Archive for the ‘Speakers’ Category

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A bit about our speakers - Dr Andrea Siodmok

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Last but certainly not least our final speaker in our series is Dr Andrea Siodmok – Chief Design Officer at Cornwall Council

Dr Andrea SiodmokAndrea is the Chief Designer at Cornwall Council and an advisor to the UK’s Innovation Agency, The Technology Strategy Board.  As an expert in innovation and design management she helps executive leaders and senior decision makers to harness the power of design to drive corporate and organisational growth.

In 2009, she set up and directed the multi award-winning social enterprise ‘Designs of the Time’ (Dott Cornwall)– an innovative design partnership that sought to demonstrate new approaches to tackling real-world problems in design and the built environment.

Prior to this as the first Chief Design Officer at the Design Council, Andrea led design programmes for the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, the Home Office and the NHS including reducing MRSA, preventing teenage crime and stimulating innovation in public services.

With a first class honours in industrial design and PhD in virtual reality sponsored by British Telecom, she has a deep understanding of design education, and is a visiting fellow at Northumbria University and lifetime fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Andrea has 15 years experience of promoting a strategic approach to the future of design and as an ambassador of sustainability and social innovation, she is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Northumbria, Associate to the Creative MBA at University College Falmouth and advising the European Commission as a member of the European Design Leadership Board. In 2010 she was nominated for the top fifty ‘Women to Watch’, Cultural Leadership Programme by the CCS and the Arts Council.  As a representative of British Design, Andrea is regularly interviewed for national media, hasbeen a judge of international design competitions and has given over 100 speeches and keynotes on design across five continents.

 

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A bit about our speakers - Dave Briggs

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012

With just over a month to go to Open Space South West – part 6 of the speaker series brings us onto Dave Briggs – Director at Kind of Digital

Kind of Digital is an online innovation agency, in that we support public sector organisations wanting to use digital technology to do interesting, different things.

This means lots of different kinds of work, from researching and writing digital strategies, to running training programmes, and building useful websites and online tools.

One recent project has involved building a social intranet for use between two councils with a shared management team. Another sees us advisinga council how online networks will help them attract investment and funding into the local economy.

We also run the annual LocalGovCamp unconference, which I’d like to think in some small way has provided a bit of inspiration for Open Space South West.

My own journey has taken me from assessing housing benefits claims at a council in Norfolk to the web team at 10 Downing Street, and now running my own business. What made that journey possible was the web, in particular social media like blogging and Twitter, and the networks it helped me to create.

My passion is for enabling innovation to happen within local authorities. I remember being stuck behind a desk, wanting to do things differently – better! – but not feeling enable to change anything. As Carl has remarked on his blog recently, caring about things can be a lonely experience.

Networks like Twitter mean that nobody has to feel lonely anymore. The strength and resilience of those loose, online ties continues to amaze. Any time you need help, or reassurance, it’s just a few presses of a key away.

Making innovation happen doesn’t have to be hard. Certainly, the technology is at anybody’s finger-tips. Getting people on board might be trickier, certainly across a whole organisation. The ease at which people can get the tools up and running, often at no cost at all, however means that small groups can just get on with it if they want to.

Public services need to find a way of setting free their innovators, their creative types, the enthused and motivated. Open Space South West promises to be an occasion where all the attendees will fit into at least one of those categories. I’m really looking forward to it!

 

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A bit about our speakers - Dr George Julian

Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

The 7th speaker in our series is Dr George Julian – Director at Research in Practice for Adults.

Research in Practice for Adults

research in practice for adults works to promote the use of evidence-informed policy and practice in adult social care and health. It does this through supporting people to find, use and share evidence from research and practice within a national network. We do this through network exchange and learning event opportunities, publications and a monthly research and policy update, our discussion forum, website and interactive resources, action research projects and tailored support to apply evidence in social care practice.

Dr George JulianEvidence-informed practice is a way of doing social care that involves continuously asking questions, searching objectively for the best available evidence to answer them, and taking appropriate action guided by that evidence. It supports leadership, management
and role modelling. It helps organisations to develop a learning culture, to reflect and analyse, and to understand and improve whilst avoiding blame. Research shows that using evidence supports practitioners to be confident and competent.

I have been the Director of research in practice for adults for two and a half years, having joined when it was established in 2006. My experience prior to working at Dartington (research in practice for adults is part of the Social Justice Programme there) includes posts as a Senior Research Officer at the Office for National Statistics, work as a researcher focusing on early childhood education, and a number of years working as a Lecturer in Special Education in Ireland. As a Torquay girl, my formative jobs saw me working in a pot pourri factory, a couple summers as a chambermaid and a waitress, liaising with coach drivers and selling icecream at Babbacombe Model Village, data entry work and a long stint jamming doughnuts in Sainsbury’s bakery.

I also enjoy studying and have a BA in Education, a PGDip in Social Science Research Methods and a PhD in the Psychology of Special Education that saw me looking at educational provision and curriculum for profoundly disabled children in England, Wales and Ireland. I am currently studying an MBA Module with the Open University focusing on Innovation, Creativity and Change.

My passion is ensuring that research is useful to people who need to use it, be they social workers, teachers or those using services. I have a particular interest in the role that technology can play in supporting this endeavour and believe that the best way to make research useful is to collaborate and engage end users from the beginning. When I am not working, reading research reports or ploughing through my email inbox, I am an occasional blogger www.georgeblogs.wordpress.com, a rugby fan (with confused allegiances having lived in Wales, Ireland and being English), a very irregular runner, and an infrequent baker. I am also an avid user of social media as a platform for networking and can be found on twitter @georgejulian.

For the last few years I feel like I have been destined to experience life and grapple with the reality for a potential health and social care service user, which has been an enlightening experience to say the least. My father is terminally ill with bile duct cancer (enter health care services, palliative care, hospice team, district nurses, blood transfusions, chemotherapy, social work and a blue badge and DLA application), my grandfather recently passed away at the age of 94 after a spell in hospital (roll up health
care, reablement services, domicilary care and home helps, occupational therapy, a stair lift and a fantastic undertaker), my 92 year old gran survives him (which brings up a family fear of her isolation and ongoing struggle to retain her independence), and my mum is the glue that holds it all together (with occasional support from carer services). Oh, and I won’t mention my next door neighbour, that’s a whole other story.

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak to people at Open Space South West. I would encourage people to take the time to stop, take a breath, lift their nose from the grindstone and consider the evidence behind your day to day decision making. This day
will provide you with support to do that, with a chance to network, to share ideas and to consider whether to do something different as a result of it. I really look forward to meeting some of you there.

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A bit about our speakers - Julie Hawker (@cosmicjulie)

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

Part 5 of our speaker profiles allows us to introduce Julie Hawker – Chief Executive at Cosmic

Cosmic Ethical IT is a social enterprise – As a social enterprise they measure success against the triple bottom line – profit, people and the planet.

Cosmic provide ICT services to many businesses, organisations and individuals, as well as providing leadership services for other social enterprises and the wider sector.

Cosmic are committed to digital inclusion, are keenly aware of the issues, challenges and barriers which people find in their use of ICT. They work to encourage people to play a more meaningful part of society through using ICT to the best advantage. They’ve done a lot of work over the years to address issues which rural areas face – for people, businesses and organisations, making sure that they can access the internet, gain good skills and support, and more important helping them to apply this to provide effective improvements in their lives, their businesses and their communities.

Julie is Chief Executive at Cosmic and has a key role leading the business, its strategic partnerships and planning our future.

Her background in both the private sector and public sector have provided an effective background to strategic business management and achieving social impact.

She is passionate about ensuring that services are of the highest quality and that social objectives remain high on the agenda – for businesses, other social enterprises, community organisations and individuals alike.

Julie has been with Cosmic for 11 years and in that time she has worked in a variety of management and development roles including leading in the launch of major new projects and services. She is a keen follower of ICT and its effect on society, including how we make the most of digital communications, social media and new ways of working to improve organisations.

Julie is a major advocate of social enterprise and as Social Enterprise Ambassador. Julie has led in the development of COSMIC’s work on leadership development in social enterprises through the Lively and Pioneer projects and remains highly committed to leading the way in making social enterprise the business model for the 21st Century.

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A bit about our speakers - Justin Griggs

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

The 4th installment of our speaker series gives us the opportunity to introduce Justin Griggs - Head of Policy and Development at The National Association of Local Councils

National Association of Local Councils

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is the recognized membership and support organisation representing and promoting the interests of 9,000 local councils and their 80,000 local councilors in England.

NALC provides support and advice through a network of county associations, which provide a local support service for member councils. This includes providing guidance and information through training, briefings and newsletters, as well as signposting to other sources of information and support. County associations also represent the views of local councils to a wide range of bodies at county and regional level.

Working with county associations and other important partners such as the Society of Local Council Clerks, we are actively involved in lobbying the Government and other organisations at a national level to advance and protect the interests of local councils.

Justin Griggs - NALC

Justin Griggs is the Head of Policy and Development at the National Association of Local Councils, the nationally recognised membership and support body representing the interests of 9,000 local (parish and town) councils and their 80,000 local councillors in England.

He has responsibility for NALC’s policy, public affairs and parliamentary work as well as improvement and development initiatives. Last year the leading local government journal LGC included Justin in their LGC50 publication on the most influential people in local government.

Justin has been advocating and championing local councils at national level on a wide range of policy and development agendas since joining NALC in 2000. Through a number of roles he has also played a key role in developing the services and organisation of NALC, securing significant funding and investment in a range of sector projects and initiatives such as the National Training Strategy.

Areas of work in recent years include influencing the local government white paper and subsequent legislation; the report of the Councillors Commission; the white paper on community empowerment; and the role of local councils in the Coalition Government’s localism and decentralisation plans, including new powers in the Localism Act and neighbourhoods policy in the Open Public Services white paper.

Justin was also involved in the Commission for Rural Communities participation inquiry into strengthening the role of local councillors as an expert adviser. He is a member of the Monitoring and Verification Board which awards the Certificate in Local Council Administration and helped establish the Institute of Local Council Management, where he continues to promote and support the development of the clerk’s profession as a board member.

A regular speaker at a wide range of conferences and events at national and local level, Justin also contributes to the local government media on policy, improvement and local democracy including on his blog at www.nalcjustin.wordpress.com and Twitter at http://twitter.com/justingriggs.

Justin is currently spearheading NALC’s campaign in London to raise awareness of local councils and the positive difference grassroots democracy and community action can make to people and communities. He is actively involved as a supporter and adviser to the Campaign for a community council in Queen’s Park, Westminster who will be the first ever parish council in London when established in 2014.

Originally from south east Kent, Justin joined NALC in January 2000 from Stoke-on-Trent City Council, where he worked on corporate strategy and local government re-organisation prior to unitary status, and then in a further period in democratic services and local government modernisation. Justin has also worked in the private sector.

Justin has an honours degree in Business Studies, a postgraduate diploma in Business Administration and is a Member of the Chartered Management Institute.

Justin is 38 and lives in Kent with his partner Jude and their toddler son Joseph and baby daughter Poppy. In his spare time Justin is a school governor and as a keen runner plays an active role in Plumstead Runners running club in south east London. An ‘eclectic’ range of music as well as the books and films of James Bond and Harry Potter are among Justin’s other interests and passions.

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