Shekhar Kapur is one of the world’s great filmmakers and activists of the imagination: across disciplines, across cultures, across media.

His first English language film, Elizabeth, was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture. He is a founder of Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation with Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra, a venture now involving 150 artists and writers in Bangalore and New York who are successfully creating new characters for multi-media exploitation in the international marketplace. Virgin Comics writers include John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Nicholas Cage and Dave Stewart.  Shekhar brought the idea of the hit West End / Broadway show Bombay Dreams to Andrew Lloyd Webber, co-creating the story and co-producing the show. His versions of the Ramayana stories are currently being made into mobile games in Mumbai.

Shekhar recently returned to the UK to direct The Golden Age, bringing Melbourne’s own Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush back together in the sequel to Elizabeth. This highly anticipated film is now in post-production and due for release in late 2007 (hint, hint: it’s a trilogy).

Shekhar has directed some of the most celebrated, successful, and controversial films of the Indian film industry to date. Perhaps the most notable of Shekhar’s Indian films are three very different pictures: Mr India, which is widely regarded as India’s greatest ever mainstream film for kids; the critically acclaimed and box office success Masoom; and one of India’s most famous films, Bandit Queen, which has now attained cult status (music by the immortal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Bandit Queen caught the attention of the worldwide film community when it became the rage at the Cannes Film Festival.

After Elizabeth, Shekhar directed the film version of the best-selling book The Four Feathers for Paramount / Miramax. Shekhar has also co-produced films such as The Guru in the UK with Universal Studios and Dil Se in India and continues to work on a variety of projects. Amongst other things, he is currently co-producing the animated musical A Suitable Cockroach with Prana Animation studios in India, and producing an Indian feature film entitled Mantra.

Shekhar has also been an award-winning director of commercials; a leading actor in Indian film and television; and a talk show host for three seasons of On The Other Hand for Channel 4 in the UK.

He is currently working on pre-production for his forthcoming feature film, Paani, a story based in 2025 where a city of 20 million people has gone to war over water.

Shekhar is also an Advisory Board member to the Media Development Authority (MDA), Singapore.

Shekhar is a regular speaker at the World Economic Forum and runs a very successful website www.shekharkapur.com on media, culture, arts, and international politics.

A preview of The Golden Age can be found here

The Beijing Capital Recreation District and China Virtual Business Zone is the biggest Government supported digital media industry development initiative in China.

Dr. Liu Yan (David) is the Founder and President of both organizations, as well as CEO of the Beijing Cyber Recreation Development Corporation,  making him one of China’s digital elite.

Dr. Liu is a pioneer of an innovative business model connecting virtual and real world via Internet Technology in China.

The Beijing Capital Recreation District is a massive industry development initiative in Beijing promoting digital media industry convergence, and incorporates China’s first Virtual Business Zone.  The CRD is an integrated Digital Entertainment Industry Centre consisting of eight dedicated technology centres: Mobile Game Center, Online Game Center, Animation Production Center, Cyber Information Center, Cyber Finance Center, IP Exchange Center, Cyber Sports Center, and the Talent Training Center. It also has a ‘Games Theme Park’ open to the public.

Dr. Liu has been working on the area of Information Technology, Telecommunication, Internet and Cyber Recreation for more than 12 years. He has been a senior manager in Motorola, CEO of Putian-SmartComm (one of the subsidiaries of POTEVIO group which is the biggest telecommunication manufacturer in China), Senior Vice President of CITTIC 21CN (a HK listed company, H.241 ) and CEO of China Credit Information Technology Corp.

He is also a the Vice Chairman of China Copyright Council; the Vice Chairman of Beijing Cartoon Association; a Senator of Beijing Shi-Jing-Shan District as well as the visiting professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, one of China’s designated “21C Project” universities, which receive preferential support for development into world-class universities in the 21st century.

Dale is a thought leader on the future of media consumption in an interactive and “many-screen” world of increasingly rich media interfaces. With an extensive background in Broadcast Design and branding, he was creative director of on-air design and branding for the three CBS Sports Winter Olympics broadcasts in the 1990s. Having his roots in the rich media approach to design in TV and film, he has pioneered a unique spatial approach to designing navigation systems for Interactive TV and connected screens. The work begins to blur the line between television, games and web, a concept he calls "New Television."

Dale was a part of the research team that developed the visionary gestural interfaces that first appeared in the film Minority Report, and is now leading development work in the rapidly emerging world of gestural navigation for screens at a distance. Screens have always defined unique spaces, and, particularly with advancements in stereo 3D projection and advanced AR, information can occupy these spaces. Spatial context is becoming increasingly important in design that is no longer flat: space and place are the new frontiers of design. 

Dale has an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, where in 1981 he taught the first course in Motion Graphics offered to designers in the United States. He served on the founding advisory board of the digital content direction at the American Film Institute, and was an active participant in the development of advanced prototypes for Enhanced TV at AFI for many years. Dale received one of the first ITVT Interactive TV Leadership Awards and has won four Emmy awards.

Dale was co-founder of interactive agency Schematic, which recently merged with three other agencies to become global powerhouse Possible Worldwide where he currently serves as Chief Interaction Officer. 

Marcelino Ford-Livene has a wide range of business, operational and creative experience in the interactive and traditional media industries.

He is the General Manager of Interactive Content and Advanced Advertising Development for Intel’s Digital Home Group. In this capacity, he leads a team charged with developing new interactive content and advertising technology on Intel’s connected CE platforms. Prior to Intel, he was a senior member of TV Guide’s development and planning team. He has also held senior positions with the FCC. He served as Special Counsel for New Media Policy and as Senior Counsel and Director of Media Strategic Analysis for the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning. He is a former Vice President of NetNoir, Inc., served as Director of Business Development for iBlast, and worked as an Associate with Hill, Farrer & Burrill in Los Angeles. In addition to serving as Secretary of the Television Academy, Ford-Livene is the Division Chairman of the Interactive Media Division for the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries. He also sits on the Board of LA36. He holds a B.A. in Economics from UC San Diego, a JD/MBA from the University of Illinois and has completed an Executive MBA Leadership Program at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

As General Manager, Mr Cordero works towards establishing Bebo’s presence in the Australian and New Zealand market place and cementing partnerships with clients and agencies.

Mr Cordero’s appointment is a reflection of Bebo’s ongoing commitment to the Australian and New Zealand markets. His experience in cross-media campaigns (TV, magazines, online and mobile) combined with the power of social media is taking Bebo to new levels in this region.

He is a highly experienced group business manager with a strong affinity for technology, cross-media advertising and emerging channels such as mobile. He has over eight years experience in sales and business development roles across Europe and Australia,

Most recently he was Group Sales manger for Yahoo!7; responsible for sales activity across the joint venture between Yahoo! and Publishing Seven Group Media. In this position he pioneered some of its most complex cross media marketing solutions and led the sales team during the initial and critical period of the joint venture.

Prior to this Mr Cordero took up a role at ninemsn having moved from Lycos UK in Europe. Here he applied his European experience to ninemsn’s biggest billing relationships. Mr Cordero has several degrees in Economics, Philosophy & Psychology.

Keren Flavell is an award-winning interactive digital media producer with 14 years experience in producing content online, with a focus on entertainment and music.

Keren is internationally recognised as a world-leading innovator in reaching audiences through multiple digital media platforms, and pioneering the use of virtual worlds as a tool for the production and distribution of television content made collaboratively with in-world participants. In its first year of operation, Treet.TV has produced over 600 hours of broadcast content and has a monthly audience of 100,000 people.

Prior to co-founding Treet.TV, Keren was awarded the prestigious Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival - Best Entertainment Website for the ABC/Film Victoria Digital Media Fund Accord project Sounds Like Techno.

Keren is a regular guest speaker at International conferences and has lectured in new media production at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, Victoria College of the Arts, La Trobe University and Victoria University.

Keren also serves on the Evaluation & Advisory Committee of Film Victorias Digital Media Fund.

Jason Roks is recognized across North America for his networking and digital media distribution acumen, and for his ingenuity in predicting and leveraging new directions in Internet and digital communications technologies.

While the digital "fringe" community celebrates Jason as a co-founder of the decade-old file-sharing software pioneer Hotline Communications, Roks' career has roots in design, creative direction and sculpture. His software and media products have won multiple awards, including Best of Show at MacWorld 97.

Roks is a serial entrepreneur and explorer. His projects include p2p content distribution models; media casting models; terminal and network computing solutions; online communities and social networks; knowledge management systems; metaphors for visualization of metadata; broadband and wireless infrastructures; internet exchanges; ambient television; xmltv; video on demand and iptv. He is currently developing a video Content Management System (vCMS) and what he calls User Generated Distribution (UGD).

Jason provides consulting to software developers, broadcasters, advertisers and entertainment companies in the areas of digital media distribution, content management systems, adaptive business modeling, rights management, online guerrilla marketing, emerging technologies, and the prototyping of innovative technology platforms, services and products.

Roks has been featured in various media, including Wired, Time, Maclean's, Saturday Night,Yahoo! Internet Life, Shift, Macworld and Silicon Alley Reporter for his insights on new media economies, digital media distribution, file sharing, online communities and social networks, piracy, copyright, and intellectual property. He has also participated and presented at numerous conferences, including the International New Media Festival, Digital Coast Reporter, MB5 New Media Visionaries, KMDI, nextMEDIA, ICE, MacWorld, iWorld, and XmediaLab.

The wide range of roles Roks has played in diverse media and technology organizations include CTO, RealNews.com, Independent World Television; Producer, iSummit07, New Media Business Alliance; Technology & Digital Distribution Analyst, CBC Broadband and Digital Services; New Media Operative, ZED; and Vice President, Business Development, Hotline Communications.

Jason is a longstanding member of the Canadian Film Centre Lab's technical advisory council, and sits on advisory councils for a number of start-ups, including illuminated.com . He is an enthusiastic contributor to Toronto's tech community as a founding volunteer of wirelesstoronto.ca and an avid Barcamper. He studied philosophy and business at the University of Western Ontario.

Amit Anand is the Founder and Chief Executive of VentureGurus, a Singapore-India based private equity investment partnership that is focused on converting "talented entrepreneurs to successful enterprises".

In its initial avatar, the firm specializes in match making services between entrepreneurs and investors. It provides funding services alongside experienced entrepreneurial management through partnering in the strategic development of the company. On the other hand it partners with larger fund operators and venture capitalists and links them with exciting opportunities across Asia.

Prior to this Amit has had extensive experience in building and developing global brands and alliances whilst holding multitude of roles such as operations, business development, market development and consulting for many multinationals. In his last engagement as Director- Asia Pacific for Fiorano Software Inc, he was responsible for jumpstarting their regional operations, spanning territories such as India, China and Japan. In his earlier days, he has worked for Progress Software Corp as a Market Development Manager, Elipva Pte Ltd and Tata Infotech Ltd.

With such varied experience in helping global brands extend their presence in Asia, Amit is now focused on helping Asia born entrepreneurs and brands achieve global scale through VentureGurus.

Several successful ventures have been launched including, ettaminA Studios (a Singapore-Mumbai based animation and gaming content developer/studio), WhatsOnYourMobile.com (a niche mobile content player) and Blue Print Global Services (a Singapore based technology enabler).

In words of an entrepreneur "Without these 'VentureGurus' we were only a bunch of dreamers, with them on board we have quickly turned into achievers. We were dreaming of building our own IP by the fourth of fifth year of operation, now we are studio co-producing movies with brands such as Virgin Comics in the first year!" said Nikhil Nagda, co-founder of ettaminA Studios.

VentureGurus has just finished raising a US $15 Million investment for development of the first CGI movie slate from the ettaminA stable.

Amit has been on various panels in Asia including the recently concluded India's premier Animation & Gaming convention titled NASSCOM Animation & Gaming 2007.

FORA.tv delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation. It provides deep, unfiltered content, tools for self-expression and a place for the interactive community to gather online.

Brian Gruber has twenty years experience successfully building and marketing media enterprises. As the senior marketing officer for a range of respected media institutions, he has managed billion dollar revenue budgets and large and small marketing teams. As the first marketing director for C-SPAN, he built its affiliate sales and marketing organization, launching C-SPAN II with the largest subscriber base ever for a cable network at launch. As director of marketing for News Corp's FOXTEL, he helped build the most successful cable television brand in Australia, going from number three to number one in cable subscriptions, brand equity and consumer awareness. As the head of marketing of the largest urban divisions of 3 top ten cable companies (MSO's), he turned flat or negative subscriber growth into substantial gains. And as president of g/media and Principals.com, he has helped more than twenty new media companies develop brands, marketing strategies, and consumer products. He also acted as the media advisor and new media producer for the World Affairs Council of Northern California, the nation's most prolific presenter of quality world affairs events.

Bruce Joy is the founder and CEO of VastPark. He has been running businesses for over 15 years.

Writing his first computer game back in 1982, Bruce’s background in the convergent space of media, technology and virtual worlds has led the creation of VastPark.

Built on five years of research and development, VastPark enables users to create and publish highly interactive 3D virtual worlds quickly and easily. It is designed to empower communities to co-create one or more worlds with their users.

Bruce studied media and literature at Deakin University and venture capital at HAAS, University of California, Berkeley. Through his businesses, he has worked with many of the largest brands in the world, including General Motors, Deloitte, Mars, BMW, Fuji Xerox and Linfox.

Jennifer Lewis is a news veteran having spent nearly 25 years in journalism. Over the years she has had stints in the television, print and online newsrooms.

Right now, Jennifer is Editor of Straits Times Online Mobile Print or STOMP. It is the interactive portal set up by the 162-year-old Straits Times to interact with its readers.

STOMP was launched in June 2006.

In that one short year, its citizen journalism feature called Singapore Seen has grown to occupy an important place in the minds of those living in Singapore.

Kevin Anderson is a freelance journalist and digital strategist with more than a decade of experience with the BBC and the Guardian.

Last year, he teamed up with British social media pioneer, Suw Charman-Anderson, and he now works with international and national news organisations around the world to develop and execute digital journalism strategies and prepare their staffs for the future. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and events around the world.

Kevin has been digital journalist since 1996 with experience in radio, television, print and the web. From 2009-2010, he was the digital research editor at The Guardian where he focused on evaluating and adapting digital innovations to support The Guardian’s world-class journalism. He joined The Guardian in September 2006 as their first blogs editor. Prior to that, he spent 8 years with the BBC working across the web, television and radio. He was the BBC's first online journalist outside of the UK, working as the Washington correspondent for BBCNews.com. As a freelance journalist, he has written for Reuters and The Guardian, and he is a frequent contributor on technology and media issues for the BBC and Al Jazeera.

As CEO and co-founder of Buzztone Inc Liz works to facilitate community building on behalf of brands in the cause, entertainment, media, and product industries. As chief visionary in charge of creative content, strategy, operations and funding her role on projects includes everything from shaping go-to-market brand and marketing strategy down to managing the details of technical execution.  The most recent example of her influence in this arena includes her work on initiatives like the launch of the Stop Global Warming’s Virtual March. “Consumers today are sophisticated. They care about what they buy and they can fall in love with a product or a cause because of the story behind the brand. Our job is to bring that story to the surface in a way that resonates and builds engagement,” Heller says.

Buzztone’s success in telling brand stories has also resonated with clients like Microsoft, AOL, Sony Pictures and Bacardi.

Prior to founding Buzztone Heller served as Executive Vice President of Capital Records and led the charge in developing award winning websites such as Hollywoodandvine.com and Bluenote.com. Liz also oversaw Capital’s soundtrack department, executive producing hit records such as Hope Floats, Good Will Hunting and There’s Something about Mary. Liz began her career as VP of Artist Development for MCA Records.

Professor Lizbeth Goodman is Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and Magic Gamelab at University of East London.

Lizbeth is the lead evaluator for the Microsoft Community Affairs Clubtech educational technology and games project, which has reached over 4 million disadvantaged young people worldwide. Lizbeth is the Director of the Trust Project for children in hospital, using gaming and haptics to enhance the physical well being and learning of those with limited physical ability. Since founding the Trust Project in 2001, she has assisted its growth through partnerships with BBC R&D, Singapore Gamelab, NYU, The Carl Sagan Trust and Children’s Health fund, among others.  
 
Lizbeth was previously founder and Director of the SMARTlab Centre at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design (2001-5); founder and Director of the INMPR (Institute for New Media Performance Research) at the University of Surrey; and spent eight years leading the BBC Open University's multimedia research teams in Shakespeare, Drama, Gender Studies and Literature.

Lizbeth is the author and editor of some 13 books including a range of titles on best practices in media and technology tool creation, the implementation of live and online theatre games, women and theatre, the arts, representation and creativity. She has written and produced many educational convergent media packages, including CD ROMs and video/media packs, games, and online performance events, including the Extended Body Project. She is co-PI of the Values at Play (VIP) Project for the AHRC and National Science Foundation, and has in the past been PI of the successful SMARTshell Project (creating innovative tools for synchronous and asynchronous online/integrated performance and learning), and of the Virtual Interactive Puppetry Project, the British Council's Cultural and Media Studies development programmes in North Africa, and the European Commission's RADICAL project (Research Agendas Developed in Creative Arts Labs). She is Executive Producer UK of the Code Zebra Project (for which she won a European Commission Culture 2002 Award), with international partners at the BNMI, BBC, V2, UCLA, et al.

Lizbeth is the editor of the new MIT Press series: Emergenc(i)es, focusing on best practices and future inventions in technology serving education and culture.

Lizbeth was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for volunteer service to women and children in 2003, and has just been named Microsoft Community Affairs Senior Research Fellow on Creative Technology Innovation.

Raj is Founder/General Partner of Redwood Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital management funds for high technology startups. His mission is to build a world class digital media companies to create and distribute user-influenced digital entertainment content over the internet to mobile devices and television.

Mr. Singh’s technology start-up ventures have been on-sold to companies such as Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Cypress Semiconductor, and LG (Korea).

Prior to his career in venture capital, Raj held senior positions at Nexgen, Cirrus Logic, National Semiconductor, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India.

Raj has also been Executive Producer, with Richard Gere, on the major India film hits
Maya, Leela, Dreaming Lhasa, and Great New Wonderful.

He is also the Founding Advisor of Auryn Studios, a Hollywood based 3D animation company, specializing in Non-Photo-Realistic rendering over Pixar tools.

Jason is based in Sydney and is the General Manager, Innovation at Telstra BigPond. Jason has driven BigPond's Web 2.0-based innovation projects such as The Pond in Second Life and the RSS/widget service, I-Pond, since he returned to Telstra twelve months ago after working as a barrister at the Victorian Bar. His role is to help Telstra become a technology-based 21st century communications and media company, identifying and implementing growth strategies.

Jason's background spans publishing and online services as well as law. He has held a range of media and technology management roles both in Australia and overseas, being previously the founder and chief executive of one of Australia's pioneering interactive agencies, itvworld.com, Editor-in-Chief for Microsoft's MSNBC television and Internet service, Associate editor (Computers) at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper and Computer & Arts Editor for The Herald and Herald Sun newspapers.

Jason's company, itvworld.com, commercialised the InOrbit interactive television service management system it developed after securing a series of Government grants and shareholder investments. It had interactive television customers worldwide including the BBC in the UK. The company also developed hundreds of widely syndicated interactive video programs and created a world-leading digital rights management solution (after twice winning a Telstra Broadband Development Fund Grant).

Jason has continued to publish widely throughout his corporate and legal practice, including a book, Law On The Line (ISBN: 0-644-45996-4), his personal Web site at www.netvideo.com.au and a lecture series for the Australian film and new media industry conducted at the Australian Film, TV and Radio School's Centre for Screen Business.

Loop is a mobile social networking services company operating internationally on 3G networks providing both its own branded comminities and white-label services to major media and content brands. Martin joined as CEO in January 2007 and is responsible for the ongoing corporate and strategic development of Loop. During Martin's tenure the company has successfully completed a re-brand of its flagship product to MOKO, launched its white-label service for major media brands, re-structured the company as a stand-alone entity, and undertaken a $5m capital raising via an initial public offering on the ASX completed in June 2007.

Martin has an extensive background in media organisations, most recently as CEO of NineMSN from January 2003 - July 2006. NineMSN is a 50:50 joint venture between PBL Media and Microsoft, and is Australia's largest internet content and services business.

Under Martin's leadership, NineMSN grew revenue four-fold and went from loss-making to earning over $30m in EBIT in FY06. NineMSN also expanded strongly into the mobile content arena, with Martin driving acquisitions of 5th Finger Pty Ltd and HWW Ltd during 2006.

Previous roles included senior management positions at Fairfax Business Magazines and Fairfax Digital from 1999 - 2002. A key milestone during this period included his establishment and development of the online auction business SOLD.com.au before its sale to Yahoo! in early 2001 for $24m cash.

Martin's career earlier included senior positions at Optus Communications, Potter Warburg and PA Consulting Group.

He has a range of non-executive director experience with both public and pre-public companies including Realestate.com.au Ltd (ASX:REA) 2003-2006 and Infochoice Ltd (ASX:ICH) 2007-current.

Martin is a director and honorary treasurer of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and a director of the Sydney International Film Festival.

He holds an MBA (Honours) from the Institute for Management Development, IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland; as well as a Master of Applied Finance and Bachelor of Economics degrees from Macquarie and Sydney Universities respectively.

Martha Ladly is a Professor of Design at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada, where she was the recent Director of the Interdisciplinary Master’s Program, and Chair of the Research Ethics Board.

Martha specializes in interactive media and technology; she is a senior researcher with the Mobile Experience Lab and an investigator with GRAND (Graphics, Animation, New Media and Design) a Canadian National Centre of Excellence. She is an author and the co-editor of Mobile Nation: Creating Methodologies for Mobile Platforms. In the 1990s Martha was the Head of Design with Peter Gabriel’s Real World Group in the U.K. And in the 1980s Martha had a prominent international career as a performer and recording artist. Martha is currently on sabbatical completing her PhD on Eros, Women and Technology, in Communication and Culture at York University.