Thursday Programme

Speakers

Elena Corchero
Emerging Technology Specialist

Elena Corchero is a multi-awarded designer in meaningful innovation, sustainability and women in tech with over 15 years’ experience. She is the Director of Emerging Technology at NewsCorp envisioning the future of media, publishing, broadcasting and hybrid events. She has worked with BBC, Unilever, Diageo, Cadbury, Hugo Boss, Audi, V&A Museum, London Olympics and more. Books and publications include Elle magazine, BBC news, CNBC The Edge, Boston Science Museum and more. Elena has won Royal Pitch@Palace named 2nd most disruptive business, Top3 Innovator of the year, winner of the Diageo Spark Award and NESTA Innovation award.

Katy Boungard
Creative Strategist and Producer

Katy Boungard (she/her) is a Creative Strategist and Producer for Voice AI and Digital. Her experience includes seven years at The Walt Disney Company working across television networks and OTT products in brand marketing, and content development at Maker Studios. Over the last five years Katy led creative for AI branded content startup Captiv8, and launched the content team for Women in Voice. Katy's current focus is designing Conversational AI experiences for virtual assistants and connected devices, and her work on the Art Museum Alexa Skill earned Grand Prize recognition in the Alexa Conversations Challenge. She's from New York, currently living in Los Angeles.

Sam Delaney
Writer, Broadcaster and Podcaster

Sam Delaney is a writer, broadcaster and podcaster. His daily pod Top Flight Time Machine, which he co-hosts with Andy Dawson, has had over 6.5 million downloads since its launch in 2018. He also presents The Athletic’s weekly West Ham pod ‘U Irons,’ and 80’s movie pod, Betamax Babylon. In late 2020 he launched The Reset – a newsletter about mental health. He has since created an accompanying podcast which goes out weekly. He is the founder and CEO of 11-29 Media which produces hit shows for other podcasters including Alan Johnson, Neil Ruddock, Rose McGowan and Chris Ryan. As a journalist he is a regular contributor to The Guardian and columnist in The Big Issue and is the former editor-in-chief of Heat magazine. He has presented radio shows for BBC 5 Live, BBC London, talkSPORT and talkRADIO. He has also made documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5. He has published three books, the most recent of which was Mad Men And Bad Men – What Happened When British Politics Met Advertising (Faber, 2015).


More at Samdelaney.co.uk or on Twitter @delaneyman

Liz Rosenthal
Curator, executive producer and pioneer of immersive and interactive creative media

Liz is Curator of Venice Biennale’s International Film Festival's Official Selection and Competition programme Venice VR, Executive Producer of immersive content accelerator programme, CreativeXR, led by Arts Council England and Digital Catapult and the CEO & Founder of trail-blazing innovation company Power to the Pixel. She has an extensive network and knowledge of international talent, financiers and distributors across the immersive entertainment and arts space.


Throughout her career, Liz has helped international media businesses and artists to innovate and adapt their practice to evolving platforms, tools and audiences. She has advised countless leading international festivals, media organisations and national and regional funds.

At Venice Film Festival she was instumental in the launch of Venice VR in 2017, the first and only official immersive content selection and competition in an A-list festival. Venice VR has helped establish XR as a new artistic and entertainment form and has pushed the boundaries of exhibiting immersive works. In 2020 Venice was the first festival to create a globally accessible virtual world exhibition of 44 works with in real life satellite venues in 14 countries.

At CreativeXR Liz designed and leads a unique accelerator programme as Executive Producer. The programme has so far supported the development and finance of 60 XR projects by leading UK creative teams.

At Power to the Pixel, Liz created the first-ever international programmes for developing, financing and showcasing interactive and immersive works. Incubator, the Pixel Lab helped develop over 100 projects and Power to the Pixel: The Cross-Media Forum, run in association with the BFI London Film Festival over 10 years, brought together leading talent and financiers and created the first ever project finance market for interactive projects and VR exhibition in London.

Liz began her media career in the film business. She set up and ran the UK office for Next Wave Films a division of the Independent Film Channel in the US from 1998 to 2002. Next Wave was a pioneer in the production, finance and sales of micro-budget features and digital filmmaking. Their award-winning films include Christopher Nolan's Following (Winner: Tiger Award, Rotterdam ’99, Silver Hitchcock, Dinard ’99), Kate Davis' Southern Comfort (Grand Jury Prize, Sundance ’01) and Josh Aronson's Sound and Fury (Grand Jury Prize, Sundance ’00, Academy Award nomination ’01).

She is invited regularly to speak at leading events and institutions around the world including the Cannes International Film Festival, Berlinale, Unity for Humanity Summit, Screen International Conferences, TEDx Transmedia, BAFTA and many more around the world. She has served as a jury member for numerous international festivals and funding programmes.

Liz is a board director of The Space commissioning fund for digital arts projects), an advisory board member of Immerse UK whose content subgroup she chairs, Think Film and Latin American new media organisation Mediamorfosis. She is a member of BAFTA, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, The Guild of Future Architects and a fellow of the RSA.