Lamberto Coccioli is Professor of Music and Technology at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University, and the Director of CreaTech Frontiers. With a background in music composition, architecture and art history, Lamberto has made significant contributions to the development of interactive music and live electronics performance in the UK and in Europe, as a composer, performer and researcher. His main research interests are soundscape composition, musician-centred interaction design, composition performance and sustainability of music with live electronics, the philosophy of music technology, and the ethics of AI in music creation.

Laura is the CreaTech Frontiers Cluster Manager, bringing over 25 years of expertise in programme management across both the private sector and higher education. A passionate advocate for innovation in the creative industries, she has most recently led pioneering projects that sit at the intersection of creativity, technology, and education. Laura was the International Programme Manager at Birmingham City University’s STEAMhouse, an interdisciplinary innovation hub. There, she played a central role in managing an Interreg Europe project that connected cities and municipalities across Europe to explore how creative spaces can drive innovation policy and regional development. Laura also led a transnational Erasmus+ project on STEAM Innovation and Curriculum, collaborating with eight European universities to examine how interdisciplinarity can be embedded in higher education. As part of this initiative, she partnered closely with the renowned Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria—bringing creative experimentation and critical thinking into academic practice on a European stage.​

Charmaine drives innovation by connecting academia, industry, and the creative industries sector. At Birmingham City University, she champions enterprise working across Faculties, specifically with the Faculty of Arts, Design & Media and STEAMhouse, sparking fresh approaches to collaboration, partnership-building, and funding opportunities. With expertise spanning multi-partner projects, she has led Erasmus+ initiatives like DT.UNI, exploring design thinking in higher education, and STEAM INC, blending science and the arts in teaching and learning. She has managed ERDF-funded regional business support programmes.  She currently supports the CreaTech Frontiers Cluster, working with project industry partners to foster collaboration and engagement across the Cluster.

Dr Aki Järvinen is a technologist, researcher, and designer with 20+ years of experience with interactive media and creative technologies both in the private sector and in the academia. His background is in the arts and humanities, with a PhD in game design research. Aki works at Digital Catapult in London, helping UK companies adopt advanced digital technologies. In his role, Aki has delivered research, workshops, and consultation to a diverse set of startups, SMEs, and corporations, both in commercial contexts and conferences such as SIGGRAPH. He is also a champion of responsible innovation and ethical approaches to technology development and adoption.

Jamie is a freelance project manager and producer working in the Arts and Culture sector across the West Midlands and nationally. He is passionate about supporting artists and creatives to turn brilliant ideas into deliverable projects and making creativity as accessible to as many people as possible. Clients and previous work includes (in no particular order) the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, The Space (Digital Arts), Birmingham Hippodrome, Coventry City of Culture Trust, Oxford Is Cultural Programme, TEAM Artists, Birmingham Pride, Godiva Festival and Zellig.

As Director of Warwick Enterprise, Rachel leads the education portfolio for innovation and entrepreneurship across the University of Warwick. This includes growth and integration of curricula and co-curricula provision as well as graduate start-up as a viable career option and broader support for alumni. As part of the senior leadership team for the Innovation Group she is also lead for the CreaTech innovation initiative and Creative Futures portfolio, ensuring Warwick can supercharge regional economic growth and impact for the Creative and Digital Sector across Coventry, Warwickshire & West Midlands.

Lisa Wilson is a strategic leader in cultural and community engagement with 15+ years’ experience driving innovation at the intersection of creativity, technology and social impact. As Innovation Manager at Coventry University, she leads skills and innovation initiatives including projects on future workforce development and inclusive digital access. Lisa began her career founding a social enterprise focused on inclusion, before moving into roles that designed and delivered programmes for underrepresented entrepreneurs, creative communities and local enterprises. Passionate about Createch, she specialises in co-creation, partnership building and harnessing creativity to drive inclusive growth.

Dr Karen Seaward-Patel is an Associate Professor in Media at BCU and EDI lead for CreaTech Frontiers. Karen’s research focuses on inequalities in the creative industries, and the role of social media platforms and AI in creative work.

Nicholas Gebhardt is Professor of Jazz and Popular Music Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University. His research covers a range of topics, including jazz and popular music cultures, improvised music, sound studies, mass entertainment, the music industries, philosophies of music and film studies. His publications include Going for Jazz: Musical Practices and American Ideology and Vaudeville Melodies: Popular Musicians and Mass Entertainment in American Culture, 1870-1929. He is the co-editor of This Is Our Music! The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives and The Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies. He also co-edits the Routledge book series Transnational Studies in Jazz, the Intellect book series New Directions in Media and Cultural Research, and the open access popular music journal Riffs.