2025 Annual Seminar - Resilience in an Age of Uncertainty

Provisional Programme

Day 1 – Tuesday 10 June

09.00Registration, networking, and refreshments
10.00Welcome from Ed Jewell, Libraries Connected President
10.20Professor Cathy Parker, Professor of Retail and Marketing Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University and Chair of the Institute of Place Management - High Street Taskforce Findings
11.00Sponsor’s Flash Film
11.05Breakout sessions
12.15Lunch break
13.25Sponsor’s Flash Film
13.30Amanda Naylor, Chief Executive Officer, Volunteering Matters - Building Resilient Volunteer Programmes
14.10Sponsor’s Flash Film
14.15Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Author, Screenwriter, and Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2024-2026 - Reading Rights: Libraries supporting the Children’s Laureate’s mission to ensure every child has access to books’
14.55Sponsor’s Flash Film
15.00Tea and coffee break
15.20Breakout sessions
16.30Sponsors’ reception
19.00Seminar Dinner
21:00Awards Ceremony

Day 2 – Wednesday 11 June

09.00Registration
09:30Welcome & Libraries Connected update, Isobel Hunter, CEO Libraries Connected
09.45Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Executive Director, Mid-Hudson Library System - Resilience, Sustainability, and the Future of Public Libraries 
10:25Sponsor’s Flash Film
10.30Ignite Talks: Workforce: recruitment, development, and retention
11.10Sponsor’s Flash Film
11.15Tea and coffee break
11.35Sponsor’s Flash Film
11.40

Panel Session: Community cohesion: engagement, empathy, disconnection

  • Jamie Scudamore, CEO, Belong Network,
  • Hafsha Dadabhai Shaikh, Director at Smartlyte Limited
  • Jon Knight, Chief Executive The Together Coalition
12.50Black British Ballet Showcase
13.00Lunch break
14.10Speaker TBC
14.30In conversation with Cllr Liz Green, Chair of the LGA Culture, Tourism and Sport board - Upcoming Challenges in Local Government and Priorities for the Future
15.10Closing remarks from Ed Jewell, Libraries Connected President