1. A Different Story: libraries as enterprise catalysts
The Cube, Corby, Wednesday 28th November 2012
Programme
Time Session Speakers
9:30am Registration & coffee (*)
10:00am Opening address Dr Paul Blantern, Chief Executive,
Northamptonshire County Council
10:30am Scene-setting Liz Macdonald, Carnegie UK Trust
11:00am Break & refreshments
11:30am Hope, enterprise and Rob Purdie and Fiona Galbraith, Northamptonshire
change Enterprise Partnership; Wray Irwin, The Young
Foundation / Univ. of Northampton
12:15pm Hatching a future (Enterprise Hubs case study)
12:45pm Lunch (in the foyer)
1:45pm From Hub to Hubbub: John Blewitt, Aston University Business School;
Libraries in the thick of it Tony Durcan, Newcastle City Council; Martin
Molloy, Derbyshire County Council
2:45pm Knowledge sharing and ‘speed dating’ session
3:30pm The future is bright Grace Kempster, Northamptonshire County
Council
3:45pm End of event (fresh tea and coffee available)
(*) All refreshments will be served in the foyer outside the Council Chamber. Water will be available
in the Chamber throughout. Please note no food or drinks (other than water) are allowed in the
Chamber itself.

2. Speakers
Dr Paul Blantern, Chief Executive, Northamptonshire County Council
Paul has been chief executive of Northamptonshire County Council since 1st June 2010. He
joined in 2008 as Corporate Director for Customer and Community Services where he was
responsible for a wide range of customer–facing services including libraries, country parks,
adult learning, fire & rescue and the customer service centre as well as support services such
as HR and IT.
Before joining Northamptonshire, and following a career in the private sector, Paul was
Director for Customer Services at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.
Paul is passionate about working with partners to ensure excellent services are provided to
customers and communities in the county. He was the instigator behind the council’s
innovative shared services partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council, now known as
LGSS. Launched in October 2010, LGSS is one of the largest shared service ventures in the
UK.
Paul has lived in the county for many years, is married with two teenage sons, and lives in a
village in east Northamptonshire. In his spare time, he canoes, plays table tennis for his local
town and takes an active role in his local community.
Liz Macdonald, Senior Policy Officer, Carnegie UK Trust
Liz Macdonald is the author of the Carnegie UK Trust’s influential report on the future of
public libraries– based on research commissioned by the Trust in the UK and Ireland.
Liz has been with the Carnegie UK Trust for a year and a half, and before that worked on
various social policy issues at Consumer Focus Scotland. Recent areas of work have included
the need for effective consumer health information, consumer representation in public
service development, and the challenges and opportunities presented by an ageing
population.
Wray Irwin, Social Entrepreneur in Residence, The Young Foundation
Wray is the Social Entrepreneur in Residence (SEiR) hosted by the University of
Northampton. As SEiR, he is embedded within the University to scout for potential
entrepreneurs both within the University and the wider community, and help them to
develop their ideas to the point where they become successful ventures.
Before joining the Young Foundation Wray worked in the higher education sector promoting
enterprise and working with communities to develop enterprising solutions to the
challenges they faced.

3. Wray's experience is rooted in the social enterprise sector where he was a founding director
of Social Enterprise East Midlands (SEEM) and successfully ran the Northamptonshire Co-
operative Development Agency (NCDA) for over 5 years.
In 2009, Wray completed his MSt in Social Enterprise and Community Development at
Cambridge University.
Rob Purdie, Executive Director, Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership
Rob joined Northamptonshire Enterprise as a Non-Executive director in 2006 and
subsequently became an Ambassador for the county. In mid 2010 he took on the role of
Executive Director.
Prior to owning his own businesses Rob enjoyed a 20-year career in corporate sales and
marketing working in senior positions with Granada and Pirelli before moving to the agency
sector designing, deploying and delivering high performance CRM programmes.
Rob has been a member of the Marketing Society for over 20 years and is a Fellow of the
Institute of Direct Marketing.
Rob retains links with the business community as Chairman of JHP Associates, a marketing
services business; and Campaign Solution: a marketing communications agency, both based
in Corby. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Northamptonshire Chamber of
Commerce.
Dr John Blewitt, Senior Lecturer (Sustainability and Media Communications), Aston
University Business School
John Blewitt is an educator and environmentalist who has worked in higher, further and
adult education for many years. Currently a Senior Lecturer at Aston University, John has
been closely involved with the Library of Birmingham since 2009 and was recently selected
to be one of its ‘faces’ or ambassadors. He is an expert on public libraries and their relation
to social and environmental sustainability – the subject of his blog, “Public Libraries:
connecting spaces and places”.
John Blewitt studied Politics, History and Sociology at UCW Aberystwyth; Film and Television
at the Polytechnic of Central London and Education at the Universities of Greenwich and
Huddersfield. He has extensive experience of Adult, Further, International and Higher
Education and has worked at the universities of Huddersfield, Bradford and Exeter.
He is a member of the IUCN Commission on Communication and Education, a founding
member of the International Environmental Communication Association (IECA), a
Distinguished Schumacher Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Higher
Education Academy.

4. Tony Durcan OBE, Director of Culture, Libraries and Lifelong Learning, Newcastle City
Council
Tony is currently Director of Culture, Libraries and Lifelong Learning, having moved to
Newcastle in 2002.
Previously Tony worked for Gateshead Library and Arts Service, first as Assistant Director,
and latterly as Head of Libraries, Arts and Information. Before that he had a variety of roles
with Derbyshire Library Service, from Trainee to District Librarian.
His public library priorities in Newcastle have been to work with colleagues to modernise
services, and to create a positive profile for the Library Service. The service is now held in
high regard by both the Council and external stakeholders.
One of Tony’s major projects has been the development of the new Newcastle City Library
through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The library opened in June 2009 to wide acclaim.
Tony was President of the Society of Chief Librarians from 2007 until 2009. He currently
chairs SCL’s Books and reading group. He was a member of the former Advisory Council on
Libraries, and a Board member for the 2008/9 Public Libraries Modernisation Review.
Outside of his Newcastle role, Tony is also the inaugural chair of the Durham Cultural
Partnership.
Martin Molloy OBE, Strategic Director of Cultural and Community Services, Derbyshire
County Council
Martin has been a Chief Officer of Derbyshire County Council for the last seventeen years.
He is currently Strategic Director of Cultural and Community Services.
Martin is currently President of the Reading Agency and a member of the Advisory
Committees of the Departments of Information Studies and Information Science at the
Universities of Sheffield and Loughborough respectively.
He is a Board Member for Arts Council England (East Midlands).
He is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Information Studies, The University of
Sheffield.
He is a member of the CLOA (Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association) Executive
Committee. He was a Champion for the Arts Council’s Cultural Leadership Programme. He is
past President of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and
the Society of Chief Librarians, a past member and Chair of the Advisory Council for Libraries,
past Chair of the DCMS Libraries and Adult Learning Steering Group. He was a member of
RNIB Advisory Board for Library Services. He is past Chair of the Board of the Reading
Agency.
In 1998 Martin received a Library Association Royal Charter Centenary Medal and was
awarded an OBE in June 2004.

5. Grace Kempster OBE, Customer and Library Service Manager, Northamptonshire County
Council
Grace has worked in libraries in London Boroughs, cities, counties and internationally, and is
currently Customer and Libraries Manager for Northamptonshire.
Over the past four years she has led the transformation of libraries to achieve the lowest
per-visit cost in the UK, attain the Customer Service Excellence Award and develop a track
record for innovation.
Her previous work has involved delivering consultancy to the Thai Knowledge Park in
Bangkok; partnership with a leading community-based literacy organisation in Argentina and
shaping the initial People’s Network in libraries across the UK.
She excels at setting the wider context for libraries and ensuring that they optimise the
contributions they make in both individual lives and the quality of local living.
Fiona Galbraith, Economic Development Project Manager, Northamptonshire Enterprise
Partnership
After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, where she studied European languages
and the European Union, Fiona undertook an internship in Brussels as a Member of
Parliament's assistant before joining Northamptonshire Enterprise in February 2009.
Fiona now manages and develops the Northamptonshire Enterprise Hub, the business start-
up support service delivered in collaboration with NCC Libraries and Information Service.
The Enterprise Hub provides information resources, as well as a range of workshops and 1
to1 support, for anybody planning to start a business in the County.
Fiona is also responsible for the delivery of the INV-ENT fund, a locally funded initiative
which provides a business rate rebate to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
enabling those funds to be reinvested by the business to stimulate its development,
innovation and growth, and to create new jobs. The principal focus of the fund is to support
businesses in high-growth and advanced technology-led sectors, and to support job creation
in Northamptonshire.
We are grateful to Axiell for their kind sponsorship of
this event.
For all enquiries related to this event please contact:
Jorge Solis
Principal Librarian - Transformation
01604 366162
07534 595 754
jsolis@northamptonshire.gov.uk
Twitter: @enterpriselibs
Website: http://tinyurl.com/librariesdifferentstory