Is gaming set to take over people’s free time? What are the limits of virtual reality? How have media producers adapted to pandemic-inspired needs? In this part of the 2021 Expert Outlook, we speak to four experts about how people are finding both solace and escapism through screens.
Will Page was formerly the chief economist at Spotify and PRS for Music, where he pioneered Rockonomics. He is also the author of Tarzan Economics: Eight Principles for Pivoting through Disruption, in which he touches on topics like digital streaming.
Jolyon Klean is the founder of Orca Sound Project, an accessible, solutions-based organisation focused on tackling the global plastic waste crisis. The organisation has worked with live entertainment companies like Shangri-La to create sustainable events.
Alexandra Casson is a digital content editor and broadcast, social, and TVOD consultant. Over the past 15 years, she has led the commercial and content strategies and creative development of engaging digital formats, brand identities, and live experiences for broadcasters, agencies, and studios including the BBC, Disney, ITV, Sir Elton John, Red Bee, and Viacom, among others.
Paolo Ruffino is a lecturer in communication and media at the University of Liverpool, where he teaches and researches on video games, interactive media, and digital cultures. His research is concerned with the ways in which power and control are negotiated and challenged through digital games by players, producers, and theorists. He's also the author of Future Gaming: Creative Interventions in Video Game Culture, and the editor of Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Technics and Politics, and is one of four founding members of the artist group IOCOSE.
Ope Oduwole is a junior behavioral analyst at Canvas8. He has a BA from the University of Nottingham and leans on the inquisitive nature of his studies. With an avid interest in all things creative, if he’s not at a concert or poetry reading, he’s buried inside a book with a cup of green tea.