Laurence Bennett – UX designer

Lawrence is Creative Director and co-founder of No Ghost, an immersive story studio in London.
Lawrence studied Computer Visualisation and went on to a career in Visual Effects with industry leading studios DNEG and ILM, working on blockbuster franchises like Star Wars, Marvel and Bond. With a thirst for more hands-on creative practice and the growing availability of VR headsets, Lawrence left VFX behind to co-found No Ghost in 2015. Since then Lawrence has been innovating in the immersive space with all manner of XR mediums. Lawrence co-wrote the studios first original, Madrid Noir which went on to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Media as well as VR Experience of the Year at the VR Awards. Lawrence went on to be Gameplay Director & Narrative Designer on Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway, which was created in partnership with Meta for Quest headsets. Lawrence focuses on the interweaving of technology and story to explore new narrative methodologies and experiential horizons.
He is an avid reader, writer and eater.

Giacomo Bon – creative technologist

Born in Padova and grew up in Venice, I spent my life alongside Art. Musician since I was a child, I have always been fascinated by entertainment and the technology behind, finding in it an expressive platform complementary to the artist’s vision.
I studied Artistic Entertainment Techniques in Venice and at the same time carried out various indepth studies on technical subjects such as Sound Engineering, Visual FX, 3D&Immersive Arts, Networking&IT. Working as a freelancer in an international context, I have the opportunity to diversify my projects and draw opportunities for individual and professional growth from each one, expanding a network of knowledge that allows me to stay updated on new ideas, which happen very quickly today. I currently collaborate with private companies and public Foundations such as ‘La Biennale di Venezia’ and ‘Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia’ on technological infrastructures to support events and artistic exhibitions, and I’m in charge of the technical production of ‘Venice Immersive’ at the Venice International Film Festival since 2018. I dream of creating a territorial framework of tools and know-how that can give unlimited expressive potential to artists, in an environment rich in history and traditionally the cradle of creativity.

Victoria Bousis – Director & Creative Director

Victoria began her career in entertainment where she broke boundaries in storytelling with powerful human stories, presenting films at esteemed festivals such as Venice, Sundance, and TIFF. Innovations in cinema inspired Victoria to embrace emerging technologies such as extended reality (XR), spatial computing, and artificial intelligence.
In 2022, she founded UME, an award-winning creative and technology company, blending the narrative lines between digital and physical realms across platforms and screens to engage modern day and future audiences more meaninfully. UME created the first high-fidelity, digital human in VR, patenting their pipeline, and has been nominated by the DEG as Innovative Company of the Year in 2023.
Later that year, Victoria’s directorial debut, “Stay Alive, My Son,” an immersive and interactive film based on Pin Yathay’s true story, garnered international recognition. It premiered in Cannes’ development showcase, with Chapter One featured at Venice, Berlin, Thessaloniki, and FilmGate, earning numerous awards, to name a few. In 2023, Chapter Two debuted at SXSW, MIFF, Bifan, Fivars, Kaohsiung, earning the Producers’ Guild Innovation Award, marking cinematic history as the first interactive and immersive VR full-length movie.
Recognized as a pioneering multi-platform director and creative technologist, Victoria is an influential voice and expert in XR, digital humans, and spatial computing. She’s been a speaker atrenowned events and technology conferences such as TEDxMIT, TEDxKlondozidika, NAB, NFT NYC, SMPTE, AWE, Stereopsia, and SIGGRAPH. Victoria is dedicated to shaping the future ofstorytelling through innovation and impact.
Victoria holds a Masters in Media, Technology, & Innovation from MIT and a juris doctoratedegree. She is also a former prosecutor for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General.

Mads Damsbo – A.I.

Mads Damsbo (1984) – is a creative producer, entrepeneur and passionate user-experience designer, focused on bringing forward impactful narratives, leveraging emerging technology; provoking unexpected emotions in diverse audiences. As the founder and creative director of the multiple award winning XR content studio Makropol he has raised over 5 million € for original productions, led numerous creative teams, including a full symphony orchestra, through complex workflows and started several new companies along the way, Mads’ most notable work includes The Doghouse (2014) – a first-person film installation, Festival Nouveau Cinéma, NYFF, Cannes NEXT and The Future of Storytelling; The Shared Individual (2016) – a collective VR experience at Idfa DocLab; Doom Room (2017) – a mixed reality VR performance. Recently he produced Ole Bornedal’s The Shadow (2021) and End Of Night (2021), which won the coveted Lion for best Immersive Narrative at the Venice Film Festival and was voted Best Film of 2021 by Politiken.
Currently Mads is acting as CEO and creative producer at Kaspar AI, a deep tech company that he co-founded. Kaspar is focused on using AI to co-create audiovisual storytelling, specifically helping editors work with large amounts of filmed material.

Simone Fougnier – story developer

Simone ‘Funi’ Fougnier is a 37-year-old visual artist from Northern Italy. After studying cinema in Bologna, he moved to UK and built a 15-year career in the international music industry collaborating with icons like Deadmau5, Anderson Paak, Droeloe, Trap Nation, Mr. Bill, Mr. Probz and many others as illustrator, designer and motion artist. In 2017 Funi discover Virtual Reality illustration and more specifically the software Quill, creating in 2018 one of the first ever music
video entirely painted and animated in VR. In 2019, Funi co-founded Studio Syro to pioneer unexplored artistic mediums by joining forces with other Quill artists. This vision birthed ‘Tales from Soda Island,’ an innovative 7 chapters – original VR animated series produced by Meta where Funi served as writer, concept artist, artist and director. The final chapter was selected for Best Of Immersive at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
As the field of VR evolves, Funi consistently explores its untapped artistic potential with a host of fresh, immersive projects underway. In 2023 he finally decided to leave our earthly reality and fully committed to a virtual existence.

Francois Fripiat – Sound

With a decade of experience in sound mixing across cinema, documentary, and advertising, I embarked on an innovative journey in sound creation in 2016. Driven by a passion for spatial sound, I founded Demute, focusing on game audio and immersive worlds.
At Demute, I apply my technical and creative expertise to craft interactive narratives in cultural spaces, emphasizing the powerful role of sound immersion in enhancing visitor experiences. My dedication to simplifying complex production processes is unwavering, as I strongly believe in the transformative power of teamwork, a diverse skill set, and computer automation.
Each project becomes an opportunity for me to share, learn, and deepen my understanding of the world.

Corine Meijers – producer

Founded by Corine Meijers in 2019, Studio Biarritz is now an established production house that specializes in audiovisual projects that cross borders. Studio Biarritz develops its own projects, but we also love collaborating with filmmakers, artists and partners from all over the world to produce stories with a lot of heart that are relevant for our trying times. We cross borders in 1) form, technology and subject matter, in 2) collaboration with filmmakers, artists & partners and 3) in audience reach, distributed on multiple platforms.
As a creative producer at Studio Biarritz, Corine Meijers is also involved as a (script) coach for several VR and immersive projects at the Flemish Audiovisual Fund as well as the Film Fund in The Netherlands. She is a mentor at the Playgrounds NEXT talent development program in Brabant (NL) and Head of Studies Immersive & Interactive I media training for scientists, at the Silbersalz Institute (DE).

Michael Salmon – World building

Mike Salmon, aka Manglebird, is an immersive producer and co-founder of the creative technology studio Altered Realities. Michael is a producer at Venice Immersive and a tutor at the Biennale College focusing on virtual worlds.
He has been part of the XR community since Oculus shipped their first dev kits in 2014. During his time as head of Immersive Technology at NBCUniversal, he set up the studio’s first dedicated immersive entertainment team and was the creator/producer on many XR productions. These include large-scale, multi-million dollar experiences, technical R&D projects, and 2 years of researching and prototyping a social VR product: Universal Worlds. His work includes Eleven
Eleven (creator/producer) which launched at SXSW, featured in the Best of VR category at Venice, and was nominated for a Producers Guild of America Innovation Award. He co-produced the hybrid TV/VR series Halycon for Syfy channel, a Primetime Emmy finalist. During the campaign for Halcyon, he ran the world’s first VR press junket using the metaverse platform AltspaceVR.

Paul Tyler – visualizer

2006 Paul Tyler (UK) set-up Handling Ideas to provide online & in-person story consultancy for writers, directors and producers around the world. His unique method for handling stories draws out the relationship between story, theme and audience. He brings years of experience developing & creating concepts, strategies & projects within the cultural, public & corporate sectors that all started with four years in theatre production and touring, followed by twelve years at the BBC, ending up as a TV producer and studio gallery director. Paul applies a highly developed analytical, creative & often humorous approach to reveal the complex ecosystems in which we work, rest and play. Paul is based in Copenhagen.