Theme: On The Rise

On The Rise is a conference about matters of increasing importance to us all.

Humanity is currently witnessing the rise and fall of cultural phenomena, industries, and even empires; while at the same time, we are called to rise against our civilisation’s biggest threats, and rise up to our biggest opportunities.

It is time we chose to rise up to the challenge, moved by our ever growing curiosity, wonder and hope for a new world on the rise.

So rise to the occasion and join us for a full day of ideas on how to tackle topics of rising significance.

Volkstheater
Arthur-Schnitzler-Platz 1
Vienna, Niederösterreich, 1070
Austria

Aerial Silk Vienna

Performer

Aerial Silk Vienna rises from the stage to elevate their performance in the air by dancing and suspending themselves with fabric silks as they combine impressive aerobic movements. Despite the team having different professional backgrounds their love for the art that started out as a hobby soon became their passion that they transmitted to community.

Anna Maria Coclite

Material Scientist

Anna Maria Coclite is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Graz University of Technology, from January 2018. From 2010 to 2013, she has been postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Science from the University of Bari, Italy in 2010. Her research interests focus on materials science and advanced methods for thin film growth, including thin film technologies, nanomaterials, and surface chemistry. Her research has been funded by various programs. In 2016, she won the European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant to fund her research on “Smart Core-shell sensor arrays for artificial skins”.

Bill Keaggy

List Collector

Bill Keaggy is the author of Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found and 50 SAD CHAIRS. His work is an ongoing experiment in exploration, re-use, and self-publishing. Most of his projects mix art and journalism, mashing collecting with connecting. They are part formal experiment, part social document, and part wellness practice. His projects about appreciating the everyday and "the life behind the things we leave behind" have been featured in The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine, amongst others.

Bob Wiltfong

Actor and Comedian

Bob Wiltfong is a former correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Emmy award winning journalist. He is also known for his appearances on Chappelle's Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. His love for business speak (BS) has been fostered through 20+ years of working as a consultant in presentation skills for several Fortune 500 companies including T-Mobile, General Electric and Charles Schwab.

Candy Licious

Drag Queen

Based in Vienna, activist and artist Candy Licious has been performing as a Drag Artist for more than five years, including performances in various places in Austria and Europe. Candy Licious is an active member within the Queer Community, where Candy Licious is known as the “Rainbow” Queen because the outfits reflect their position – Candy Licious is a Dragqueen for the whole Community. Holding a degree in sex education and being a queer activist for more than nine years, Candy Licious’ passion, work and vision lies at the intersection of Drag and Education.

CHRISTL

Performer

CHRISTL not only expresses herself in the songwriting and in the music itself, her sense of aesthetics is reflected in all her work: be it audiovisual, visual works or fashion - by combining all of these into a perfect whole. She does not shy away from illuminating her environment and herself in her work with a critical and strong voice. With each new project she paints a new brush stroke to give us an insight into her world.

Connor Gaydos

Satirist

So far, the movement has amassed millions of followers on social media, and hundreds of official chapters have popped up at colleges all across the U.S.

Dylan Goff

Performer

Dylan Goff is a singer-songwriter born and raised in Ireland but musically you can find him somewhere between the indie and folk worlds. He wrote songs and poetry over 30 years and active in bands throughout his youth. After completing is forestry study, he returned to the stage in 2018 and has been performing as a solo artist lifting the spirits of all that hear him.

Jann Choy

Designer and Artist

Jann Choy is a multidisciplinary designer and visual artist interested in the symbiosis and intersection of humans, emotions and technology. She is a D&AD Yellow Pencil New Blood Winner, has worked in conjunction with Cambridge University and Scott Lambert, Creative Director of Superunion, a winner of the Hybrid Futures Hackathon, nominated for Best Student Award for BMW Shorties 2019, featured on itsnicethat favourite degree show websites and on Campaign: 9 picks from D&AD's 2020 New Blood Awards winners. She is also a winner of Creative Concepts for ECHO Lightvert.

Jenny Simanowitz

Cabaret Artist

Jenny Simanowitz was born in South Africa and studied at the University of Cape Town and Trinity College Cambridge. She has worked in Europe as an international Communications Trainer and also as a performer for over 20 years, running communication courses, performing and moderating for international corporations and higher education colleges. From her workshops, in which she uses many theatrical elements, she developed her “communications cabaret” which she now performs in Austria and Germany- in theatres, educational institutes and corporate events. She was a founder member of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology at Warwick University, England.

Joe Milnes

Nuclear Scientist

Joe Milnes joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority as a graduate engineer in 2000 and has worked in fusion research ever since. He received the Ph.D. degree in computational fluid dynamics from Cranfield University, Cranfield, U.K. During his career, he has held a variety of engineering and management roles across the JET, MAST-U and ITER fusion projects. He is currently the Head of Operations on JET, the largest and most powerful fusion experiment operating anywhere in the world. Dr. Milnes is a Chartered Engineer and member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Johannes Tovatt

Urban Planner

Johannes Tovatt is an architect and urban planner based in Stockholm. He is often engaged as an expert, jury-member or process leader in complex urban design projects throughout Europe. He has been promoted to apply for professorships in several European universities, such as KTH Stockholm, ETH Zürich and TU Wien. He has led many award-winning projects, in Sweden and abroad. With extensive experience of successful competition over three decades, Johannes has participated in many cross-border projects within a wide spectrum of the profession, spanning across urban space to rural landscape, policies to design-tools, academia to experience-based.

Kim Phúc Phan Thị

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Culture of Peace

Kim Phúc Phan Thị is known around the world as "The Girl in the Picture" and the "Napalm Girl." In 1972, age 9, she was immortalized in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph that shows her running down a road in Trang Bang, Vietnam, after having her clothes burned off by napalm. Living symbol of the atrocities of war and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Culture of Peace, she is also the founder of The KIM Foundation International. There, she supports children who are victims of war by providing medical and psychological support in order that they overcome their traumatic experiences.

Marlene Engelhorn

Taxation Activist

Marlene Engelhorn lives and works in Vienna. Expecting a large inheritance, she felt this injustice needed more thorough addressing. Alongside people from various backgrounds she explored inequality, politics and social justice. This led to advocating for redistribution in a transparent and democratic way: tax justice. Today, Marlene Engelhorn is a founding member of the German speaking initiative Tax me now, an initiative of wealthy people actively working for tax justice in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Tax me now focuses on initiating changes in the tax system and thus structural change for the system as a whole.

Mennatallah El-Assady

AI Researcher

Mennatallah El-Assady is a research fellow at the ETH AI Center. Prior to that, she was a research associate and doctoral student in the group for Data Analysis and Visualization at the University of Konstanz (Germany) and in the Visualization for Information Analysis lab at the OntarioTech University (Canada). She works at the intersection of data analysis, visualization, computational linguistics, and explainable artificial intelligence. Her main research interest is studying interactive human-AI collaboration interfaces for effective problem-solving and decision-making. In particular, she is interested in how to empower humans and team them up with AI agents in co-adaptive processes.

Paul Morland

Demographer

Dr. Paul Morland was educated at Oxford University and was awarded his PhD from the University of London. He has published three books on demography, including his latest, Tomorrow's People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers, where he shows how demography is both a powerful and an under-appreciated lens through which to view the global transformations that are currently underway.

Peter McIndoe

Satirist

Peter McIndoe and Connor Gaydos are artists and co-founders of the "Birds Aren't Real" movement - a satirical conspiracy theory which posits that birds don't exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. They spent years in-character with journalists and the world, using conspiracy theorist cosplay by way of Andy Kaufman to rally a community around the absurdity.

Schmusechor Choire

Performer

The Schmusechor is a dazzling pop choir from Vienna that stands for passion and atmosphere. The dedicated troupe of 35 singers is led by their conductor Verena Giesinger - embodying the heartbeat, beat and baton of the Schmusechor. They never cease to impress with its extravagant outfits and stage performances and unites a wide range of artists.

Sebastian Schrof

Robotics Specialist

Born in 1989 in Stuttgart, Sebastian Schrof grew up in a region built on innovation. He studied at ABK Stuttgart and at ENSCI in Paris, between Artists, Architects, Graphic- Textile- and Industrial Designers. There he learned to think and work interdisciplinary. Since 2014 he has been part of the Bionics Team at Festo SE. There he works on a lot of visionary robot and biologisation projects. His work is inspired by nature and thrives in an interdisciplinary team. His vision for the future is to innovate by merging technology with nature.

Stephen Wallace

Biotechnologist

Dr. Stephen Wallace is an Associate Professor of Biotechnology and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. He received a DPhil in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford and is a designer of microorganisms with a drive to create new biotechnologies that can enable the manufacture of chemicals such as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics from sustainable materials as opposed to fossil fuels. Research from his lab has achieved the bio-production of nylon precursors from plant biomass and paper waste, and the production of vanilla flavouring from plastic waste.

Valeria Gontareva

Economist

Valeria Gontareva served as the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine in 2014-2017. She was the first woman to lead Ukraine's central bank and oversaw vital reforms to implement a new monetary policy of inflation targeting and flexible exchange rate regime, to clean up Ukraine's banking sector, strengthen regulatory supervision, and ensure the independence of the National Bank. Currently, she is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the LSE. Her key expertise lies at the intersection of economics, monetary policy, inflation and financial institutions.