Information

In addition to being the Founder and CEO of Codeworks, Herb is Founder & Director of the Thinking Digital Conference which takes place annually in May at the world renowned Sage Gateshead. Since its founding in 2007, the Conference has quickly grown to become one of Europe's best known events of its kind.

Herb has been honoured to be included in Wired Magazine's 2011 Wired 100 list in the UK as well as in the Guardian Newspaper's Media Guardian 100 list for 2010.

Previous to Codeworks, Herb spent 15 years in various management posts in the Internet, media & mobile sectors including O2, Bertelsmann, Blackwell's, IBM & Dow Jones. 

Herb earned his MBA from the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia and his undergraduate degree from Princeton University.

He has lived in the UK since 1997 but was born in Brooklyn, NY to Korean parents.

Information

Jer Thorp is an artist and educator from Vancouver, Canada, currently living in New York. Coming from a background in genetics, his digital art practice explores the many-folded boundaries between science and art. Recently, his work has been featured by The New York Times, The Guardian, Scientific American, The New Yorker, and the CBC.

Thorp’s award-winning software-based work has been exhibited in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and Australia and all over the web.

Jer has over a decade of teaching experience, in Langara College’s Electronic Media Design Program, at the Vancouver Film school, and as an artist-in-residence at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Most recently, he has presented at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Art, at Eyebeam in New York City, and at IBM’s Center for Social Software in Cambridge.

He is currently Data Artist in Residence at the New York Times, and is an adjunct Professor in New York University’s ITP 

Information

Raphaëlle is founder of ArtSpotter, an Interactive Mobile Art Map. Their products allow art lovers to discover, explore and interact with exhibitions anywhere in the world. While only her first startup, Raphaëlle’s passion and drive for art and tech have lead her from attending her first technology conference a year ago to develop ArtSpotter from an idea to a reality, presenting at DLD Women, Geek'n'Rolla and AppCircus.

Raphaëlle originally studied Architecture at the Architectural Association and has been working in the art industry for over 15 years. She is also working towards her MBA with The Open University on the side.

Online, Raphaëlle can be found on Twitter, and covering the arts worldwide for ArtSpotter Blog. Offline, she enjoys relaxing through equestrian activities as a dressage rider.

Information

Alison is the Arts Council Regional Director in the North East, and works across the region and nationally to develop great art for everyone. She has responsibility in the greater north (North East, North West and Yorkshire) for talent development, leadership, and digital development.

Originally from the North East, she began her career as a teacher of English and Drama.  Alison subsequently moved on to manage youth arts and community arts projects in Liverpool and Nottingham, forming an expertise and interest in festivals and outdoor arts.  She developed a career in Arts Marketing, and a particular passion for widening audiences for innovative contemporary work and live art.  

She returned to the north east to work on cultural strategy development in local government.  She then took up the post of Creative Director for Creative Partnerships, an innovative national programme to develop creativity in education. 

She came to Arts Council England to take up the post of Director of Arts and Development in 2007, and moved into her current role in March 2010.

Outside of work she is a keen writer/blogger (artsandeveryone.posterous.com), runner and competitive rower.

Information

Kelly Richardson is a video installation artist from Ontario, Canada, currently living in Whitley Bay. Her work has been exhibited at various important museums and public institutions including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Art Gallery of Ontario and Centre Georges Pompidou. Richardson’s work was included in the Sundance Film Festival (2009 and again in 2011 as her work was selected to represent 5 years of New Frontiers at a special event opening the year's festival), the first Beijing 798 Biennale (2009), Busan Biennale (2008), Le Mois de la Photo a Montréal (2008), Gwangju Biennale (2004). Richardson was the featured artist at the Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards 2009, the 2009 fall issue of Canadian Art magazine included Kelly Richardson as one of ‘10 artists setting the pace of contemporary art’ and Elle Magazine listed Richardson in their Hot 100 for 2011.

She is currently working towards a major commission for the Pixel Palace (Tyneside Cinema) which involves a distant futurescape on Mars. An international, touring survey exhibition of her work is currently scheduled to begin in 2012 at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (UK), followed by the Grundy Art Gallery (UK), Towner (UK), Albright-Knox Art Gallery (USA) and Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver (Canada). 

Information

Documentally is not a speaker but he will be there taking photographs and asking all the right questions. 

Originally a professional photographer for the UK dailies, Social Technologist and early adopter, Christian Payne (AKA @Documentally) has diversified to become one of the freshest and most dynamic voices exploring new and social media.

Having spent years experimenting with social technologies, Christian now talks and gives workshops around mobile media making and Social Tech Internationally. His past projects include documenting the plight of Iraqi refugees for the United Nations; Video Blogging for the British Council in Pakistan and working alongside Reuters on groundbreaking projects with the UK's political leaders.

 Christian champions story making with mobile devices and although a card carrying journalist he prefers to be called a blogger as he shares his content across multiple platforms. Some of his social media places can be found at http://Documentally.com

 This year Christian will be talking on technology at various events internationally and giving workshops on video for the web, mobile story making and social media practices.

 Follow Christian Payne on Twitter @Documentally

Information

Rain is a creator of wearable technology & electronic art and most recent work involves investigating physiological sensing technologies and how they can be applied to wearable artworks to measure and interpret moods, health and lifestyle data. Rain also creates fun, interactive and aesthetically pleasing works that include gaming and musical elements. She is keen to demonstrate that electronics, components and circuitry doesn't have to be regarded as cold, boring, hard and boxy and instead can be fun, colourful and elegant, plus be integrated into an overall design of a work.

Rain uses a variety of materials from sewable components such as LilyPad Arduino, conductive thread, Velcro, and other conductive materials, plus components such as sensors to measure heart rate, temperature, proximity, magnetic fields and movement, electroluminescent panels and wire, she also writes code for her work.

Rain’s background is in developing websites and learning tools for the BBC as a Senior Producer at BBC Learning and also a Technologist at BBC R&D, researching and producing groundbreaking projects such as R&DTV and co-running BBC Backstage, a community for developers and initiative to open up BBC content to the public.

She is also a PhD researcher, peering into wearable electronics & art. Previously studying Fine Art, Multimedia & Electronics Engineering (respectively), which has led to her work developing as a convergence of art, programming & electronics.