The artistic practice of Chris Cheung (honhim) reflects his beliefs in Chinese Philosophy and his works combine traditional and futuristic ideas. Inspired by the Zhuang Zhou, his earliest work “The happiness of fish” presents his thoughts on objectivism and subjectivism verse the initiative of interactivity and the death of the author. He is always exploring new medium and finding aesthetic in technological intervention. His creations won him awards in the Reddot, TDC, GDC11, Design for Asia awards and New York Art Director Club Young Guns 11. He received the Young Artist Award from HKADC and the Young Design Talent Awards from HKDC in 2010 and 2011 respectively. He founded XEX and XCEED, the collective works have been showcased worldwide. Recently, the work “RadianceScape” is selected for the exhibition in Ars Electronica Festival. In the 1st HK-SZ Design Biennale, he was appointed as the artistic director and curator of the New Media and Tech Pavilion.

Chris also composes music for films and TV commercials. He formed an electronic duo – VIM (Volt in Music) in 2008 and the band was selected by Time Out Magazine and CNNGO as “one of the top 10 Hong Kong indie band” in 2009.

Wesley Grubbs is an artist, data visualizer and provocateur based in Oakland, CA. In 2007 he founded Pitch Interactive, a studio who’s focus is weaving code with design and statistics to find versatile solutions to communicate complex data for clients such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wired, GE, Esquire, Scientific American and Popular Science.

Built upon his experiences living abroad, degrees held in International Economics and Information Systems and his innate interest in the brain and cognition, Wes’ work focuses on revealing patterns about human behavior and how our actions impact our surroundings.

Pitch Interactive’s work spans illustrations, physical installations, projections, console game user interfaces, software applications, websites and textiles. Their work has been showcased at Fotofest Sensors exhibit, Houston, Texas (2015), Data Drift exhibit at RIXC The Center for New Media Culture, Riga, Latvia (2015), Tomas Van Houtryve – Blue Sky Days exhibit at the Bayeux awards for War Correspondents Festival, Bayeux, France (2015), the McKnight Artist Fellowship program’s 30th anniversary exhibition, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2012), Talk to Me at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011), Conversations Électriques at La Panacée, Montpellier, France (2011), Best American Infographics, the Data Flow books and many other internationally acclaimed publications.

Los Angeles-based illustrator Victo Ngai was raised in Hong Kong and went on to Rhode Island School of Design, majoring in illustration. In addition to being a Forbes 30 Under (Art and Style) honoree and a Society of Illustrators NY Gold Medalist, her work has received recognition from the New York Times, Communication Arts, American Illustration and many others. Victo’s biggest passions, besides drawing, are traveling and eating.

John Tolva is a co-founder of CityFi Advisors, a strategic consulting firm dedicated to enabling sustainable decision-making for cities.

John’s career has focused on developing and applying technology to improve the urban environment. Formerly John was the president of PositivEnergy Practice, an urban system engineering firm based on data-driven planning for new building design, retrofits, and urban design.

From 2011 to 2013 he was Chief Technology Officer for the City of Chicago, leveraging technology to streamline public services through more efficient data-sharing, digital communications, and next-generation infrastructure. He led the development of ‘The City of Chicago Technology Plan’, an initiative that sets forth a series of public-private strategies to accelerate economic growth, build educated and digitally-engaged communities and workforce, improve government services, and reduce costs through technology.

In 2012, the White House recognized John as a ‘Champion of Change’ as part of a group of creative individuals engaged in building stronger communities through innovative approaches to problem-solving.

Prior to joining the City, he was Director of Citizenship and Technology at IBM Corp, where he worked on the firm’s ‘smarter cities’ initiative, advising cities how to incorporate data analytics into planning and operations.

Carol Ross Barney, FAIA has dedicated her career to design of public places and spaces. From small, community buildings, to campus buildings for premier academic and research institutions, to groundbreaking new transit stations, riverwalks and recreational trails that connect vibrant neighborhoods; her exploration into the power of how architecture improves our daily lives has produced distinctive structures that have become cultural icons.

Her work has an international reputation in design of institutional and public buildings and has been exhibited and published in national and international journals, books, newspapers and web media.  Her building designs have received numerous honors including 4 Institute Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects and over 40 AIA Chicago Design Awards.  Her work has received significant sustainable building awards including two AIA COTE Top Ten Green Project awards.

Carol is the recipient of the AIA Thomas Jefferson Award and the AIA Illinois Gold Medal, both recognizing excellence in architectural achievement.

Ross Barney is a graduate of the University of Illinois. Following graduation, she served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica planning national parks. She currently teaches an advanced Design Studio at IIT and serves on their College Board of Overseers.

For 25 years, Rowan Lodge has been creating and implementing architecture solutions across the globe, representing major retail labels in the sectors of fashion, sporting apparel and cosmetics.

In 2007, Rowan was responsible for delivering one of the world’s largest retail rollout programs for the Adidas Group, Asia Pacific. In 2011, he relocated from Hong Kong to the Adidas headquarters in Germany. It was from here that he drove the creative development of Adidas’ future Retail Concepts strategy globally, including retail design solutions for Adidas Originals, Y3, Adidas by Stella McCartney, and Adidas Sports Performance.

In 2014, Rowan returned home to Australia, joining Aesop as Head of Retail Design. Rowan has a sincere interest in intelligent and sustainable design. As a brand, Aesop have delighted by the unexpected affinities that have come from the negotiation of differences involved in establishing new stores – by means of immersion in unfamiliar landscapes, investigation of local materials, engagement with local culture and history, and of course development of fertile new relationships. During Rowan’s tenure the Aesop store portfolio has grown by 70% with a further measured and sustainable growth strategy of future new stores and counters in existing and new markets across the globe.

Rainer has more than 15 years of professional creative experience and is the frog lead for the financial services and telecommunications industries. He heads up the Creative team of technologists, interactive designers, and visual designers in Shanghai and has been working in the Asia region for over 7 years.

Before joining frog, Rainer worked at iconmobile in London as Head of strategic design. He also worked at Vodafone Group where he managed the concept design team and design specification team and was responsible for defining, validating and executing future service concepts that support the group’s vision and strategy. Prior to that he was the Creative lead for Sapient.

Rainer holds a degree in psychology and focused on ergonomics, user centred design processes and evaluation during his study.

Rainer has spoken at conferences such as The Bloomberg Green Summit, Internet of Things Asia, and is frequently quoted in China’s top tier media.

Raaja is the co-founder and CEO of Bucketfeet where he oversees the company’s growth and development. Founded in 2011, Bucketfeet is a footwear company that collaborates with a global community of over 40,000 artists from 120 countries to design limited-edition shoes with the goal of sparking meaningful conversations to create a brighter world. Bucketfeet is redefining the $300B global footwear market by using new technology and its extensive artist network to increase speed to market for original artist-designed footwear products.

Prior to starting Bucketfeet, Raaja began his career in investment banking at UBS Investment Bank, followed by private equity at Prairie Capital. After four years in the finance industry, Raaja decided to pursue his lifelong dream of backpacking around the world for over a year before moving to Abu Dhabi. Raaja is a member of the Chicago Chapter of Young President’s Organization (YPO), the Economic Club of Chicago, and is an alumnus of Chicago Global Shapers (affiliated with the World Economic Forum). Raaja is a frequent speaker at many conferences and universities around the US and is an angel investor, primarily supporting other Chicago-based entrepreneurs. Raaja graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Economics.

Minsuk Cho (Korea, b. 1966) is an architect and founder of Seoul-based firm Mass Studies. Cho graduated from Yonsei University and Columbia University, and spent his early career in New York and Rotterdam, and in 1998, co-founded Cho Slade Architecture in New York. Since returning to Seoul in 2003, he has been committed to the discourse of architecture through socio-cultural and urban research and mostly built works, which have been recognized globally, with representative works including the Pixel House, Missing Matrix: Boutique Monaco, Bundle Matrix: S-Trenue, Ann Demeulemeester Shop, Korea Pavilion: 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and Daum Space.1 to highlight. Active beyond his practice, he has co-curated the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, and was the commissioner and co-curator of the Korean Pavilion for the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia (2014), which was awarded the Gold Lion for Best National Participation. In late 2014, PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, held their first ever architecture exhibition, highlighting his works in a solo exhibition titled “Before/After: Mass Studies Does Architecture”. Cho is an active lecturer and speaker at symposiums worldwide.

Tina is an interior designer and architect with a diverse portfolio stretching across many contexts and continents, from hotel and restaurant design to high-end residential.

She began working in Asia over 18 years ago and has been involved with many iconic projects such as Hotel ICON, Mandarin Oriental, PMQ, Roppongi Hills and Futako Tamagawa.

Tina is currently working on two new Park Hyatt hotel projects in Jakarta and Auckland, for MNC Land and Fu Wah Group respectively, as well as a boutique hotel for the House Hotel Group in Istanbul. She is also the project leader for two new restaurants in Dubai.

She began working with D&D London for over a decade, including being the design lead on their award-winning South Place Hotel in the City of London and German Gymnasium in King’s Cross.

With every project, Tina approaches the brief by delving into its context, culture and unique history to create timeless spaces that tell a story, provide a sense of place and delight.

Tina studied architecture at Westminster before joining Conran and Partners in 1997, completing her MA in Architecture & Interiors at the Royal College of Art in 2000.