Speakers 2018

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JAY KOTHARI

Project Lead, X The Moonshot
Factory, USA

JAY KOTHARI

Project Lead, X The Moonshot Factory, USA

Jay Kothari is the Project Lead at X: The Moonshot Factory, which is a cutting-edge division of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. X aims to link society’s big problems with radical solutions and breakthrough technologies. As Project Lead, Jay drives projects on wearable technology, such as Glass, and works with leaders in industries such as manufacturing, ogistics, and healthcare to improve the efficiency of hands-on workers.

STEVE LIDBURY

Managing Principal
Eight Inc, UK

STEVE LIDBURY

Managing Principal Eight Inc, UK

Steve Lidbury is Principal of Environments at Eight Inc., where he leads a team of interior designers, architects, and creative strategists, to deliver groundbreaking design for a diverse range of clients. Eight Inc. is a multi-discipline experience design studio, with more than 200 strategic designers and business creatives connected across 11 studios, 6 time zones, and 3 continents. The studio is renowned for having worked with Steve Jobs and conceptualising the first Apple store.

BANDEEP SINGH

Photographer & Photo Editor
India Today

BANDEEP SINGH

Photographer & Photo Editor of India Today

Bandeep Singh is a Photographer and Group Photo Editor for the India Today Group of publications. He is a reputed editorial photographer and his images have been published in Time, Fortune, The New York Times, Business Week, and Business Today. Bandeep has been on the jury of the India Habitat Centre grant for Photography for the past ten years and part of the core organising team of Photosphere photography Festival. In 2004 he received the Charles Wallace India Trust Award in Photography. In 2018, his images won the Gold Award for India Today at the WAN IFRA Asia Media Awards. His works are in the permanent collection of the Essl Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna, The Nirankari Museum of Faith, New Delhi, and in several private collections in India and abroad.

KAI RICHTER

Chief Designer
SAP, Germany

KAI RICHTER

Chief Designer SAP, Germany

In his role as Chief Designer, Kai Richter is responsible for the strategic direction of the design system for all SAP products. He has been key in transforming the design practice at SAP - the enterprise resource planning software - establishing an award-winning design system called SAP Fiori, including one of the most comprehensive and advanced design guidelines on the market; a design process that ensures the design quality of each product released by SAP, and one of the most talented and acknowledged design teams in the enterprise software space.

SANJAY GARG

Founder
Raw Mango

SANJAY GARG

Founder Raw Mango

Sanjay Garg, Founder, Raw Mango, is a Fashion and Textile Designer, credited with the revival of Chanderi textiles from Madhya Pradesh, brocades from Varanasi and soft cottons from West Bengal, through his brand of contemporary Indian hand-woven textiles crafted using traditional techniques. Originally from Rajasthan, he has grown-up with many craft traditions around him since childhood, and he has tried to bring about an appreciation of these in his collections and professional life. Raw Mango is not just about design and colour, but whose mission of preservation and regeneration in India permanently employs over 250 skilled workers. Raw Mango has adapted traditional designs to make them simple, sophisticated and distinctly contemporary, thereby creating a fresh new aesthetic that is both indigenous and modern.

MAXIMILIANO MODESTI

Craft Designer and Fashion
Entrepreneur, France and India

MAXIMILIANO MODESTI

Craft Designer and Fashion Entrepreneur, France and India

Maximiliano Modesti is a French-born textile and embroidery entrepreneur and design conservationist; Co founder of the Kalhath Institute, Lucknow (a training center for artisans) and Founder of the embroidery and manufacturing firm Les Ateliers 2M, headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1998, the company is staffed by artisans skilled in hand-embroidery techniques such as aari and zardosi. Modesti, who works with some of the world's most iconic luxury brands, remains a passionate advocate of preserving crafting traditions by bringing them into the 21st century. The focus of his work involves collaborations between karigars (artisans), artists, and architects. The Kalhath Institute was awarded the S.Jindal Prize for Contemporary Craft in October 2018.

GUNJAN GUPTA

Furniture Designer and Founder
Wrap, India

GUNJAN GUPTA

Furniture Designer and Founder Wrap, India

Gunjan is one of India's leading product designers and an emerging name on the International design circuit. Her iconic designs have been showcased at leading design fairs like Design Miami, Art Basel, Fuorisalone in Milan and Design Days Dubai where she has been noticed by leading collectors, celebrities, institutional heads and design critics. Gunjan describes her work as “A playful blend of Indian forms and rituals transformed into contemporary handmade objects having universal appeal that are functional and sculptural at the time."

PRATEEK JAIN & GAUTAM SETH

Co founder
Klove Studio, India

PRATEEK JAIN & GAUTAM SETH

Co founder Klove Studio, India

Prateek Jain and his business partner Gautam Seth began Klove Studio in 2006 with the goal of making light products that merged fantasy, reality, functionality, and design. Committed to experimentation, and inspired by the skills that they learnt from working with traditional Indian craftsmen, they created a hands-on, locally grounded, but globally acclaimed, brand - synonymous with the highest quality of hand-blown glass possible. Employing over sixty highly skilled workers, the brand has developed a wide range of products that span larger than life 3D installations as well as simple, functional lighting for the home.

SANJAY PODDER

Managing Director
Accenture Labs, Asia Pacific

SANJAY PODDER

Managing Director Accenture Labs, Asia Pacific

Sanjay Podder is the Managing Director for Accenture Labs in Bangalore, where he leads the company’s Software Engineering R&D and 'Technology for Good' initiative. He is passionate about using the power of data science, IoT, Blockchain, digital and design thinking to accelerate Social Transformation in areas such as health, education, gender inequality, empowering the forgotten billion and protecting the planet. Podder is a Technology Mentor for several social entrepreneurs,changemakers and startups, and has been instrumental in building a powerful open innovation ecosystem for joint R&D with leading academics and institutions in India and abroad. He is a 2017 Eisenhower Fellow and a Governing Council Member of the NASSCOM IoT Center of Excellence setup as part of the Digital India program.

PHILIPPE MOREL

Co founder
Digital Knowledge, France

PHILIPPE MOREL

Co founder Digital Knowledge, France

Philippe Morel is an architect and theorist, cofounder of EZCT Architecture & Design Research and of the Large-scale 3D printing corporation XtreeE. He is an Associate Professor at the ENSA Paris-Malaquais where he leads the Digital Knowledge department. Morel has lectured at some of the world's most reputable architecture schools, including at the MIT Department of Architecture. His book 'Empiricism & Objectivity: Architectural Investigations with Mathematica' is the first architectural theory book entirely written in code. His work is present in the FRAC Centre and Centre Pompidou permanent collections, and was recently shown in the exhibition 'Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital at the Museum of Arts and Design' in New York.

KAMAL & SHIBANEE SAGAR

Co founders
Total Environment, India

KAMAL & SHIBANEE SAGAR

Co founders Total Environment, India

Kamal & Shibanee Sagar are Co founders of Total Environment, an architect-led real estate design and development firm, with projects that range from residential apartments to corporate campuses. The firm builds completely furnished, individually customized spaces with a focus on good design and sensitive detailing. Their project 'Windmills of the Mind' was recently nominated for the 2018 World Architecture Festival (WAF), which is the world’s largest international architectural event and awards program, dedicated to celebrating excellence via live presentations to delegates and international juries.

CHRIS SOLARSKI

Founder, Solarski Studio
Switzerland

CHRIS SOLARSKI

Founder, Solarski Studio, Switzerland

Chris Solarski is an artist-game designer and author specialising in the relationship between traditional art principles and video game aesthetics. Solarski has written two books, both of which are widely considered to be essential reading, offering an art and narrative-driven game design framework for adaptive gameplay aesthetics that orchestrate the player's physical and emotional experience in progressive ways. Solarski has given talks on interactive storytelling and game art at international venues and organisations including Disney Research, the Smithsonian's landmark The Art of Video Games exhibition, SXSW, GDC Europe, and FMX.

BRIAN PARKES

CEO
JamFactory, Australia

BRIAN PARKES

CEO JamFactory, Australia

Brian Parkes has been CEO at JamFactory in Adelaide since April 2010. During this time he has overseen significant organisational growth and a deepening of engagement with the architecture and design community. JamFactory is a unique not-for-profit organisation, which is supported by the South Australian Government and is recognised globally as a centre for excellence. JamFactory’s purpose-built studios for Ceramics, Glass, Furniture and Jewellery provide skills and business training for artists and designers. Its exhibition and retail spaces showcase contemporary Australian practice and offer a wide range of high quality and collectable craft and design.

MALIKA VERMA KASHYAP

Founder
Border & Fall, India

MALIKA VERMA KASHYAP

Founder Border & Fall, India

Malika Verma Kashyap is the founder of Border & Fall, a multi-disciplinary strategic agency working with India's leading and emerging design talent. A vocal advocate for India's design and craft communities, she has spoken at The Jaipur Literature Festival, Bhutan Mountain Echoes Literary Festival and was on the 2017 Advisory Council for the MoMA's exhibit 'Items: Is Fashion Modern?'. In 2017, she launched ‘The Sari Series: An Anthology of Drape’, a cultural digital documentation of India’s regional sari drapes. Malika moved to India from Canada a decade ago with extensive experience across fashion brand management, sales and retail operations. She is also a contributing writer for publications including Vogue India, Architectural Digest and Freund von Freunden.

RAHUL MISHRA

Founder
Rahul MIshra Studio, India

RAHUL MISHRA

Founder Rahul MIshra Studio, India

Rahul Mishra, Winner of the International Woolmark Prize 2014, champions slow fashion with traditional Indian textiles. His eponymous label represents the finest craftsmanship: handwoven, hand-embroidered and hand-crafted. He is regarded as a "national treasure" by Suzy Menkes, International Fashion Editor of Vogue; he was recently featured in GQ’s Power list of 50 Most Influential Indians; and is on the global influential list of BoF 500. Mishra showcases his ready-to-wear line in the official calendar of Paris Fashion Week, and his annual couture collection at India Couture Week.

ABHIMANYU NOHWAR

Founder Director
Kiba Design, India

ABHIMANYU NOHWAR

Founder Director Kiba Design, India

Abhimanyu Nohwar established Kiba Design in 2005 as a space to explore the impact of design on different aspects of life, and to build a breadth of knowledge and experience across domains to better inform design solutions for the future. He has been a design educationist and an advisor to several high-level national and international bodies, including XPrize, V-Must (Virtual Museum Transnational Network - a European network of excellence focused on virtual museums), and Expert Advisor on Design Innovation at the National Innovation Council (2012-2014), Planning Commission, Government of India, where he wrote India’s new policy on Design Education. Nohwar's work has been recognised by India Design Mark and Godrej Design Lab, and has been featured by Alliance Francaise Delhi as one of 20 outstanding designers under the age of 35.

JAHNVI LAKHOTA NANDAN

Perfumer and Writer
The Perfume Library, France

JAHNVI LAKHOTA NANDAN

Perfumer and Writer The Perfume Library, France

Jahnvi Nandan is an Indo-French perfumer and writer. After studying expert composition in perfumery at ISIPCA in Versailles, Lakhota Nandan created India's first contemporary perfumery, The Perfume Library, and subsequently a perfumery start-up in technology, Atelier Mnemist, in Paris, with the support of the French government. Jahnvi imposes the invisible, striving to create an understanding of fragrance as art and perfumery as a process of design. She is also the author of the best-selling book, 'Pukka Indian', which charts the course of iconic design in India.

BIREN GHOSE

CEO
Technicolor, India

BIREN GHOSE

CEO Technicolor, India

Biren Ghose is the Country Head in India for Technicolor, a $5 billion (USD) global arts and sciences leader involved in technology and production services for the media and entertainment industry. He is an acknowledged industry leader in India for government policy formulation and advancing education. He has established India as the primary hub for Technicolor’s foray in the CG animation business (aimed at the movie, television and games segments) and as a major centre for its global expertise in VFX. In Animation, the studio has won seven Emmy Awards in the past eight years. In film Visual Effects (VFX), MPC Film, Bangalore and Mr. X VFX, have worked on several Oscar nominated features including The Jungle Book, Life of Pi, Shape of Water, and Blade Runner 2049.

PARVINDER MARWAHA

Design Program Manager
British Council, UK

PARVINDER MARWAHA

Design Program Manager British Council, UK

Parvinder Marwaha is the Program Manager for Design at the British Council, where she leads on architecture, design and fashion programmes across the EU and South Asia, and runs 'Design Connections' - the annual delegation programme for museum directors and festival curators from around the globe. Marwaha has published a number of articles on Indian architecture and design, becoming a regular contributor for Mark Magazine for this region. Parvinder helped found and develop XS Architecture, a platform that exhibits and sells products designed by Dutch architects, including MVRDV and UNStudio. She has also been contributor to online platform Failed Architecture and Works That Work. She specialises in designing workspaces for startups, including Growth Tribe and VRBase.

SHIVA NALLAPERUMAL

Graphic & Type Designer
India

SHIVA NALLAPERUMAL

Graphic & Type Designer India

Shiva Nallaperumal is a Graphic Designer, Type Designer & Art Director from India. Together with his partner Juhi Vishnani, he has worked with a wide range of international clients designing Identity Systems, Exhibitions, Publications and Typefaces. As a type designer he has worked with Typotheque, Bold Monday, Sharp Type and Lost Type Co-Op. In 2017, he was selected as one of Forbes India’s 30 Under 30, the first Graphic Designer to do so.

GAUTAM VAZIRANI

Creative Strategist and Fashion Curator
IMG Reliance, India

GAUTAM VAZIRANI

Creative Strategist and Fashion Curator, IMG Reliance, India

Gautam Vazirani, Fashion Curator at IMG Reliance, is one of the leading voices in sustainable fashion from India. He has led a number of conceptual initiatives at Lakmè Fashion Week, including #CraftIsCool, Restart Fashion, Artisans of Kutch, Made in Assam and India Collective, which have garnered widespread endorsements from the fashion industry as well as the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. Vazirani's contributions at Lakmè Fashion Week Sustainable Fashion Day have been recognised as a ‘creative renaissance’ (Verve, 2017) and he was honoured as a 'changemaker’ (Harper’s Bazaar India, 2017). His work resulted in IMG Reliance winning the Best Country Award for India at the International Fashion Showcase UK during London Fashion Week February 2017.

REVATHI KANT

Chief Design Officer
Titan Company Ltd, India

REVATHI KANT

Chief Design Officer, Titan Company Ltd, India

Revathi Kant, Chief Design Officer, at Titan Company Ltd, is a Design and Innovation strategist with more than 12 years of experience in applying Design Thinking in diverse domains. Through her work, Kant focuses on building Design as an important differentiator in the sustainable growth of business.

ABHISHEK PODDAR

Founder, The Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), India

ABHISHEK PODDAR

Founder, The Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), India

Abhishek Poddar is a businessman and prominent patron of the arts in India who sits on the boards and advisory committees of several cultural institutions. Since the mid-eighties, Poddar has built a sizable and significant collection of art and photography, from which artworks have been loaned and continue to be loaned to several national and international exhibitions and publications. In 2006, Poddar cofounded Tasveer, one of the country’s first galleries dedicated to photography. In 2011, he established the Art & Photography Foundation to increase public awareness and engagement with art, and founded the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bangalore (scheduled to open in 2020), driven by the belief that museums play a positive role in society.

CHRISTIAN GIRARD

Architect and Theoretician, Co founder
Digital Knowledge, France

CHRISTIAN GIRARD

Architect and Theoretician, Co founder, Digital Knowledge, France

Christian Girard is a practicing architect and theoretician. One of the founding members of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais (2000), he is now an Emeritus Professor. Here, he co-founded the Digital Knowledge Department with Pr. Philippe Morel. He has published numerous texts in the field of architecture theory. As a co-founder of the Area Institute in Paris, a non-profit organisation devoted to experimental and digital architecture, he contributes to maintain a debate on those questions. Projects and built works by Atelier d'Architecture Christian Girard have participated in exhibitions in Paris, Florence, Mexico, Seoul, Montreal, Berlin, Rotterdam.

RAGHAVA KK

Multidisciplinary Artist and
Entrepreneur, India

RAGHAVA KK

Multidisciplinary Artist and Entrepreneur, India

Named by CNN as one of the 10 most remarkable people in 2010, Raghava KK is a multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur working at the intersection of art, science technology, and education. Raghava is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and a multiple-time TED speaker. His iPad art book Pop-it, launched at TED Global in 2011, presents children with multiple perspectives on the concept of the ideal family. It won several awards, including a Best of 2011 award from Kirkus. Currently, he is in Bangalore curating and creating art for the post human age with 64/1, an art curation and research collective that he co-founded with Dr. Karthik Kalyanaraman. 64/1 is focused on building public understanding of how artists and artificial intelligence can come together to create art for the post-human age.