Keynotes

 

Richard Tisdall, Director of HAPPY FINISH

15 October h. 10.30 

Happy Finish is a global creative production studio of digital artists and interactive specialists of which Richard has been at the forefront of since it’s set up just over 10 years ago. Working directly with brands, agencies & photographers, the company crafts creative visual content across a multitude of medias including Print, Digital, Interactive and now Virtual and Augmented Reality. This new technology is now at the heart of what we do, with a team of artists that focus on designing and building engaging user interfaces to enrich your VR/AR experience.

Richard brings his many years of creative industry knowledge and unrivalled passion to discuss and demonstrate first-hand how brands can leverage these new platforms to engage with consumers on a whole new level.

Richard’s speech will be: AR & VR – The New Narrative

 In this talk by Richard Tisdall, Business Development Director for Happy Finish, he will be exploring not only what Virtual and Augmented Reality is currently up to, but what the future holds and where further developments are likely to take us. 

It’s a great talk around VR & AR and the future of advertising with these technologies in mind, and the opportunities they bring to brands. The talk will examine the advertising opportunities that VR & AR bring can create, and will showcase work Happy Finish has created for brands including Ted Baker, River Island, Lufthansa, Lamborghini, Mercedes and Honeywell. As well as this Happy Finish have just completed groundbreaking and world first projects in the fields of Virtual and Augmented Reality and Richard will be showcasing these projects and more whilst discussing how we go about taking some truly amazing briefs to Market

Andrea Gaggioli, Psychologist, Università Cattolica di Milano

16 October h. 12.00 

Prof. Andrea Gaggioli, Ph.D. received a M.Sc. degree in Psychology from the University of Bologna and a Ph.D. degree in Psychobiology from the Faculty of Medicine of the Public University of Milan. He is currently Associate Professor of General Psychology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Hearth in Milano, Italy; Senior Researcher of the Interactive Communication and Ergonomics of NEw Technologies (ICE-NET Lab) at the same University; and Deputy Head Researcher at the Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab (ATN-P Lab), I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy.  For over fifteen years, Professor Gaggioli has investigated the potential role of virtual reality and interactive technologies in promoting mental and physical wellbeing. His involvement with those research areas has led to the co-authoring of over hundred articles in refereed journals. For his scientific work, Professor Gaggioli received several international acknowledgements, including the 2005 Annual Prize of the European Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine. In addition, he has recently completed coordinating the European Commission funded INTERSTRESS project (Interreality in the Management and Treatment of Stress-Related Disorders). Web site: www.positivetechnology.it

Andrea’s speech will be:  Transformative Technology: Using Virtual Reality and Neurotechnologies for Transforming Human Experience

The emerging symbiotic relation between human beings and machines has the potential to generate new forms of perception, interaction and cognition. Examples of such interfaces include virtual/augmented/mixed reality, wearable displays, smart apparel and ambient intelligence devices. A further class of symbiotic technologies, such as neuroprosthetic devices and neuro-biofeedback, will enable a direct connection between the computer and the brain.  

The goal of this talk is to describe the potential offered by the combination of VR and neurotechnologies for altering and transforming human experience. The transformative potential of VR range from the simulation of “plausible” possible worlds and possible selves to the simulation of realities that break the laws of nature and even of logic. Researchers are already looking at ways in which VR can be used to hack our ordinary perception of self and reality in order to observe what happens to specific brain or psychological processes when a person is exposed to alterations of the bodily self using multisensory conflicts. For the present discussion, I will focus on three kinds of transformative potentials that are unique to VR: (i) manipulating bodily self-consciousness; (ii) embodying another person’s subjective experience; and (iii) altering the laws of logic and nature. By virtue of this manipulation researchers hope to cast light on the neurobiological process underlying self-consciousness. 

We look forward to seeing you there!