John Cassy - Founder, Factory 42 (BBC's The Green Planet AR Experience & more)

John Cassy is the Founder and CEO of Factory 42, one of the UK’s leading immersive technology and experience studios. The company’s mission is to create Impact Entertainment - immersive and interactive experiences with purpose that combine the magic of technology with the science of stories. Factory 42 partners include Comcast’s Sky, the BBC, EE, Google, and Meta, while the company has also led significant R&D projects for UK Research and Innovation and DCMS, including the sold-out and award-winning Green Planet AR Experience with Sir David Attenborough at London’s Piccadilly Circus. Prior to Factory 42, John spent 10 years at Sky. He has served on the UK Government DCMS’s expert advisory panel exploring recovery mechanisms for the creative industries post Covid and is an Honorary Professor at University of Exeter.

Emily Smith - Director of Marketing and Business Development, Atlantic Productions

Emily Smith joined Atlantic in 2016 and is responsible for Atlantic’s strategic marketing, commercial partnerships and corporate communications and leads the companies’ academic, cultural and stakeholder relationships.

Prior to joining Atlantic Emily worked for London’s Natural History Museum where she worked as Head of Communications leading on the PR and marketing strategies on key launches including the opening of the Darwin Centre in 2010, the record breaking exhibition Animal Inside Out and Atlantic Productions’ 3D documentary Natural History Museum Alive 3D. She then moved onto Head of Audience Development where she led the programming of temporary exhibitions, events, digital strategy and marketing. In this role she oversaw the implementation of the virtual reality experiences David Attenborough’s First Life VR and David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef Dive VR into the public programme and the launch of the new museum website and CRM system.

Emily spent over 20 years in the cultural sector working in marketing and communications roles for some of London’s leading cultural organisations including the Royal Court Theatre, London Philharmonic Orchestra and National Gallery.

Michael Morris - Co-Director, Artangel

Since becoming Co-Directors in 1991, Michael Morris and James Lingwood have established Artangel as a significant commissioning and producing body, working internationally with leading artists across the visual arts, literature and performance as well as forging innovative collaborations with film, broadcasting and digital media.

Beyond Artangel, Michael is an Artistic Advisor to the Manchester International Festival, 14-18 NOW, the London Roundhouse and Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center in Long Island. He is also a member of Tate Modern Council, an Ambassador for Alain de Botton’s The School of Life and a Trustee of Longplayer, Jem Finer’s 1000-year musical composition.

www.artangel.org.uk

Tristan Sharps - Artistic Director, Dreamthinkspeak

Tristan Sharps trained at Jacques Lecoq in Paris and has been creating large-scale site-specific work since 1995. He formed dreamthinkspeak in 1999, creating projects for over 30 different sites around the world. Inspired by architecture, visual art and film, his work interweaves live performance with a variety of technologies to create extraordinary journeys that are ambitious in scale, visually layered and popular with audiences wherever they are performed. Previous works have taken place in a variety of architectural contexts from an underground abattoir in Clerkenwell, to a disused paper factory in Moscow to the vast Zuidas office building complex in Amsterdam.