PANELS

Argentinian Creator Talk

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Dutch Creator Talk

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French Creator Talk

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BUILDING WORLDS, NOT CAMPAIGNS: How To Create Immersive Experiences That Fans Will Never Forget

The most powerful stories don’t stay on the screen. They become places people return to, shape, and carry with them. In this presentation, Campfire’s Mike Knowlton shares how that idea influences the way brand experiences are built, shifting from campaigns that simply announce something to worlds that invite participation, belonging, and return visits. He’ll talk through how to design roles people actually want to inhabit, how to create moments that move through culture because they feel personal, and how a clear point of view can turn marketing into something audiences choose rather than endure. Along the way, he’ll share examples from Campfire’s work and the creative thinking behind them, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how these ideas come to life.

"Impulse" Demo with Brandon Powers

This live presentation pairs a real-time demonstration of Impulse with a short pop-up dance performance created using the tool. Co-Founder Brandon Powers introduces the workflow—capturing movement, manipulating scale, and composing space—before transitioning into a live or prebuilt performance developed in collaboration with a Miami-based dance company. The result is a hybrid lecture-performance that reveals both the process and the poetry of using immersive technology as a choreographic tool.

Taiwanese Creator Talk

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Liquid Writing: Filmmaking After Generative AI

A talk on what it means to make documentary films when AI can fabricate anything — and why that changes not just the tools but the entire ethics and methodology of the form. Drawing from The Goldberg Variations (currently in development) and Rewild, I'll explore how generative AI can function as a documentary instrument rather than a special effect: a way of accessing what photographs cannot reach.

BETWEEN FEAR AND HYPE: What Comes After the AI Debate?

AI discourse today feels polarized and incomplete. Critics raise urgent concerns about environmental cost, labor displacement, copyright, and concentrated power. Supporters offer pragmatic refrains about productivity, skill acquisition, and inevitability. But what if both sides are missing something deeper?

This panel explores whether we are still waiting for a compelling pro-AI philosophy — one that meaningfully engages environmental, political, and economic critiques while articulating a bold, inspiring cultural vision. If a new AI creative renaissance is emerging, what ethical and philosophical foundations might it require?

Bringing together leading futurists and creative technologists, this conversation asks: what would it mean to build not just better tools, but a new creative ethos?

DESIGNING THE CREATIVE ECONOMY: AI, Public Funding, and Platform Power

The next creative economy is being designed right now—by foundations, tech platforms, and artists themselves.

As AI transforms how stories are made and distributed, who determines the rules around ownership, compensation, and access? How do grantmakers, game engines, and cultural institutions shape what gets built—and who benefits?

This panel explores how we intentionally design an AI-powered creative ecosystem that is equitable, sustainable, and artist-centered.

ARCHITECTURE OF AWE: The Future of Location-Based Storytelling

From immersive domes to next-generation venues like Sphere and Cosm, storytelling is expanding beyond the flat screen into fully enveloping environments. These spaces demand new creative languages, new production pipelines, and new economic models — blending cinema, live performance, architecture, and spectacle.

What kinds of stories belong in 360 degrees? Who gets to create for these monumental canvases? And as streaming platforms experiment with location-based experiences, are we witnessing the rebirth of cinema as a shared event?

This panel brings together pioneers shaping the future of spatial storytelling to explore how immersive venues are redefining narrative, scale, and collective experience.

Technology as Dramaturgy: Building the Future of Musical Storytelling with MTF

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Fireside Chat: John Gaeta

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OOVIE Studios Demo

OOVIE Studios is pioneering a new form of interactive cinema where AI-generated films evolve in real time in response to live music and audience interaction. In this demo, the team will showcase how their technology transforms sound into dynamic visual storytelling—creating movies that change every time they are experienced.

The Real-Time Revolution: Leveraging Game Technology for Independent Film

Moderated by Joanna Popper

The Future of Presence: VIVE Arts and the Multisensory Performance

VIVE Arts’ mission is to transform how we experience global cultural heritage and contemporary expression. As part of a broader push to bring technological innovation to the world’s most storied stages, Florie Zheng presents "Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey with Yuja Wang" - a forward-thinking installation that reinvents the classical recital.
By merging 360° volumetric capture of Yuja Wang’s physical movements with the Steinway Spirio’s precise acoustic data, VIVE Arts and their partners have created a "living, breathing" record of artistic genius. This project serves as a premier example of how VR/MR technology allows classical music to transcend traditional, passive formats. Discover how VIVE Arts is redefining the boundary between performer and participant, turning a storied heritage into a vibrant, sensory odyssey on display at the Cité de la Musique and beyond into 2026.

The Rise of AI Influencers: From Digital Characters to Real Businesses
Presented by OpenArt

As AI tools become more powerful and accessible, creators are no longer limited by traditional production constraints. Individuals and small teams can now design, produce, and scale AI-native personalities that engage millions across social platforms. From storytelling and entertainment to marketing and brand partnerships, AI influencers are reshaping how digital identity, creativity, and monetization intersect.

This panel brings together artists, creators, studio leaders, and platform builders at the forefront of this space. Speakers will share how they design AI influencers, grow audiences, collaborate with brands, and turn digital characters into sustainable ventures. The conversation will also highlight how platforms like OpenArt are enabling creators to build, scale, and manage AI-native personalities and creative workflows.

Rather than debating the future, this session focuses on what’s already working today in the rapidly growing AI influencer ecosystem.

Voice at Scale: AI, Performance, and the Future of Storytelling

Moderated by Joanna Popper

From Tool to Medium: Rethinking Technology in Creative Practice

Every new medium starts as a technology — and becomes meaningful when artists begin to shape it. Today, wearable AR, spatial platforms, and AI tools are changing how we create. Technology is no longer just something used to make art; it is becoming part of the artistic material itself. This talk explores how immersive platforms open space for experimentation, new forms of storytelling, and more interactive experiences. As artists move from composing images to shaping environments and behaviors, creative practice expands beyond the screen and into the world. Through creator examples and insights from immersive design systems, these tools can be seen not as technical utilities, but as new creative materials — and as an invitation for artists to actively define what this medium becomes.

Music + Immersive Experiences: How Live Events Are Evolving (and Who’s Building Them)

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Mind After Machine: Technology, Mental Health, and the Creative Nervous System

As AI accelerates creative output and digital environments grow more immersive, how do creators protect their mental health, identity, and emotional resilience?

This conversation explores how technology reshapes cognition, attention, and creative wellbeing—and how we can remain grounded while working at the frontier.

The Future of Happiness: Creativity, Presence, and Meaning in an Accelerated World

What does it mean to live well in an age of intelligent machines?

This session explores happiness not as escape, but as alignment—between creative purpose, technological tools, community, and inner life.

Speakers reflect on how creators can sustain joy, curiosity, and meaning while building the future.