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. 

Andy is Senior Vice President, Global Distribution Technology for Universal Pictures based in London and has over 25 years technology experience in the media industry. Currently Andy is focused on managing the technical aspects of Universal’s premium video on-demand initiative, new innovative experiences around the purchase of digital content, immersive experiences, how artificial intelligence and machine learning can enhance the viewing experience of movies, as well as how it can help content protection initiatives.  

Innovation has been key throughout his career and recently he received a Fellowship from the Royal Television Society for his “outstanding contribution to television”. He has also recently worked as a UK Section Manager for the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers and has been an active member of the Digital Television Group in the UK as well as other cross industry forums.

His previous roles include Head of Technology Planning for ITV in the UK where among other projects he was involved with was the launch of digital terrestrial television, widescreen and latterly the successful trials of high definition distribution.  

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. 

Shirlene is the Global Market Development Director at Finecast, focused on the growth and deployment of Finecast internationally. Prior to this she worked on the launch of Fiducia DLT, a revolutionary disruptive open source blockchain technology platform, designed to deliver transparency to the programmatic supply chain. 

Shirlene has also worked at Amobee, Adconion and Smartclip, as product expert and business owner for connected TV across all markets, mostly based in New York. In early 2009 Shirlene was Director of Yahoo! Connected TV, the very first connected TV platform that delivered internet content to TV sets, where she covered all major European markets and was responsible for strategy implementation, partnership development and product marketing.  

Previously she has held positions as Product Marketing Director at Yahoo! responsible for the successful pan-European roll out for several of Yahoo!’s advertising products; Commercial Director at BlueLithium, responsible for sales and marketing; Opodo as Sales and Distribution Director and as Partner and Media Manager at Vodafone. With over 20 years of experience in the digital advertising industry on an international level across product, sales and go-to-market, Shirlene has a deep understanding of delivering insight and customer value in the ever changing digital and TV landscapes. 

Sarah leads the day-to-day running of the Freeview TV platform and is responsible for delivering the best possible end-to-end customer experience of Freeview.

Previously she worked at Channel 4 for over 15 years. During this time she was at the forefront of its digital transformation, as one of the original team that developed and launched 4oD – Channel 4’s ground-breaking video-on-demand service – in 2006.

More recently Sarah was Head of Product, responsible for the functionality and UX of All 4 across all platforms and devices.

She has also worked in business development and strategy at ITV, and at internet start-up Webrewards.

Sarah began her career at the management consulting firm McKinsey and holds an MA in Economics from Cambridge University.

Dr Mickaël Raulet is Chief Technology Officer at ATEME, where he drives research and innovation with various collaborative R&D projects. He represents ATEME in several standardisation bodies: ATSC, DVB, 3GPP, ISO/IEC, ITU, MPEG, DASH-IF, CMAF-IF, SVA and UHDForum.

He is the author of numerous patents and more than 100 conference and journal scientific papers.

In 2006 he received his PhD from INSA in electronic and signal processing, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric ITE (Rennes, France).

Dr Lauren Ward is a Research Fellow in Media Accessibility at the University of York AudioLab. She is part of the XR Stories project, a Creative Industries Cluster for Immersive and Mixed Reality Storytelling, and leads the Screen Industries Growth Network project A3I: Accessible Audio for Autistic Individuals.

Lauren completed her PhD in Acoustic and Audio Engineering (University of Salford, UK, 2020) while working for BBC R&D. Her PhD developed novel technology to improve the accessibility of broadcast media for hard of hearing listeners, for which she won an EPSRC Connected Nation Pioneer Award (2018). She also collaborated with BBC Studio’s Casualty in a number of high-profile audience trials of this technology, for which they were runner-up at the EBU’s Technology and Innovation Awards (2020).

She is a General Sir John Monash Scholar and has a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Electronics and Communications (2014) and a Bachelor of Philosophy (2015), both from University of Tasmania, Australia. Previously Lauren has worked in commercial, public sector and community radio, including for the ABC. Outside of research she can be found kayaking white-water, hiking, throwing axes, crocheting or baking cakes.

Gonzalo is VP of Strategic Projects at Fastly, a post he has held since September 2020. Previously Gonzalo was General Manager of EMEA at Fastly, responsible for driving the growth and development in-region.  

He has worked on most sides of the value chain, including digital music at Sony Music, music apps at Microsoft, and networks at Telefónica.  

Previously, Gonzalo served as CEO of Nice People At Work and SVP of Sales at Musiwave.  

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). 

Alex is Strategic Technologist for Spectrum and Security at the DTG. He coordinates and manages activities for several DTG working groups such as the RF Group, the Cyber Security Group and the PMSE Implementation Group, and provides technical direction and strategy for the business with regards to future delivery of TV services. 

Alex is the project lead and co-founder of the 5G VISTA project, a consortium led by the DTG which is part of the UK 5G Trials and Test Beds programme and which is developing 5G broadcast solutions for live sporting events. 

He is also a Director at SafeShark, a DTG Testing joint venture developing a consumer IoT cyber security assurance scheme which Alex is leading. Alex also runs DTG Testing’s wireless testing facilities and UK Approved Body services, achieving UKAS accreditation for all the services it offers, and providing certification for products being sold in the UK and EU markets. 

Alex has worked in the Telecommunications and RF industry since graduating from Leeds University with an MEng in Electronic and Electrical Engineering in 2004. On leaving University he joined the Ericsson graduate scheme spending 4 years as a 3G and 4G Systems Engineer on a variety of rollout, optimisation, and research projects throughout the UK and Europe. He then moved into the public sector and worked for the Metropolitan Police until 2012 managing their trunked radio system and control room communication systems.

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.

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.

Main sessions at Waves of Change, the 2021 DTG Summit will be illustrated live by artist Chris Shipton.  

Chris has been drawing since he could hold a pen. He’s a cartoonist whose work has appeared in The Times and i newspapers, with one piece residing in the Cartoon Museum’s collection in London.  

Says Chris: “Cartoons are entertaining. But they’re much more than just funny pictures. They’re a simple, quick and direct method for delivering complex ideas, and importantly sequences of ideas.  

“It might only take a few seconds to read a cartoon, to ‘get’ the message. But the meaning lasts far longer, lingering in the consciousness long after the viewer has moved on.”