Emilie Baltz is a leading innovator in Multisensory Experience Design, blending food, design, technology, and the senses. With over 20 years of experience across art, culture, performance, hospitality, and new media, she creates immersive experiences that foster deeper human connections and spark creativity. Her work reconnects individuals and society to the wonders of the human body through storytelling and play. Emilie is internationally recognized for her contributions to experiential art, food design, and technology-driven design.

Rachel Caires has explored a wide range of creative disciplines over the years, but her current passion lies in helping brands forge stronger connections with their audiences through creative and impactful solutions in the digital creative marketing space.

Her fascination with the intersection of audience behavior and content creation began during the 2016 U.S. election. Witnessing the incredible power of a brand’s voice and presence on social media sparked a deep curiosity: how can audience insights be harnessed to craft content that truly makes a difference?

Since then, Rachel has built a full-service, in-house design team from the ground up at the Digital Media agency, DEPT®, driven by the belief that creative teams can—and should—do it all, from crafting compelling deck designs to developing immersive 3D AR experiences. Her goal has always been to cultivate a creative space for designers that thrives on innovation while staying rooted in ethics and humanity, even in a world where change is constant and technology evolves at breakneck speed.

Outside of work, she describes herself as a jaded artist fueled by too much espresso, striving to stay sane by balancing the latest AI tools with acrylic paints.

L.A. Corrall is a Filipino American designer who is currently Head of Design at Anomaly Los Angeles, and most recently VP, Creative Director at COLLINS in New York.

His work has been recognized by D&AD, ADC, Communication Arts, Webby Awards, AIGA and HOW among others.

L.A. is a multidisciplinary designer with over 15 years of experience primarily in brand identity as well as product design. He has international experience from San Francisco and New York to London and Abu Dhabi, working with Wolff Olins, Mother Design, R/GA, DesignStudio, JKR, Gretel, Red Antler, SYPartners, Elephant, Landscape, SS+K and Method.

He has worked with clients including: Apple, Google, Nike, Robinhood, Abu Dhabi Airports Company, Microsoft, Bloomberg, NBCUniversal, Facebook, Pepsi, Samsung and AIGA. 

Jayson Elliot is a senior UX design manager at Adobe. He's spent his career as a user experience professional in both the tech and marketing worlds, getting his start in the "dot com boom" in the early days of Razorfish, and moving on to IBM and then as a UX director on Madison Avenue. He's worked in hardware and software startups in the US, Europe, and Africa, and in industries as diverse as gaming, commercial transportation, healthcare, insurance, and CPG. He's a passionate believer in the power of focus, and believes technology should serve people, not the other way around.

Monica Herman is the VP ECD of Experiential at Giant Spoon. Previous to joining Giant Spoon, Monica led experiential creative globally across VICE Media Group, where she managed the team responsible for the award-winning viral sensation, 29Rooms. With both an architecture and agency background, Monica offers expertise in multiple fields of design and creative direction, including environmental design, graphic design, UX and art direction and ranging in scope from conceptual visual storytelling to advanced fabrication and construction techniques for built environments. 

Monica holds a BA in Honors Art History from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Architectural Lighting Design from Parsons The New School for Design, where she has served as part-time faculty. Monica has been named to Adweek Creative 100 & Business Insider’s Rising Stars of Madison Avenue and In 2023, her team's work helped land Giant Spoon on Fast Company’s list of the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World.  

Alan is co-founder and strategist of J2 Design, a brand strategy and identity design agency helping good organizations do more good work, and founder and creative director at Exit Design, an experience design agency helping people navigate, understand and engage in the built environment.

These integrated design practices serve education, healthcare, arts and culture, social impact, real estate, and public space sectors. Alan’s recent notable work includes poverty reduction campaigns for United Way, rebranding the iconic Union Square in San Francisco, designing the wayfinding experience for University of California San Francisco, developing a transformative brand for Mural Arts Philadelphia, and creating the placemaking vision for Innovation Plaza at UCity Square Philadelphia.

Alan is a passionate advocate for community and social impact initiatives, dedicating his time and leadership to creating meaningful change. As the long-time Board Chair of the internationally acclaimed Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia and an Executive Board member of Design Philadelphia, he champions the power of art and design to transform lives. In recognition of his visionary contributions, Alan was honored as an SEGD Fellow in 2022 by the Society of Experiential Graphic Design, a testament to his lasting impact on the field.

Adam Larson is a multi-disciplinary creative director, art director, writer, designer and illustrator. He is the founder and principal of Adam&Co, a boutique brand design consultancy. With over 25 years of professional experience, he is best known for being able to distill complex objectives into simple, communicative ideas that resonate, independent of medium, platform or style. He currently serves as the Global Brand Creative Director at HOKA, working with the internal creative team overseeing all photography, video and design initiatives, as well as managing external agency partners on all brand creative ranging from global brand campaigns, retail activations, branded events, partnerships, and custom digital experiences.

Holding a BFA from Syracuse University, Adam started his professional career creating interfaces and animations for music-based video games. From there he landed his dream job as an in-house designer at the independent music label, Rykodisc. He then moved into the digital realm as a senior designer and team lead at Razorfish, responsible for developing Estée Lauder’s first online, cross-brand shopping experience. 

In 2001, he entered the world of advertising as an interactive designer on the Truth campaign at Arnold Worldwide. He wore many hats during his six years in the design department at Arnold, working on branding, design and advertising initiatives for clients such as the Truth campaign, P&G, Ocean Spray, Fidelity Investments, Brown Forman, and Jack Daniels. He left Arnold as a Vice President Creative Director in 2007 to start his own studio, Adam&Co. where his clients have included 2K Sports, Absolut, Adidas, Beyoncé, CNN, Converse, Diesel, Harvard, Interscope Records, J&J, Madonna, MLB, MIT, New Balance, Nike, NYU, Park Hyatt, Penguin Books, Pharrell Williams, Puma, Random House, Rihanna, Sam Adams, Saucony, Sony, Syracuse University, Taylor Swift, Uniqlo, and Wrangler.

Whether as a freelancer or integrating as part of their internal creative teams, he has collaborated with some of the top creative agencies, including, Arnold, Crispin Porter Bogusky, David & Goliath, Design Bridge, Digital Kitchen, Digitas, FCB, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Hill Holiday, Mistress, Mother, Mullen, Pentagram, Preacher, Publicis, Sapient, Serino Coyne, TBWA/Chiat Day, Team One, Venables Bell & Partners, and Wolfgang LA.

His work has been recognized for excellence by The AICP, American Illustration, The Andy Awards, The Art Directors Club, The American Advertising Awards, CASE Awards, Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, Communication Arts, Creative Review, D&AD, Graphis, How Magazine, The Kelly Awards, New York Festivals, The One Show, Print Magazine, The Society of Publication Designers and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on the truth campaign.

Both his illustration and design work have been showcased in numerous publications focusing on contemporary art and design. His personal work has exhibited in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. He has taught design at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and was a founding editor and art director of the pop culture glossy, Lemon Magazine, and is currently a founding editor, contributing writer, creative director, and designer of Wednesday Magazine, The Bible of Dark Culture. In 2021, he co-authored and self-published a book with his partner, Charles McEnerney, titled Dear Graduate which was recently picked up by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House. He lives and works in Western Massachusetts with his American Bully named Rhys.

Murilo Melo is the Global Head of Design at GUT. With over 20 years of experience, Murilo has worked at agencies such as: F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Wunderman Thompson, Leo Burnett, Publicis Brazil, BETC/Havas, DM9DDB (DDB Brazil). He has directly contributed to iconic projects for clients such as Mercado Livre, Coca Cola, AB Inbev, Netflix, Google, Hersheys, Sadia (BRF), FIAT, Itaú, among others. He has won awards at all national and international festivals such as Cannes Lions, D&AD, Effie, One Show, Clio, Clube de Criação, and Profissionais do Ano.

Michael has a true passion for graphic design and typography. After receiving his design diploma he worked at JvM before working in Australia for a year. For over a decade Michael Wilk has been part of the Serviceplan Group and contributed exceptional work with his attention to detail and singular style. Michael’s strength is based on strong creative conceptual thougts combined with brave art direction. Early 2021 he was promoted Global Head of Art for the entire Serviceplan Group. During his stellar career, he has participated in countless national and international new business pitches, lending his invaluable skills to a diverse group of colleagues and clients. His work is nationally and internationally known and awarded including Cannes Lions in gold and a Grand Lia to name just a few. His expertise has been used in countless juries in the past to define benchmark work for the industry. Michael is a father of 3 who likes Sunday mornings, streetart and photography.