ED&I

Jo has over 20 years of experience in the music industry, with a strong background in music technology and digital innovation. She has held significant roles at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and currently contributes her expertise at Digital Catapult. In addition to her primary role, Jo is an accomplished freelance artist manager and music consultant. She serves as Vice Chair of Safe in Sound, an organisation dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in the Irish music industry. Jo is also a board member of Thrive, Northern Ireland's audience development agency, and Ulster Touring Opera, as well as a director at HoloEdge Digital.

Rose has been in Product since the early days of Product Management, as it emerged as its own discipline, working across a broad range of companies, from ambitious start-ups to large enterprises, including Sky and Amazon. Her teams have worked on products such as Amazon Prime Video, Sky Q, Sky Kids, and Sky VR. She spent four years on the leadership team of Sky Labs, serving as both a leader and senior innovation coach, helping multi-disciplinary teams collaborate to find transformative solutions to complex, challenging problems. These days, Rose works as a fractional product and innovation leader, stepping into companies to help clarify strategy, unlock growth, and build high-performing teams. She is also passionate about tech for good and diversity in innovation.
Based in Brighton, Rose co-organizes Brighton AI, co-leads the Brighton chapter of Women in Blockchain Talks, and is collaborating on a new Tech Cluster initiative. When time allows, she also mentors on several start-up accelerators.

Dr Jennifer Bell is a Fulbright Fellow, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Marketing and Branding, and Chair of the Knowledge Exchange Practice Network for Emerging Technology at Nottingham Trent University. Jennifer’s practice focuses on the intersection of AI, Web3 and immersive technology, iterating on how XR experiences and new models of ownership critically impact the human experience. As a resident at the Virtual Immersive Production Studio at the University of Nottingham, Jennifer explored digital twinning, embodiment, and the relinquishment of control over digital and physical representations of the self, sharing her output at the Kings College London GLOW Festival. In a University context Jennifer has delivered audio visual experiences at conferences on topics including decolonising and imagining equitable futures in higher education, digital fashion futures, and the history of the metaverse. Jennifer’s practice with creative technologist Kristian Jones, which has been exhibited internationally leverages immersive storytelling, generative AI, and poetry to create participatory, de-centred experiences that challenge traditional hierarchies and envision pluralistic futures - they are currently working on a VR short film. In Web3 Jennifer creates NFT’s in collaboration with DAO Jones as the pseudonymous Jennifer Yellow-Hat, and has designed and is delivering the Nottingham School of Art & Designs innovative level five module Web3 and Creative Autonomy, sharing her knowledge with students. She is a founder of NTU NXT at the Nottingham School of Art & Design, a community of staff engaged in creative technology, and is the schools decolonising the curriculum lead, advocating for diverse and inclusive approaches to teaching, learning and technology in higher education.

I have been involved in increasing EDI over my career in STEAM as a STEM Ambassador, INWED presenter and support, mentoring women and ethnic minorities - of late a KPMG scheme and women in defence. In my role as Dean of Fellows in QinetiQ (a 6000 plus defence organisation), I am leading increased diversity and inclusiveness through coaching and creating communities of all generations in my workplace. In 2020 I was appointed a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Human Factors: Innovation through diversity with Nottingham Trent University with the goal to apply my expertise of 30 years in human factors engineering to drive change through inclusive design innovation. As the Chief Scientist for human science and a chartered psychologist, I have been involved in XR since the 90s currently leading a strategic investment, building and assessing defence XR. In particular focusing on XR for training and building concepts to demonstrate the art of the possible and leading experimental assessments.

As an Innovation Delivery Manager at Digital Catapult, I lead the delivery of grant-funded programmes focused on immersive deep tech R&D and commercialisation. This forms my interest in immersive technology, as well as my academic background in the ethics of technology innovation (MSc Science and Technology in Society, University of Edinburgh).

My passion for EDI is formed from lived experience of inequality, my expertise in inclusive design practices, and my trauma-informed approach as a wellbeing practitioner. In my roles, I have championed diversity and inclusion, leading initiatives that have expanded access to technology for underrepresented communities. For example, I co-designed an initiative with young people that successfully engaged:
- 74% of young people from the 30% most disadvantaged areas in England.
- 62% of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds traditionally facing racial inequalities.
I have also led LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts, such as chairing an LGBTQ+ working group at UK Youth and participating in Pride events.
Through the application of inclusive design I also achieved a 543% increase in access to the Digital Hub and tripled participation in the People Survey at British Red Cross.

My academic experience, including a modules focusing on Virtual Reality, Risk, Regulation, and Governance, and Controversies in the Data Society, coupled with my professional expertise, equips me with a holistic understanding of how to integrate EDI considerations into the immersive tech ecosystem. I aim to contribute to building an industry where emerging technologies serve the broadest possible audience.

Tara is an XR Lecturer/Researcher at Goldsmiths University, teaching Unity-based XR experience development. She is also a Speaker, the founder of BlackXRNetwork(BXRN), and a PhD student in the Intelligent Games/Game intelligence program with a focus on Avatar Embodiment and Medical Communication Skills Training within Virtual Reality.
Over the years, her interdisciplinary profile has enabled her to work in various roles across academia and the tech ecosystem, such as UCL, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Meta and George Mason Virginia Serious Games Institute in the United States.

Oluwatosin is a game developer with a knack for the extended reality spectrum(Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality). He believes games would have a great impact across Africa in years to come and he is currently working on various projects to help this dream become a reality.

A familiar and friendly face as part of the Innovate UK family, Muki is in demand on the global XR scene as an Award Judge, professional MC/Moderator and Keynote Speaker via her career as a multi-award-winning CIO, Executive XR Producer and Creative Technologist with over two decades of pioneering interactive, immersive experiences for music, sport, entertainment & broadcasting.

2024 saw Muki kick off the year as the recently appointed UK Ambassador for Women in Immersive Technologies Europe, (WIIT) the NGO she’s been heavily involved with since its inception in 2016, which aims to create an inclusive network of talented women and those who identify as women who are driving and inspiring the virtual, augmented, mixed reality and spatial computing sectors.

Muki is also currently the Innovation Lead for the IBC Accelerators Media Innovation Programme, steering high-level consortiums to develop open collaboration and groundbreaking R&D solutions for industry-recognised challenges in XR/Emerging Media and Broadcast Engineering, exploring verticals such as Synthetic Humans, Talent ID/IP, Volumetric Video, Virtual Production, 5G Motion Capture for Live Performance & Animation, Real-Time XR Sport, Interoperable 3D Assets, Personalised MetaData, Blockchain, 6DOF Spatial Audio and more.

Other Emerging Media clients also include Red Bull Media House, and, mid-pandemic, included Paramount, Mozilla, and The National Gallery via PlaylinesAR, where she Exec’d the critically acclaimed “Art of London: Augmented Gallery” location-based, interactive AR app. In 2019, she also created with Playlines and BOSE the spatial audio drum’n’bass hit, Harry Shotta’s ‘Consequences’, which was awarded the Raindance Immersive headline experience, Digital Catapult’s Surroundscapes Tour, and the Innovation in Storytelling runner-up prize at the Future of Storytelling (FoST) in NYC. At AWE EU’22 in Lisbon, she helped collect a prestigious Auggie Award for the ‘Start-Up To Watch’ Winners, the multiplayer music maker VR composer tool Patch XR with whom she’s been an Advisory Board member since 2018.

Previously, after ten years in the ‘00s launching MTV’s first interactive digital platforms, websites, apps and live digital events, Muki went on to Executive Produce for scores of other A-List titles such as Marvel, Angry Birds, Samsung, and, BBC’s The Voice UK, where she helped create “The Virtual Voice’, the BBC’s first-ever series of immersive 360°Virtual Reality “way back” in 2015.

Globe-trotting on the tech speaking circuit, Muki has spoken at hundreds of events, and sits on Committees, Advisory Boards & Award Juriues for such prestigious events like AWE, IBC, Innovate UK, MWC/4YFN, Stereopsia, ITW &VR Awards, SXSW, Soho Media Club, XR4Human, Media Production Technology Show, Audio Engineering Society, Abbey Road Studios Spatial Audio Forum and more. She's also a regular contributor to tech papers, standards, frameworks and thought leadership publications focussing on emerging and progressive technologies for media and entertainment.

Deepa Mann-Kler is Chief Executive of Neon; Director for Belfast XR Festival; Executive Producer for Virtual Production at Aura Studios; Visiting Professor in Immersive Futures at Ulster University, an award winning Artist and a member of Euromersive and BAFTA Connect. Neon harnesses the power of immersive technologies to create authentic augmented and virtual reality narrative driven experiences. As Director and Producer, Neon has won multiple awards most lately with The Metaverse & Me and Discover ME which shares real life stories of people living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long Covid. Neon launched The Metaverse & Me, AR Peace Wall and AR Street Art apps freely available on iOS and Play Store. A TEDx speaker “Being Human” and thought leader Deepa regularly keynotes on the intersection of storytelling, digital transformation, technical innovation, leadership, inclusion, ethics, bias, data, AI, design and creativity. Websites: www.discoverneon.com | www.deepamannkler.com | www.belfastxrfestival.com