Georgie is a leading technology journalist and presenter of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show, testing latest devices and reporting on consumer trends. Alongside her Gadget Show work Georgie has reported for ITV Tonight, Good Morning Britain and ITV Weekend, and is a regular on The Jeremy Vine Show. Georgie also comments on breaking tech stories for the likes of Channel 5 News, Radio 5 live, talkRADIO and BBC Radio 2. Her writing credits include The Mirror, Tech City News, The Guardian, Marie Claire and Metro. 

Georgie is passionate about women working in technology and devotes time to encouraging more girls to be involved in STEM subjects. She works alongside Girls in ICT, the IET and Childnet in striving to make technology and the digital world as exciting, safe and inclusive as possible. 

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Georgie once held the world record for the longest time spent in virtual reality (VR) – 26.5 hours. And pushing the VR experience to the max she once bungee jumped while wearing a VR headset! Georgie graduated from King’s College London with a First in English Literature and has a Diploma in Radio Production.  

John Simmons is an industry-recognised expert on Web media standards. He drove Microsoft’s efforts to define DRM-interoperable encoding, adaptive bitrate streaming, the collaboration with Google, Comcast, Netflix and the W3C for HTML5 Media Extensions and a multi-year Apple collaboration to develop the Common Media Application Format. 

John’s standards evangelism across the media and entertainment industry led to the creation of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Web Application Video Ecosystem (WAVE) project, a 60-company collaboration to adopt ISO/IEC and W3C standards for streaming media on a global scale. 

John received the CTA 2017 Technology Leadership Award for the creation of the WAVE Project and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) 2019 Emmy Award for the Microsoft, Google, Comcast, Netflix and W3C “Standardisation of HTML5, Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) and Media Source Extensions (MSE) for a Full TV Experience”.  

Recently retired from Microsoft, John now runs a media standards consulting business from his home in the Cascade Range foothills, east of Seattle, Washington. 

Colin has worked in the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU) for over 20 years, working on a range of innovative output from the very first Springwatch and Big Cat Live to launching BBC Earth’s Earth Unplugged Channel.   

More recently Colin has been responsible for the Natural History Unit’s output on the One Show, pioneering the use of novel technologies from 360 GoPro time-slice rigs to ‘sound cameras’.   

Colin is an enthusiastic adopter of new technologies. As Senior Innovation Producer he works with all NHU productions to look at the future of wildlife film making and how new technology such as drones, thermal imagery and remote cameras can be integrated to allow us to bring the natural world to our audiences in ways never previously achieved. 

Janette is one of Analysys Mason’s senior spectrum experts, with 25 years’ experience in radio engineering, wireless technologies, spectrum policy and spectrum management. Janette joined Analysys Mason in 2001 having previously worked for the UK Radiocommunications Agency (now Ofcom). 

Janette’s expertise lies in mobile, wireless and broadband technologies and markets and her consulting experience includes advising on market developments in the wireless sector, wireless technology evolution, wireless business modelling, spectrum valuation, spectrum strategy, competition and regulation issues in the wireless market.  

Her recent focus has been on 5G mobile and she has authored several published reports. Janette holds a BEng in Electronic Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, and an MSc in Radio Communications from the University of Bradford. 

Robert is a Senior Research Engineer in BBC R&D. He studied computer science at the University of Bristol before joining BBC R&D on their graduate scheme in 2006. He worked on set top box technologies and in the BBC iPlayer team before specialising in the application of image analysis, computer vision and tracking technologies to broadcasting. 

He currently leads the Intelligent Video Production Tools team which investigates and develops tools to process, analyse and understand video, normally in real time. The team works with broadcast companies and production teams to try and create practical tools to help them with their work. This has included several years of work on sports analysis and graphics systems. 

In recent years, Robert has worked in collaboration with the BBC Natural History Unit to investigate new ways to monitor and capture wildlife footage. Much of this work takes advantage of the rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

Polly is the course leader for the media technology programme at Solent University in Southampton. She joined the team in September 2009 and has had a variety of roles in research and teaching before becoming the course leader for the programme in 2013. 

Polly has strong connections with the media technology industry, particularly with the course alumni and organises work experience, placements and graduate positions with companies within the broadcast industry.  

She is particularly interested in outside broadcasting and has gained many links with large outside broadcast providers. Polly also has a keen interest in e-learning research, predominantly the use of video and mobile applications for online and distance learning and completed a master’s in media applications development in 2017. She recently joined the SMPTE Education Advisory Committee. 

Simon is Director, Imaging Standards and Technology, at Dolby Laboratories where he leads a team that works with international standards bodies, broadcasters, and consumer electronics manufacturers toward the development and adoption of advanced imaging standards. His focus is on improving image quality and experience and is involved with several exploratory projects relating to virtual and augmented reality. 

Prior to joining Dolby in 2016, Simon was the CTO of the Digital TV Group, where he helped set up the UK UHD Forum, and was editor–in–chief for the D-Book, the UK specification for interoperability of the DTT (Freeview) and Connected TV platforms. 

Simon has a master’s degree in electronics and communications engineering from Exeter University and BBC graduate training. He is a Fellow and current UK Chair of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). 

Simon was appointed independent Chairman of the DTG in February 2019. His career across IT, online and broadcast media, telecoms and airport technology spans five decades.

Simon was most recently Director of Technology & Innovation at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Based in Geneva, Simon led the team driving the industry’s digital transformation and introduced several new initiatives bringing focus to areas such as cybersecurity and OTT and establishing the EBU Innovation Awards.

Simon also chaired numerous international working groups and standards bodies, as well as represented broadcasters in their negotiations with the EU on spectrum.

Before joining the EBU in 2013 he was CTO at Heathrow Airport where he managed the technical architecture department and introduced an innovation team. He has held several executive positions at UK broadcasters including ITV where he was Director of Future Technologies.

Richard is responsible for the DTG’s growth and development. With over 20 years of TV industry experience, Richard drives the DTG’s unique collaborative culture.

Richard joined the DTG in 2004 as Director of Public Affairs. He was appointed Director General in 2006 before transferring to Freesat as Commercial Development Director.

Following Freesat’s, launch Richard returned as DTG DG in 2008. In 2012, Richard was named as one of the 50 most influential digital media leaders by Digital TV Europe. Before the DTG, Richard spent 15 years in the TV industry with roles at Sony, Toshiba and Pace.