Ben is a Creative Director on the Art, Copy & Code team at Google whose focus is to explore the future of advertising through innovative projects with brands and their agencies. His work takes him inside virtually all of the major US advertisers and the top advertising agencies, helping shape them for this digital / mobile age. He came from Hill Holliday, where he worked on Dunkin Donuts, Johnson and Johnson and Major League Baseball. Prior to that, he was at Digitas, where he ran global loyalty for IHG, and led campaigns for Holiday Inn, Samsung, and SAP, among many others, including providing the voice of the Aflac Duck in social media. His past life includes being the Dean of Admissions at Bennington College, building a network of early stage venture funds with Village Ventures, and publishing The Rope Eater, a novel, with Doubleday.

**Lauren Prestileo** is the Series Producer for the critically acclaimed and award-winning PBS history series American Experience. Her work puts her at the heart of the evolution in content development and distribution at a time of rapid change. Lauren oversees the flow of the series’ content from television to digital platforms, and leads the theatrical distribution for the series, most recently shepherding the theatrical release of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Last Days in Vietnam. Lauren joined the American Experience staff in 2004 as a publicist for the series. She went on to serve as Project Manager and Series Manager, overseeing all aspects of the community engagement campaigns for the landmark series We Shall Remain, and for the 2011 Emmy Award-winning documentary Freedom Riders. In her work for the series, she has created high-profile partnerships with organizations such as the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. She recently served as an associate producer for the Emmy Award-winning American Experience film JFK. Prior to her tenure in public television, Lauren worked in public affairs in Washington, DC, specializing in public relations and grassroots organizing.

**Athena Z. Peters** is an Executive Producer at Warner Bros. Games-Turbine running Lord of the Rings Online. She has been in the online games business for over fifteen years contributing to multiple games such as City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Dungeons and Dragons Online, as well as many others. She has a BFA in Directing Theatre from Texas State University. Her passion is telling truly immersive and connected stories and the tech space is the perfect place to push the boundaries of those experiences.

**Mike Rubenstien** is the Vice President of Integrated Operations at Hill Holiday, where the divide between “Digital” and “Traditional” advertising is nonexistent. Primarily because of people like Mike, who provide vital connective tissue between departments, specialties, and technologies. Leveraging his expertise as an art director, producer, and studio manager, Mike applies a holistic approach to projects in the integrated space, working closely with multidisciplinary teammates to ensure that their core concepts are supported by the right expertise to yield cross-platform optimization. Recently, Mike was part of the team from Hill Holiday working on the first commercial in-motion Oculus Rift experience at Sundance 2015 for Merrell called #TrailScape – an immersive journey that transported people to a virtual basecamp in the mountains. The installation brought a new level of physicality to virtual reality, engaging participants with an experience that allowed them to explore a virtual environment by actually walking through it, interacting with the objects they encountered, and expanding what would typically be a strictly audio/visual medium into a tactile one as well.

**Steve Curran** is Founder and Creative Director of Pod Design, a branded games and interactive design studio that was acquired by Connelly Partners in 2013. With Connelly Partners, Steve has been Executive Creative Director leading the development of games, mobile applications and VR solutions. Steve has been delivering award-winning interactive entertainment and marketing since 1990. He has directed website design and branded content for clients such as A+E Television, WGBH, Warner Brothers, History Channel, Red Bull Records, Sony Entertainment, Burger King, and many others. Before starting Pod, he was VP / Creative Director of Gametek where he was involved with the development and marketing of numerous best-selling titles for Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Playstation. He is the author of Motion Graphics: Design for Television and Film, and Convergence Design for Interactive Television, Broadband and Wireless, and a contributing author to the book, Connected Marketing.