Speakers
Marverine Cole
Journalist & Broadcaster
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Amahra Spence
Director of Hood Futures Studio
Michael Ford
CEO & Creative Director of Threewise Entertainment
Simone Smith
Wordsmith & Creative Director of Curious Pencil
Dr Rajinder Dudrah
Professor of Cultural Studies and the Creative Industries at Birmingham City University
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Marverine Cole
Journalist & Broadcaster
Marverine Cole is a multi-award winning broadcaster and journalist. She is best known as a newsreader on ITV1's flagship breakfast programme, Good Morning Britain (GMB).
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Amahra Spence
Director of Hood Futures Studio
Amahra Spence is an artist and spatial practitioner. After 12 years as founding director of MAIA, an organisation engaging artists to rehearse alternative futures, Amahra now leads Hood Futures Studio, a community infrastructure organisation working at the intersection of cultural, economic, climate and land justice to address the root causes of 'hood displacement and dispossession. The Studio develops propositional projects that demonstrate how community-led visions can bring about structural change. Current projects include the development of ABUELOS, a cultural centre of radical hospitality and restoration, envisioned in the spirit of her Grandad's house.
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Michael Ford
CEO & Creative Director of Threewise Entertainment
An RTS Award-winning Producer, Michael has worked in scripted Film & TV for the last 18 Years. In 2020, he founded UK Kids & Family indie, Threewise Entertainment, dubbed a “Future30” indie by the UK Trade Body for Film & Television, and later selected for the inaugural Interactive Entertainment Accelerator Programme by Coutts. Since launch Threewise has racked up an array of production and development deals with global entertainment studios including Paramount, CBBC and Warner Bros. Discovery, including co-creating the live action mystery adventure series, Rock Island Mysteries for Nickelodeon. In January 2025, Threewise announced its shift into the world of CreaTech, fusing storytelling and technology to create licensable Character IP, followed by the launch of its own Licensing Division in October 2025, centred around the return of 50 Year Old British Heritage IP, Bagpuss, “the most important, the most beautiful and the most saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world”. Threewise is now in active development on Bagpuss’ first big screen adventure alongside a slate of Kids & Family stories for screens big and small, both horizontal and vertical.
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Simone Smith
Wordsmith & Creative Director of Curious Pencil
Simone ‘Word’ Smith is a poet whose work is influenced by the fusion of poetry, storytelling, and music. She has a natural gift for bringing to life untold and under-celebrated stories through the power of poetry, making them relatable and meaningful to diverse audiences. Simone has been commissioned by a wide range of organisations to give voice to those who are often unheard. Her work spans performance poetry, film, audio, and published collections, including anthologies and her own poetry book, Untold.
She has delivered workshops in schools and community settings, engaging audiences of all ages, and has collaborated with organisations such as the National Memorial Arboretum, Bertz Associates, Birmingham City Council, Nottingham University, and Birmingham Museums. Her poetry seeks to inspire, uplift, and connect people, bringing creativity and hope into many spaces.
Alongside her poetry work, Simone runs Curious Pencil a business which creates bespoke corporate greeting cards, that help organisations build meaningful relationships through connection and design. Her work as a poet and business owner reflects her commitment to giving voice to people and making them feel seen, heard, and valued.
She has delivered workshops in schools and community settings, engaging audiences of all ages, and has collaborated with organisations such as the National Memorial Arboretum, Bertz Associates, Birmingham City Council, Nottingham University, and Birmingham Museums. Her poetry seeks to inspire, uplift, and connect people, bringing creativity and hope into many spaces.
Alongside her poetry work, Simone runs Curious Pencil a business which creates bespoke corporate greeting cards, that help organisations build meaningful relationships through connection and design. Her work as a poet and business owner reflects her commitment to giving voice to people and making them feel seen, heard, and valued.
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Dr Rajinder Dudrah
Professor of Cultural Studies and the Creative Industries at Birmingham City University
Dr Rajinder Dudrah is Professor of Cultural Studies and the Creative Industries at Birmingham City University, UK. He has researched and published widely across film, media, culture and the creative industries and is the author and co-editor of 15 books, including South Asian Creative and Cultural Industries (2020) and The Evolution of Song and Dance in Hindi Cinema (2019). He has led international research projects across the creative economy and academia, including being a Co-Investigator on the £4m AHRC 'Creative Multilingualism' project with the University of Oxford (2016-2020), and leading on the 'India-UK Creative Industries at 75' project (2022) which brought together 30 artists from India and the UK across fashion, live performance, and the screen industries.
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Educational Keynotes
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