Kicking off BEYOND 2022 with a three course Welsh menu in the inspiring surroundings of the Grand Hall of the National Museum of Wales and a drinks reception in the Impressionists Gallery.

Gerwyn Evans, Deputy Director, Creative Wales

Jaideep Gupte, Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation, AHRC

Jason Mohammad, TV and Radio Broadcaster

Please arrive with plenty of time to check in and collect your delegate badge.
Tea and coffee will be available.

Jason Mohammad, TV and Radio Broadcaster

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The Future Generations Act means public bodies in Wales have to consider the long term impact of their decisions. The first Commissioner for the Act, Sophie Howe will tell us about her role, the act, and what is has meant for both creativity and the Creative Industries.

Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

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In a conversation between Future Generations Commissioner Sophie Howe and actor Michael Sheen chaired by Professor Sara Pepper, this session asks what real sustainability needs to work, and if the creative industries can play a role in wider, deeper, long-term engagement that solves problems rather than simply manages them.

Michael Sheen, Actor

Sara Pepper, Professor of Creative Economy, Cardiff University

Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

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FRAMERATE bears witness to landscape-scale change caused by humans and nature. ScanLAB talk about creating an artwork underpinned by sustainable values, which also delivers a significant scientific contribution. They also interrogate the environmental impact of producing and touring the work internationally.

Emilia Clark, Studio and Production Manager, ScanLAB Projects

Matthew Shaw, Director and Co-Founder, ScanLAB Projects

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There is plenty of commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of the screen industries but how much difference are actions making? What do we need to know and do to make sustainability a built-in part of every production process, can change take hold faster and in the end have a really significant impact?

Jason Mohammad, TV and Radio Broadcaster

Richard Phillips, Climate Change Specialist, Julie’s Bicycle

Steve Smith, Project Manager Screen New Deal Wales & Studio Standard, BAFTA albert

Tilly Ashton, Production Sustainability Advisor, Severn Screen

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Time to stretch your legs, network and visit the ECR Poster Exhibition, Immersive Futures Lab and partner Expos, which features outputs from creative research-led projects exploring new and novel ways to push the boundaries of what is possible in creative technologies.

Welsh TV production company Little Bird Films share their R&D journey, exploring the practicalities and the pain points of completing BAFTA albert’s sustainability accreditation on production, and how it led to the development of the Green Wing app – a practical tool for making carbon footprint data collection easier, more accurate, and more engaging.

Louise Bray, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Little Bird Films

Nida Harwood, Project Manager, Green Wing

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What is the role of advertising and screen narratives in pushing and pulling audiences towards action on climate change? Is design the essential translating force between engineers and activists? This panel asks if the creative industries are likely to be a footnote in the bigger picture of a world in transition, or can they be a powerful force to inform and influence audiences.

Angela Chan, Head of Inclusion / Doctoral Researcher, StoryFutures, Royal Holloway, University of London

Lisa Merrick-Lawless, Co-Founder & Director, Purpose Disruptors

Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE, Director of CAST, Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST)

Niamh Crawford, Senior Programme Manager, Design Council

Owen Sheers, Writer/ Professor in Creativity, Swansea University

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Time to stretch your legs, network and visit the ECR Poster Exhibition, Immersive Futures Lab and partner Expos, which features outputs from creative research-led projects exploring new and novel ways to push the boundaries of what is possible in creative technologies.

Come and meet the team introducing the EPSRC funded XR Network+ Virtual Production in the Digital Economy led by the University of York and hear about the funding opportunities opening up with its launch this month.

XR Network+ builds a bridge between five current AHRC Creative Industries Cluster Projects and the significant interest that has emerged in supporting R&D in XR technologies as they converge with virtual production.

This project aims to provide a ten-year research agenda founded on research collaboration, co-creation and challenge-led innovation. It is designed to build a community of academic research and industry R&D in virtual production. Come along to learn more and find out how you can get involved.

Delivered by XR Stories

Damian Murphy, Director, XR Stories, XR Stories / University of York

Declan Keeney, Director of the Ulster Screen Academy, Ulster University

Greg Mothersdale, Research and Development Producer, Clwstwr

Jane Harris, Professor of Digital Design and Innovation, Director of the Fashion, Textiles and Technology Institute, University of the Arts London

This panel session talks through opportunities for funding and support in the immersive XR for digital mental health sector, and looks at how businesses may gain traction. Specifically, we introduce Innovate UK’s Mindset programme, which aims to fund projects and foster growth by catalysing pathways between the creative technology and formal mental health care sectors.

Delivered by the UKRI, Healthy Ageing Challenge

Focusing on the Green Planet AR Experience from the BBC and Factory42, this session looks at the potential for XR to change audience attitudes and behaviours around sustainability and draw on StoryFutures work across psychology, geography, and conservation.

Maruša Levstek, Audience Insight Research Fellow, StoryFutures

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StoryTrails put AR and VR technologies into the hands of young creatives across the UK so they could find and tell the stories from their towns, past and present, bringing people, places, and untold stories to life. From Sheffield we hear from Sile Sibanda about her work creating a story map, and Gemma Thorpe who uncovered the Sheffield story of early 20th Century environmentalist, Ethel Haythornthwaite, and what they discovered working with immersive storytelling.

Gemma Thorpe, AR Trail Maker, StoryTrails

Sile Sibanda, Creative Producer, StoryTrails

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Who tells the stories influences what stories get told. In news storytelling the pool of tellers has lacked diversity, and with local news production struggling to survive, the agenda narrows and stories that matter most to communities are left without voice. We hear from two young journalists about community-led newsroom initiatives aiming to change that.

Bethany Handley, Communications Officer, Diverse Cymru

Shakira Morka, Young Company Member, GALWAD

Shirish Kulkarni, Award-winning Investigative Journalist, Researcher and Community organiser

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Shirish Kulkarni along with production designer and world-builder Alex McDowell and Creative Director Claire Doherty reflect on the world-building work they undertook with 100+ people from communities across Wales to create the worlds of GALWAD, a multi-platform story imagining alternative futures in a climate-changed world, inspired by the Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

Alex McDowell, Director, World Building Institute

Claire Doherty, Creative Director, GALWAD/Collective Cymru

Shirish Kulkarni, Award-winning Investigative Journalist, Researcher and Community organiser

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What have we learnt about the process of Research and Development to create innovation in the creative industries in recent years? What works in creative R&D and which approaches are most successful, and which should we avoid? The panel will ask what are the tangible benefits of investing in R&D in the creative industries, and how we measure success, looking along the way at what the UK can learn from other European creative clusters, and the lessons of the Creative Industries Cluster Programme – or similar initiatives – for policy makers.

Andrew Chitty, UKRI Challenge Director and AHRC Creative Economy Champion, UK Research and Innovation

Helge O. Svela, CEO, Media City Bergen

Josh Siepel, Senior Lecturer/PEC Lead for Creative Clusters, R&D and Access to Finance, University of Sussex/Creative Industries PEC

Justin Lewis, Director, Clwstwr / Cardiff University

Marlen Komorowski, Senior Research Fellow, Cardiff University – Clwstwr – Media Cymru

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Jason Mohammad, TV and Radio Broadcaster

Taite Johnson, BEYOND Roving Reporter, Freelance Journalist

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Informal networking reception to allow conference delegates to digest, discuss and dissect the Day 01 programme.

Join the team at Media Cymru over a drink and a bite to eat at the National Museum of Wales, to hear more about upcoming opportunities including: training, funding, events and research.  
Attendance will be limited, book your place on Eventbrite

Justin Lewis, Director, Clwstwr / Cardiff University

Sara Pepper, Professor of Creative Economy, Cardiff University

Please arrive with plenty of time to check in and collect your delegate badge.
Tea and coffee will be available.

Researchers from Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC), who have been working on different aspects of Creative Research and Innovation (R&I), including data use, the role of technology and the inter-relationship between creative content and technology innovation, will explore how the insights from this research could inform the role of Creative Industries R&I in designing and creating a zero-carbon future.

Delivered by CRAIC, Loughborough University London

Andrew Chitty, UKRI Challenge Director and AHRC Creative Economy Champion, UK Research and Innovation

Dan Turner, Research Associate, Loughborough University London

Graham Hitchen, Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC), Loughborough University London

Jennie Jordan, Research Associate, Creative Research and Innovation Centre, Loughborough University London

Lora Markova, Researcher, Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC), Loughborough University London

Katie Popperwell, Senior International Producer, UNBOXED

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The Immerse UK Summit will begin with opening remarks & the launch of the 2022 Immersive Economy Report. The report features the latest insights and data on the immersive tech sector in the UK, and provides evidence of the growth of the sector and its key drivers and barriers. The report was commissioned from Oxford Insights & The Data City, by Immerse UK with funding from Innovate UK, and follows on from the previous two reports from 2018 & 2019. 

The goal of the third Immersive Economy Report is to look at trends in the industry post-COVID. This report aims to identify the key trends in technology adoption and business model transformation in the UK. The report will inform policymakers, businesses and investors of the key application growth areas, the investor ecosystem, and success stories from government funded R&D programs.

This opening session will summarize the key findings from the report and set the stage for the rest of the programme. 

Asha Easton, Immerse UK Lead, Innovate UK KTN

UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is a year-long programme of 10 major, multi-site and digital creative projects delivered across the four nations of the UK. The 10 commissions presented as part of UNBOXED in 2022 have been forged through new collaborations across science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics, using processes and methods drawn from across those sectors. 

Commissions have come to life indoors and outdoors, in city centres, coastal towns and deep into the landscape, in person, through broadcast and online, all in the context of pandemic recovery. Accessibility has been at the forefront, with projects designed to encourage people of all ages to engage with a range of topics from sustainability, biodiversity, and neuroscience, to diversity and community. As the live phase begins to draws to a close, we ask what can be learned from a year of projects built on collaboration between governments, sectors, and extraordinary individuals and organisations. 

Phil Batty, Executive Director, UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK

Vikki Heywood DBE, Board Chair, UNBOXED

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Digital Catapult brings together a panel of experts from across screen and creative industries to discuss new technology and workflows to reduce environmental impact, the impact of this on the creative process and which future parts of the creative production process could be virtualised.

Delivered by Digital Catapult

Daniel Munslow, Executive Producer, Target3D

David Johnston, Lead Technologist (Immersive, AR/VR, XR, Virtual Production), Digital Catapult

Robin Cramp, Business Development Manager, XPLOR at Production Park

Sara Coppola-Nicholson, Head of Research Programme, Disguise

Inclusive design creates content that is more accessible and delightful to those with permanent lived experiences of disability, and to all of us who temporarily or situationally move, sense, think or feel differently. Through the Inclusive Design Accelerator challenge, StoryFutures Academy and InGAME have been working with Open Inclusion and XR Access to offer SMEs the opportunity to pilot an experimental inclusive innovation process, and apply innovative approaches and toolkits to design, test and deliver immersive content that provides better experiences for all.

Christine Hemphill, Managing Director, Open Inclusion

Fiona Kilkelly, Exec Producer, StoryFutures Academy

Sean Taylor, Director of InGAME, Abertay University

Searra Dodds, Lead UX/UI Designer, Hyper Luminal Games

Will Humphrey, Director & Head of Creative Innovation, Sugar Creative

UNBOXED is the product of an innovative approach to the commissioning of ambitious, new, creative work. This session will talk about the ideas underpinning that process and what the process was designed to achieve.

Sam Hunt, Programme Director, UNBOXED

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The Creative Studio was a unique R&D programme centred on bringing together a diverse range of talent from across science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics with the broad challenge to create a project that was open, original and optimistic. Teams took part in a six-week semi-structured, virtually delivered series of seminars, workshops, lectures, open sessions and consultations.
 
Join broadcaster Elle-Osili Wood, one of the original creative ambassadors for the R&D, with creatives from Dreamachine, About Us and StoryTrails, to discuss insights and lessons from this unprecedented model of funding, collaboration, ideation and production.

Angel Louise Pooler, Web Stemette, Stemettes

Angela Chan, Head of Inclusion / Doctoral Researcher, StoryFutures, Royal Holloway, University of London

Dev Joshi, Technical Director, Collective Act

Elle Osili-Wood, Television and radio presenter

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Bristol + Bath Creative R+D (BBCRD) have been asking questions about ‘where change can come from’ when thinking about inclusion practices in organisations and projects.

This work has culminated in an action research project and the team are developing a ‘framework for manageable change’ for creative tech SMEs, funders, and arts organisations.

Join our Inclusion Producer to explore the framework methodology through a scratch workshop focused on inclusion ‘touchpoints’ and our ability to create change around them. Expect some big questions and conversations.

Delivered by Bristol + Bath Creative R+D

Tony Bhajam, Inclusion Producer, Watershed, Bristol

This session will introduce the benefits of utilising LiDAR laser scanning and digital twin technology to unlock endless potential for creative collaboration. By explaining the technology and the process of creating a digital twin, we will explore its use within the performance sector. How this enables a smarter workflow and facilitates further possibilities for creatives. Case studies from creative organisations will demonstrate how harnessing this technology supports more sustainable and efficient collaboration.

Within the context of industry adoption and progress in this field being a ‘changing picture’, we will address some of the barriers and pinch points creatives currently face and what further work needs to be done to enable faster progression.

Delivered by Chichester Festival Theatre

Jason Larcombe, Senior Project Manager, White Light

Julia Walter, Creative Digital producer, Chichester Festival Theatre

Ryan Metcalfe, Managing Director, Preevue Ltd

A retired rig from the North Sea, transformed into one of the UK’s largest public art installations to ignite global conversations about reuse, renewables and the great British weather. Patrick O’Mahony and Antonia Gammans discuss how the project came about and the importance of exploring the regeneration of inherited structures, what we do with them and the actions they inspire.

Antonia Gammans, Head of Marketing & Partnerships, NEWSUBSTANCE

Patrick O’Mahony, Creative Director & Founder, NEWSUBSTANCE

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Time to stretch your legs, network and visit the ECR Poster Exhibition, Immersive Futures Lab and partner Expos, which features outputs from creative research-led projects exploring new and novel ways to push the boundaries of what is possible in creative technologies.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the climate crisis? Care but don’t know what to do? Feel powerless to make change?

Over the last year, Bristol + Bath Creative R+D (BBCRD) have been exploring the specific challenges and opportunities faced by creatives taking action on climate.

Join our environmental action researcher to explore a simple four-step method designed to create action out of overwhelm. There are no one-size-fits-all climate solutions in creative spaces, and in embracing our different priorities, expertise, capacity and resources, we can work to find exciting and doable pathways forward. The method invites us to consider how this work might compliment or negate action around accessibility, inclusion and wellbeing.

Delivered by Bristol + Bath Creative R+D

Zoe Rasbash, Environmental Emergencies Action Researcher, Watershed, Bristol+Bath Creative R+D

Storytelling is an essential part of understanding our life. The stories that we tell ourselves, about how we perceive or experience the world is complicated. Anomie combines gaming, creative therapy, and immersive technologies to empower therapy clients to create positive narratives and communicate them to therapists and coaches without words.

Nina Salomons, CEO and Co-founder, AnomieXR

Dreamachine is an immersive art experience combining light and music to create a colourful world behind your closed eyes – created by your own brain and completely unique to you. Produced by Collective Act, together with Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy and Mercury nominated composer Jon Hopkins, and a team of leading technologists, scientists and philosophers, it is inspired by a pioneering 1959 invention by artist Brion Gysin, designed to be ‘the first artwork to be experienced with your eyes closed.’ 60 years later, Gysin’s concept has been radically reimagined into a new collective experience that has travelled the four nations of the UK, commissioned by UNBOXED.

Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex

Jennifer Crook, Director, Collective Act

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David leads Arup’s experiential environments practice. He will talk about Arup’s passion, relentless exploration and deep understanding of how we as human beings perceive our built environment – our sensations, perception, and emotions.
He will explore how the use of human centered Immersive simulation, and prototyping are at the core of how we create successful design and outcomes.

David Edge, Associate Director | Experiential Environments Practice Leader, Arup

Virtual Production offers incredible new business opportunities for companies in the UK. This panel session case studies a ground-breaking training and development programme in Virtual Production entitled ‘VP Futures’. The programme was delivered by the StoryFutures Academy (The UK’s National Centre for Immersive Storytelling) and Future Screens NI with mentorship by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Epic Games. This session draws together lessons learned from the 12-week programme where eight UK wide companies entered the world of virtual production. The panel will discuss the critical factors businesses should consider when making the leap into VP and explores the essential knowledge, understanding and skills development needed to do this successfully.
Delivered by StoryFutures Academy and Future Screens NI

Andrea Miller, Company Director, Sunnyside Productions

Declan Keeney, Director of the Ulster Screen Academy, Ulster University

Eva Robinson, Co-Founder and Director, Aura Digital Studios Limited

Fiona Kilkelly, Exec Producer, StoryFutures Academy

Peter Richardson, Professor of Creative Industries, StoryFutures Royal Holloway University of London

Rebecca Barbour, Director of Talent Management, Industrial Light and Magic

What is the potential that collective imagination and creative collaboration brings to shape better futures for people and planet? In this short presentation Shirin Maani, Head of Global Innovation at the RSA will share some of the initial findings from this research enquiry and some of the stories of the changemakers they met along the way.

Shirin Maani, Head of Global Innovation, The Royal Society of Arts

UNBOXED: Collective Futures is a research enquiry led by the RSA that examines of the value of taking an inclusive, collaborative approach to shaping better futures for people and planet. Within the context of this research, creatives from three UNBOXED commissions – Our Place in Space, an epic scale model of the solar system and AR that uses the concept of the overview effect as experienced by astronauts to engender new perspectives and new connections in post-conflict communities; PoliNations, a city centre forest garden and app that uses biodiversity to explore migratory histories, and Dandelion, which aims to seed a sustainable mass movement of community growing and environmental regeneration – explore their core missions and participatory methods for creatively engaging communities in a journey toward a more sustainable future. 

Jenny Niven, Executive Producer, Dandelion

John Peto, Lead Producer, the Nerve Centre

Shirin Maani, Head of Global Innovation, The Royal Society of Arts

Tamsin Hanke, Director, THISS Studio

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We all know the M-word. And we know it’s the future. So, now what? There’s a lot of talk about what it could, should or will be, but the real question is: how can businesses build in the metaverse today?
The biggest opportunity for businesses right now is to create entirely new virtual expressions of brand and customer experience. It’s all about world-building. It’s not about developing literal, one-off virtual spaces, or the digital duplication of products or services. It’s about building experiences that change the way customers understand your business, and themselves.
In this talk, you’ll hear Sol Rogers, Global Director of Innovation for Magnopus, talk about the essential ways to think about translating your business into a world today.

Sol Rogers, Global Director of Innovation, Magnopus

Immerse UK Academic Working Group has been working with industry to craft a first of its kind competition for UK students building innovative ideas, experiences or projects for the XR industry to submit their work and show us what they’re doing and exploring. The award aims to help connect students to industry, bring fresh ideas and talent, and bridge the pathway from academic learning to real world problem solving and cross sector applications. More details and partners will be announced.

Amy Chao, Immersive Tech Consultant & Community Lead Immerse UK, Innovate UK KTN

Time to stretch your legs, network and visit the ECR Poster Exhibition, Immersive Futures Lab and partner Expos, which features outputs from creative research-led projects exploring new and novel ways to push the boundaries of what is possible in creative technologies.

Virtual production is increasingly seen as a way to work more efficiently, harnessing the power of game engines to create unique locations and sets to offer directors more flexibility, and to cut carbon emissions. But while the technologies at the centre of virtual production are not new, their combination into filmmaking pipelines is in its infancy and the field is evolving fast.

This panel including Dr Jon Swords, Senior Research Fellow at XR Stories, will examine the potential of virtual production approaches to make the film and TV industry more environmentally sustainable. Drawing on industry experience and the latest research, panellists will explore the emergent orthodoxies about what virtual production is and can be, and critique claims about how new production tools can enable net zero filmmaking.

Delivered by XR Stories

Alexandra Dales, Senior Lecturer, York St John University

David Gochfeld, Research Fellow, XR Stories

Helen Brook, Project Coordinator, Sustainable Arts in Leeds (SAIL)

Nina Willment, Research Associate, XR Stories / University of York

This panel chaired by Prof Kate Goldsworthy will discuss how Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) R&D funding enabled SMEs, Ananas Anam and Plan B to develop research that embedded lifecycle thinking and environmental assessment into their R&D process from the outset, reducing impacts by design. These innovations enable businesses to be resilient in a challenging industry environment and to move strategically towards a zero-carbon future.

Delivered by Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology

Kate Goldsworthy, Professor of Circular Design & Innovation, University of the Arts London

Laura Solomon, R&D Fellow, UAL Fashion, Textiles and Technology Institute Industry, University of the Arts London

This talk will demonstrate how multisensory history research (gustatory, visual, audial) led by Avocado Toast & Bompas Parr in collaboration with the AlUla Museum, brought to life an unforgettable immersive experience about the Great Incense Road in the middle of the Arabian desert.

Victor Lander, Founding Partner, Avocado Toast

Time to stretch your legs, network and visit the ECR Poster Exhibition, Immersive Futures Lab and partner Expos, which features outputs from creative research-led projects exploring new and novel ways to push the boundaries of what is possible in creative technologies.

Asha Easton, Immerse UK Lead, Innovate UK KTN

The Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC) convenes a project on creative innovation in live experiences and festivals with focus on UNBOXED and its individual commissions as major R&D interventions and disruptors into the live experience economy. Building on the Creative Industries Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund programmes – Audience of the Future and Creative Industries Clusters – the study explores UNBOXED in terms of transformative R&D processes, audience experiences, and sustainable and inclusive innovation. This presentation will share findings on STEAM-induced creativity within UNBOXED as symptomatic of the role creative R&D and innovation could play in driving solutions to societal challenges.

Lora Markova, Researcher, Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC), Loughborough University London

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Sean Rogg, is the creator of The Waldorf Project, a genre defying and radical immersive art series of performance that combines technologies and emotional manipulation to develop new ways to explore a creative vision. He united the most pioneering practitioners in the worlds of environment design, product design, spatial design, sound design, choreography, textile design, and gastronomy to create a rare synergy, a singular collected sensory reaction, or ‘sixth sense’ of emotion. For the last two years he has worked in transferring all learnings from this journey into virtual reality. To do so he spent two years attempting to translate IRL experiences into VR. Eventually he realised a whole new language needed to be created, bottom up. Sean will share with us his journey and talk about what led him to explore mental health first and then translate this into the creation of a radical VR approach at Awen.

Sean Rogg, Co-founder, Awen

Valeria Leonardi, Co-Founder, Awen

With the rapid emergence of the 3D internet and a virtual world increasingly riven with social discord, how might we put creative technology into the hands of communities to tell their own stories in new ways? Join creatives from UNBOXED commissions GALWAD and PoliNations to explore the challenges and rewards of running digitally inclusive projects and the role of technology in deepening our relationship to people and to place.

Gethin Evans, Artistic Director / Artistic Direcor (LIVE), Fran Wen / GALWAD

Lora Markova, Researcher, Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC), Loughborough University London

Rachel Wakelin, Brand Strategist, Peter & Paul

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Karen will discuss some of the ways BOM in Birmingham are using immersive to highlight environmental issues and engage under-represented communities. Projects include Mother Nature – an XR experience and mobile game drawing on live environmental data to stimulate climate action through game play (currently in development); and the technology-enabled Queen’s Baton BOM created for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which gathered air quality data and 360 video across its global tour.

Karen Newman, Founder / Director, BOM (Birmingham Open Media)

The session will commence with a 5 minute video presentation on the collaborative Community renewal Funded project Enabling XR Enterprise (eXRe), followed by a panel discussion (with Museum/Visitor Attraction guests). eXRe utilises the power of immersive technology to meet the challenges that museums/heritage and visitor attractions face. The panel will also discuss the role XR plays in helping museums and heritage/visitor attractions to move towards net zero and increase sustainability. This will include a discussion of the role of XR in reimaging place – as finding more sustainable and effective ways to wayfind between the cities heritage offerings has been a key part of the project with Gosport Borough Council, as well as with our wider heritage partners.

Adrian Hull, Head of School, Creative Technologies, University of Portsmouth

Marc Cook, XR Producer, University of Portsmouth

Pippa Bostock, Business Director, Centre for Creative and Immersive XR, University of Portsmouth

Tony Sammut, General Manager, Spinnaker Tower

A panel of young emerging creatives reflect on their experience of working on collaborative projects in the creative industries and how they might shape that experience differently in the future.

John Akinde, Learning & Engagement / Programming, Tour De Moon

Lucy Wheeler, Creative Practitioner, StoryTrails

Rha Hira Arayal, Unboxed Ambassador

Shama Rahman, CEO and Founder, Neurocreate

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Asha Easton, Immerse UK Lead, Innovate UK KTN

Andrew Chitty, UKRI Challenge Director and AHRC Creative Economy Champion, UK Research and Innovation

Katie Popperwell, Senior International Producer, UNBOXED

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Jason Mohammad, TV and Radio Broadcaster

Katie Popperwell, Senior International Producer, UNBOXED

In this session, we sit down with three researchers from the creative arts to discuss questions of sustainable processes and workflows for the creative industries.

Jemily Rime, PhD Student, University of York

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Future Generations Commissioner, Sophie Howe introduces the Future Generations Act that requires public bodies in Wales to think about the long-term impact of their decisions. Then in discussion with Michael Sheen we ask what real sustainability needs to work, how the creative industries might play a role in wider, deeper, long-term engagement that solves problems rather than simply manages them.

Michael Sheen, Actor

Sara Pepper, Professor of Creative Economy, Cardiff University

Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

With the rapid emergence of the 3D internet and a virtual world increasingly riven with social discord, how might we put creative technology into the hands of communities to tell their own stories in new ways? Join creatives from UNBOXED commissions GALWAD and PoliNations to explore the challenges and rewards of running digitally inclusive projects and the role of technology in deepening our relationship to people and to place.

Angel Louise Pooler, Web Stemette, Stemettes

Angela Chan, Head of Inclusion / Doctoral Researcher, StoryFutures, Royal Holloway, University of London

Dev Joshi, Technical Director, Collective Act

Elle Osili-Wood, Television and radio presenter

A panel of young emerging creatives reflect on their experience of working on collaborative projects in the creative industries and how they might shape that experience differently in the future.

John Akinde, Learning & Engagement / Programming, Tour De Moon

Lucy Wheeler, Creative Practitioner, StoryTrails

Rha Hira Arayal, Unboxed Ambassador

Shama Rahman, CEO and Founder, Neurocreate

In this session we explore creative events and performances in relation to topics of sustainability, heritage, and accessibility.

Briony Latter, PhD researcher, Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST), Cardiff University

Jack Hardiker, Artist, Researcher, Educator, Office of Everyone, Royal College of Art

Lora Markova, Researcher, Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC), Loughborough University London

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This panel brings together festival leaders from Brazil, Egypt and Malaysia to share some of the challenges, priorities and strategies around sustainable festival leadership from the perspective of three different continents. The social purpose of festivals is to bring us together – to cohere and connect us through shared experiences. But in doing so they also become a powerful vehicle for social change, an open space for critical discourse and free expression, and an essential part of any creative economy. What are the factors that contribute to a healthy festivals ecosystem? What frameworks should we use to measure and advocate for the value of festivals across a range of socio-political contexts, and how might different festival models present new opportunities for sustainable and inclusive growth?  

This panel was brought together with the support of the British Council, the official international partner of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK

Katie Popperwell, Senior International Producer, UNBOXED

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Eleven young creatives under-30 from across the UNBOXED commissions – including producers working across AR, VR and combined arts, writers, community activists and emerging designers – share their journeys and talk about the issues that affect them and the wider creative industries. Over the past year, they have worked across UNBOXED project Dreamachine, Tour de Moon, StoryTrails, PoliNations, Dandelion and GALWAD, engaging with communities, managing projects, developing their talents, their voices and their creative practice.
 
This session presents a film produced by the group reflecting on their experiences, what sustainability means to them and the positive change they want to drive forward within the creative sector. The screening will be followed by a discussion.

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This multidisciplinary session, with a panel from disparate fields of science, technology, and creative practices will explore the challenges of benchmarking sustainability and how a transdisciplinary approach could significantly help to overcome the obstacles to Net-Zero. The panel will discuss how existing knowledge from a discipline could be migrated to other fields, to solve real industrial and social challenges, with some examples from the Future Fashion Factory programme. More importantly, this session will celebrate the new culture in the UK to make the boundary between science and creative practices porous to draw the best intellectual outputs to solve contemporary global challenges.

Adam Mansell, CEO, UKFT (The UK Fashion & Textile Association)

Amanda McLaren, Managing Director, AW Hainsworth

Athanasios Angelis-Dimakis, Reader in Chemical Engineering, University of Huddersfield

James Devitt, Head of Corporate Policy, University of Huddersfield

Nic Clear, Dean of Schoolf of Arts and Humanities, University of Huddersfield

Parikshit Goswami, Head of Department; Director – Technical Textiles Research Centre, University of Huddersfield

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Katie Popperwell, Senior International Producer, UNBOXED

Focusing on the Green Planet AR Experience from the BBC and Factory42, this session looks at the potential for XR to change audience attitudes and behaviours around sustainability and draw on StoryFutures work across psychology, geography, and conservation.

Maruša Levstek, Audience Insight Research Fellow, StoryFutures

Join the UNBOXED young creatives for an informal Q&A.

Lucy Wheeler, Creative Practitioner, StoryTrails

What is the role of advertising and screen narratives in pushing and pulling audiences towards action on climate change? Is design the essential translating force between engineers and activists? This panel asks if the creative industries are likely to be a footnote in the bigger picture of a world in transition, or can they be a powerful force to inform and influence audiences.

Angela Chan, Head of Inclusion / Doctoral Researcher, StoryFutures, Royal Holloway, University of London

Lisa Merrick-Lawless, Co-Founder & Director, Purpose Disruptors

Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE, Director of CAST, Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST)

Niamh Crawford, Senior Programme Manager, Design Council

Owen Sheers, Writer/ Professor in Creativity, Swansea University

This session explores our engagement with sustainability in our daily environment, reflecting on our perception of the climate urgency. 

Gemma Bridge, Postdoctoral Research Assistant, York St John

John Harrison, University of Huddersfield

Mischa Price, University of Plymouth

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In this session we reflect on processes and innovations dedicated to sustainable production, performance and the preservation of communities.

Afsaneh Eliyas A Shibani, PhD student, Queen’s University Belfast

Laura Solomon, R&D Fellow, UAL Fashion, Textiles and Technology Institute Industry, University of the Arts London

Lucy Devall, Innovation Manager, Arts University Bournemouth

Paul Granjon, Senior lecturer, Cardiff Metropolitan University

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A look at where next for the agenda in creative R&D.

Andrew Chitty, UKRI Challenge Director and AHRC Creative Economy Champion, UK Research and Innovation

Helge O. Svela, CEO, Media City Bergen

Justin Lewis, Director, Clwstwr / Cardiff University

Marlen Komorowski, Senior Research Fellow, Cardiff University – Clwstwr – Media Cymru

The team at the RSA have been connecting with global practitioners and thought leaders to explore the potential that collective imagination and creative collaboration has to help shape better futures for people and planet. But what if we don’t have the right kind of spaces for people to feel they can shape their futures? The team will share some of the insights and stories from their enquiry and invite participants to become part of the exploration.

Shirin Maani, Head of Global Innovation, The Royal Society of Arts

Jason Mohammad, TV and Radio Broadcaster

Katie Popperwell, Senior International Producer, UNBOXED