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  Dr. Maria Aretoulaki

  DialogCONNECTION Ltd

  She's a voice user interface designer, computational linguist and in her spare time the CEO of DialogCONNECTION Ltd, a UK-based consultancy on language technologies and voice recognition applications. Let's just say she and Apple's Siri are close personal friends. Joking aside Maria has designed voice recognition systems for major corporates and governments. Originally from Greece, she has spent the last two decades between the UK and Germany. She holds degress from The University of Athens and The University of Manchester.

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  Tom Bloxham MBE

  Urban Splash

  As the co-Founder & Chairman of Urban Splash, Tom needs very little introduction in Manchester. For those of you who aren't familiar, Urban Splash is a property regeneration company with a difference. They have been awarded over 300 times for their architecture, designs, regeneration and commercial successes. Starting out in Liverpool in 1993, the company's portfolio stretches to over 60 schemes involving thousands of homes, jobs & millions in commercial square footage. Outside of Urban Splash, Tom chairs the Manchester International Festival, is Chancellor of University of Manchester and is a Trustee of the Tate and the Manchester United Foundation. You can find more about Tom here.

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  Martin Bryant

  The Next Web

  With a particular interest in European startups, apps and the constant evolution of digital media, Martin Bryant is Managing Editor at The Next Web.

  Based in Manchester, UK he co-founded the city's Social Media Cafe events that helped kickstart a lively cross-discipline digital community in the city.

  A Broadcasting graduate, he is well-versed in the British media industry and moved into the digital content sector after having worked in education, helping children learn TV and radio skills.

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  Brendan Dawes

  Beep Industries

  Brendan Dawes is a UK based, MoMA exhibited artist, designer, author, maker, self confessed generalist and the founder of Beep Industries.

  He has been listed among the top twenty web designers in the world by .Net magazine and was featured in the "Design Icon" series in Computer Arts. In 2008 his Cinema Redux project was acquired by MoMA in New York for the permanent collection. Last year his Doodlebuzz news interface was featured in the Talk to Me exhibition at MoMA in New York and won a D&AD for interface design. In 2010 he released The Accidental News Explorer - an iPhone app for serendipitous news discovery that was featured amongst the eighty projects in the Taschen book Mobile Case Studies published in 2011.

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  David Erasmus

  Givey

  Dave Erasmus is the founder and CEO of social giving platform, Givey. Dave is passionate about the area of philanthropy and giving, serving as a founding member of the Ambassadors for Philanthropy and is part of The Big Society's Nexters scheme. Having travelled the world following the sale of Broadplace, an online SEO firm, Dave set out to ask business leaders what could be done to help improve the world. Dave worked with local entrepreneurs in South Africa to help them form their own company before moving back to the UK and starting to work on mobile projects. All of this led Dave to create Givey as a simple way to donate over social platforms such as SMS or Twitter.

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  Ian Forrester

  BBC's R&D north lab

  Ian Forrester works for the BBC's R&D north lab where he focuses on open innovation and new disruptive opportunities via lively engagement and collaborations with startups, early adopters and hackers. Ian use to head up the BBC's Backstage project, a developer/designer network like no other. His role as head of BBC Backstage includes working with internal and external developers/designers to express their creativity through BBC feeds and APIs.

  Previously a founder of the dataportability.org group, social geek events, including London Geekdinners, BarCampLondon, Hackday, Mashed, Edinburgh TV Un-Festival and Over the Air; Ian has a proven track record for making the impossible happen.

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  Photography: Nick Eagle

  Mary Anne Hobbs

  Xfm

  Many of you will know Mary Anne spent 14 years presenting music on BBC Radio 1. She spent a year working with the lucky people of the Sheffield University Students Union and in July 2011 joined Xfm in Manchester where coincidentally she finds herself living in an Urban Splash flat. In addition to her radio career, Mary Anne has been a huge presence in music festivals such as the Leeds Festival, Sonar and Coachella among many others. She is equal parts inspiration, achievement, discipline, intensity, integrity & principle. And just to make us totally ill, she's approachable and just gosh-darn nice. You can find more about Mary Anne here.

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  Dan O’Hara

  University of Cologne / Philter Phactory

  Dan O’Hara is a philosopher and literary critic, Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Cologne, and Head of Research and Development at Philter Phactory who makes weavrs. He is probably best known for kickstarting net culture in 1994-5 when he organized the "Glastonbury of cyberculture", an event called Virtual Futures. Not your standard academic, Dan has DJ’ed with the likes of A Guy Called Gerald and Asian Dub Foundation, and was a member of the art collective responsible for probably the first (and only) science-fiction techno-theory novel, called ‘Cyberpositive.’ HIs current philosophical research, and forthcoming book, deals with the concept of skeuomorphism which challenges our perception of the evolution of objects and ideas.

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  Tara Shears

  University of Liverpool

  Tara Shears is a particle physicist and Reader at the University of Liverpool. She has spent her career exploring the smallest constituents of the universe with the aid of some of the largest pieces of scientific equipment ever constructed.

  After earning her PhD at Cambridge University, Tara spent time researching at CERN near Geneva and Fermilab in Chicago. She returned to CERN where she now carries out research at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). As part of the LHCb experiment, she is investigating the mystery of why there is so little antimatter found in the universe today, an observation which has profound consequences for explaining the evolution of the universe and which is one of the biggest mysteries in particle physics.

Cornerhouse is Manchester’s international centre for contemporary visual arts and independent film.

Cornerhouse was founded by the Greater Manchester Visual Arts Trust, chaired by Sir Bob Scott, and opened in 1985. They have been at the forefront of Manchester’s vibrant cultural scene ever since and their patrons include Danny Boyle, Damien Hirst and Helen Mirren.

Located on Oxford Road, Cornerhouse houses three floors of contemporary art galleries, three screens showing the best of independent cinema, a bar, café and a bookshop and we get around 500,000 visitors every year.

Cornerhouse is at 70 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5NH (adjacent to Oxford Road Railway Station).

Going by Car

Manchester is easily accessible from motorway networks including the M60 ring road and Cornerhouse is located in the city centre.

• From the North: M66 Bury; M62 Rochdale, Leeds
• From the South: M56 Manchester Airport, Chester; M6 Birmingham
• From the West: M602 & M63; M62 Liverpool; M61 Bolton, Wigan; M6 Preston

There are 24 hour NCP car parks on Whitworth Street, behind the Palace Theatre (diagonally opposite Cornerhouse) and off Oxford Street (behind the Tai Wu Chinese Restaurant). In conjunction with NCP, Cornerhouse can offer its customers a 25% discount at either car park – just bring your parking ticket for validation at our Box Office.

There are a few more NCP car parks nearby, click here for more information.

You can park on certain streets around Cornerhouse, the prices/times change frequently so check the Manchester City Council website for more information.

Going by Rail

Nearest Station: Manchester Oxford Road

Going by Metrolink

Nearest Stop: St Peter’s Square

Going by Bus

Cornerhouse is on one of the main bus routes to Manchester City Centre. There are too many buses for us to list but please refer to the useful contact section below to find the best bus for you.

Useful contact numbers and links:

• Greater Manchester Bus Routes: 0161 228 7811
• National Rail Enquiries: 08457 484950
• Metrolink Customer Services: 0161 205 2000
• National Car Parks: 08456 061061
• Manchester Airport