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Sara Kärpänen is a writer, storytelling specialist, and the founder of Women of the Wick, an award winning feminist media born in Hackney Wick, East London. With a background in news reporting, Sara holds a Master's degree from the Bartlett School of Architecture and has worked in London for over a decade in communications for the non-profit and cultural sectors.

Sara's first non-fiction book, "City of Women - Tools for Occupying Space," was published in Finnish by Into Kustannus in 2022. Through her writing, consultancy and curatorial work, Sara is dedicated to elevating the voices, work and visibility of women in cities and democratising the media spaces with the power of storytelling.

🔹 Learn more about Women of the Wick here

🔹 Follow Women of the Wick here

🔹 Follow Sara Kärpänen here

On a mission to make parent-life more joyful, Ann-Marie, a Hackney-based UX designer and mum founded KindHaus, a space on Stoke Newington High Street that provides respite, coffee and community for modern parents as they navigate the early years.

So much more than the usual services families are offered, KindHaus is a "home-away-from-home" that offers parents the gift of time with a 3-hour co-work & creche service, and it offers parents opportunity to be inspired and participate in local culture through arts events, talks and more.

🔹 Learn more about KindHaus here

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Mac Van Dam is a multi-disciplinary designer, inventor, and artist. His work is rooted in a desire to bring the benefits of biological/living sensibilities to the built environment. Before founding design studios in the UK, Mac was a research member at the Living Architecture Systems Group in Toronto, a post-graduate student at UCL's Bio-integrated Design Lab, and has worked at internationally acclaimed architecture firms. His work has been shown at the Lisbon Triennale, London Design Festival, Venice Biennale, Coachella, and other international design exhibitions.

With a team at ZINC, a mission-driven incubator, he is developing innovative architectural products that utilise the vast vertical surfaces in urban environments to host biodiverse ecologies.

🔹 Learn more about Vertical Grounds at here

🔹 Learn more about Mac Van Dam’s work here

🔹 Follow Mac Van Dam on Instagram here

Born and raised in Leytonstone, Murkage Dave spent his youth listening to garage and R&B followed by formative years spent in Manchester absorbing The Smiths and Joy Division. This disparate mix of influences has shaped a defiantly British pop blend, with his observational storytelling continuing to attract fans globally. He has collaborated with Caroline Polacheck, Tricky, Mike Skinner, Evidence, AC Slater, Jaykae, Skepta, Nekfeu and more.

Murkage Dave’s listeners have formed their own community, organically grown from a connection with his music. This connection compels his fans to share the music with others, resulting in a cathartic live show experience where the whole audience unites. Over his past two albums, he’s gained support from Pharrell Williams, Young Fathers, Iggy Pop, Romesh Ranganathan, Pitchfork, The Fader, Highsnobiety, Complex, The Face, BBC Radio 1, and more.

🔹 Find out more about Murkage Dave - http://murkagedave.com/

🔹 Follow Murkage Dave on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/murkagedave

Jess Mahoney is Strategic Partnerships and Networks Lead, Carys Bradley-Roberts is Communications and Engagement Manager at Creative Cardiff, which is based in the Centre for the Creative Economy at Cardiff University.

Established in 2014, the Centre’s initial focus was on network building, launching the Creative Cardiff

Andy C Pratt is UNESCO Chair of Global Creative Economy, Director of the Centre of Culture and the Creative Industries, and Professor of Cultural Economy, City, University of London. 

He previously established the first Department of Culture and the Creative Industries in the world at King’s College London. Alongside this he previously taught at LSE, and UCL, and had held visiting professor positions at many global institutions including in SMU (Singapore) and ZHdK/ETH (Zurich).  

He specialises in the analysis of the cultural industries globally. This research has three strands. The first focuses on the social and economic dynamics of clustering and knowledge exchange. The second strand concerns the definition and measurement of employment in the cultural, or creative, industries. The third concerns cultural governance and policy making at the national, regional and urban scales. He has worked with UNESCO, the World Bank and many national and city government on these topics. 

His current research concerns trans-local cultural production chains and is funded by EU Horizon 2020: Cicerone.

He has previously explored projects on urban creative economy, clustering, knowledge transfer, innovation and creativity & until 2023 he was Editor-in-Chief of the international interdisciplinary journal City, Culture and Society.

🔹 Learn more and connect with Andy C Pratt here

🔹 Read Andy C Pratt’s academic writing here

Ewa Effiom is a London-based Belgo-Nigerian architect, writer and producer. He was a member of the Architecture Foundation’s New Architecture Writers’ second cohort which culminated in a critically acclaimed public programme. Mythology, collective identity, popular culture and their inextricable links to the built environment are recurring themes in his work with a focus on the mythology and folklore that different subcultures instate and associated to space. He has been published in the Architect’s Newspaper, Dwell, the AJ, ICON, Wallpaper, Frame, OnOffice, Architecture Aujourd'hui, the Modern House magazine, A Daily Dose and Ex Libris. His piece Architecture, Buildings and Conservation in MAJA was nominated for best piece in the 2022 Estonian Architecture Awards and came second place in the Tallinn Architecture Biennale’s 2021 Curatorial Competition with a proposal entitled Adaptive Re-use.

His film Eagle Mansion was premiered at the 2021 Urban Film Festival in Perth and screened at 2022 Melbourne Design Week. He was awarded the 2022 How To Residency at the Canadian Centre for Architecture entitled “How Not To Be A Developer” which is the year that his second film “Beck Road” premiered at the Open City festival. Beck Road later screened at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale entitled Laboratory of the Future as part of the curator, Lesley Lokko’s Carnival public programme.

After graduating he became an associate lecturer on the MA in Architecture + Urbanism at the Manchester School of Architecture, a post he held until 2022 and he is a visiting critic at the Estonian Institute of Technology and London Metropolitan University.

🔹 Follow Ewa Effiom on Instagram⁠