Belgium House — Innovation Takes Over

Read more for highlights & all panel information!

🎟 Free – Registration Required

Get ready once again for the one-day creative collision where art, media, tech, and science meet. Belgium House (#BXGB26) is transforming the Shoreditch Arts Club into a hub of immersive innovation, cutting-edge talks, and meaningful networking.

🎉 Presented by Wallonie-Bruxelles International, wake! by Digital Wallonia, the Embassy of Belgium in the UK, AWEX, FIT - Flanders Investment & Trade and hub.brussels.

• wake! by Digital Wallonia: Explore interactive installations, live performances & multidisciplinary art-tech-science mashups.

• Expert Panels & Workshops: From VFX and XR to MusicTech and the future of media.

• Belgian Spirit Night: After-hours networking, gourmet bites, and Belgian DJs.

• Featured Orgs: Twist Cluster, KIKK, HITT, Stereopsia, LeanSquare & more.

13:00 - 13:50

With immersive technologies rapidly expanding across industries, from healthcare and urban planning to education and culture, the real challenge is no longer innovation, but execution.

This panel dives into the “missing middle” of immersive innovation: the gap between groundbreaking research and its real-world adoption. How do we move from prototypes to scalable impact? And how can Europe align its researchers, companies, investors, and public institutions to build a truly competitive XR ecosystem?

Expect a dynamic discussion on digital sovereignty, cross-border collaboration, and the role of immersive ecosystems in shaping Europe’s technological future, grounded in real examples from XR, immersive AI, and digital twins.

Special focus: Cultural and Creative Industries (ICCs)

Often the first to experiment with immersive storytelling and new economic models, ICCs are key to bridging creativity and industrial deployment. This panel explores how they can evolve from pioneers to powerful drivers of technological scaling.

Camille Donegan – Strategic Lead, Eirmersive

Camille Donegan is an immersive technology producer, consultant, and community builder with a dual background in both the arts and technology. Eirmersive is the representative body for Immersive technologies in Ireland, currently representing 55 members across industry and academia. As CEO, Camille leads the strategic direction, stakeholder partnerships, and industry advocacy for Ireland’s immersive sector. She focuses on elevating the sector nationally and internationally, influencing policy, driving member value, and catalysing adoption of immersive technologies across creative, educational, and commercial domains.

Michael Barngrover – Managing Director, XR4Europe

Michael Barngrover is Managing Director of XR4Europe, a pan-European association supporting Europe’s XR and virtual worlds ecosystem. He works across European projects, industry networks, and policy initiatives to connect researchers, companies, cultural organisations, and public actors, with a focus on turning immersive innovation into real-world adoption, market pathways, and cross-border collaboration.

Heleen Rouw – Program Director, CiiiC

Heleen Rouw leads strategic innovation programmes at CiiiC, bringing together industry, academia and the public sector to accelerate collaboration across creative technologies, digital innovation and immersive experiences. With a strong background in programme development and ecosystem building, she has played a key role in supporting cross-sector partnerships that explore the potential of emerging technologies including virtual production, AI and immersive storytelling.

Nigel McAlpine – Immersive Technologies Development Lead, Digital Catapult

Nigel spent over 20 years at the BBC, leading teams to produce unique digital projects including: explaining 30 years of the Northern Ireland Troubles in 3 minute motion graphics, strapping heart monitors to bikers travelling at 200 mph, bringing Titanic’s last moments to life in 3D and rebuilding a WW1 trench in Virtual Reality. He established the original Digital Catapult Immersive Lab in Belfast in 2017 and now has a trusted network that makes him central to the NI Immersive ecosystem. Looking at Creative Technologies across Advanced Media Production and the overlap with AI and Digital Twins is a main focus of his current work.

Mathieu Demaré – Advisor in Digital Strategy & Innovation Ecosystems, XR Wallonia HiTT

14:00 - 14:50

For over a century, audiences have watched stories. Now, they want to step inside them.

As immersive experiences redefine entertainment, global IP is evolving from passive content into living, physical worlds. When fans can enter their favourite universes, does streaming become just the trailer?

This panel explores the transformation of storytelling, moving from cinema and TV to fully immersive experiences, and what it takes to turn iconic IP into scalable, story-driven worlds. Taking a look inside “Stranger Things: Face the Dark” and inspiring case studies, discover how they may influence the future of storytelling, what differentiates a true immersive experience from a branded walk-through and how narrative, technology, and business models converge to power the Experience Economy.

Seth Cover – CEO, Mycotoo
A global leader in live entertainment and immersive design, Seth brings decades of experience creating world-class attractions. He’ll explore how digital universes are translated into physical environments and what makes an IP truly “experience-ready.”

Etienne Sainton – Product Manager, Alterface
With deep expertise in interactive systems, spanning from show control systems, software architecture, multi-agent systems, web technologies, Unity 3D, and stereoscopic media, Etienne reveals how technology becomes an invisible storytelling engine, enabling responsive, adaptive, and player-driven narratives.

Dawn Foote – Co-Founder & CEO, Katapult; President of the TEA EME Division; Executive Adviser to Experience UK
A leading voice in themed entertainment, Dawn dives into licensing, narrative purpose, and what separates meaningful immersive worlds from simple branded environments. Her expertise spans storytelling, commercial strategy, and placemaking, translating powerful intellectual property into destination-led experiences that drive long-term value.

James Wallman – Founder, World Experience Organization (WXO)
James helps ‘experience pioneers’ combine creativity with commercial success, accelerating the growth of the Experience Economy. He’ll share his theory of Immersive Experience. Speaking about transformation, what emotional outcomes justify the investment?

Laurence Beckers – Creative Director, Alterface; TEA Board Member; Co-founder of La Nef

Creative Director working at the intersection of art, technology, and cultural innovation, with 25 years of experience shaping immersive experiences from theme park attractions to large-scale European cultural programmes.

15:00 -15:50

Immersive experiences are everywhere, from projection-based exhibitions to large-scale attractions promising to transport audiences into iconic worlds.

But are we truly pushing the boundaries of the medium?

This panel challenges the status quo and explores what lies beyond familiar formats like Van Gogh immersive exhibitions or Banksy adaptations.

While immersive art, XR, digital creators,contemporary art, artists, and curators have been experimenting for decades, from location-based VR and multi-user experiences to spatial sound installations and scenographic environments. Bringing together curators, immersive creators and experience designers, they will explore how immersive design can move beyond spectacle and become a powerful cultural format.

So how do we bridge the gap between artistic experimentation and mass audience experiences?

Victoria Eyton – Senior Creative Producer & Creative Director, Darkfield

Victoria has worked with DARKFIELD since 2016 across all projects, and has extensive experience working within large scale immersive theatre performance.she worked for Punchdrunk from 2013 for almost ten years across various projects, and her portfolio also includes work on ABBA’s new sell-out show ABBA Voyage. In 2022 Victoria co-founded the Ida XR Studio & Network, supporting women, trans and non-binary people working in XR and immersive tech.

Eric Arnal-Burtschy – Artist

Dance and visual artist working across performance, installation and immersive environments. With a background in history, philosophy and geopolitics, he developped a multidisciplinary practice at the intersection of art, science and technology.

Ruth McCullough – Executive Producer, Immersive Arts UK

Ruth McCullough is a creative director and producer specialising in art, technology and place. She is currently Executive Producer of Immersive Arts UK, an ambitious three-year national programme, championing an artist-led approach to working with immersive technologies. Through a programme of training, research, events they support 200+ artists of all backgrounds to explore, experiment and expand how they work with immersive formats.

Marie Du Chastel – Art Curator & Artistic Director, KIKK Festival and co-founder, ikii studio

Curator and cultural entrepreneur working at the intersection of art, technology and digital culture.

16:00 - 16:50

In an industry dominated by algorithms, platforms, and trends, are we forgetting what music is really about?

From Spotify to TikTok, the conversation around music has become increasingly shaped by data, technology, and virality. But beyond blockchain, AI, and immersive experiences, one question remains:

Are we creating culture, or just following trends?

This panel brings the focus back to what truly matters: artists, creativity, and the human connection at the heart of music. An honest debate on how to balance innovation with the timeless value of music-making.

Olivier Maeterlinck – Head of Cultural & public affairs, SABAM

Olivier Maeterlinck oversees cultural strategy and public affairs at SABAM, advocating for the interests of creators and rights holders across the Belgian and European cultural sectors. His work brings together policy, innovation and the creative industries, with a strong focus on copyright, fair remuneration and the future of creative work in an increasingly digital environment. Through collaboration with artists, institutions and policymakers, he plays an active role in shaping conversations around cultural sustainability, technology and the protection of creative ecosystems.

Gerrit Kerremans – Head Of Music, VRT

Gerrit Kerremans leads music strategy and programming at VRT, shaping the broadcaster’s approach to music discovery, cultural engagement and audience development across radio, digital and live platforms. With extensive experience in the Belgian music and media landscape, he has worked closely with artists, labels and creative partners to support emerging talent and strengthen connections between audiences and music culture.

Jo Hermans: Professional Musician (Daan, Clouseau,..;) and Founder/Maestro at The Atomic Orchestra

Jo Hermans is a Belgian performing artist and multi-instrumentalist known for his collaborations with major acts including DAAN and Clouseau. Alongside his extensive live and studio career, he founded The Atomic Orchestra, a collective that brings together musicians and creative performers through large-scale collaborative productions. Combining performance, composition and artistic direction, Jo’s work explores the intersection of live music, storytelling and immersive audience experiences.

Sam Rudy – Founder, Pro Studio Time

Sam Rudy is the founder of Pro Studio Time, a platform focused on connecting artists, producers and studios within the modern music production ecosystem. With a background spanning music technology, studio operations and creative entrepreneurship, he has developed tools and services that simplify collaboration and access within the recording industry. His work centres on supporting independent creators, streamlining production workflows and helping music professionals adapt to the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Stijn Verdonckt – Founder, Daft Music Studios

Driving an internationally recognized studio, Stijn bridges creative production with business growth and industry innovation.

Christophe Monchalin (Belgium)

Muted is an immersive and sensitive experience that plunges you below the surface of a young girl’s silence, into a poetic underwater world. Parental abandonment has left her voiceless. This is a story beyond words, one that is felt rather than told. Like a freediver, you gently descend along a line connecting you to the surface. This story-line will guide you down to the depths, flowing through the thoughts and memories.

Barbara Mydlak & Yann Deval

With CHRONICA, artists Barbara Mydlak and Yann Deval invite us to a ritual of shared resilience, bringing millennia-old papermaking techniques into dialogue with contemporary digital augmented reality technologies.

Yann Deval & Marie G. Losseau

In the augmented reality chapter of ATLAS, after being immersed in an archipelago of poetic islands, spectators are invited to plant virtual cities by throwing seeds. Each seed causes one or more houses to grow, following certain urban planning rules and adapting to their environment. 

Laura Colmenares Guerra

R€¥€R$€ is a Virtual Reality piece that delves into the socio-environmental situation of Amazonia. The work is structured in four chapters: immersive real-time 3D environments, built and running on Unreal Engine, that transport the viewer along rivers through jungle-like environments.

Info: Moderator: Mathieu Demaré - Advisor in Digital Strategy & Innovation Ecosystems, XR Wallonia HITT

Info: Moderator: Laurence Beckers – Creative Director at Alterface, TEA Board Member, Co-founder of La Nef

Info: Moderator: Marie Du Chastel – Art Curator & Artistic Director, KIKK Festival and co-founder, ikii studio

Info: Moderator: Stijn Verdonckt, Founder of Daft Music Studio

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Shoreditch Arts Club, 6 Redchurch Street, London, United Kingdom

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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