Housing. In 2006 he became of Director of Services for Communities responsible for a wide range of ”quality of life” services such as libraries, waste, roads, parks, housing, community safety and community planning. These are delivered through a neighbourhood management model and have shown dramatic improvements in performance and customer satisfaction over the past 4 years.

Mark has served on a number of national bodies including the Homelessness Task Force, the Anti-Social Behaviour Working Group, the Empty Homes Working Group and the New Housing Partnership Working Group.

Mike Neilson – Digital Director for the Scottish Government

Mike Neilson is Digital Director for the Scottish Government, working to ensure Scotland benefits fully from the opportunities of the digital revolution. He is responsible for a major programme of broadband infrastructure investment, for developing digital public services and for Scottish Government work on participation and on the digital economy.

Mike is a lifelong public servant, having worked for the UK Treasury, the UK Permanent Representation in Brussels and for the European Commission before moving to the Scottish Government. He has worked on a wide range of public policy issues from financial regulation to environmental policy. He has particular experience of public sector structural reform, particularly  in the water, housing and marine sectors.

Debbie Hicks – Director of Research, The Reading Agency

Debbie is a founder member of The Reading Agency, a national charity whose mission is to promote equal access to reading, where she is currently Director of Research. She has extensive knowledge of public libraries and the literature sector, is a policy and strategy specialist, an experienced researcher and has extensive experience of high-level project development and delivery.

She is a specialist in the field of reading and health. In 2003, she undertook a comprehensive research study on the subject published by Arts Council England.

Bill Thompson – Head of Partnership Development, BBC Archive Development

Bill Thompson is an English technology writer, best known for his weekly column in the Technology section of BBC News Online and his appearances on a radio show on the BBC World Service. He is also an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at City University London’s Journalism Department.

Born in Jarrow, Thompson grew up in Corby. He graduated from CambridgeUniversityin philosophy and with a diploma in computing in 1984. He was a correspondent for the technology programme The Big Byte on BBC Radio. He began to write for The Guardian in 1990, and in 1994 went to work there, setting up the paper’s website. He left in 1996 to work as a freelance writer and consultant. In November 2009 he took on a role as head of partnership development for Archive Development projects at the BBC.

Jonathan Guthrie -  City Centre Development Partnership Director

Jonathan leads on strategic investment and coordinates development for the City of Edinburgh and works across all major sectors.

Claire Thompson – Team Leader & Service Development Officer, North Yorkshire County Council 

A large part of Claire’s work involves working with partners and volunteers to deliver library services to the different communities of Skipton and Craven.

During the last 3 years Claire has been using traditional library skills to work in co-production with partners and young people to facilitate and develop the Rewind Skipton Songwriters Project.

 

Councillor Richard Lewis – Convenor for Culture & Sport

Born in Sydney, Richard grew up in both Edinburgh and Australia. After attending James Gillespie’s High School, he completed a B.A. (Hons) in Music at Magdalen College, Oxford and a Masters at Edinburgh University before working in Mannheim, Germany for some time. He has since worked as a freelance musician and conductor in Austria, Hungary, Australia, Denmark, Belgium and Ireland.

He has been a member of the SNP for 18 years and has served as vice-convenor of Marchmont branch. He first stood for the party in the council 2007 election.

His primary areas of council interest are education and the arts and particularly the importance of maintaining and expanding upon Edinburgh’s reputation as a leading artistic, cultural and educational centre.

Richard has a Hungarian partner Eszter who gave birth to their first son, Stephan, in January.

Graham Coult – Editor-in-Chief, Managering Information and Privacy and Data Protection: Managing Information matters

Graham is editor-in-chief of Managing Information, and the new publication Privacy and Data Protection: Managing Information matters. Managing Information magazine looks at all aspects of information management, with an emphasis on the practical, and a brief to push the boundaries of information management and look at how it can be reinvented and developed. This includes coverage of digital matters, QR codes, Augmented Reality, the Internet of Things etc, especially in the form of reviews of the latest research.  The new magazine, as its name suggests, covers Privacy and Data Protection, with a global focus.

Graham studied librarianship, management and Spanish at Leeds Metropolitan University. He has also studied French at the Institut Francais du Royaume Uni and journalism at City University in London. He has worked in information scientist and research functions at British Gas and Shell International Petroleum. He was one of the first two Professional Advisers for Special Libraries at what was the Library Association (which subsequently merged with the Institute of Information Scientists to become CILIP). He has also been a visiting lecturer at London Metropolitan University.

Graham’s interests include history – especially castles and museums  which serve good cakes in their cafés and cycling, especially to pubs which serve excellent lunches.

Frances Robert -  Service Development Co-ordinator, Library Service of South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture

Frances leads the development agenda for libraries and has experience of managing a number of major new library development projects. She has also been involved in the development of the quality management agenda for both libraries and for the Leisure Trust. Frances’ main business interests lie in the management and delivery of quality library services.

Frances has been actively involved in the professional side of libraries and is a former Secretary of the Public Libraries Group.

At an operational level, Frances has responsibility for the management of the four largest libraries in South Lanarkshire