Playable City Lagos | Media Sandbox

This programme ran from 2008-2010 at the Pervasive Media Studio. For more projects like these please visit the Studio website.

Project Advisors

@alex_stanhope

Alex Stanhope, Technology Strategy Board

Alex graduated at the top of his class with a BSc in Computer Science from Bristol University. He stayed on to lecture in Databases and Digital Media for three years.

Alex started his career at IBM in 1996. In 2000, he setup a small consulting practice serving a variety of media clients in the UK television sector and US film industry. He was Technical Lead for the Broadbandshow, a DTI-funded Broadband initiative. In 2004 he founded a Digital Media agency called Lightenna and worked on accounts for Lexus, Boots, XMOS Semiconductor and Haymarket Publishing while supporting several start-ups as an investor and Technical Director. He is a Fellow of the British Computing Society, a Seedcamp mentor and sits on Microsoft’s Interoperability Council. Alex is currently Lead Technologist for the Creative Industries at Technology Strategy Board.
http://www.innovateuk.org/
@efergan

Dan Efergan, Aardman Animations

Dan Efergan is Creative Director of Online at Aardman Animations - where he gets to spend a lot of time doing fun things like making games, creating online communities, and exhibition interfaces.

Previously he kept himself entertained as MD of Subsub Skills and Production, creative and technical lead on Light Up Bristol, a lecturer of programming and cofounder of the Submerge New Media Festival, which gave him a warm and fuzzy feeling by bringing together creative people and seeing what happened.

He’s particularly interested in creative programming, the future of human/digital interaction and it's effect on society. He likes philosophy, and if he wasn't so busy would love to work out the meaning of life.
http://www.aardman.com
@danlhewitt

Dan'l Hewitt, Demand Media

Dan'l is currently Director Strategic Partnerships EMEA at Demand Media. Previously he developed the content and audience strategy for VBS.tv, the online television network owned by Vice; and also consulted with Yahoo! Europe working specifically on their video offering together with global rights owners and production relationships. Between 2007-09 he was head of digital content at Bebo.com and currently hold a non-executive position with SouthWestScreen. In all he has 10 years experience in all aspects of high-growth technology and media businesses, from start-ups and incubators to public companies across Europe and the US. Areas of expertise include social networking and online communities, 360 marketing strategies, content acquisition, branded entertainment, online ad sales, strategic and commercial deal making, and e-commerce.
@sssram

Dr Sriram Subramanian, University of Bristol

Dr Sriram Subramanian is a Reader in the Computer Science department of the University of Bristol where he co-directs the interaction and graphics group. Prior to moving to Bristol he has worked in Canada for the University of Saskatchewan and in Netherlands for Philips research labs. His primary research interest is in Human-Computer Interaction with a particularly on emphasis on novel input devices and techniques. His research involves combining hardware electronics with design to create novel and engaging end-users experiences with computer mediated systems.

His most recent interests have been in the design, implementation and evaluation of multi-point touch and haptic based interaction techniques and devices for mobile devices and large interactive surfaces.
http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/
@GavinHenderson

Gavin Henderson, BBC

Gavin is currently an Executive Producer at BBC. He was previouslyHead of Programmes at Presentable TV in Cardiff, part of the RDF Media Group, before leaving to become a freelance television and media consultant for a number of companies including the BBC and various Independents. He moved to Bristol seven years ago to set up and run the Endemol West studios. The studios have since produced a wide range of reality, entertainment and interactive formats and are now home to C4’s Deal or No Deal.

Gavin’s production credits include Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, The Big Breakfast, Artschool, Big Brother, The Games and the BBC3 multiplatform series Upstaged. He is also an external examiner and lecturer in Television Production at Falmouth University.
James Touzel, Partner, TLT LLP

James is head of the Technology & Media Group at UK law firm TLT. He has been with TLT for over 14 years, throughout that time working with established and early-stage technology and media organisations.

He is known for his work with digital media and mobile telecoms businesses, covering social networking, location based services and new media collaborations, where he advises on the contractual, intellectual property and privacy issues. He also deals with technology development and licensing arrangements, IT procurements and managed service solutions.

James is actively involved in the development of early-stage media businesses and the related support networks. He is a trustee of Watershed Arts Trust Limited and non-executive chair of iShed CIC, who have a mission to pioneer innovation and new technologies in the creative industries. He is also a member of Science City Bristol.
www.tltsolicitors.com/sectors/technology-and-media
@JulieDodd

Julie Dodd, Public Zone

Julie is Head of User experience and design at Public Zone – a creative agency that specialises in bringing the best digital can offer to projects that do social good. She joined Public Zone from the BBC where she had a highly successful career as Creative Director in the Future Media team and was responsible for leading the design of the award winning BBC iPlayer service.

She has spent most of the last decade solving user experience and creative problems across web, mobile and 'red button' TV services. This has included design strategy, information architecture, user research, accessibility and brand development.
www.publiczone.co.uk
@mark_leaver

Mark Leaver

Mark is an independent consultant concentrating on the development of projects combining creative media and digital technologies, with a specific focus on making strategic connections to international markets. Mark acts as a producer for Media Sandbox, concentrating on business development and routes to market.

A senior manager and producer, with 20 years experience across the creative industries, Mark has a track record of raising finance and developing and delivering innovative ideas from both the public and private sector, and across a range of media disciplines.

Throughout his career two key themes have categorised Mark’s activities: the combination of creative media and emerging digital technologies; and the connection of business to international markets.

Having recently established Mark Leaver Consulting, Mark is now pursuing new opportunities which explore the evolution of the media landscape in a digital age, and the potential offered to the creative media industries across a globalised economy.
@nicoleyershon

Nicole Yershon, Ogilvy

Nicole Yershon began her career in advertising 25 years ago at Simons Palmer and GGT, two of London’s most renowned creative agencies.

In 2000, she joined Ogilvy London where she now works as the Director of Innovative Solutions. In her first four years at Ogilvy she overhauled the agency’s broadcast and video capabilities, taking them from analogue to digital, with the creation of RedWorks Broadcast.

Consolidated in 2007 into the Ogilvy Digital Innovation Lab (part of a worldwide network), the agency’s innovation activities have seen Nicole build partnerships between industries and across media channels to fuel unprecedented creative campaigns, and educate, both within the agency and beyond, speaking at global conferences and building clients Labs of their own.
www.ogilvy.co.uk/ogilvy-interactive/
@peter_swain

Peter Swain, AlwaysOnMessage

Peter's career in digital spans 15+ years advising a host of Blue Chip Clients including Yell.com, Sony, Williams F1 and a Royal Court or two.

With a history of enabing companies to integrate new technologies into their business, Peter moved his focus to mobile in 2007 seeing the iPhone as 'the game changer'.

Today Peter is the Managing Director of AlwaysOnMessage, a Bristol based Smartphone App Agency creating Apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry Platforms with clients in the UK and USA including: Avaya, The Economist, Endemol and Technicolor.
www.alwaysonmessage.com
@Rich-Calvium

Richard Hull, Calvium

Richard Hull is a Director of Calvium Ltd, a new start-up aiming to radically simplify the creation of sensor-based applications for mobile phones. Between 1985 and November 2009, Richard was a senior researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol working, managing and publishing in a broad range of research areas including handwriting interfaces, situated computing, and appliance communications. For the last eight years, he has pursued his main research interest in the use of pervasive computing in experiential mobile applications. He was the technical lead in the Mobile Bristol collaborative project and HPLab's subsequent work on mscape, a freely available framework for creating, sharing and experiencing location-based media.

Richard gained a BSc in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Surrey in 1979 and a DPhil in Computer Science from the University of Sussex in 1984.
www.calvium.com
@timscott78

Tim Scott, DCMS

Tim Scott is the Senior Policy Adviser for Video Games and Film at the Department for Culture Media and Sport. Unfortunately this doesn't mean spending all day watching films and playing games but is all about working closely with industry to better understand how Government can support the sector.

Tim's career began in politics as a researcher for the Shadow Cabinet, moving to the Training and Development Agency for Schools before joining the DCMS in 2007.
www.culture.gov.uk