events / past

Roberto Bagatti

SVP Creative, Viacom International Media Networks; Creative Director, MTV World Design Studio Milan

Roberto Bagatti is the SVP of creative for Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) and creative director for its MTV World Design Studio in Milan. In this role Bagatti is responsible for reinforcing and communicating VIMN’s unique position as a leading creative powerhouse. He works to align creative output with brand content as well as oversees and directs international branding projects across channel and property identities, building consistency between on-air, online, print and beyond. 

Bagatti and his team are instrumental to the collaboration and coordination within VIMN’s content and creative talent around the world needed to drive innovative and operational excellence. To ensure this vision and consistency is achieved, Bagatti works in close partnership with regional creative directors across the globe, in Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well as the regional design studios in Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Warsaw. 

In 2009 Bagatti and his team led the creative development and execution of MTV’s first-ever international rebrand.

Prior to his current role, Bagatti served as creative director of MTV Networks South Europe. Bagatti first joined MTV Italia in 1999 as a senior designer in the London based on-air department. In 2005 he was appointed creative director for the Italian MTV channels including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, QOOB and La7 (a Telecom Italia Media terrestrial channel). 

Bagatti is the recipient of several European and worldwide awards recognizing his creative expertise. These include Gold and Silver awards at the PromaxBDA World Gold Design Awards in 2005, as well as two gold awards at PromaxBDA Europe in 2007 for Best Show Branding and Best Use of Existing Music. In 2008 he received gold and silver awards for Best Daytime Promo at the PromaxBDA World Gold Awards.

Markus Schmidt

CEO & Creative Director, UnitedSenses

Markus Schmidt is the founder and executive creative director of UnitedSenses, a global creative network with its headquarter in Munich and offices in Los Angeles, New York, Copenhagen, Moscow, Johannesburg and Beijing.

Focusing on strategic branding for electronic media, Schmidt and his international partners helped launch and/or relaunch more than 50 channels in over 20 countries during the last eight years.

Before founding UnitedSenses, Schmidt was CEO of Germany´s award-winning creative agency SevenSenses, part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group from 1999-2004. And before that he was creative director for ProSieben from 1994-1999.

Schmidt has a design and advertising background and advanced into brand strategy and directing. His work has won more than 100 PromaxBDA awards.

Andrea Bednarz

Managing Director, Luxlotusliner

Before her broadcast experience began at the channel ProSieben, Andrea Bednarz was a textile designer for the fashion industry. Later Bednarz co-founded velvet mediendesign. As creative director, she was responsible for branding multiple international TV networks. In 2007 Bednarz left velvet and is now a co-owner of Luxlotusliner where she runs the creative management. Over the years, Bednarz worked for numerous national and international broadcast and commercial companies such as: arte, Al-Jazeera, Al Rai, Abu Dhabi, CNN, ERTU and ZDF.

María Borrás

Director, Cómodo Screen

María Borrás was heavily involved in advertising from a very young age, in front of and behind the camera. After cutting her teeth as production assistant and wardrobe specialist at Estudio Borrás, she worked as a commercial director for Magia Films and later at La Truka TV. Borrás was eventually promoted to director of La Truka TV. She is a founding member and director of Cómodo Screen.

Tony Brook

Creative Director, Spin

Tony Brook established the multi-disciplinary design studio Spin in 1992. As creative director of Spin he has received national and international recognition, winning awards in print, television and cinema graphics, new media, poster design and typography. These include two Silver Pencils from the D&AD, a NY ADC Distinctive Merit Award, two Silvers, a Design Distinction and inclusion in the I.D. Forty from “International Design” magazine, New York.

Spin has had work published in magazines and books globally. Exhibitions include: “Communicate,” an exhibition of British independent graphics since the 1960s; “Great Expectations,” a Design Council exhibition on contemporary British design; and “Stealing Eyeballs,” a group show at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna. Clients include Boom Boom, the British Council, Design Museum, Crafts Council, Deutsche Bank, Five, the Victoria and Albert Museum, More4, Proa Foundation, Dan Pearson Studio, Sainsbury’s, Tai Ping Carpets, Unilever, and the Whitechapel Gallery. Brook has lectured to both professional and educational institutions internationally.

In 2009 Brook set up Unit Editions, a publishing company, with the designer and author Adrian Shaughnessy. In 2011 he was guest curator of “Wim Crouwel – A Graphic Odyssey,” a major retrospective of the Dutch master’s work at the Design Museum in London.

Patrick Burgoyne

Editor, “Creative Review”

Patrick Burgoyne has been the editor of “Creative Review” magazine since 1999. Before joining the magazine as a staff writer, he worked in marketing for The Body Shop and later for the University of Westminster while also moonlighting as a writer for magazines such as “The Big Issue.” He is also the author of several books on design and visual culture and has written for many publications, including “The Independent,” “Scotland on Sunday,” “Arena” and “La Repubblica.”

Stephanie Busari

Digital Producer, CNN.com International

Stephanie Busari is a digital producer at CNN.com International charged with project managing and defining the strategic vision of key special projects on the website.

Busari is an experienced and skilled editor who has a keen interest in social media and how it is used to acquire and share information, particularly in breaking news situations. She has written several articles on the subject and appeared as a contributor on a TV programme investigating the impact of Twitter.

A discerning technophile, Busari covered the Le Web conference in December, live blogging the event and conducting interviews with key industry figures, such as Daniel Ek of Spotify and Brian Chesky of Airbnb. Busari has worked as a news reporter, entertainment and features writer, court reporter and columnist. She has been published in many of the UK and international media’s most influential outlets, including the BBC and Daily Mirror newspaper, during more than a decade’s experience in the media.

Busari began her career in the late 1990s at the London-based newspaper New Nation, aimed at the UK’s black and ethnic minority community. She was instrumental in spearheading several nationwide campaigns that effected UK government policy changes, including the successful campaign for a National Slavery Memorial Day.

During a six-month stint in Northern Ireland in 2003, Busari spent time in some of the worst affected areas of “The Troubles” and secured interviews with a crucifixion victim, government ministers and paramilitaries. While there, she also launched and edited an award-winning lifestyle column.

Busari provides media consultancy services to companies such as filmmakers ROK Motion and the Canary Wharf Film Festival.

Busari is an alumna of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, headed by Nigeria’s Finance Minister.

Linda Button

Brand Personality Expert, Tooth+Nail

Linda Button is co-founder of Tooth+Nail, a boutique agency known for its unique approach to brand personality, inspiration and creativity. 

Button creates positions, taglines and campaigns for the biggest brands in entertainment. Her goal: to help clients, viewers and creative departments see themselves in a new light. 

A writer, speaker, and martial artist, Button says she always strives to kick butt.

Rocco Centrella

Senior Creative Producer, Fox Channels Italy

Rocco Centrella is a senior creative producer at Fox Channels Italy. Being half video producer and half musician, he is an expert in creative processes focused on music and synesthesia. His own personal attitude creates a connection between branding, sound and experience. In his work as a music composer for MTV Networks, fashion brands, movies and his own music project “Rhò,” he produces promos and video that brings viewers into a sound emotional experience.

Centrella was a finalist for the BDA Rocket Award in 2010.

Daniel Cross

Global Music Manager, adidas

Daniel Cross has two full-time occupations. One is global music manager for adidas, where he is responsible for integration of music into global brand marketing productions. The second is as director of music consultancy at Record-Play, a company which provides advice to brands and production companies in best application of music to media and guidance in integration of music into marketing. Record-Play manages Reebok's EMEA music strategy and works with a range of FMCG companies, developing music concepts and aligning artist with brand.

Matthew Dodd

SVP & Head of Media & Advertising Analytics, Europe, Nielsen

Matthew Dodd leads the Advertiser Solutions team in Europe for Nielsen. Dodd’s role is twofold: to advise advertisers on how they can dramatically improve their brand equity and marketing communications ROI, and to provide media owners with compelling metrics to help them attract higher quality advertisers and higher CPMs. His teams deliver high-quality analytics and insights based on comprehensive and integrated measurement solutions. He is also actively engaged with industry bodies and the press on issues relating to media measurement and ad effectiveness and is a regular conference speaker.

Simon Downing

VP, Marketing, Discovery Networks Western Europe

Simon Downing is the VP of marketing for Discovery Networks Western Europe. Downing joined Discovery in August 2008 from Channel Five and currently reports to Dee Forbes, EVP Western Europe.

Downing is responsible for development of the UK consumer marketing strategy and brand development across the entire Western region, which includes the Nordic countries, Benelux, Germany and Southern Europe.

Within these regions the key broadcast brands include: Discovery Channel, Discovery HD, TLC, Discovery Turbo, Discovery World, Discovery Science and Animal Planet.

As VP of marketing, Downing oversees the factual and lifestyle marketing and PR teams, as well as media planning. Downing is tasked with delivering agreed reach and awareness targets in order to support the achievement of the commercial objectives and to maximise marketing investment for Discovery UK.

Downing and his team work closely with the programming and sales and distribution teams to support the affiliate, ad sales and programme strategies.

Downing has also overseen some of the most ambitious marketing campaigns ever undertaken in the UK, the most recent being of the James Cracknell trilogy.

Before joining Discovery, Downing was the head of marketing and digital at Channel Five broadcasting and oversaw the repositioning and the rebranding of the network in 2002 to critical and commercial acclaim. Prior to this Downing worked at MTV Networks UK as head of marketing and communications, and oversaw the introduction of “The Osbournes,” the most successful programming launch in the history of the UK business.

Stephen Emmer

Composer, Music Director & Consultant, eStation

Stephen Emmer is a European composer and artist from Amsterdam, Holland. As a boy, he learned how to play a local wind instrument in an ashram in India then moved to the Caribbean to be taught voodoo percussion. Back in Amsterdam in the ‘70s he got involved in various bands such as an experimental free jazz group, a symphonic rock group and an avant garde new wave electro-noise group called Minny Pops, who would be signed by the UK’s Factory Records alongside Joy Division and has enjoyed considerable cult status ever since, including touring with New Order throughout Europe.

Emmer’s musical idealism led him to create and produce a solo mini-album in the early ‘80s called “Vogue Estate,” on which he was joined by several guest artists from the UK and USA such as the late Billy MacKenzie, Martha Ladley and The Cure’s Michael Dempsey. The album was one of the first intentional European soundtracks without a film and was produced by Flood.

After having briefly joined several UK bands such as The Lotus Eaters, Act and The Associates, Emmer got involved with media music for most of the ‘90s, becoming the first in-house composer for both the main public and commercial TV broadcasters in the Netherlands and composing for several European TV documentaries, short films, art installations and feature films. He won several awards for artistic excellence such as the prestigious Prix de Rome.

Around 2006 Emmer felt a sudden urge to be liberated temporarily from this “musical warzone” and decided to return to his musical idealism of the early years to find what he was searching for: inspiration through catharsis. To that end, he created 17 compositions based on literary text-fragments for a CD called “Recitement,” which featured music and modern spoken word performed by famous writers (Allen Ginsberg), singers (Lou Reed) and actors (Richard Burton). The album was mixed and produced in New York City by Tony Visconti in the legendary Looking Glass Studios owned by Philip Glass and featured several musical performers including Blonde Redhead singer Kazu Makino, jazz musician Benjamin Herman, legendary pianist Mike Garson and more.

Emmer is the founder of the Dutch media music prize Music in Motion in association with Dutch copyright society Buma/Stemra and former president of the best Dutch sound award at the Gouden Beelden Awards. A Dutch representative for Eyes & Ears of Europe, he is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges of music, art and media academies and serves as music director, composer and producer for the international Holiday on Ice production “Speed.”

Emmer has been a speaker and panelist at PromaxBDA events in the US and Europe, and is a PromaxBDA judge.

Mario Eskenazi

Graphic Designer,

Mario Eskenazi started working as a graphic designer in 1969 at Canal 10. He has lived and worked in Barcelona, Spain since 1974. Eskenazi has appeared in many articles and publications, including “Visual,” “Experimenta,” “Eye,” “Etapes,” “Graphics Explained,” “Bibliographics,” “Designers’ Identities,” “Graphic Design Referenced,” “New Directions In Signage And Wayfinding” and more.

Eskenazi has received numerous awards, such as LAUS, Communications Arts, nominations at Art Directors Club, nominations at D&AD, and others. In 2000 Eskenazi received the National Design Award.

Eskenazi has worked on projects for Barcelona pel Medi Ambient (Barcelona Municipal Maintenance, Council of Barcelona), Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (Services Metropolitans Transportations, Council of Barcelona), Banc Sabadell (Sabadell Banking Group), Centre Cultural Blanquerna (Cultural Center, Government of Catalunya), BCD Centre de Disseny (Barcelona Design Center), Grupo Tragaluz (Hotel & Restaurantes), Lilian Thuram Foundation (Education against racism, Paris and Barcelona), Banc Sabadell, Antoni Tàpies Foundation and Forum Barcelona. His editorial projects include Collections for Paidos Publishers (Barcelona-Buenos Aires), Planeta, Banc Sabadell, BCD and Palau Robert (Government of Catalunya). Eskenazi’s exhibitions include “Ferran Adrià & elBulli” (Palau Robert), “Picasso vs. Russinyol” (Picasso Museum), “The Travels of Josep Plà” (Blanquerna), “Delta Awards: 50 years with Design” (Palau Robert).

Mario Eskenazi has been a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationalle) since 1997.

Ricardo Fernández

Creative Services Manager, CANAL+ Spain/Prisa TV

An art and creative director specializing in audiovisual, interactive and branding areas, Ricardo Fernández has 15 years experience in the television industry. He recently worked on the rebranding of Canal+ Spain as well as other channels of this platform including the Canal+ Spain Web design. Fernández has garnered a few prizes along the way, such as a Spanish Graphic Design Laus award, a PromaxBDA Award and a New York Festival award, among others.

Federico Gaggio

VP, Executive Creative Director, Discovery Networks UK & Western Europe

Federico Gaggio heads up the award-winning creative team at Discovery in London, providing creative leadership on brand, advertising, on-air promotions and marketing activities across Discovery Networks’ UK and Western European Markets.

Working with the heads of marketing and programming to inform brand, editorial and marketing strategy, he is responsible for creative strategy, network and channel branding, programme promotion, sponsorship integration and advertising campaigns across all media. He also leads the creative development of innovative marketing and content ideas to drive viewer engagement in the digital space.

Prior to joining Discovery, Gaggio worked as a creative director for a number of leading broadcasters and branding agencies in the UK and Europe. Gaggio and his team have been awarded many industry recognitions, including the PromaxBDA World Gold Award for Best In-house Creative Team in 2011, and Marketing Team of the Year in 2012.

Cindy Gallop

Founder & CEO, IfWeRanTheWorld

Cindy Gallop's background is brandbuilding, marketing and advertising. She started the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York in 1998 and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year. She is the founder and CEO of www.IfWeRanTheWorld.com, a Web-meets-world platform that turns good intentions into action, one microaction at a time, to deliver Action Branding and build your Action Graph, and of www.makelovenotporn.com, launched at TED 2009.She acts as board adviser to a number of tech startups and consults for companies around the world, describing her consultancy approach as "I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business." She has a reputation as a highly compelling and inspirational speaker at conferences and events around the world on a variety of topics: her talk on The Future of Advertising has been described on Twitter as "The most brilliant speech on the future of advertising ever- not the usual buzzword-laden bullshit" and, "Watching @cindygallop slice and dice the ad industry status quo like a ginsu knife. #purewin." She published "Make Love Not Porn: Technology’s Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior" as one of TED’s line of TEDBooks and is currently working on a book about her philosophy of life and business. She will be launching makelovenotporn.tv in spring 2012.

Matthew Glotzbach

Managing Director, YouTube EMEA

Matthew Glotzbach is responsible for the strategy, development and management of YouTube’s business and product direction in EMEA. Previously, Glotzbach led the Apps and Enterprise product divisions within Google. In 2007 he launched Google Apps, Google's cloud computing suite for business. In the same year he played a key role in the acquisition of the security and compliance company Postini, Google's third largest acquisition to date.

Glotzbach has more than 15 years of experience in Internet technology, product strategy, enterprise product management, marketing and sales. Prior to joining Google in 2004, Glotzbach was a senior member of the management team for the computer industry business unit at Trilogy, an enterprise software company based in Austin, TX.

Josephine Green

Social Foresight, Innovation and Change, Beyond20:21st Century Stories

Josephine Green promotes new thinking and new knowledge in the field of social foresight, innovation and change. Through refreshing terms and paradigms, Green explores and articulates this dramatic period of transformation that we as a human society are experiencing. She believes it is critical for us to embrace the fact that while we know where we are coming from, we don’t know where we are going. To support this, her work explores new social and cultural narratives and their societal, technological and organizational contexts and consequences. She demonstrates the very real need to embrace complexity through new organizational, cultural and leadership models and to distribute creativity and capacity throughout the system. She believes that with no rule books for the next age, we must collectively and continuously invent and create our futures. Given this, she does not offer a map of the future but more a compass showing the direction but not the route.

Green regularly delivers international presentations and is an adviser to European Futures and Research platforms. She lectures in master’s and executive education programs at a number of UK and European universities. She defines herself as a macro-historian and change maker and is convinced we must have a more human, humane and empowering philosophical framework and narrative for the future. Her advocacy in this field is based on the belief that we need a different way of perceiving, of being and of acting in the world if we are to prosper, live well and safeguard the future.

Green was appointed senior director of trends and strategy at Philips Design, Philips, in the Netherlands, in 1997. Philips published her manifesto "Democratizing the Future" in 2007. She left Philips in 2009 to return to the UK.

Dale Herigstad

Chief Interaction Officer, Possible Worldwide

Dale Herigstad is a thought leader on the future of media consumption in an interactive and “many-screen” world of increasingly rich media interfaces. He began his career in television working with Harry Marks, who pioneered the combining of technology and great design to redefine TV branding and promotion. Inspired by his work with Marks, Herigstad built an extensive background in broadcast design and branding. He was creative director of on-air design and branding for the three CBS Sports Winter Olympics broadcasts in the 1990s, working at Rezn8 Productions. With roots in rich media, Herigstad has pioneered a unique spatial approach to designing navigation systems for interactive TV and connected screens. The work blurs the line between television, games, Web and mobile, a concept he calls “New Television.”

Herigstad 's work in interactive television has led to numerous projects in advanced interaction, exploring how the audience interacts with multiple devices and contexts. Herigstad was a part of the research team that developed the visionary gestural interfaces that first appeared in the film “Minority Report” and is now leading development work in the emerging world of gestural navigation for screens at a distance. Screens have always defined unique spaces, and, particularly with advancements in stereo 3D projection and advanced AR, information can occupy these spaces as well. Spatial context is becoming increasingly important in design that is no longer flat: space and place are the new frontiers of design.

Herigstad taught the first course in motion graphics at California Institute of the Arts, offered to designers in the United States. He served on the founding advisory board of the digital content direction at the American Film Institute, and was an active participant in the development of forward-facing prototypes for Enhanced TV at AFI for many years. Herigstad has won four Emmy awards, as well as numerous PromaxBDA Design awards.

Herigstad was co-founder of interactive agency Schematic, which recently merged with three other agencies to become global powerhouse Possible Worldwide.

Alan James

Director, James&Wilkinson Media

Alan James has more than 25 years of experience in media, encompassing advertising as broadcast buying director of WPP agency Ogilvy & Mather and in broadcast as the BBC’s first head of media planning, where he was responsible for the on-air media strategy and implementation of marketing activities across all the corporation’s TV, radio and digital services. 

In 2011, in recognition of the lack of robust on-air media planning strategy and its implementation amongst the majority of broadcasters, together with the growing demand for this promotional planning expertise, James and Jo Wilkinson founded James&Wilkinson Media, which works with broadcasters around the globe to improve the effectiveness of their on-air marketing. Through their application of their ARR (Audit, Review, Recommend) process, they assess a broadcaster’s needs based on business and audience objectives , review process and produce  an on-air/digital model based on optimum airtime and creative resource. James is a prominent speaker on the international conference scene including PromaxBDA Europe, Asia, India and Africa. 

Markan Karajica

Chairman of the Managing Board, ProSiebenSat.1 Digital

Markan Karajica has been directing the business operations of ProSiebenSat.1 Digital since April 2012, first as managing director and then as the chairman of the managing board after his appointment in July 2012. In addition, Karajica is responsible for the business operations of SugarRay, the creative agency of ProSiebenSat.1. 

Before joining the multimedia company of the media group, Karajica was appointed to the management board of ProSiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland GmbH as chief marketing and commercial officer. Prior to that, he was SVP of central marketing and creative solutions at ProSiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland GmbH and also the head of SAT.1 marketing. 

Karajica worked for several years as a freelance editor for various television and radio stations. In 2001 Karajica became the creative director and head of sport promotion as well as the deputy managing director of creative services at Premiere Medien GmbH & Co KG. After four years, the Hamburg native joined ProSiebenSat.1 Produktion GmbH, where he managed the creative solutions department until November 2008 and also became executive creative director in Unterföhring and Berlin. In December 2008 he became the managing director of creative solutions and became a member of the Executive Board at ProSiebenSat.1 Produktion GmbH.

James Kirkham

Managing Director, Holler

James Kirkham is the managing director of Holler, the digital strategy agency he formed in February 2001 with business partner Will Pyne. Holler’s clients include Absolute Vodka, Alfred Dunhill, Channel 4, innocent Drinks, John Frieda and Red Bull.

“New Media Age” listed Holler as one to watch in their Top 100 guide and wrote that Holler has ‘one of the most impressive client lists in the UK.’

Holler was behind the critically acclaimed and award-winning marketing for “Skins” on E4, a groundbreaking approach to marketing and media strategy that led to a host of awards including three prestigious IPA and Guardian awards. It was the first television show to be marketed in the UK using social media.

Holler also received two Interactive Marketing & Advertising Awards at IPA 2008, winning Best Entertainment Category for “Skins” series 2 and the IMA 2008 Grand Prix. Their cross-platform expertise was recognised when they received a 2009 BAFTA nomination for social media project “Year Dot.”

Kirkham is a highly-respected commentator on the digital marketing industry, speaking regularly at conferences including The Guardian Changing Media Summit, MIPCOM, MIPTV, co-chairing The Media Festival (2009, 2010), presenting at the ‘4 talent’ showcase, PromaxBDA and BETT education conferences and contributing to a range of publications including “The Sunday Times,” “Broadcast,” “Q magazine” and “Creative Review.”

Christian Kohl

Design Digital Channels, ZDF

After working for two years for the Gutenberg Pavilion, a temporary exhibition venue in Mainz, in the fields of poster design, web design and exhibition organization, Christian Kohl started working for ZDF in 2001, in the corporate design department. He taught audiovisual design at the University of Applied Sciences, Mainz in 2002-2003.

He oversaw the design relaunches of ZDF’s three digital channels: ZDFneo, ZDFkultur and ZDFinfo. He is currently responsible for the further development of the design of these three channels.

Abel López

Creative Director, Cómodo Screen

Abel López began his professional career at La Truka TV, where he quickly made his mark in the department of editing and post production. A few years later he was promoted to creative director. He is a founding member and creative director of Cómodo Screen.

Gabi Madracevic

Creative Director, Luxlotusliner

Gabi Madracevic is co-founder and –owner of the design and branding agency Luxlotusliner in Munich. As the creative director, she is responsable for many national and international clients. Her career began after her studies of Visual Communication as an owner of the graphic studio Buro 2. Later she worked for BBDO Advertising, ProSieben and SevenSenses and became a creative director at velvet mediendesign. Madracevic‘s work has been honoured with several national and international awards.

Pablo Martín

Founder & Creative Director, Grafica

Pablo Martín studied graphic design in Eina, Barcelona, where he taught typography for 15 years. He worked for Mario Eskenazi and for Vignelli Associates in New York before establishing his own design studio. In 1993 he founded Grafica with Fernando Gutiérrez. Martín is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).

Grafica works on all the areas of visual communication but is mainly known for its work in editorial design, corporate identity and typography. Grafica's projects have been awarded in Spain (Laus Awards), England (D&AD, Donside Awards, STD Awards), the US (ADC, SND) and at European Art Directors Club.

Grafica believes in responsible graphic design based on ideas, avoiding frivolous and superficial solutions.

Reeps One

Beatboxer and Performer, Organic Electronics

Starting a professional career in 2008, Reeps One is now an internationally known beatboxer and performer. Reeps One was the first to have a solo vocal show that was driven by bass culture and naturally the global scene was soon to follow.

By the end of 2010 Reeps One was playing alongside Foreign Beggars, finished a UK tour with Prodigy and matched Beardyman’s record by winning the UK Beatbox Championships twice in a row.

Reeps One has gained much respect off the stage for his lectures on his approach at the ICA and in Tokyo, for his work composing with an orchestra, and for an interview he gave to BBC News after UCL scanned his brain to see how his mind works. It’s this exploring that keeps his presence fresh and exciting.
br>Now with YouTube views in the millions, and a 2012 UK and Australian tour in the works, this unique vocalist commands a show like no other.

Juan Carlos Pérez

Creative Director, Televisión Española

Juan Carlos Pérez started working in promos and design for TV in 1992. More than 20,000 promos later, he is currently creative director at Televisión Española, the public national broadcaster in Spain. His team covers the graphic design, promotion and set design for seven channels of pure public television with no advertising. Previously, he has worked in Telecinco and Telemadrid as head of promos and corporate image.

Anna Priest

VP, Marcomms & A+E Networks UK

Anna Priest is VP of Marcomms at A+E Networks UK. Based in London, Priest is responsible for the marketing, communications and creative functions across a portfolio of brands including HISTORY, Crime & Investigation Network, BIO and MILITARY HISTORY across the UK, Scandinavia, Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

Priest is charged with setting the five-year and annual Marcomms strategies, including advertising partnership and affiliate Marcomms programmes, media relations and PR, digital communications and she oversees the strategic planning, implementation and execution of the annual Marcomms budget. She also works closely with the senior management team to coordinate and plan the company’s new and current business strategy.

Priest joined A+E Networks UK in October 2011 from the BBC where she was head of marketing, superbrands and portfolio and was responsible for developing brand strategies and marketing plans for the overall BBC TV portfolio and specific programme super brands including “Doctor Who,” “Strictly Come Dancing” and “Top Gear.”

Before this role, Priest was head of marketing, BBC Three, Comedy and Entertainment responsible for the marketing of comedy and entertainment content on all BBC channels as well as for the BBC Three brand as a whole.

Before joining the BBC Three team, Priest was head of marketing at Comic Relief for Sport Relief 08 and Red Nose Day 09, leading marketing, research and comms, digital media and audience teams to great success.

Pep Prior

Creative Director, Cómodo Screen

While studying at the Universidad de Barcelona, Pep Prior met Abel López, with whom he hatched a plan to one day open a studio together. Prior went on to create a company dedicated to providing storyboards to advertising agencies. After working as a Web designer and creative in different areas, he decided it was finally time to launch that dream studio. He is a founding member and creative director of Cómodo Screen.

Alf Rehn

Chair of Management and Organization, Åbo Akademi University

Professor Alf Rehn is a management professor, an internationally recognized business thinker, an author and a speaker. He currently holds the chair of management and organization at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, was earlier the SSES Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and has in addition taught at universities all over the globe.

As a business thinker, Rehn has been called an "enfant terrible of organization studies” and a "star of the future.” In 2009 Thinkers50, the listing of the world's top 50 business thinkers, included him on their "Guru Radar,” ranking him No. 13 among the "Up and Coming Business Thinkers.”

As a business writer, Rehn has published a wide range of academic books and articles, but also a series of books, articles, columns and thought papers for a general audience. His latest published book is “Dangerous Ideas” – an alternative take on creativity and business – and he is currently working on “A Taste of Leadership,” which deals with how we can learn management and leadership from the great chefs, as well as “Taboo Futures,” a book on challenging future thinking.

Jakob Trollbäck

President & Executive Creative Director, Trollbäck + Company

A self-taught designer from Sweden, Jakob Trollbäck began his artistic career as a DJ in his native Stockholm. Having found a commonality in music and design, Trollbäck creates pieces that transport his audience to planes of sensorial experience. He is an acknowledged industry leader in both branding and motion graphic design and has worked with HBO, ESPN, CBS, A&E, AMC, TNT and most recently, Cooking Channel. Trollbäck + Company has received dozens of creative industry awards including those from the Primetime Emmy Awards, AICP, Art Directors Club, PromaxBDA, British D&AD, Communication Arts Design Annual, The One Show and Type Directors Club. Trollbäck is also on the Board of Directors at the Art Director’s Club and a trustee at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Andreas Reinberger

Head of On-Air Presentations, ZDFkultur & 3sat

Andreas Reinberger has more than 20 years of experience in television marketing, design and on-air promotion. Reinberger currently works at ZDF (German Television), where he recently launched ZDFkultur, the new music and pop culture channel. In this position, Reinberger was involved in the strategic positioning and creative branding for the channel.

In addition to his position at ZDFkultur, Reinberger has worked for more than a decade as the creative director for 3sat, the longest-running cultural TV-channel in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Reinberger leads a team of 20 as head of on-air presentation.

In his early days, Reinberger started as promo producer at the ORF (Austrian TV). Five years later, he migrated to Germany and helped launch Germany’s first pay-TV channel, Premiere, in Hamburg. There he joined Neville Brody and his team, working on the highly recognized Premiere brand.

Reinberger is also an instructor and consultant for the academy of media (ARD and ZDF). He is chairman of the Roundtable Presentation, the annual conference on TV-presentation with executives from all Public-TV stations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Rafael Sandor

Creative, Marketing & TV Strategy Consultant
Former EVP, Marketing & Creative, Fox International Channels/National Geographic Channel International

Rafael Sandor is a creative, marketing and TV strategy consultant with an extensive track record developing TV channels and their content, branding and promotion on a global level.

Sandor recently left his post as EVP of global marketing and creative at Fox International Channels, from where he has led its global channel development during the last 13 years, from a small regional network to the multibillionaire global empire that it is today.

Based in Rome, Sandor was key to the development of FIC's 160 channels worldwide, helping establish its global network of creatives, marketers and programmers in more than 30 offices around the world, while creating all its global brands and campaigns, including all Fox and National Geographic channels and shows.

Prior to this job, Sandor was part of the small management team that started up the successful Fox Channels Italy, which is still today the leader in that market and recognized as the benchmark for creative quality and innovation in Italy. 

He was previously programming and creative director for National Geographic Latin America and Iberia; and creative and original production director for Fox Kids Latin America. His work has received numerous international awards.

Olivier Schaack

Director of Creative Services, Canal+ France
Europe Awards Chair

Olivier Schaack has worked in television promo and design for 20 years. After formative experiences at M6 and TPS, Schaack joined Group Canal+ in 2000 as on-air promotion manager. Since then he developed the Canal+ Promo and Design Factory, which manages the on-air identity and on-air promotions for 29 pay TV channels broadcast by the group. Schaack has been a member of the PromaxBDA Europe Advisory Council since 2007. 

Merav Shifman

Innovation and Insight, Keshet Broadcasting; Head of Research and Strategy, mako

Merav Shifman works for both traditional and digital media divisions of Keshet Broadcasting. Shifman delivers consumer insight and audience understanding across all media platforms. During her tenure at Keshet, Shifman headed a team of researchers and web analytics that established a knowledgeable infrastructure for cross-platform understanding. Her insights support the company's strategy for social, integrated, dual screen, mobile and digital platforms. 

Shifman has been working in television for 17 years. Her specialties include content and culture analysis, audience research, media planning, social engagement and global insight. 

During 2012 Shifman was also madam-chairman of the Israeli Internet Measurement Committee.

Gary Smith

Senior Reporter, MIP News/Lions Daily

Gary Smith writes for the “Lions Daily News,” “Locations Magazine,” MIPTV News, “Billboard” and several other specialist publications, covering advertising, TV, music, location finding and technology, with a special interest in the effects of social networks on human behaviour, and the ability of technology to change our lives for the better. He lives in France and blogs about it at http://garygarry.posterous.com/.

Gábor Varga

Head of Creative Services, HBO Europe

Gábor Varga has been working at HBO Europe as head of creative services for three years. To meet the challenges of a continually changing industry, HBO widened the scope of the on-air promo team, which has evolved into creative services for HBO Europe, operating across 15 countries. In addition to creative projects, the team formulates new goals and perspectives, including synergy, material sharing, effective communication between platforms, integrated platform communication and the development of new workflows. 

The most important task is to focus on the future developments of platforms and technology, as well as on how consumer attitudes are expected to change. 

The creative services department has had to radically overhaul how they deliver promo content, and most importantly, continue to support HBO Europe’s ongoing business model development. 

Varga started his career as a cameraman and director of documentaries and TV series. He worked for several years in the public TV sector in Hungary, playing a part in the launch of the very first Hungarian commercial channel (SBS-TV2). Later on, his main activities included broadcast design and on-air promos. He has also worked as creative director for one of the Hungarian public service television channels; he is the member of Art Directors Club Hungary, and worked on many significant projects for different TV channels through his own company "6miles Branding". He was a founder and Chairman of the ON AIR GROUP professional organisation. Today Varga is the head of creative services at HBO Europe. 

Tim Whirledge

Strategic Planner, Red Bee Media

Tim Whirledge is a strategic planner on the Red Bee Media planning team looking after strategic and digital strategy for a broad range of TV clients including the BBC, UKTV and Fox. Whirledge was part of the team that brought the UK’s first audio-watermarked TV app to market for FXUK’s “Walking Dead” zombie thriller and last year asked the nation to get in touch with BBC broadcast legend Sir David Attenborough via the live social media and online video production “Ask Attenborough” for UKTV’s natural history channel Eden. Whirledge is currently working on dual screen technologies at Red Bee that will enhance, not distract, from a TV viewing experience.

Whirledge has spent the majority of his career to date devising global and local digital advertising campaigns, having previously plied his trade at global advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and the boutique digital agency Cake. Clients included Nike, BT, Sainsbury’s and Sony.

Jo Wilkinson

Director, James&Wilkinson Media

Over her 18-year media career in media planning, Jo Wilkinson has worked at the BBC, Sky, Red Bee Media and Havas advertising group. She has an extensive knowledge of how to develop effective on-air promotional strategies and manage and implement effective campaigns within a broadcasting environment. This includes hands-on experience of channel launches, channel rebrands, portfolio management, campaign planning and implementation, introducing navigational strategies and management of TV measurement and optimization systems. 

In 2011, in response to the growing demand for promotional planning expertise, Wilkinson, together with Alan James, founded James&Wilkinson Media, which works with broadcasters around the world to improve the effectiveness of their on-air and digital marketing. Since its inception, James&Wilkinson Media has worked with broadcast clients throughout Europe, Asia and Africa both on strategy consultancy projects and departmental training. 

Bibiana Ballbé Serra

Television Presenter & Journalist, “Bestiari Il•lustrat”

Bibiana Ballbé Serra is the host and editor of “Bestiari Il•lustrat,” a weekly cultural magazine airing on TV3 Televisió de Catalunya (National TV of Catalunya). Previously, she was the host of “Anima,” a daily cultural magazine, and “Silenci,” which she also edited. Serra worked on the Paramount Comedy late night TV show “Noche sin tregua” and was a screenwriter and host of the travel and culture show “INSIDE” for Germany’s VIVA.