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There's a revolution underway in the arts world. Organisations big and small are deploying digital technology to create lively communities way beyond their geographical location and to produce a new and wonderfully diverse generation of public service content. They are also marketing themselves more effectively than ever before. At The Media Festival Arts you'll hear from some of the most imaginative pioneers in this online world. They'll explain the levels on connectivity and engagement that they're achieving and the dynamic delivery of public value that is the result.
Peter Bazalgette, Deputy Chairman, English National Opera
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Speakers
The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt
MP
Jeremy was first elected Conservative Member of Parliament for South West Surrey in May 2005. Although South West Surrey was the number 3 Liberal Democrat target seat in the country, with a Conservative majority of only 861, Jeremy managed to increase the majority to 5,711 with a 4.6% swing to the Conservatives. Jeremy was re-elected in May 2010 with an increased majority of 16,318 making the seat one of the safest Conservative seats in the country and received the third highest amount of votes out of all MPs.
In May 2010 Jeremy was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport in the newly formed Coalition Government. This was a brief Jeremy shadowed from July 2007. He was one of only three of the 2005 Conservative intake to sit on the Shadow Cabinet. As well as the vital Olympics brief, Jeremy sees the role as having a major relevance to the quality of life agenda. As a former publisher, he understands the challenges faced by the UK’s arts creative industries and knows first hand how vital they are for the UK’s economy.
Jeremy had previously served from December 2005 to July 2007 as Shadow Minister for Disabled People. Jeremy has long had an interest in social issues and used his Shadow Ministerial position to campaign for a better deal for parents of severely disabled children and for carers. He also pressed for simplification of the highly complex benefit system and for the removal of all disincentives in the system that prevent or discourage disabled people from working. He strongly supports the need to make society more inclusive for people with disabilities and believes that despite recent legislation much practical progress on the ground still needs to be made.
He has a particular interest in international development, and has been a member of the International Development Select Committee. His particular area of focus has been HIV/AIDS in Africa, where he is campaigning to ensure the promise of universal access to anti-retroviral treatment by 2010 is delivered. He has travelled to Kenya and Uganda in connection with his campaign, and founded a charity to help fund the education of AIDS orphans in Kenya. His EDM calling for tangible interim goals towards the universal access target secured 216 signatures from Members of Parliament.
On a constituency-level Jeremy has been very active campaigning for local health facilities, particularly the retention of services at Milford and Haslemere Hospital, and was part of a successful campaign to save the Royal Surrey County Hospital from closure. He has also campaigned for better consultation before mobile phone masts are erected, and against overdevelopment in both the towns and villages he represents. He has fought a long battle to secure funding for the A3 tunnel at Hindhead now due to open in summer 2011 and he is currently working on a solution to the traffic congestion in Farnham.
Jeremy studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree. After a brief period as a management consultant he went to Japan for two years where he supported himself teaching English whilst he learnt Japanese. He then returned to the UK and with a business partner set up Hotcourses Ltd, the UK’s largest publisher of guides and websites to help people choose the right school, college, university or course. He remains a non-Executive director of Hotcourses, which now employs over 150 people.
