Louise Allen
Louise has extensive leadership experience in the creative and cultural sector both nationally and internationally. As Director of the Creative Futures Academy, a pivotal initiative that will provide agile and responsive courses to up-skill Ireland’s cultural and creative sector, she leads a team that spans three Higher Education Institutes: The National College of Art & Design (NCAD), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT) and University College Dublin (UCD).
Prior to this, as CEO (acting) and Head of Innovation and Research at the Design & Crafts Council Ireland, she was central to the strategic development of the design and craft sector. During her tenure as President of World Crafts Council Europe, she forged critical international partnerships, most notably with Atelier d’Art de France, the LOEWE Foundation and The Michelangelo Foundation where she was instrumental in the development of the Homo Faber biennale in Venice in 2018. During Irish Design 2015, as Head of the International Programme, she devised the strategy for the co-ordination and delivery of over 100 design-led events across 60 cities in 30 countries. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Liminal-Irish Design at the Threshold, The Global Irish Design Challenge and Second Skin.
Louise is a regular contributor to policies with national reach including: Ireland Design Ireland – Towards a National Design Policy; Plans for a National Design Centre as part of the Government’s National Development Plan, 2040; Future Jobs Ireland and Ireland’s Global Footprint.
Kristýna Kočová
Kristýna is a cultural manager at Creative Prague, an organisation aimed at creating an environment for culture to thrive, as well as developing the cultural and creative industries in the city of Prague and beyond. Kristýna views creative skills as an important ingredient to building a resilient CCSI ecosystem in her hometown, and here at CSW, she will represent the local ecosystem that is being mapped and worked with within the framework of the SACCORD project.
Leonard Negurita
Leonard Negurita is a project manager for international projects in the Creative Industries Unit at the Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation (WRS). Since 2021 he is responsible for all communication issues within the Creative Industries Unit and is now organising and supervising major funding projects. The Creative Industries Unit aims to further develop the conditions for the creative sector in the Stuttgart Region. Through networking, marketing the region, workshops and events, the team endeavours to develop the Stuttgart Region as a creative location and to market it successfully to a wider audience.
Natália Melo
Natália Melo is an invited researcher at _ARTERIA_LAB – University of Évora, working on placemaking, cultural and creative industries and the role of museums in climate communication and futures literacy. She is coordinating the activities of the project Storytooling: Empowering European Youth through Heritage Narratives and Inclusive Innovation in Évora, Portugal.
Ambra Trotto
Ambra Trotto is Director of Transformation and RIS at the EIT Culture and Creativity and associate professor at the Umeå Institute of Design.
Within her role at the EIT CC she promotes systemic and sustainable societal transformation, by ideating, shaping and supporting strategic projects and initiatives that harvest the imaginative power of the cultural and creative sector to produce such transformation.
Her purpose lies in catalysing ecosystems into transforming existing practices into regenerative ones, through design, by initiating and curating multidimensional and transdisciplinary synergies based on beauty, diversity and meaning, to realise sustainable futures.
Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir
Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir (she/her) is an Icelandic composer, vocal artist and artistic researcher based in Vienna. Her practice centres interdisciplinary research on voice through embodiment and extended vocal techniques, ecomusicology and sound-based experimental writing. Ragnheiður is a doctoral candidate at the Artistic Research Center in the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and winner of the phonoECHOES prize for Sound Art, Improvisation and Experimental Music at Klangzeit Festival 2023. Her work has been performed internationally in various forms, ranging from hidden sound installations in forests to theatrical vocal compositions. She currently works at the University of Applied Arts Vienna contributing to the European project CYANOTYPES.
Constance Michaud-Nancy
Constance Michaud-Nancy is project manager at Le LABA since July 2024. She holds a Master’s degree in Cultural Project Management and Territorial Development from Sciences Po Bordeaux, and completed three years of apprenticeship in the cultural sector, developing a particular affinity with the cultural industries, notably cinema. Her training includes a Licence Professionnelle in artistic mediation and a BTS in audiovisual production management. Passionate about the development of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, she favors collaborations with local players while integrating international perspectives.
Sophie Guenebaut
Sophie Guenebaut has over 30 years’ experience in the development and management of projects in the cultural and creative industries at the service of social innovation. She is President of ALBA International, a consulting firm specializing in financing and internationalization. At the same time, since 2013, she has been running Le LABA, an association that conducts cooperation projects in the fields of culture, tourism and sport. Her expertise has led to some 100 grants under the LEADER, INTERREG, ERASMUS+, Creative Europe, Horizon Europe, ACP Culture, FSE+, FEDER and other programs. A former board member (Centre Dramatique National de Béthune, l’ONDA, le Rocher de Palmer), she headed the Zone France network. She is also an associate lecturer in the Master Ingénierie de Projets Culturels et Interculturels program at Bordeaux Montaigne University and Sciences Po Bordeaux. Sophie Guenebaut holds degrees in Human Resources, Public Law and MBA from HEC Paris.
Shannon North
Shannon North is an executive leader with over 25 years of apparel and footwear design experience with skills specializing in innovative global product design, development, collaborative strategic planning, merchandising, 3D design, patternmaking, and virtual fit. Her concentration is in technologies used as visual communication tools. She attained her Fashion M.F.A. to share her experience with others along their journey in academia and beyond. Her career achievements include creating custom clothing for the country music industry, designing Johnston & Murphy® footwear, developing patented innovative products, implementing 3D and virtual fit tools with Workwear Outfitters®, and leading creative vision with brands including Vans®, Timberland®, Napapijri®, Kipling®, The North Face®, Red Kap®, Dickies®, Bulwark®, and Horace Small®. Her work has awarded her multiple patents and innovation awards.
Petya Koleva
Dr. Petya Koleva is European cultural and creative sectors’ innovation expert based in Sofia. Over the last two decades she is nurturing international collaboration, engaging with arts, industry, intangible heritage professionals and policy makers across Europe. She is the founder of Intercultura Consult (2004) that specialized developing synergies between arts and innovation.
