Matthew Taylor was Chief Policy Adviser to the Blair Administration, prior to which he was the Head of the influential think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research. Matthew is currently the Chief Executive of the RSA. Part of Matthew’s presentation will deal with how government learns and he is also preparing to explore a new direction for evaluation in shifting attention from programmes to systems.

The second keynote speaker is Professor Gary Henry, ex-President of the American Evaluation Association and one of the leading theorist/practitioners of evaluation in the USA. Gary's is probably the strongest voice in the USA advocating Randomised Control Trials, linked to democratic purposes. Gary is one of the leading theorists of evaluation as a democratic institution.

The conference has attracted a wide range of excellent submissions which make sense of this linkage between professional action, social programmes and policy-shaping to improve the functioning of our democracies and democratic institutions within the context of practical evaluation experience. The programme will include presentations and symposia that focus on action within particular projects - as diverse as children's services to public health, criminal justice, schooling, sustainable communities and road safety - but also at the level of programmes and policies - including systems theory, international development and issues in governance. Contributions on evaluation methodology will also be included, as always.