FoST SUMMIT

Darren Aronofsky is the Academy Award–nominated director of mother!, Noah, Black Swan, The Wrestler, The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream and π. He is also executive producer of the virtual reality experience SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime.

John Hanke is the CEO of Niantic Inc., the company responsible for the creation of massively popular works like Pokemon GO and Ingress. He was also a founding creator of the revolutionary "Google Earth" technology.

Rachel Tipograph has unlocked the secret of marketing to millennials and Gen Z. With her company MikMak, she single-handedly revolutionized the eCommerice landscape by creating a shoppable mobile video platform designed for the social media generation. She has appeared on Forbes's “30 under 30” and was named one of Fast Company's “Most Creative People in Business.”

Ryan Leslie is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, multiplatinum music producer, and avid technologist who has logged studio time with Madonna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Beyoncé. After realizing the value of authentic and immediate correspondence with his audience, he taught himself to code and raised $5.5 million dollars to found SuperPhone, which lets users scale text communication while providing insights on how to optimize correspondence.

Vince Kadlubek believes we are living in a crisis of imagination, but he has plans to change that—starting with his creation, Meow Wolf, an immersive art experience that has become New Mexico’s #1 tourist attraction. Meow Wolf will soon open locations in Las Vegas and Denver, and has become a model for immersive exhibitions across the world.

Karina Wilsher is steering Anomaly to become one of the hottest agencies in the world. Recognized as one of Fast Company’s most innovative companies, Anomaly has won multiple awards, from Cannes Lions to Emmys, and was named Ad Age’s 2017 Agency of the Year. Their client list includes Google, SONOS, Budweiser, Diageo, and the Coca-Cola Company, among others.

Grace Boyle is a multi-sensory storyteller. She debunks the notion that we have 5 senses, and instead believes we have closer to 33. When we tell stories that engage all of our senses, we’re able to tell more powerful and emotional stories.

Curtis Hickman has dedicated his life to making the impossible possible. Having started out as a magician, he now works with fully immersive, location-based, hyper-reality experiences that merge virtual and physical environments. The result is a powerful experience where audiences have to remind themselves of what’s real and what isn’t. As Time.com put it, “these guys basically created a holodeck.”

Named one of “10 Women to Watch in Tech” by Inc. Magazine, Dr. Vivienne Ming wants to create better people—through technology. Whether she’s creating expression recognition AI or using cutting edge neuro-prosthetics, Vivienne’s goal is the same: to augment human potential.

Dr. Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn explores how embodied experiences like VR influences our attitudes and behavior. Her research investigates how interactive digital media such as virtual and augmented reality transform traditional rules of communication and social interactions, looking at how virtual experiences shape the way the way that people think, feel, and behave in the physical world.

Neuroscientist Anil Seth is interested in understanding the biological basis of conscious experience, a topic he considers one of the greatest challenges for 21st century science. His groundbreaking research provides fascinating insight into what this means for storytelling. His 2017 TED talk has been viewed over 5 million times.

The Jim Henson Creature Shop and Man Made Music are collaborating on an interactive workshop in puppetry which will teach participants all about how character and sound combine to tell a story.

While tactics of storytelling may change all the time, one thing that remains constant is the importance of creating compelling and memorable characters. In this workshop, participants join Titmouse Animation’s Chris Prynoski and Antonio Canobbio as they introduce a fun and new approach to character-building in animation.

In this highly interactive breakout session, attendees will get hands-on with machine learning to create their own narrative based on the works of one or more famous authors.

Enhance the real world with a layer of digital imagination. Join Cortney Harding and Michael Markman for a workshop on the basics of AR prototyping.

In this workshop, Beat Making Lab founders will take participants through the building blocks of producing unique and original content in the form of a song.