Helen Margetts is the Director of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), a department of the University of Oxford. A political scientist of international standing, Helen joined the OII in 2004 as Professor of Society and the Internet, having previously been Director of the School of Public Policy at University College London. Her research focuses on digital era governance and politics, investigating the nature and implications of relationships between governments, citizens and the internet. Her major research reports on electronic government, undertaken with Patrick Dunleavy of the LSE, represent the first and most systematic evaluation of the UK government's electronic presence.

Helen currently holds an ESRC professorial fellowship and is Editor of the journal Policy and Internet.


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Tom Steinberg is the Founder and Director of mySociety, a social enterprise that has pioneered many technology tools that have changed the relationship between the government and the public.

Tom was the driving force behind mySociety's popular UK civic sites such as FixMyStreet, TheyWorkForYou and WhatDoTheyKnow, now much copied around the world. He led many web transformation projects, working at both local and national levels, and advised governments and company boards on making best use of technology.

Tom co-authored the Power of Information Review in 2007, and spent the past two years on the Public Sector Transparency Board.

Presentation: Government as a website

Governments see websites as things they have – inconvenient distractions from the real business of government. But increasingly, citizens see governments as websites first, just as people see Amazon as a website, not as an enormous logistics and research company.

Tom will talk about the painful process required for governments to start seeing themselves as websites, and why it matters.

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Bernard Quinn is rejoining the NHS as a Director of Operations and Delivery. Prior to this, he was part of the Cabinet Office's Government Digital Service, co-authoring the formative Digital by Default strategy, supporting the development of transactional services on GOV.UK, the digital performance framework and Race Online 2012 assisted digital strategy. He has also worked with the NHS Commissioning Board and Socitm, undertaking reviews of the channel shift opportunities across NHS and local government.

Bernard has led on customer contact strategies for the Cabinet Office's Efficiency and Reform Group and Strategy Unit, working across 1000+ centres in government on efficiency, effectiveness and performance management. He has also led on channel strategy and channel shift opportunities for health and held a number of executive roles in the public sector.

Presentation: Delivering digital by default

The Cabinet Office has a stated policy of digital by default as the route to delivery of government services and in this presentation Bernard will outline what this means for public sector service delivery; how to develop a digital strategy, channel shift and channel optimisation; and the role of user-centred measures in enabling change including Total Cost to Serve and First Contact Resolution.

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Martin Wilson is Go ON UK's Policy Director and Deputy CEO. He was previously the BBC's Head of Media Literacy where he launched campaigns like First Click and Give an Hour.

Martin is a trained journalist who began his career in regional newspapers, moved to BBC television news and then produced investigations for Newsnight and Panorama. He is an award-winning documentary director for BBC arts, history and science programmes. He has also been an Executive Producer and Head of Development for BBC Current Affairs.

Presentation: Using the web more productively

Go ON UK aims to get businesses and charities using the web more productively, ensuring every individual, organisation and community can enjoy the benefits of the internet.

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David Moody, Head of Worldwide Product Strategy, is responsible for the introduction and ongoing success of KANA's strategic products across both the public and private sectors and works closely with customers across the world including in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.

Formerly CTO and founding director of Lagan (acquired by KANA software in November 2010), David has a unique combination of strong technology, customer and commercial skills. David played a significant role in Lagan's rapid growth, including its successful entry into the North American public sector market in 2005, the launch of its public sector cloud-based solutions and its successful entry into the Australian market with Brisbane City Council in 2010.

David has also performed non-executive director and board advisory roles for other local software companies, including Datactics (currently Board Advisor).

Presentation: The digital citizen challenge

David Moody will pose some of the challenges presented by the 'Digital Citizen' in 2012, with solutions drawing on a number of real-world case studies.

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Carrie Bishop is a director at FutureGov, which works with local government to create better, cheaper public services using technology and design thinking. She loves her job.

She has a background in Local Government, having worked at the London Borough of Barnet, first as a graduate on the NGDP in the role of Policy Officer and then as a Change Manager. She was responsible for piloting the first social media project at the council.

Carrie has also worked with several other local authorities and public bodies, having been a consultant at the public sector consultancy Capita Consulting.

At FutureGov, Carrie has worked on projects focused on using social technologies for better collaboration, open innovation and organisational change, including Patchwork, the multi-agency child protection app; Simpl, an open innovation platform; and Casserole, a neighbourhood meal-sharing service.

Follow Carrie on Twitter: @carriebish


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Tim Kelsey is the National Director for Patients and Information in the NHS Commissioning Board. The role combines the functions of chief technology and information officer with responsibility for patient and public voice, insight, communication and customer relations.

Before his appointment to the NHS in June 2012, Tim was the British Government's first Executive Director of Transparency and Open Data, leading on the development of national public data policy.

Tim is a leading advocate of a popular knowledge revolution in our public services and, in 2000, was co-founder of Dr Foster, a company that pioneered publication of patient outcomes in healthcare. He is also an internationally regarded expert in thinking differently about how digital and social media can transform the customer – and patient – experience in public services. In 2007, he launched NHS Choices, the national online health information service (www.nhs.uk) that now reports around 14 million unique users per month.

Before 2000, Tim was an award-winning national newspaper journalist and broadcaster for the Sunday Times, Independent, BBC and Channel 4. Follow Tim on Twitter: @tkelsey1

Presentation: Information: the path to better healthcare

Digital and social media can transform the customer – and patient – experience in public services. Information is the key, as set out in the recent NHS Information Strategy.

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Kevin O'Malley is Manager of Connecting Bristol, the City Council's Digital Partnership. He is an experienced web developer, a PRINCE2 Practitioner and a member of the British Computer Society. He has a particular interest in usability, accessibility and eDemocracy. He is also a recovering Archaeologist, and worked on the excavation of the earliest domesticated dog remains

Presentation: Future-proofing local public services

Digital technologies are set to revolutionise the way in which public services are designed and delivered. How can local authorities ensure they are fully prepared, that the infrastructure is right, that there is access for all, and that services are built around the user?

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Katherine Courtney returned from maternity leave in January 2012 to take up the position of Policy and Service Design Director for the Universal Credit Programme at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). She leads the team responsible for: developing the policy and delivery strategy for Universal Credit; specifying the design of the new systems and processes; assuring the solutions developed through the Agile process are fit for purpose and meet the strategic policy aims; and delivering the strategic marketing, communications and stakeholder relationship management to ensure Universal Credit well is understood and those directly impacted by the changes are fully supported in their transition from the current benefit system.

Katherine joined DWP in October 2007 as Director of its newly established Customer Insight function. Under her leadership the Department: developed a more in depth understanding of the attitudes, needs and behaviours of the 22 million people it serves; developed and embedded a new Customer Charter – a simple unifying and motivating framework focussing staff and delivery partners on claimants' priorities; applied fresh insight to improve services and outcomes for some of the UK's most vulnerable people; and drove standards up and costs down across DWP's complaints resolution and redress activities.

Prior to joining DWP, Katherine was the Executive Director of Business Development for the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). She joined the Home Office in 2003 as Director of the National Identity Cards Programme and then moved to IPS when that agency was formed in April 2006. Katherine was the Customer Champion on the IPS Board, with responsibility for maintaining customer confidence in IPS services during a period of significant business change and for the design of new services under the future National Identity Scheme. Her directorate also delivered all IPS customer insight, marketing and communications activities.

Katherine's earlier career was in the telecommunications industry where she led major service development initiatives for a number of international start-up ventures. Working with BT Exact Technologies, she undertook the challenge of converting developments coming out of BT's research laboratory into deliverable product and service propositions for customers. Previously, she directed international development projects for Cable & Wireless plc.

Presentation: Universal Credit: user-centred digital design



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David Mortimer is the Head of Digital Inclusion at Age UK, a priority area for the charity. He is responsible for devising and implementing a strategy to ensure that those in later life can enjoy the benefits of online technology by developing the organisation's capacity to deliver the right support for older people.

David manages a number of UK-wide programmes including the Digital Inclusion Network, consisting of 200+ partner organisations delivering support to get online; and Connect with IT, a comprehensive digital inclusion campaign involving 'itea and biscuits week'; myfriends online week; Internet Champion of the Year; and IT volunteering.

He joined Age UK in August last year from Digital UK, the company responsible for Digital TV Switchover where, as Head of Consumer Affairs, he was responsible for devising and delivering outreach to older people and other potentially vulnerable groups to ensure Switchover passed smoothly. He has previously worked at the BBC, ITV, Channel Five and in numerous charities and is a qualified lawyer (in Scotland).


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Digital Unite, one of the UK's leading providers of digital skills learning, was founded by Emma Solomon in 1996. All of Digital Unite's work is driven by Emma's passion for the way equipping people with the right digital skills and awareness has the potential to transform lives, organisations and wider society.

Her vision to find tangible ways for Digital Unite to reach and engage non-users with modern technology has been realised in a number of ways. This includes online courses for Digital Champions, one of the largest collections of free web-based learning guides, a network of quality assured tutors and the award-winning Spring Online campaign.

Emma is also Chair of the Age Action Alliance Digital Inclusion Group on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. The group includes organisations and individuals committed to generating practical outputs that can make a tangible difference to older people's access, use and knowledge of digital technologies.

In recognition of all of her work in this arena, Emma was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2012 for services to digital inclusion.


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Sarah Barrow is Head of Customer Services and Administration for Wokingham Borough Council which includes responsibility for Wokingham Direct, the Council's Customer Service Centre. With 30 years of Public Sector experience, Sarah's career has spanned from working as a British Diplomat at the British Embassies in Paris and Costa Rica, as Special Advisor to Sir Martin Laing and HRH the Duke of Kent and as Speechwriter to the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt and Rt Hon Jacqui Smith in their roles as Ministers for Women. She moved to Wokingham Borough Council in 2005 as she wanted to make a difference within her own community.


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James is responsible for Zendesk's largest clients in Western Europe. James started his working life as an intern on day 1 of the first Bloomberg Customer Service HelpDesk. Subsequently he worked in the Bloomberg Sales team, built a Competitive Intelligence Business Practice and held senior Sales positions at Fizzback. James speaks fluent French and Spanish, and holds a degree in languages from the University of Nottingham.


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Sarah Fink joined Policy Exchange in April 2012 as a Research Fellow for the Digital Government Unit.

Before joining Policy Exchange Sarah worked as Junior PR Manager at Lady Geek, a campaigning agency changing the way tech and gaming companies market to women. Prior to this she worked as communications intern at the National Alliance of Women's Organisations and as a fellow in the office of United States Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Sarah has an MA in Gender, Society and Representation from University College London, and a BA in Political Science from Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana.


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