Danish director, David Adler, works with virtual reality and film. In his work he mixes an array of media, aesthetics and technology, always with a strong narrative structure and artistic expression. Experimentation plays a central role in his experiences, he pushes the limits for what kinds of stories can be told in VR and alternative media while ensuring that they are situated in a larger artistic context. 

Central to his experiences is the audience presence and relationship to the character in the story evoking awareness and empathy through their involvement. There is a harshness and poetry to his work that often revolve around historical events. 

His latest narrative VR experience “End of Night”, tells the story of a jewish man’s escape from Copenhagen during the Second World War, the entire story is experienced from the row boat he escapes in as you sail through the scattered landscape of his memories of that fateful night. “End of Night” won Best Narrative at the Venice Film Festival in 2021 as well as several awards from festivals around the world.
 
His projects under development span across various countries, for example Bhutan, Greenland and Ghana. He uses a variety of media: a fully immersive VR movie, a VR documentary and a feature length film. David Adler’s style of storytelling embraces using experimentation as a key part of development in order to challenge the narrative structure and ensure a constant stream of narrative elements to bring the story to life.

davidsellneradler.com

Emma is a writer, dramaturg, digital performing arts expert and received the the prestigious Thalia award in 2020. She is co-founder of performing arts group Bombina Bombast based in Malmö, Sweden. Under the artistic direction of Emma and Stefan Bexell Stanisic the group has transformed over a decade from a fringe operation in a dusty basement to a full team of collaborators with an in-house laboratory and portfolio of over 60 original works for stage and screen. The company tours worldwide and has presented at film festivals such as Cannes and IDFA DocLab. Having been granted national operational support, the company has proven its capacity for longevity and earned a reputation as a pioneer in performing arts, virtual reality and video design. Working across a myriad of disciplines and collaborating with local and international masters from a diversity of creative fields, Bombina Bombast occupies a position of outsized influence for an independent performance group in today’s society.

Since May 2014, Kent Bye has published over 1200 Voices of VR podcast interviews featuring the pioneering artists, storytellers, and technologists driving the resurgence of virtual & augmented reality. He's an oral historian, experiential journalist, & aspiring philosopher, helping to define the patterns of immersive storytelling, experiential design, ethical frameworks, & the ultimate potential of XR.

Danielle is an art/business professional working at the intersection of storytelling and technology. She is currently dedicated to the distribution & publishing of a diverse catalog of immersive narrative XR content at ASTREA. Part of the team spearheading distribution in the VR industry, Danielle’s specialities lie in leadership and creative solutions. Some of the award-winning projects Danielle has worked on in distribution include Gloomy Eyes (Webby Awards 2021), Ayahuasca (Tribeca 2019), Battlescar (Numix Awards 2021), Madrid Noir (Tribeca 2021), The Dawn of Art (Emmy Nomination 2021), On the Morning You Wake (SXSW 2022), and Missing Pictures (Tribeca 2022).

Hsin-Chien Huang has been an accomplished new media creator since 1995. His career focuses on integrating cutting-edge technologies with art, literature, design, and stage performance. Huang's innovative projects encompass interdisciplinary interactions, performance, mechanical apparatus, algorithmic computations, and video installations. As a professor at the Design Department of National Taiwan Normal University, he promotes interdisciplinary collaboration through STEAM education and publication.
 
Huang graduated from National Taiwan University with two Presidential Awards and pursued product design at ArtCenter College of Design. He earned his master's degree at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, as a full Moholy Nagy scholar. Huang was a researcher at Interval Research Corporation before joining the digital entertainment industry. He held Art Director positions at Sega and Sony Computer Entertainment. His education and professional experiences have honed his skills as a cross-disciplinary creator.
 
Huang collaborated with renowned new media artist Laurie Anderson and legendary French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre. His artworks have been showcased worldwide, including the Venice Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, SXSW, Taipei Fine Art Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Shanghai Biennale, Venice Biennale, MoMA of New York, and Ars Electronica Festival. He has received commissions for prestigious institutions such as the Digital Dunhuang VR Experience, the Future Museum of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and public installation art for Taipei 101.
 
Huang's accolades include the grand prize of the "New Voices, New Vision" new media competition, the Muse Award from the American Association of Museums, the title "Pride of Taiwan" from Taiwan's Office of the President, Best VR Experience at the Venice Film Festival, the Masque d'Or (Golden Mask) Award at NewImages Festival, Honorary Mention in the Ars Electronica Festival, Best Virtual Reality at the Los Angeles Film Awards, Best VR Story at Cannes XR, and the Jury Award in the SXSW Virtual Cinema Competition.
 
In 2016, Huang co-founded Taiwan's Virtual and Physical Media Integration Association. He has partnered with the Ars Electronica Festival since 2020 and serves as the Lead Curator of Garden Taipei/Formosa, promoting new media artworks from Taiwan globally.

Ioulia Isserlis is a Berlin based VR director, writer and producer. With strong roots in classical filmmaking, Ioulia dove full time into VR production 6 years ago and is the Co-Founder and CEO of AnotherWorld VR. She directed, produced and wrote PAGAN PEAK VR, that premiered at the 76th Venice Film Festival (listed as one of the 29 best VR experiences of 2019 by Forbes). Ioulia produced and co-wrote KOBOLD VR, that premiered at the 75th Venice Film Festival in 2018 and was named one of the 5 best horror VR games by Forbes. She co-produced BYSTANDING VR, that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021 and won the Lovie Award and the 2022 Telly Award. Ioulia also wrote, directed and produced KOMEZ ALEF O that premiered at SXSW 2022.

At AnotherWorld VR she supervised projects for clients such as Balenciaga (AnotherWorld VR developed the entire S21 Balenciaga runway show in VR) and Hugo Boss. 

Additionally, since 2020, Ioulia co-founded and is the CTO of Proof of Taste GmbH together with Max Sacker, Dennis “Denyo” Lisk (Platinum winning German musician) and Fabian Vogelsteller (developer of the ERC20 of Ethereum), which focuses on creating a music metaverse with the inclusion of blockchain technology. 

Ioulia is a board member of the Virtual Reality Berlin Brandenburg association and a tutor for VR production at schools and universities. 

Gayatri Parameswaran is a multi-award winning writer, director and producer of immersive works. She grew up in India and is currently based in Berlin, where she co-founded NowHere Media -- a storytelling studio that views contemporary issues through a critical lens. Gayatri works at the intersection of storytelling, technology and social change. Her work has been exhibited at the Venice International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, IDFA, Festival de Cannes, United Nations and beyond. She is a Sundance New Frontier alumnus, has won the Tribeca Storyscapes Award for Best Immersive, SXSW Best Use of Immersive Arts and the Lumiere Award for Best VR documentary among other accolades. Gayatri is a guest lecturer at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg, Hochschule für Medien, Kommunikation und Wirtschaft (HMKW) Berlin, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and Züricher Hochschule der Kunst (ZHdK). She is an Erasmus Mundus scholar in War & Conflict Reporting and an alumnus of the German Chancellor Fellowship.

Nikolaj Stausbøl (Staus) is a future experience designer with a focus on anchoring playful interactive stories into reality. His projects has a tendency to lean towards emulating photorealism w. volumetric capturing and shader work pipelines and anything that allows for a near realtime dialogue with code and digital creativity; Node based tools, generative AI storytelling, algorave live-coding, etc.
As a Creative Technology Director and Partner at Manyone, he’s build numerous large scale XR and spatial projects for both large corporate clients and cultural institutions. His work has been exhibited at Venice Film Festival, SXSW, Copenhagen Contemporary, Las Vegas and United Nations Climate Assembly in Kenya to name a few.