Frank Styles is a multimedia artist and large scale mural specialist. Now he's developing augmented reality murals fusing spray paint and digital artwork, space and location.

Mau (pronounced Mah-woo) is the Senior Customer Experience & Strategy Manager at Lumo, the UK’s 100% electric Open Access train operator. Born in Malawi, the warm heart of Africa, Mau brings with him the warmth of African tradition and a deep belief that every interaction matters.

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With over 17 years of experience in the rail industry, Mau has journeyed through both frontline and leadership roles, combining operational insight with a passion for service, creativity and meaningful connection. At Lumo, he leads customer strategies that centre on people, the planet and purpose - from reimagining how sustainability stories are told, to embedding inclusivity at every touchpoint of the customer experience.

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For Mau, X. Design Week represents the power of shared ideas and lived experience. As an African proverb reminds us, “Wisdom is like fire. People take it from others.” He is here to share, to learn and to help keep the fire burning.

Tom Schofield is an artist, designer and researcher based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His practice and research explore themes of power, justice and exploitation in socio-technical arrangements. His work often explores alternative or reimagined histories and futures of technologies by remaking them under the influence of ideas from fiction or magic.

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He has shown work in the UK and internationally since 2012 including at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA), NeMe Cyprus, FACT Liverpool, Grundy Blackpool, Werkplaatz Maastricht, Netherlands, and the Auxilliary, Middlesborough UK. He is the co-author of “Plural Heritages and Community Co-production, Designing, Walking, and Remembering” a forthcoming chapter on AI Artists’ Residencies and Capitalism in the Routledge Guide to Art and Capitalism and a number of award-winning articles and conference presentations in critical design.

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He has led and supported projects as PI and CO-I funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and supports early career artists through mentoring.

Jenna Ingoe is an Innovation Manager with over a decade of experience leading transformative digital programmes across the UK and internationally. Her career spans global roles with technology leaders, agile product teams and innovation labs - designing and delivering everything from multi-million pound product development with AWS and Microsoft to £500k+ innovation programmes for SaaS products.

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Rooted in the North East of England, Jenna leads the 5G Immersive Lab, where she works hands-on with over SMEs to explore how immersive technology and next-generation connectivity can reshape local industries - from tourism to transport. With a background in user-led design, agile methodologies and strategic partnership building, her focus is on making cutting-edge technology accessible and impactful for regional businesses.

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Passionate about inclusive innovation, Jenna brings a global perspective and a community-first approach to her work to ensuring that the North East doesn’t just keep pace with digital transformation, but helps define its future.

Matty Gray is the CEO of GIGCO, a pioneering platform dedicated to transforming the live music experience for artists, venues and fans. Matty is passionate about harnessing technology to make discovering and attending live music events easier, more accessible and more inclusive for everyone.

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Through GIGCO, Matty champions grassroots music, helping to bridge the gap between technology and community. He is committed to supporting small businesses and niche markets with innovative digital solutions and is a vocal advocate for accessibility, generational intelligence and the power of live events to bring people together.

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Matty is dedicated to fostering collaboration, sharing knowledge and creating opportunities for people of all backgrounds to connect through music.

Alice Andreasen has a strong background in strategic communications, marketing and sustainability and is Newcastle International Airport’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer.

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Alice leads the Airport’s ambitious Net Zero 2035 roadmap against the backdrop of being named one of the top two airports in the world for its sustainability credentials, by the global infrastructure assessment GRESB. Alice oversees the Airport's external communications and marketing strategy, working closely with the Airport's 16 airline partners to promote both outbound departures to 85 direct destinations, and the North East region from an inbound perspective.

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Thanks to the Airport's strong aviation development and marketing strategies, it recently made history by becoming the first UK Airport to be named 'Best in the World' at the prestigious Routes World aviation conference. 

With over two decades of expertise, Satpal Chana has consistently driven transformative results in business consulting, advanced analytics, innovative working methods, data, and technology. This extensive experience has directly contributed to significant improvements in sales, revenue, ROI, and overall business growth.

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Before joining VisitBritain in 2020, Satpal was the VP of Global Client Strategy, Data Science at Publicis Media. Additionally, Satpal held the role of Marketing Effectiveness Director at Manchester United and Diageo. Satpal's academic credentials include a BA in economics with computing and quantitative methods, and a master’s degree in economics from UCL.

Dr Serkan Uzunogullari is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland, where he leads programmes in International Tourism and Hospitality Management and Esports Event Management. Originally from Istanbul and now based in Newcastle, Serkan blends industry experience with a passion for teaching and innovation.

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His PhD explores how video games influence tourism behaviour, unpacking how digital worlds can shape real-world travel intentions. He’s the creator of a pioneering hospitality mentorship programme with the North-East Hotels Association and collaborates closely with organisations like Kielder Waterside to connect students with live industry projects. Outside academia, Serkan’s interests include heritage tourism, basketball, and video games.

As Chief Design Officer at Animmersion, Andi has almost 20 years’ experience, consulting, designing and delivering impactful immersive solutions for clients across the globe.

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Animmersion is a North-East digital development studio specialising in immersive technologies that drive engagement and innovation across many sectors.

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Applying immersive technologies in diverse sectors like engineering, healthcare, tourism, academia and the arts has given Animmersion a unique viewpoint into the adoption of digital technology and the challenges of engaging users of all ages and abilities. Our solutions improve audience interaction, support knowledge sharing, and offer innovative ways to showcase spaces, history, and brand narratives through virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies.

Lily Scarponi is a researcher, engineer and architect with a particular focus on urban planning. Her thesis focused on the urban regeneration of a green area in the city of Rome, a project carried out through a process of participatory planning and public space design.

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From 2021 to 2023, she worked as a Transport Consultant in Florence, with a particular focus on the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. Since 2023, Lily has been active as a Researcher at Transform Transport, with a focus on spatial equity issues analysed through the lens of intersectionality. In 2024, she completed a Masters Degree in Urban Planning on Gendered Cities at the University of Florence and developed a thesis based on an internship at the Municipality of Umeå (Sweden).

Simone Grasso is a researcher, engineer and architect with a strong interest in the relationship between urban planning, technology and social dynamics. He explores how computational tools, geospatial analysis, and design strategies can support more inclusive and responsive planning.

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He holds a Master’s Degree in City & Technology from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in Barcelona. Since 2021, he has been working at Systematica, where he is currently Project Lead, focusing on urban analysis, mobility systems and strategic design.

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Over the past two years, he has also contributed as a researcher at Transform Transport, developing urban metrics and investigating user experience to better understand spatial equity and mobility dynamics.

Fiona works as a senior marketing intelligence coordinator at Europeana Foundation where she oversees much of Europeana’s market intelligence activities and develops strategies for reaching audiences in new sectors- especially tourism and media.

After several years working across the cultural sector, with both physical and digital collections - including cataloguing and digitising rare books, museum objects, and archaeological finds, she joined Europeana in 2018 to work in data aggregation, and subsequently as a data analyst in business and marketing intelligence. Fiona has a PhD in Classics from the University of Edinburgh which focuses on Roman funerary archaeology, art and epigraphy - intersecting with data analysis and digital humanities and has a continuing interest in ancient glass studies, archaeology, metadata, 3D modelling, languages, and all things cultural heritage
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More than 20 years experience in tourism and the visitor economy. Working to drive forward the strategic direction of the visitor economy in NewcastleGateshead and the wider North East. Keen to ensure an insight led approach is taken to make strategic interventions and create social and economic benefit from the visitor economy

Beth is a cultural and creative writer and the Europeana Foundation's Editorial Adviser. She works on helping engage a broad range of audiences in Europeana’s work and content. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, runs writing workshops and has published a novel called ‘Blood and Water'. Beth led the Europeana Network Association’s Task Force on ‘Europeana as a powerful platform for storytelling’, which led to the development of our ‘7 digital storytelling tips for the cultural heritage sector’.

As Deputy Director of Global Marketing at VisitBritain, Emma leads the creation and delivery of innovative marketing programmes that drive value and spread benefits across the nations and regions of Great Britain delivering the story of a welcoming, dynamic, diverse Britain. This includes leading VisitBritain’s GREAT marketing programme to drive additional visitor spend into the country, build positive perceptions through a compelling brand and content strategy, and work in partnership with the private sector to provide platforms to reach the international visitor market. Emma has worked in destination marketing for more than 17 years and most recently, led on VisitBritain’s Starring Great Britain global campaign.

With 20+ years in cultural and institutional marketing, Eve crafts brand strategies that elevate visibility into lasting influence. From the Sydney Opera House to Atout France, she has led high-impact campaigns for iconic institutions and destinations. Her expertise lies in aligning narrative, audience insights, and digital ecosystems to build strong, meaningful brand identities that resonate globally — where culture, place, and purpose converge.

Dr Pauline Mackay is a founding Co-Director of Realities and Immersion Glasgow (RIG) at the University of Glasgow. She is also Director of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize-winning Centre for Robert Burns Studies.

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Pauline is currently Co-Investigator on the Innovate UK Levelling-Up Innovation Accelerator project ‘Museums in the Metaverse’ to develop a ground-breaking, two-sided XR (Extended Reality) platform for Cultural Heritage. Pauline co-leads the Museology work package to: refine the curation of XR-enabled assets for public engagement; develop metadata and cataloguing standards to enable users to effectively locate, understand and interact with cultural assets, support the curation and interpretation of virtual museum experiences, and oversee development and testing of the platform’s bespoke functionality for the Cultural Heritage sector and its audiences.

Martin Howe brings over four decades of global experience in launching and delivering cutting-edge technologies across demanding sectors. A self-described "creative techie," Martin thrives at the intersection of innovation and execution. For the past ten years, he has led Teq4 ("tech-four"), transforming it into a world-renowned creative design and systems integration company, crafting unique immersive attractions that blend storytelling with advanced technology.

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Martin is also the CEO and co-founder of Dapper Labs Ltd, the company behind Chaperone - a groundbreaking digital platform reshaping how people engage with the world. Chaperone is a smart, context-aware system that personalises out-of-home experiences by delivering relevant content at the right time and place. Additionally, he co-founded Brighton AI, a thriving community of over 1,800 members passionate about accelerating the responsible and impactful use of AI.

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Throughout his career, Martin has been defined by a constant pursuit of transformational change through technology. He's a prolific ideas generator, strategic big-picture thinker and tenacious problem-solver with the rare ability to translate bold ambitions into structured, actionable plans that get results - making Chaperone the latest example of his commitment to innovation with purpose.

Experienced leader, currently MD of a SaaS platform in the TravelTech sector, focused on growth, product innovation and commercial impact.

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James brings deep experience from senior leadership and board-level roles, where he's helped organisations design and deliver products and services that make smarter use of digital, data and technology — always with a focus on real-world outcomes.

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James has a proven track record of creating clarity in complex environments, building aligned, high-performing teams and shaping the kind of culture that helps good people do their best work.

Yurena Escobar is the CEO and co-founder of Flecher.co, a leading creative agency specializing in the travel sector. With a career defined by innovation and strategic thinking, she has led groundbreaking projects that connect brands with travelers through memorable experiences. She is also a board member of ÂVAT, a hub for business transformation through innovation, and of the Tourism Innovation Cluster of the Canary Islands. Her analytical approach and ability to anticipate trends have made her a key voice in transforming the tourism industry through creativity and technology.

Graduate in Law and Master in International Relations and Foreign Trade. Worked at La Laguna University (Faculty of Law) and did a training in UN (Geneve). Her first contact with tourism was at Turespaña (Spanish Ministry of Tourism) and then signed for Turismo de Tenerife. Since 2005 she works for Turismo de Islas Canarias, owned by the Regional Government, as Marketing Director. She has contributed to obtaining more than 150 marketing awards that recognize the creativity, strategy and effectiveness of the Canary Islands' tourism actions.

Jamie Claudio has been in the U.S. travel and tourism industry for over a decade. She served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Discover Long Island, New York, during which time she sat on the Board of Directors for the New York State Tourism Industry Association. In addition to her time in-house at a DMO, Jamie also has significant tourism agency experience working in public relations for Development Counsellors International and marketing for Madden Media, where she oversaw all East Coast U.S. client accounts. She lives on Long Island, New York with her husband and their four children: two daughters and two labradoodles. 

With over 15 years experience in selling, implementing and managing customers for SaaS products in the B2B space, Patrick has spent his career helping customers manage the process of change when it comes to acquiring and switching to new systems and tools.

Working in Corporate Travel from 2010-2022, he has worked through a real shift in attitudes and appetite to the role of data in decision-making and setting and managing expectations. Being “data-driven” became the norm and using data to interpret beyond headline insights became key to product and service design. The push on suppliers to provide the insights that clients couldn’t see or understand was a major factor in how SaaS companies started to develop and differentiate.

Patrick has worked with global enterprise clients and SME alike. The challenges are the same but the scale and access to resources differs.

Michael Guerin is the CEO and Founder of Imvizar, an AR platform creating immersive storytelling experiences. He has delivered 100+ experiences across 11 countries and spoken at AWE, SXSW & Web Summit. Previously, he founded Smart Docklands, Dublin’s Smart City testbed, and developed the city's Smart Districts strategy. He has advised Google, SoftBank, Microsoft and Mastercard on 5G, smart cities and immersive tech.

Michael's passion for creating next-generation storytelling experiences is the driving force behind Imvizar's mission to democratise AR content creation. Recently, Imvizar has developed Lureo, the world's first no-code AR storytelling platform, opening the door for storytellers to enter the world of XR and create content with zero previous experience.

Julie Van Oyen is a designer, researcher, and educator working at the intersection of cultural heritage collections and digital service design. As the Product Designer at Europeana Foundation, she coordinates user experience research and designs interfaces through which visitors can experience digital cultural heritage artefacts, collections, and stories. She holds a BDes and MDes in Interaction Design from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. Her professional experience includes digital service design, UX/UI research and design, visual design, copywriting, marketing, and creative project management.

Andrew Wilson, born in Brazil to British parents, raised and educated in South Africa, graduating as a Chemical Engineer, started his career in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, working in R&D for Procter & Gamble. Switching to Finance, he continued his career with P&G living and working in Europe and South America before moving into strategy and tech consulting for Cap Gemini, based out of the USA. Several years later he made another switch into the world of destination marketing, joining the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (Discover Atlanta) where he has been in the marketing leadership role for 16 years. Andrew enjoys the leading and sometimes bleeding edge of technology and innovation and is constantly looking for new ways to reach and deliver value to prospective visitor audiences interested in Atlanta's content. In his free time Andrew enjoys exploring the world of fine dining, discovering great wines and spends as much time as possible in Barcelona, Spain.

Jan Hutton is a trusted business transformation leader driving meaningful growth with a proud track record of global C-suite experience. Jan’s passionate about the business of tourism, specifically at the intersection of technology and data, providing a strategic compass for internal alignment and external impact, promoting tourism as a force for good.

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As CEO of the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW), she leads the team behind Australia's leading digital tourism SaaS platform. In partnership with the nation’s official tourism organisations, they work for the greater good of tourism to give every tourism business the visibility they deserve.

Leading digital service development, international marketing operations and regional B2C business development efforts in the city of Turku and the Turku Archipelago (Saaristo) region of Southwest Finland.

Ray is a BAFTA winning XR professional with over 25 years of experience in visual communications, encompassing roles as a graphic designer, web developer, digital artist, 3D artist, animator, and VFX artist. Ray has PhD in Computer Science with a focus on immersive technologies, completed while teaching games development and industry-related subjects.

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Notably, Raymond was the VFX artist for a short film that won the Scottish BAFTA in 2017. 

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As Head of XR at Smartify, he has driven successful collaborations with sites such as Tower Bridge, Cutty Sark, and Historic Royal Palaces. 

The Digital Tourism Think Tank was developed by Nick, who is widely considered as one of the world’s leading experts on digital trends and transformation in the field of tourism.

With two decades of experience, there is hardly any DMO that Nick has not advised. He has been personally behind change for so many DMOs and continues to drive the conversation around industry trends today.

Nick continues to grow and develop the #DTTT, helping it to evolve beyond digital to tackle existential topics, such as sustainable leadership. He also continues to speak at leading industry conferences on the biggest trends impacting the industry, as well as working on exciting projects and initiatives, together with public sector organisations who want to change the leisure economy for good.