Designer & Developer

Ainsley is a designer and developer working on Glance, a toolkit for experimental interfaces in VR. She is currently a fellow in BuzzFeed's Open Lab for Journalism, Technology, and the Arts and is based in San Francisco. Ainsley has previously worked in alternate reality game design and as a research assistant in the ICE lab at MIT.

Applied Economist

Aline (MA HSG Economics from the University of St Gallen) has been a consultant at the economics consultancy Oxera since 2013. She has ample experience in competition analysis in the context of competition investigations, mergers, and litigations across Europe, and she has also undertaken impact analyses, damages valuations, and consumer policy analyses. She has advised clients across a broad range of sectors, including media, technology, and digital markets, pharmaceuticals, and retail. Among others, she led the analysis for an investigation into pay-tv content, as well as one into the regulation of independently produced content on TV.

Designer & Technologist

Anke studied Design, Media & Art in Dortmund, St. Petersburg (Russia), and Zurich. She was a grant holder at the Graduate School for the Arts and Sciences at Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), as well as a participant of the Gnome FOSS Outreach program at the Wikimedia Foundation (US). Working at the intersection of design, education, and technology, she cares a lot about diversity and empowerment. Currently Anke is teaching at university and holding workshops, as well as developing the core concept for a youth art & tech program commissioned by an NGO in cooperation with the TU Berlin.

Performing Architect

Benjamin calls himself a performing architect. He was born in 1968, studied Architecture in Berlin (TU and HdK) and Copenhagen (Kunstakademie), and graduated in 1999 from HdK Berlin. Between 1993 and 2000, he directed two theatre groups in Berlin, founding the Institute for Applied Building Arts and the Testfield for Ephemeral Constructions in Berlin in 1999. Since 1999, he has worked with raumlaborberlin, and taught Architecture at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (2010-2011) and Transdisciplinary Design at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (2014-2015).

Curator & Festival Organizer

Caspar is a curator and festival organizer specialized in immersive storytelling, cinema, and interactive art. He is Head of New Media at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), where he explores how the digital revolution changes the art of documentary and, in 2007, created IDFA DocLab, a pioneering platform for live performance and digital documentary art. He is also co-founder of the Open Air Film Festival Amsterdam and advisory board member of MIT Open DocLab, SXSW Film, and the IFP Media Centre in New York.

Business consultant

Charlotte studied Economics and Land Economy at Cambridge University. She is based in the UK and for the last 10 years has been working across finance and business strategy, initially at consulting companies KPMG and Bain & Company and latterly as a freelance consultant. In the last 4 years, she has worked with companies across the media industry in the UK (publishing, independent film and TV production, magazines/comics) who have all been developing new strategies to maintain and enhance engagement with their customers in the wake of disruption from new technologies and competitors that have shifted the landscapes of their industries.

Mathematician, Artist & Writer

Colin's work spans mathematics, technology, writing, and music. He has written on design, music and politics for publications including The Boston Globe, n+1, and Jacobin and has exhibited art and design work at venues including the Wellcome Trust and the Seoul Design Foundation. Previously he was a member of the satirical art collective Space Hijackers and the band Truro. A graduate of MIT and the Royal College of Art, he is currently pursuing a PhD in applied mathematics at Brown University.

Food Entrepreneur

Florian was born in Augsburg and has always been interested in good and healthy food. He studied Cultural Science in Lüneburg and worked in film for 10 years before co-founding Meierei, a delicatessen for Alpine specialties in Berlin. In 2011, he and some friends started Markthalle Neun, rebooting the concept of buying and eating food by introducing a contemporary food market in a 19th-century landmarked covered market in Kreuzberg. Every Thursday night, Markthalle Neun offers Berliners a delightful way to discover new tastes and cultures.

Business strategist, Consultant & Investor

Gregor’s focus is on building new businesses. He studied Business Administration at the University of Cologne, then worked as a strategic consultant, building the first online shopping platform for international wholesaler Metro. At Sony in Europe, he was responsible for interactive services and started "Connect“, Sony’s online music service, which he ran in eight European countries. In 2006, Gregor became Vice President of New Business Development at Deutsche Telekom. Key projects he initiated and ran include Fussball.de, e-publishing services, and T-Systems’ Strategic Areas of Education. After leaving Deutsche Telekom more than a year ago, Gregor started his own company, be ventures, investing in innovative digital businesses and consulting for clients ranging from large corporations to start-ups.

Film Distributor, Producer & Educator

Jan studied International Cultural & Business Studies at the University of Passau, Germany. Since then he has been working in brand development, live communication, and the film industry. He was responsible for restarting Kinowelt’s home-entertainment branch, publishing over 2.000 movies on DVD and Blu-ray in five years. He successfully established their Arthaus brand, developing cooperations with Der Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung. After Kinowelt’s sale to Studiocanal, he has been responsible for new acquisitions, including the Hunger Games franchise. He was project leader for the UEFA Champions League Final 2015 in Berlin.

Researcher, Activist & Inventor

Joe is a researcher, activist, and inventor educated at MIT and Dartmouth College. He works in several related fields: the theory of reasons for action, models of agency, human-computer interaction, the economics of navigability and of metapreference, and real-world game design. He is also involved in the Time Well Spent initiative, creating an alternative to the attention economy where software and services do not compete to maximise engagement, but demonstrate lasting improvements to our lives.

Business Psychologist

Johann is a business psychologist and studied at the BSP Business School Berlin. After training as a shipping agent in Hamburg, followed by work as chartering broker in London and various positions in organization and personnel development, his focus is now in the field of organizational psychology and qualitative research. He currently holds the position of Scientific Director at the BSP Campus Hamburg.

Media theorist, Critic & Curator

Lioudmila is a media theorist, art and film critic, and curator. She studied Philosophy, Media Studies, and New Media Art in in Moscow, Cologne, and Berlin. In 2013, she accomplished her PhD thesis on the institutionalisation of New Media Art. Her curatorial and research projects are mainly focused on issues related to institutional critique and to ‘fake’ as an artistic strategy. Currently she teaches at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and works on a post-doctoral research project on the influence of the newest technological developments on culture and science policy. Her current research interests include media theory, the sociology of digital culture, and critical futurology.

Digital Distributor

Mathilde graduated from HEC Business School, and has degrees in Chinese, Philosophy, and Literary and Artistic Copyright Law. For 8 years she was Director of Sales at MK2, also handling acquisitions. In 2010, with Alessandro Raja, she founded Festival Scope Pro, an on-demand service for film professionals hosting films from over 80 international film festivals, followed in 2016 with Festival Scope, hosting festivals’ catch-up screenings for film lovers worldwide. She also founded Maharaja Films, whose line-up includes The Strife of Love in a Dream, Smugglers' Songs, and, as French co-producer, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps. Since 2012 she also programs for the Sarajevo Film Festival.

VR & Innovative Storytelling

Michel is a pioneer virtual-reality film-maker and an independent interactive story architect. He is also a thought-leader for hybrid forms of storytelling, and immersive, participatory, and interactive experiences. From 2002 to 2012, Michel was Head of Film Acquisitions at Arte France and executive director of Arte France Cinema. In recognition for his work at Arte, Michel was named ‘Man of the Year’ by the French trade magazine Le Film Français in 2012. His latest VR film, VIENS! [Come!], premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and he is currently in production with several new VR projects.

Film Producer

Piodor has more than 30 years of experience within film, television, and advertising. He has been a commissioning consultant for feature films at the Swedish Film Institute and was part of the board of management of Eurimages as well as Head of Programming for Drama Series, Culture, Feature Films, and Documentaries at Swedish public broadcaster SVT. In 2012, he went back to independent production and is now running production company Another Park Film and Black Spark Film & TV with Tomas Alfredson, currently in production with The Snowman, a Jo Nesbø adaption starring Michael Fassbender and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Curator & Festival Organizer

Artist & Researcher
Rob is a Berlin-based artist and researcher developing media interfaces for extending human perceptive and expressive capabilities. He has a computer-science background and consults for the Communications Design Group in San Francisco. Previously, he has worked in the Interrogative Design Group at MIT and Harvard, and has had fellowships at the Jan van Eyck Academie and Akademie Schloss Solitude. He is the developer of the open-source InterLace software.

Musician & Visual Artist

Robert is a visual artist and composer. In 1983, he cofounded East-German dissident punk band Ornament und Verbrechen with his brother Ronald, with whom he teamed up again in the mid 1990s for the post-rock/electronic trio To Rococo Rot (with Stefan Schneider completing the trio). Known for his imagination, inventive rhythmic reflexes, and layers of fuzzy tones, Lippok’s solo work is just as expansive – from twisted techno and stage design for operas, to gallery exhibitions and notable collaborations with Beatrice Martini, Debashis Sinha, or Ludovico Einaudi. In 2012, he joined Olafur Eliasson’s Institut für Raumexperimente at UdK Berlin.

Architect

Sam is the co-founder of architectural collaborative practice June 14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff, based in Berlin and New York. June 14 aims to have people relate to architecture, for architecture to relate to people, and for people to relate to themselves. Their projects range from small gardens and bespoke furniture to office towers. Before creating June 14, Sam worked at Sanaa in Tokyo; in 2010, he co-curated the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale with Kazuyo Sejima.

VR Entrepreneur

Simon, after earning a BA (Philosophy) and an MBA, founded advertising agency Stoneads and worked for Danish retailer Tiger, starting a buying office in Asia plus retail in Japan and the US, and working as retail concept director. He co-founded Absalon, a Copenhagen community centre offering food (and entertainment) for 200 people daily. Most recently, hoping to create a Nordic micro ecosystem for VR, Simon started Khora VR, which is 1/3 shop, 1/3 workshop space for companies and schools, and 1/3 shared office space. He also works in games, consultancy, and VR production (both film and 3D graphics).

Festival director

Tine is the founder and director of the international film festival CPH:DOX, the talent-development and production program CPH:LAB, and the co-production and financing forum CPH:FORUM. She previously worked at the Danish Film Institute and has been actively involved in the contemporary art scene, including as a partner in the leading Scandinavian art gallery Andersen’s Contemporary and as a curator of exhibitions focused on art-based film practices. Tine also produced several film projects with Icelandic/Danish artist Olafur Eliasson with her production company, Fischer Film.

Designer & Artist

Ursula is one half of Graw Böckler, a Berlin-based artist duo creating films, video, and photography. Their work often reinterprets popular formats like commercials, interviews, music videos, or jokes, whereas their still photography reflects more on their personal environment. Graw Böckler were part of the curatorial team of the General Public project space and operate Raum für Projektion, a DVD label and temporary projection space. In 2012-2013, they curated and produced the festival "After the Crisis". Their current project is called Let’s talk about.. the weather.

Technology and Innovation Strategist

Wolf is the CCO of ARRI Media. After studying graphic design at Braunschweig University of Art (HBK), he became a freelance motion-graphic artist, working in international post-production. From 2001 to 2011, he was managing director of DAS WERK, launching their Berlin office. He later joined the management of DAS WERK’s German network. In 2011, Wolf Bosse and Frieda Oberlin started to build up ARRI’s Mitte office, focused on high-end commercial and feature film post-production. Recipient of the Red Dot Design Award, he was awarded the German Megaphone by Jahrbuch der Werbung. He is based in Berlin, father of two kids, and loves bicycle racing.