Zuzana Husárová

Zuzana Husárová is a poet, theoretician and pedagogue, she works with experimental, electronic, and performative poetry, she works at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno and she is the editor-in-chief of the journal Glosolália. With Ľubomir Panák, she created the neural network Liza Gennart, whose poetry collection The Results of Emergence won the national poetry prize Zlatá vlna (Golden Wave, 2021).

David Zöllner

David Zöllner began exploring digital media at a young age, seeking to unlock its creative potential. With a degree in Media and Computer Science and a Master in Educational Media, he delved into how digital media can nudge and inspire people to better absorb information and evoke emotions. He co-founded the international improv school ImproBrussels and now works as a trainer in Applied Improvisation. He is also a member of the AI Theatre ensemble, which uses principles of AI on stage to create new experiences for audiences.

Kateřina Švidrnochová

Kateřina is a consultant and lecturer  in the field of education focused on digital skills and new technologies. She specializes in service design and learning design, through which she implements modern tools and generative AI into internal processes of organizations. She works with universities, schools, non-profit organizations and the commercial sector to design specific scenarios for the use of AI according to clients' needs. She is an active member of the GUG.cz technology community and chair of the board of directors of the Svět neziskovek.

Rudolf Rosa (host)

Rudolf Rosa is a computational linguist at the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics at Charles University. In recent years, he has focused on text generation using language models. He is also a member of the AI in Context group, which focuses on artificial intelligence in the context of various disciplines.

Elisabeth Tobisch

Photo credits: Katja Strempel

Elisabeth Tobisch is Touring Producer at the Schaubühne Berlin. She joined the theatre in 2016 and is in charge of bringing Schaubühne shows to theatres around the world, including New York, Adelaide, Paris, Bucharest, Epidaurus, and Shizuoka. Prior to Schaubühne, Elisabeth worked in Goethe-Institut’s main office in Munich. Elisabeth‘s academic background reflects her passion for theatre as well as cultural management and policy. She received a BA in Theatre and Dance Studies from the University of Bern and holds a Master’s degree in Culture, Policy and Management from City, University of London. 

Christian Persico

Christian Persico studied Theatre Performance (B.A.), Communication, and German Language in South Carolina and in 2021 graduated from the Executive Master in Arts Administration (EMAA) programme at the University of Zurich. During his studies, he began work as an Associate Artistic Producer at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, where he coordinated touring (incoming and outgoing), and production managed a number of international projects, including “GRM Brainfuck” and “H – 100 Seconds to Midnight”. As of March 2023, Christian is Head of Touring, Outreach, and Cooperation at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin.

Martina Pecková Černá

Photo credits: Adéla Vosičková

Theatrologist, cultural manager and translator. A graduate of the Department of Theatre Science at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague (Master's degree) and the Department of Music Production at the Faculty of Music and Dance, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Doctoral degree). Her expertise includes international relations and current topics of Czech and international performing arts, cultural policies of Central European countries and contemporary, mainly German and Spanish written drama. Since 2024 she has been the Head of the Department of Cultural and Creative Industries at the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

Jiří Sulženko (host)

Photo credits: Simona Amiridu

Since 2020, he has been working as the Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism at theCity of Prague. The City of Prague has 16 city organizations in the field of culture, including 10theaters. At the same time, it supports the independent sector with subsidies of EUR 16.3 million.After studying theater production at the Prague DAMU, he worked at the Archa Theater and at theZahrada Center in Jižní Město in Prague. From 2013 to 2018, he worked in Pilsen, first as the programdirector of the European Capital of Culture Pilsen 2015 and later as the program director of DEPO2015. At DAMU, he teaches marketing and the European context of theater production.

Hugo Rosák

Hugo Rosak is the Head of Industry Office at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Its KVIFF Eastern Promises platform focuses on curating and promoting film projects from Central, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, which are at various stages of development or production. Every year, more than 40 projects from the region are introduced to industry experts from around the world. Awards in total amount of 170.000 EUR are given out to the most promising projects. Hugo has previously worked with innovation design, intercultural management as well as training and development in different parts of the world, but is most happy to be giving his heart to arthouse film, based in Prague. 

Lilly Driscoll

Lilly Driscoll is an actor, writer and director from London. She founded the company DE-MYS-TIFY in 2022, to support actors from low socio-economic backgrounds. Awarded full Arts Council funding in 2024, DE-MYS-TIFY ran for ten weeks including professional development, industry workshops and panels. As an actor Lilly has worked with companies including BBC, Channel 4, ITV. Plays include Offie nominated Dirty Promise and short play My girlfriend is a real doll face. As a director Lilly recently worked with Clean Break for their members festival, assisted on a new Jim Cartwright play at The NT Studio, and directed her first full length play Silent Houses, at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre.

Dennis Ruh

Dennis Ruh is a Film and Media Industry Director and Film Festival Expert. His most recent project is the launch of Seriesly Berlin, the new festival for series culture. He finished his term as Director of the European Film Market in March 2024, a position he held since 2020. He studied cultural sciences, audiovisual communication, social science and history in Bremen and Valencia. During his studies, he began working for the Oldenburg International Film Festival in 2008 and became a co-director in 2011. From 2012 to 2020, he was department head for Festival Relations & Producers Liaison at German Films. He regularly appears as a guest lecturer at film schools and panelist at industry conferences. Dennis Ruh frequently serves on festival as well as funding juries and consults festival & market organizers and film producers.

Markus Wörl

Markus Wörl is a dramaturg, director and cultural manager from Munich. After studying stage direction, he directed productions at various theatres and opera houses in German-speaking countries.He has worked as a programmer for various cultural centres and festivals, most recently for 12 years at the Tollwood Festival in Munich, where he was responsible for the international theatre programme and exchange. Now he managed his own artist agency for dance and circus companies and is a consultant for sustainability in culture. He was on the board of some European circus and theatre associations and advised the EU on the ‘Greening the Creative Europe Program’. In 2014 he was appointed as ‘Chevalier des Arts et du Lettre’ by the French Minister of Culture.

Jakub Knott (host)

Jakub works in production and managing industry programs at film festivals, including the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), IQFF Mezipatra, and Pragueshorts. In addition to his festival work, he studies at FAMU and is actively involved as an activist focusing on the issue of sexualized violence.