Kraków

Confirmed Speakers

• Mark Power
  Though he studied and originally practised illustration, Mark “accidentally” became a photographer in 1983, and a teacher of the art in 1992. Since that time he has held several exhibitions around the world, won numerous awards, including the Terence Donovan Award for British Photography in 2001, and been featured in collections across the UK, USA and Europe. He has been a part of international photographic cooperative Magnum Photos since 2002, becoming a full member in 2007. In addition to his impressive photography career, he has been a professor of photography at the University of Brighton, UK since 2004.
• Mark Turrell
  Mark Turrell is a Berlin-based tech pioneer and entrepreneur whose interests and accomplishments gravitate around the fields of social good, collective intelligence and behavioural science. Mark founded Orcasci in 2010, a ‘strategy and marketing agency specialising in designing programs that ‘spread’ products, services, ideas and behaviours’. He spent recent years at Orcasci developing the Science of Spread, combining different sciences from neuroscience to networks, complex systems to behavioural science, to understand how things spread – ideas, behaviours, and companies – and to design programs to make things spread.
• Keith Kahn-Harris
  What do the best metal band in Botswana, the Icelandic special forces and the best water skier in Luxembourg have in common? According to Keith Kahn-Harris, quite a bit, and it all has to do with small worlds and their secret lives. Keith’s obsession is with communities and small worlds – subcultures, in a nutshell. His previous work focused on two subcultures in particular: extreme heavy metal and the British Jewish community, and he’s managed to find that these sub-subcultures have quite a bit in common. His current book is a further exploration of “big fish in small ponds” and what we can learn from them about the power of small in a world that’s increasingly focused on the big.
• Dagmara Sokołowska
  Dagmara Sokołowska, is a lecturer in the Department of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Kraków. When her own children started exploring the world around them, she quickly realised how bad the teaching of physics was in Poland. It became her purpose to change how physics and natural sciences are taught, and she’s persuaded her bosses at UJ to support her dream. She is the founder of the Świetlik competition, which has grown to include over 30,000 children since it was started in 2007. It brings together children, parents and teachers in a fun and educational project.
• Kristin Arnesen
  Kristin Arnesen is a performance artist and a political activist based in New York. A co-founder and Artistic Director of the interdisciplinary arts company Theatre Reverb, Kristin has been working on multidisciplinary productions since 2006.
• Przemysław Biecek
  Przemysław is an applied medical statistician whose most recent hobby is tracking down misuses of statistics in the press and searching for visualizations that stretch the truth. He strives to promote statistical literacy and critical, data-driven thinking in mainstream Poland.
• Marta Wille-Baumkauff
  Marta is a Hungarian organic and biodynamic winemaker and owner of the Pendits Winery in the famous Tokaj region. Her neighbours claim that Marta does not work in her vineyard but for her vineyard. Competitions and medals are of little importance to her – what matters is the end product and her endless drive to help the region and her fellow growers.
• Joanna Hańderek
  Joanna Hańderek is a philosopher who doesn’t think secrets are always a good thing. While secrets are often private or only shared by a few people, they can also be widespread. These everyday secrets, or culturally defined norms, can exclude and cause harm. As long as we don’t admit to their existence, they remain hidden from public debate and awareness.
• Marcin Kawalski
  Marcin Kawalski is a medical doctor and medical entrepreneur, an innovation and technology addict, an avid marathon runner, diver and photographer, as well as a student at the Singularity University at NASA. A few years ago, Marcin used smuggled medical supplies and a pocket PC loaded with notes from medical school and a single clinical app to bring medical care to a remote Himalayan village. This spurred an idea for an integrated diagnostic platform that could revolutionise access to modern medicine in the developing world.
• Ross Langdon
  Ross is an architect with a deep sensitivity to the communities and traditions in which his projects are located. Born and brought up in rural south-eastern Tasmania, he now focuses on ecologically- and socially-sustainable tourism infrastructure in environmentally-sensitive locations. His is currently working in Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania on the construction of a number of eco-lodges and smaller cultural projects and will show us how a building can be integrated into communities on many levels.
• Jerzy Vetulani
  Jerzy Vetulani is neuroscientist, lecturer, blogger and one of Poland’s most frequently-cited scientists. He’s passionate about the role of the brain and is devoted to popularising the field of neurobiology. Jerzy’s academic interests include the study of the mechanisms of depression, addiction and memory. He recommends plenty of Scrabble-playing and crossword-solving as good preparation for old age, among other things.
• Dawid Szczepaniak
  Dawid Szcepaniak is the creative director and partner at Pride & Glory Interactive, one of Poland’s leading marketing agencies. A fully trained pastor, he can spot crappy advertising a mile away and is on a mission to rid the world of it. And of course, he’s got a million ideas about how to do it. In his talk, David will divulge the secrets of what to do so that we never have to employ another advertising agency in our lives.
• Zula Łukasik
  Zuzanna (Zula) Łukasik is a passionate explorer. Born and raised in Kraków, she set off on an unforgettable Arctic expedition while still in high school as part of Mike Horn’s Young Explorers Program. More recently she discovered that it’s actually much harder to change the environment closest to home. This summer, with a group of friends she built a raft out of recycled materials and floated down the Vistula River from Kraków to Gdańsk to raise environmental awareness in Poland. She wants to reintroduce us to this river, which was once the basis for so much of Poland’s cultural and economic wealth.
• Wojciech Macyk
  Wojciech Macyk is a chemist and a professor at the Jagiellonian University who explores the processes that take place in the presence of light and a catalyst. They can be utilised for air, water and surface purification, bacteria inactivation or even as photo-activated drugs. Recently, he received the prestigious TEAM grant from the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). Within this project, a team of young researchers will explore the primary photochemical processes in photocatalytic systems and will develop their practical applications.
• Anna Wojna
  When not sailing or painting, Anna Wojna is a PhD student at the Department of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science at the Jagiellonian University, and her dissertation involves viewing the lungs using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the use of polarized noble gases. The combination of atomic physics, medicine and nuclear magnetic resonance methods will make it possible to perform a non-invasive diagnosis of lung diseases at an early stage of their occurrence. In addition to her work at the university, Anna also actively promotes physics through participation in the annual Science Festival in Kraków and Science Night.
• Acoustic Acrobats
  Acoustic Acrobats are clarinetist Piotr Skupniewicz, accordionists Bogusław Zięba and Jacek Hołubowski, Adam Leśniak, Jędrzej Łaciak and Damian Rękas. Formed in April 2010, Acoustic Acrobats was born out of the Max Klezmer Band, when some of its members decided to explore ethnic music from different parts of the world. Their music sits on the border of ethno and jazz, with sounds characteristic of Klezmer and Balkan music as well as Latin American and African and other more subtle intercultural inspirations from around the world. Acoustic Acrobats’ debut album,"Live", was released earlier this year. Its ten original tracks were written while on the road and recorded live.
• Drums & Drums
  Drums&Drums is the first Polish percussion cabaret. Comprised of two members of the Tamtamitutu Group, drummers Tomasz Majewski and Marcin Urzędowski, Drums&Drums arose as a result of countless experiments and an exploration of unconventional percussion instruments, a fascination with recycling, and a constant crossing of borders in the general understanding of music as a whole. The band mixes traditional instruments together with their own creations made of recycled materials, all skilfully joined together on stage.
• Camero Cat
  together in 2007 right here in Kraków, and the original trio of Xawery Renczyński, Julia Renczyńska and Jakub Dobrowolski added cellist Mateusza Kolankowski, keyboard player Alicja Margolin and drummer Grzegorz Fieber to complete the now five-piece group. The band’s musical style can best be described as ‘theatrical rock’. Their performances, like their music, are often full of mystery, absurdity and horror laced with sarcasm and humour. Their most recent album, "Mad Tea Party", has been called mystical and theatrical – just like their concerts.
• Don't Ask Smingus
  Don’t Ask Smingus is comprised of Brit David Molus on vocals and guitar, American Thymn Chase on keys and vocals, and Poles Tomasz Zapała on guitar, Kris Bodzon on bass and Jarek Wyka on drums. Don't Ask Smingus is a Krakow based five-piece rhythm and blues rock band with a deep sentiment for folk, real feel for funk and a permanent penchant for raw, soul-rattling lyricism. Last November, the band released its first album, "Landslide", to enthusiastic reviews. You can often hear their tracks on Polish Radio 3, which premiered the album as well.