FELISPEAKS is a Nigerian-Irish visionary poet celebrated for their profound exploration of identity, social justice, and personal growth through poetry. As well as being featured in the Irish Leaving Cert Curriculum, their compelling work transcends borders, leaving an indelible mark on international literature. FELISPEAKS starred in THISISPOPBABY's groundbreaking production "WAKE" at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2022 and again as part of St. Patrick’s Festival in 2024, pushing artistic boundaries with their powerful performances. Renowned for their electrifying stage presence, FELISPEAKS was awarded "Best Performer" at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2022, solidifying their reputation as a captivating storyteller. As a playwright, FELISPEAKS continues to innovate. In 2021, their collaborative work "DÚBH," supported by Arts Council Ireland and featured at the Dublin Theatre Festival, invites audiences to explore themes of repression, sexuality, and healing.

Rick O’Shea is a music broadcaster with RTE - currently weekdays on RTE Gold. He was previously a presenter on RTE2FM and hosted The Book Show on RTE Radio 1. He writes a weekly books column for the Irish Independent, runs Ireland’s largest book club - The Rick O’Shea Book Club on Facebook, hosts public interviews, is the current host of the Dublin Literary Award ceremony and Children’s Books Ireland Book of The Year awards, and curates literary events and festivals. Rick is also national patron of Epilepsy Ireland, and a board member of Fighting Words NI in Belfast. He’s a former judge of the Costa Book Awards, Dalkey Literary Awards, Dublin Fringe Festival, and has curated the Waterford Writers Weekend and books strand of the UCD Festival.

Jill Beecher is a Production Designer, Art Director and Concept Illustrator from Dublin, Ireland.  A member of the British and American Art Director Guilds, her work can be seen on such productions as the revival series of Twin Peaks, First Man, Alien:Covenant, Spotlight, Elvis, Babylon, Killers of the Flower Moon and Megalopolis. An accomplished animator, her work can also be seen on Sing 2, Early Man and David Lynch’s ‘The Art Life’. She won Best Visual Development Award for Boss Baby in The International Animated Film Festival in Poland in 2017. Her work on The Revenant and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood was recognised by The Art Directors Guild of America in 2016 and again in 2020 with an honours award for ‘Contribution to Excellence in Production Design for a Period Feature Film.’ She is also a visual artist who has exhibited in Europe, United States, Hong Kong and Australia.

Craig Stuart Garfinkle is an award-winning Emmy, Ivor Novello, and Mark Award-nominated music producer and composer. Specialising in orchestral scores, he has worked on feature films, video games, trailers, documentaries, television and advertisements. Craig has composed extensively for films including the animated feature, ‘Two by Two Overboard’, the family drama ‘It’s Dark Here’, and the supernatural thriller ‘Blood Relative’. His contribution to over 140 film trailers includes J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, the Harry Potter franchise, James Bond, Sin City, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Over the Hedge, Spider-man III and many more. Craig’s music has also appeared in hundreds of television projects such as The Office, Fringe, Lost, The Sopranos and America’s Got Talent. As a video game composer, Craig has composed for the iconic video games World of Warcraft, Baldur’s Gate: The Dark Alliance II, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

Jess is both an accomplished design historian and an experienced innovation designer, with a career that has spanned continents and sectors. Her fierce belief in the vital role of the human sciences and creativity within technology has led her to where she is today – Managing Director of the Human Sciences Studio at The Dock, Accenture's flagship global R&D and innovation centre. There, she leads a team of interdisciplinary researchers and creative specialists, exploring the meeting point of people, society and technology. Jess is also a board member of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Ed Bruce is an Emmy award winning Visual Effects Supervisor. He works in Dublin's SSVFX as the SVP of Visual Effects. Entering his 25th year in the industry, he has been fortunate to have worked on many acclaimed films and TV Series. This includes career highlights working on Game of Thrones, The Irishman, WandaVision, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Stranger Things, Black Panther, 3 Body Problem, Shogun, and recently released The Penguin and Ridley Scott's Gladiator II. Ed has been honoured with a variety of international awards and nominations, from BAFTA, Emmy, VES and IFTA and including an Emmy win this year for his work on FX's TV series Shogun. In his role within Screen Scene VFX, Ed has played a large part in the training and growth of the Irish VFX Industry, taking great pride in cultivating new local talent giving them the opportunity to flourish in this growing sector.

Karen Palmer is the Storyteller from the Future, an award winning XR creator and futurist who explores the societal implications of A.I and technology and impact of in-equality. She does this by enabling participants to experience the future today through her immersive experiences, which watch you back using artificial intelligence and facial recognition technologies. Karen won the coveted XR Experience Competition at SXSW 2023 and received honorary mention Prix Award ARS Electronica 2024 with her film Consensus Gentium. The film narrative branches in real time depending upon the participants eye gaze and emotions. Enabling participants to simultaneously experience AI bias, surveillance technologies and their potential integration into the everyday world around us. Karen is a TED Speaker and has been described as a Thought Leader in A.I, Immersive Storytelling for Impact, Futurism and Tech.

Pat Conran joined Industrial Light & Magic 27 years ago, and has worked as a Computer Graphics Supervisor on more than 31 films, including the universes of Star Wars, Marvel, Avatar, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator, and many more. In 2016, he joined ILM Immersive as CG Supervisor on Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Oscar®-winning virtual reality project, CARNE y ARENA. Subsequently, Pat worked on the award-winning Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, and then led the team as VFX Supervisor on Ralph Breaks VR, both previously available at The Void VR locations. Most recently, he was Visual Director on the Emmy®-award winning “What If…? An Immersive Story” experience on Apple Vision Pro. Pat has an Annie award, VES, HPA, and AIXR award nominations, holds 3 visual effects-related patents, a Masters Degree in Computer Graphics, and is a member of both Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and BAFTA.

Sharon Mannion is a comedian and writer best known for her role as ‘Concepta’ in the RTE2/UKTV hit comedy, ‘Bridget & Eamon’. She is the resident host of The Comedy Cellar at the International Bar, the longest running comedy club in Ireland. She recently won a Writers Guild of Ireland - Best Radio Script Award for her RTE Radio 1 play ‘Stuck’, and the radio version of her highly successful one-woman comedy show ‘The Curse of the Button Accordion’ was nominated for a Celtic Media Award in 2019. She is the current Comedian in Residence of Red Line Book Festival in association with South Dublin Co. Council. FILM/TV credits include ‘Small Town, Big story’ (Sky), ‘Sapphire/Bad Sisters 2’ Apple TV,  ‘Aisha’, ‘Michael Inside’ (Pathway Films, directed by Frank Berry),‘Republic of Telly’, ‘Irish Pictorial Weekly’ (RTE), ‘Damo & Ivor’ (RTE), ‘Prosperity’ (RTE, directed by Lenny Abrahamson), ‘Roy’ (BBC) and more.

Steve Fanagan (MPSE, CAS) is a BAFTA (Normal People), BIFA (How To Have Sex) and EMMY-nominated (Game Of Thrones) sound designer, supervising sound editor, and re-recording mixer for Film and Television. In 2011 he won an MPSE Golden Reel Award for his work on Game Of Thrones. In 2016, he was nominated for an HPA Award (Hollywood Professional Association), an International Music+Sound Award and an MPSE Golden Reel Award for his work on Lenny Abrahamson's Oscar®-nominated drama, Room. He has also been recognised with 7 Irish Film and Television Awards for Best Sound for his contributions to Swan Song, Normal People, The Farthest, Room, Tomato Red, Albert Nobbs and Citadel. In 2023 he was nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel for his work on the Irish language, Academy Award® nominated An Cailín Ciúin. He was also nominated for an IFTA for his work on the BBC/Hulu series Conversations With Friends.

Dylan Haskins is a commissioning editor for podcasts at BBC Sounds. His commissions have covered all genres with recent highlights including investigative series I’m Not A Monster - the BBC’s most-awarded podcast ever, Have You Heard George’s Podcast? – the first ever podcast outside of the US to win a prestigious Peabody Award, Where Is George Gibney? from Second Captains, People Who Knew Me audio drama starring Rosamund Pike and Hugh Laurie, Miss Me? with Lily Allen & Miquita Oliver,  Dua Lipa: At Your Service, Bad People, Murder They Wrote, Burn Wild and World of Secrets: The Abercrombie Guys. Recent awards include two Rose d’Ors, two Podcast Academy Ambies, multiple Webbies, New York Festivals Grand Jury Prize three years in a row. Prior to commissioning, he worked as a producer with a variety of organisations including the BBC, Guardian, RTE, Other Voices and others.

Eímear Noone is a Los Angeles/Dublin-based conductor and award-winning Irish composer, composing extensively for film and video games. Eímear is responsible for some of the most enduring soundscapes on World of Warcraft and other best-selling video games. Through her music on World of Warcraft, Eímear’s music has reached over a 100 million people and continually inspired players to invent and build new worlds for nearly fifteen years. Her composition portfolio of over thirty film and video-game titles have received multiple industry accolades including the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Video Game Score. Alongside composing, Eímear conducts orchestras worldwide, including the San Francisco Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra amongst others. Notably in 2020, Eímear made history by becoming the first female conductor to perform at the 92nd Academy Awards’ ceremony.

Colm Mac Con Iomaire is an Irish-speaking Dublin-native, living in Co. Wexford. He is a founding member of Kíla and the internationally acclaimed The Frames who have toured extensively, with countless sell out shows all around the world. He is a prolific violinist & multi-instrumentalist composer. He won the best composer award at the Tokyo Film festival for his score for the Irish documentary feature ‘Steps of Freedom’.  His score for the feature film ‘Róise & Frank’ won the 2022 Santa Barbara Audience Award. Colm writes for film, contemporary dance, animation and has been writing music for television and theatre for over two decades. His music has also been part of David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, Sky Arts programmes and Wild Ireland. An animated short he scored for Cartoon Saloon - ‘Late Afternoon’ was actually nominated for an Oscar and won the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.  

Anna Nolan works at COCO Content, one of Ireland’s leading television production companies. She is also Chair of the National LGBT Federation. Anna has worked for the BBC and Channel 4 in London, along with RTE and Virgin Media in Ireland. She has broadcast for RTE Radio 1 and has contributed to most national radio stations. She has written articles for The Guardian, The Irish Independent, The Irish Times and The Herald. She has produced television shows such as Room To Improve, Dermot Bannon’s Super Spaces, Don’t Tell the Bride; directed documentaries such as ‘Perfect Heart’ and is heavily involved in COCO Content’s development slate. She has recently finished working on First Dates Ireland. Anna was made Chair of the NXF, the National LGBT Federation, in January 2023. In October 2023 she launched the NXF Strategy 2023 – 2026.

Lawrence Schick began his career as a writer at TSR Hobbies in the late 1970s, where he was a game designer and head of the editorial staff. At TSR he was involved in the development and early popularity of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. In 1982 he went into computer and video game development, writing and designing games in the '80s and '90s for Coleco, MicroProse, and America Online, among others. He also began writing historical fiction under the name Lawrence Ellsworth. More recently, Schick was Lead Writer and Loremaster for The Elder Scrolls Online. He is currently at Larian Studios, where he returned to D&D as Principal Narrative Designer for Baldur's Gate 3. He is now working on Larian's next, unannounced game.

Aoife Barry is a Cork-born, Dublin-based freelance journalist, author and moderator, with bylines across the Irish Times, the Sunday Times, The Journal, Irish Tatler, the Irish Independent and other national publications. She writes a weekly arts column for the Sunday Times which appears in Culture magazine. She appears regularly on RTÉ Radio One, and contributes to a monthly feature on what to watch on TV and streaming on Today with Claire Byrne. She also appears regularly on The Last Word on Today FM and on Newstalk. Her book Social Capital: Life Online in the Shadow of Ireland's Tech Boom (HarperCollins Ireland) was nominated for an Irish Book Award in 2023. She is a former Assistant News Editor of The Journal and has won several merit awards at the Justice Media Awards. Her essays and fiction have been published by Thi Wurd and Banshee and broadcast on Sunday Miscellany.

At the age of fourteen, writer, producer/director and consultant, Sheila de Courcy, tied a canvas rucksack onto her no-gear bike and hit the road. In the decades since, her search for unusual stories, told through words, photography, video and audio recordings, has taken her to five continents. Sheila’s work has appeared on BBC and RTÉ TV and radio as well as in The Irish Times, Sunday Independent, Paper Visual Art and Accidental amongst other outlets. A former Group Head of Young People’s programmes in RTÉ and conservation assistant in the National Museum of Ireland, she has been a member of boards including the IFI, Mary Raftery Journalism Fund, Pan Pan Theatre, DICMF and The Ark, where she was chair from 2010-2015.

Derek O'Connor is a writer and filmmaker, and the Digital Culture Editor for RTÉ. His films have won a number of prizes, including the Celtic Media Award, the Ulster Media Award, Best Short Film at the Galway Film Fleadh and Best Comedy Short at the Fastnet Film Festival. The Recipient of the Jameson Dublin Film Festival CINE Talent Award 2015, he has also written extensively for stage and TV, with a particular focus on work for children. Theatreworks include a trio of Christmas shows for the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, while TV credits include several episodes of the BAFTA-winning CBBC children’s show Roy, and over 200 episodes of TV3’s popular movie show Popcorn. He is a former director of the Darklight Film Festival and the co-founder of the Sound! Film Festival in Donegal.

Initially, working in environmental education across a diversity of projects including the Ballymun Regeneration, Lynn’s work is embedded in collaborative practice. As part of the initial development team of Science Gallery Dublin at Trinity College Dublin, she developed a programme of compelling cultural experiences that explored the boundaries of art and science and connected with a target audience of 15 – 25-year-olds. In 2012, she was part of the leadership team that established the Global Science Gallery Network bringing the vision of Science Gallery to eight cities globally by 2020. In 2014, she was appointed Director leading Science Gallery Dublin through a process of organisational change, strategic planning, and development. 

The designer of many beloved children’s shows including the BAFTA-winning Bob the Builder, Frankenstein’s Cat and Raa Raa the Noisy Lion, author and illustrator Curtis Jobling lives with his family in Cheshire, England. Known for his acclaimed Max Helsing and Haunt books for older audiences, his debut novel was Wereworld: Rise of the Wolf. Described as “Game of Thrones for a middle grade audience” upon publication in 2011, it was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. A further five novels followed in the million-selling fantasy series, leading to its acquisition and adaptation by Lime Pictures. Wolf King is now a major new animated series on Netflix, with Curtis remaining firmly involved as lead writer and associate producer.