Keynote Speakers

Dr. Hilary Collins, Lecturer, Student Experience Manager
Faculty of Business and Law, The Open University Business and Law Schools, UK

Preliminary topic: Creative research

Hilary Collins BA (Hons) MA, MRes, MBA, PhD has a PhD in Strategic Design Management from the University of Strathclyde, UK. Her professional career specialised in international business start-up in the field of design. Within her academic career Hilary has extensive experience of curriculum development in Europe and the Middle East within strategic design management. Her book, Creative Research has been translated into 5 languages and a new edition was launched in September 20018.

Hilary’s main research interests are in the area of identity and its synergy with the built environment. Most recently, research projects have included investigating sustainability and social innovation and its influence on the role of the professional designer alongside the role of design thinking within strategic design management. In addition her research is based within Teaching and Learning examining how the digital arena is impacting the academic role in Higher Education with a particular emphasis on academic identity. Hilary also teaches Contextual Research, Strategic Management, Creativity, Innovation and Design Thinking.

Professor Matt Jones
Swansea University, Swansea, UK

Presentation title: The Robots are Coming - Be Afraid!

Matt Jones has been working on mobile interaction design for 20+ years. He has written two books on the subject (Mobile Interactions Design, with Gary Marsden; and There's not An App for That, with Simon Robinson and Gary Marsden). His research work has explored a diverse range of mobile topics including small screen browsing; navigation systems; storytelling; digital inclusion; conversational systems; and, deformable devices. He is the Director of one of the UK's national Digital Economy Centres; led on creating the newly opened multimillion pound Computational Foundry; and is the Director of a new EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in AI and Big Data - all of these activities but people-first in the pursuit of technological innovation. More at www.undofuture.com

Film commissioner Liisa Holmberg, International Sámi Film Institute (ISFI), Norway

Presentation title: Indigenous peoples design and storytelling. Purpose of Arctic Indigenous Film Fund

Liisa Holmberg is a Sámi film maker originally from Finnish side of the Saamiland. She has worked in the film business as a producer, production manager and film consultant from the year 1994. Big part of her work as a film commissioner is working internationally with Indigenous film makers in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Sápmi and Russia to establish an Arctic Indigenous Film Fund (AIFF). During the years 2008-2018 Holmberg worked as a rector of the Sámi Education Institute in Inari, Finland. The purpose of the Institute is to support Sámi languages, cultures and livelihoods.