Symposium 2024

Ben Eyes, UK

Eyes is a composer, sound engineer and musician working in the North of England. His work covers a wide range of styles from live improvised modular synthesis to Kongolese techno.

Goethem became a stage manager through self-training and toured with many companies throughout Europe. He expanded his field to include teaching and consultancy in technical theatre.  He advised on the development of professional profiles and qualifications, safety policy and training policy. His research field is the history of technical theater as a source of innovation. His research field is the history of technical theater as a source of innovation. Van Goethem is an internationalist and proud member of OISTAT.  Vice-Chair of OISTAT Education Commission.

David Evans, UK

Evans is Head of Production at National Theatre Wales, and Co-Chair of the ABTT - Association of British Theatre Technicians; he was part of the producing team and Co-Host of ITEAC 2023 and on the coordination committee of The Theatre Green Book.  David is a Trustee of the Lagos Theatre Festival; an Honorary Fellow of Rose Bruford College and Lifetime Member of The Stage Management Association.  

Dr Aby Cohen, Brazil/UK

Dr Cohen is a Brazilian theatre and exhibition designer, curator and educator. Internationally recognized for her work in Theatre, Exhibition, Film and Live Events, with projects realized in more than 10 countries. Awarded with the Prague Quadrennial Golden Triga in 2011 as designer and curator of Brazil`s National Exhibition. Prague Quadrennial 2015 International curator of SharedSpace /Politics. IDCA2013 awarded as Best Exhibition Design for a project delivered to the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. PhD in Theatre Theory and Practice. Currently living and working in the UK as the Head of the Postgraduate Department at Academy of Live Technology. President of OISTAT elected in World Congress.

Dr Maria Selezneva , Russia/UK

Dr Selezneva is a PhD graduate of the University of Exeter in 2019. Her thesis explored how similar cultural concepts are differently translated for Russian and English speakers around the world. Currently managing translation projects in the field of sports.

Dr Tarik Ribh, Morocco

Tarik Ribh is a research scenographer laureate of the ISADAC - Higher Institute of Dramatic Art and Cultural Animation, in Rabat where he is a deputy director responsible for continuing training and internships at ISADAC. In parallel with his professional involvement with several theater groups, he completed a master's degree in theater studies at the Ibne Toufail University in Kénitra, with research on: “scenography and its fields” and PhD in theater studies on “street theater in Morocco”. Tarik is also Artistic director and co-founder of the International “Thé-Arts” Festival, in Rabat. Awarded and nominated from several festivals, nationally and in the Arab world, in scenography and costume design. Member OISTAT.

Clare Hunt, UK

Clare Hunt is the Enterprise Manager for Economic Growth at Wakefield Council. Clare oversees the strategic aspect of the range of business support programmes. Clare is passionate about Creative and Digital sector development and sees the role of a bespoke support service for this sector as vitally important. Clare spent twenty years in the third sector before joining the council mainly running creative and heritage projects with her specialism being writing funding applications for a broad range of initiatives.

Dr Trevor Davis FRSA MBCS, UK

Dr Davis is a consumer industry futurist, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and former IBM Distinguished Engineer. He’s an expert in developing and launching sustainable products and services. From over 30 years, Trevor brings deep industry insight on technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Industry 4.0. 

Eduardo Bernal Perez, Spain/UK

Perez is a ARB registered Architect with 15 years' experience. Design Manager for 8 years in complex high-end projects in the UK and abroad. He is passionate about all art media and growing towards the design of live events. Thanks to his training at the Academy of Live Technology, he is currently working as an Entertainment Architect at STUFISH. 

James Ward, UK

Ward is currently a MSc Virtual Production student at the Academy of Live Technology. At the age of 22, with a BSc. in Applied Comp, Ward is a 3dfx content designer who aims to create working methodologies which provide more affordable and universally usable tools, lower the bar to entry for filmmakers and Virtual Production.  

Jayne Curry, UK/USA

Curry is a master's graduate in Live Event Design at the Academy of Live Technology. She’s a professional business owner in the cruise ship industry, developing high-quality entertainers in Europe for the American Cruising market. She’s Vice President of the Black Box Booking LLC in Florida providing live events.

JR Luker, USA

Luker is a Technical Director & Asst. Professor at California State University Fullerton who archives the past with reality capture technologies. Active member of OISTAT Technology Commission.

Lucie (Lee) Sykes, Czeck Republic/UK

Lucie (Lee) Sykes is a PhD academic, researcher and artist in dance and digital performances. She is fascinated by movement and the interactions between body-mind and digital technologies. By using cutting-edge digital technologies, she explores and experiments with themes of embodiment, human-machine interactions and immersion, she creates interactive dance performances and installations with multi-sensory output.

Mary Stewart-David, UK

Ms. Stewart-David is a writer/producer in musical theatre. Currently working in immersive and interactive virtual theatre production and completing a PhD in Interactive Media at the School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of York. 

Mig Burges Walsh, UK

Mig is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Surrey teaching at the Guildford School of Acting on the Theatre production course. She is a trustee and Co-Chair of the ABTT, a trustee of Backup Tech, the technical backstage charity helping those in need. She is also a qualified Mental Health first aid instructor. Mig has over 20 years' experience in live entertainment and theatre production. Her passion is lighting, but she loves all aspects of the creative arts sector, designing, producing and making. She is at her happiest up a ladder focusing a light!

Miles Marsden, UK

Having been introduced to theatre and performance from an early age, Marsden was drawn to the technical side of production, culminating in establishing a small recording studio in the early years of his career.

A qualified mechanical design engineer by trade, at the age of 25 Marsden co-founded an audio system installation company which over the following two decades became one of the leading UK companies in the sector. In 2010, Marsden joined the development team at Production Park, formerly Litestructures. As the Academy and Production Park campus continued to develop and grow, Marsden was appointed Industry Partnerships Director in 2019.

Professor April Viczko, Canada

Professor Viczko has worked on over 100 productions during the last 30 years. April is a Department Chair, University of Alberta, Canada. She is a full member and past president of the Associated Designers of Canada. April is the project lead for World Stage Design 2022, which was co-hosted with CITT/ICTS at the University of Calgary. In 2000, she received a Tyrone Guthrie Award at the Stratford Festival of Canada, where she spent four seasons as an assistant designer. At UCalgary, April has received multiple awards for her teaching and research. April apprenticed in Rome, Italy with Scenotecnia Piu’, a company known for its fine craftsmanship and majestic scenography.

Photo credit: Candace Albach

Professor Matt Kizer, USA

Professor Kizer is the coordinator of the Theatre Program for Plymouth State University, has designed national tours, theatres, and universities internationally. Presented workshops for institutions, including the Cyprus OISTAT Centre, the National Opera Association, World Stage Design, and the Prague Quadrennial. Vice-Chair of OISTAT Education Commission.

Professor Nick Hunt, UK

Professor Hunt is Professor of Lighting Design, Performance Technologies and Digital Research and Innovation Fellow at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. Head of the School of Design, Management and Technical Arts. His research interests include the performative potential of light, digital performance, and theatre technology history. He is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, and has served as co-convenor of the Scenography Working Groups of IFTR and TaPRA.

Serena Bliss, Australia/UK

Bliss is a Young Entrepreneur and Co-Director at Creative Alchemy, known for her innovation in Creative Product Development and a Thought Leader in Virtual Production. Passionate about turning imagination into reality. The past four years have focused on immersive exhibits and virtual production. 

Shannon Harvey, USA/UK

Harvey is the Creative Director at Creative Alchemy. Over 15 years, his journey has been an adventure through a diverse array of displays. From concert tours, storytelling immersive exhibits, television, and large-scale events. His passion lies in crafting unforgettable experiences with pixels. 

Sophie Kirkpatrick, UK

Kirkpatrick is an MSc Bio-Integrated Design student at UCL, previously studied Natural Sciences at the University of Leeds in biotechnology. Her project’s focused on the exchanges of energy, science and architecture, forest ecosystems and fermentation as a bridge between science, culture, and micro-organisms.  

Zulfiya Hamzaki, India/UK

Hamzaki is a documentary filmmaker and practice-based PhD researcher at the University of York’s School of Arts and Creative Technologies. She led the research for XR-Stories funded interactive documentary project "Your Heritage, Your Story" with the Council for British Archaeology (CBA), looking at how digital storytelling can help achieve inclusivity in heritage through a practice-based, co-creative project with immigrants in the UK. Her research explores the intersection of documentaries and interactive media in migrant and immigrant stories in the USA, Native American issues and refugee resettlement in California’s Bay area.

Rosalind Hill, UK

Ros is the Creative Network Manager at Wakefield Council and a Trustee of Spectrum People. In her early career she embarked on an academic research pathway but life had other plans and she pivoted to a career in the Creative & Cultural Sector. She has spent time at Leeds Playhouse, Leeds Culture Consortium and Cinema for All and more recently discovering the extraordinary and inspirational creative people and places of Wakefield District. Ros is passionate about supporting the creative sector to thrive and believes it can be a dynamic force for positive social change.

Paige Cottam, UK

Paige is the Business Support Officer for Wakefield First. Paige loves working with a range people to help them realise their goals and drive positive growth of their business. Paige studied Fine Art at Leeds Arts University but has since stepped into the world of business support through various roles within the council, finally joining up her experience to support creatives in demystifying the world of business.

Iain Bennett, UK

Iain is the Director of The Fifth Sector, which he founded in 2011. He was Sector Leader for Digital and Creative Industries at Northwest Regional Development Agency (2006-11), leading the development of regional strategy to support development of MediaCityUK. Over the last thirteen years he has led significant projects focusing on cultural and creative-led growth across England. Ian is a Trustee of UP Projects and a member of the Creative Industries Councils’ Regions & Clusters working group and the Arts & Humanities Advisory Board of Royal Holloway, University of London. He has just embarked on delivery of the freelance and microbusiness skills and support offer as part of West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s ‘You Can Make It Here’ programme of support for creative industries.

Jamie Sefton, UK

Jamie is the Managing Director – Games Republic Ltd. He began his career in the games industry more than two decades ago as a writer and editor of magazines and websites such as Arcade, Official PlayStation 2 Magazine and PC Zone. Jamie is now the Managing Director of Yorkshire and Northern England games business network Game Republic. Jamie has led Department for Business and Trade missions to the Game Developers Conference and Gamescom in Cologne since 2010 and organises events for the world’s biggest games business website GamesIndustry.biz, including the GI Investment Summit at PAX East/West and EGX London.

Professor Jon Hook, UK

Professor of Interactive Media in the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York. Prof. Hook is a researcher in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, exploring the design and development of new interactive media content forms and tools to support their creation. He is a Co-Investigator of CoSTAR Live Lab, in which he leads research on Audience, HCI and UX and the project's Access Programme.

Laura Partridge, UK

Laura is the Associate Director for CoSTAR Delivery & Partnerships.

CoSTAR is the UK's R&D network for creative technology to provide the UK’s screen and performance sectors with the state-of-the-art facilities and expertise they need to conduct world-class Research & Development. The CoSTAR infrastructure network is formed of five Labs and brings together a diverse range of creative industry and academic partners from across the UK.

Caroline Cooper Charles, UK

Caroline is the Chief Executive of Screen Yorkshire. Caroline champions the film, TV and wider screen industries in Yorkshire & Humber, providing leadership to a talented team of industry experts who deliver skills and talent development, production support and content investment. Caroline’s 25-year career within the screen industries has evolved from running her first production company with acclaimed music video director Dawn Shadforth to her previous role as Head of Creative at Screen Yorkshire.

Phil Adlam, UK

Phil is the CTO at Production Park and Head of XPLOR - a Creative Industries Innovation Centre. He is an experienced MD in technology, delivering high profile technologies, systems and management - from Production for Stadium Shows & Arena Touring to System Analysis, Design, Simulation and Optimisation. His qualifications include FHEA & MEng Electronic Engineering. Passionate about the stage and screen, pushing boundaries for Immersive experiences, Ultra scale events, Film and HETV virtual production, Real-time capture, sustainability & Ethical AI.

Jo Verrent, UK

Jo is director of Unlimited, with a mission to commission extraordinary work from disabled artists until the whole of the cultural sector does. Funded by Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, Creative Scotland, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the British Council, it commits for this work to change and challenge the world. Jo is an artist, creating Take Me to Bed with Luke Pell, cofounding Sync with Sarah Pickthall, and is also a granny.

Dr Steven Michael, OBE FRSA, UK

Independent Chair, Creative Wakefield Cultural Compact.

Steven started his career as a registered mental health nurse working in the North East. His career progressed through work in the NHS and charitable sector, occupying clinical leadership and managerial roles, culminating in being CEO of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. In 2014 he was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare. In more recent years Steven has been an Independent Chair of health and care partnerships in Greater Manchester and East Cheshire, as well as chairing Spectrum People, a local charity and ImROC, an international mental health recovery organisation. Steven is passionate about creativity and the arts in general. He is a fellow of the RSA and his doctoral research concerned sustaining creative innovation in complex human systems. Steven has lived in Wakefield since 2000.

Cllr Michelle Collins

Portfolio Holder: Culture, Leisure, and Sport. Ward: South Elmsall & South Kirkby

Our Speakers