21st Century :

A Digital Odyssey

New opportunities. New realities.

Voyelle Acker

Voyelle Acker has been working for 18 years in the development, the production and the diffusion of linear, digital and audiovisual projects, in France and worldwide. She’s now producer of immersice experiences for ON Animation (Montréal) and consultant in new writings and digital creation.

Mathieu Bazelaire

After a curriculum in industrial design and a totally different training in programming, Mathieu Bazelaire has been travelling all over the world for 20 years. Co-creator of the digital agency Dogstudio, he also takes part in the creation of KIKK Festival, Superbe and the side projects.

Laurence Beckers

Laurence Beckers has spent 19 years in the Creative Industries and, specifically, 13 years at Alterface Company as the Creative Director. Alterface S.A. is a company specialized in the development and implementation of interactive technologies for the “on location” entertainment sector. Starting as a University spin off in 2001, the company has been instrumental in the development of interactive theaters and interactive dark ride in this industry. Leading a research project about the use of mixed reality and multi-agent system in theme park with 2 universities, teaching transmedia storytelling, board member of l’Institut des Arts et Diffusion, the main mission of Laurence is to convert new technology into amusement and emotion, taking care of users experience. Digital projects coordinator for Mons 2015, European Capital of Culture, she has managed international artistic residencies at the intersection of art, science and technology. 

Charlotte Benedetti

Trained in visual Arts in La Cambre, Charlotte sharpens her look before specializing in exhibitions and working with various institutions and scenography companies. In 2012, she enters the Mons 2015 Foundation and Mons’ museum department, bringing her skills in exhibition manager, contemporary art, literature and digital aspects. In 2016 she creates « Charlotte B », her own agency specialized in museum exhibition techniques, before entering Ihecs (Brussels) as a lecturer and the cultural center of Genappe as a programmer.

Sophie Berque

Sophie Berque studied French and Italian languages and literatures. Her career starts in 2003 with a first job in the radio industry (Antipode).
She joins RTBF Interactive (previously named the New Media Department) at the RTBF in October 2008. The department’s main activity is to develop the RTBF’s interactive media offering. Besides working as Coordinator to the Director, she was also responsible of the Department’s internal and external communication, as well as in charge of the projects dealing with the development of transmedia and web content (webseries, webdocumentaries, etc.).

In September 2014, she became Manager of the newly founded Webcreation and Transmedia unit at RTBF Interactive. Her mission was to develop all Webcreation projects & Digital Production of the RTBF. In September 2018, she becomes Manager of the Digital Fiction in the Fiction Department of the RTBF.

Laura Canducci

Laura started as a radio and TV journalist and is now Multimedia Content Creator at RTBF. Developing video concepts, filming, interviewing, editing, making text animations: she learned how to get more polyvalent to fit with the RTBF process adapting to digital realities.

Charles Carcopino

Specialist in digital cultures, Charles Carcopino oscillates between curating exhibitions and visual creations for the stage of live shows. He creates visuals and interactive scenography installations for events in ballet, opera and electronic music festivals. Charles Carcopino was the curator for the international Exit Festival held at the Maison des Arts de Créteil and the VIA festival, and works as an independent curatorfor festivals and institutions in France and in Asia… Anchored in today's world, his exhibitions explore the effects of society’s post-Internet acceleration in the fields of contemporary creation.

Pierre Cattan

Pierre Cattan is a producer, author and director. He founded the interactive studio Small Bang in 2012 and produced, among others, the following apps : Cinemacity (Arte, 2013), BirdLab (Vigie-Nature, 2014), Les Saisons : Morphosis (France Télévisions, 2015) et Phallaina (France Télévisions, 2016).

Frédéric Cavazza

Consultant and lecturer, Fred Cavazza has been working in te field of the Internet for 20 years. Specialized in digital marketing (online trade, social l medias, mobiles, digital platforms, artificial intelligence, etc.). He helps big European brands understand better new uses and their digital mutations. He created SYSK, the first accelerator of big companies. He wrote two books ("Social Business" and "Internet mobile") and is the editor of the blog FredCavazza.net.

Louise-Amélie Cougnon

Louise-Amélie is Director of Research at MiiL, the new media innovation centre at UCLouvain. Her preferred fields are linked to new communication codes in the digital age. After defending a doctoral thesis on the new digital language codes, she opened her research interests to behavioural codes: managing remote presence, physical absence, digital silences, communication of emotions, harassment online or managing loneliness behind the screen, to name but a few examples of her research subjects.

Jean-Louis Decoster

After having studied art and communication in Brussels, Jean-Louis Decoster turns towards photo and video at the beginning of 2000s. As a VJ for more than 100 artists for example. In 2015, he discovers VR and create Poolpio, an agency specialized in immersive contents creation (VR & AR). He is now artistic and creative head of Poolpio and also directs the event department: KORAI.events. Since 2019, he’s also Senior event manager at Stereopsia.

Matthieu Donck

After having directed some remarkable short movies and a first long movie (Torpedo), tainted of sweet and sour humor, Mathieu Donck, who graduated from IAD, comes into the light in 2016 with La Trêve, the first série noire entirely produced by RTBF.

Sébastien Fevry

Professor at the UCLouvain School of Communication and coordinator of the GIRCAM, an interdisciplinary research group focused on culture and arts.

Alain Gallez

Psychologist by training, Alain Gallez quickly turned to the support and the training of innovative entrepreneurs. In 1998 he created a company organizing international scientific lectures. In 2010, alongside with the University of Liège, he creates an association organizing each year Stereopsia, an international forum on advanced immersive technologies (XR, 3D, AI).

Wilson Garcia-Sequeira

After his beginings in RTBF's graphic design section, since 2007 he has been the head of Dreamwall's virtual set design department. He has since contributed to the development of many sets for RTBF TV shows, but his department has also completed some ambitious projects for international channels, such as Envoyé Special on FranceTV, the World Cup and Telefoot on TF1 or again the Thai elections for the Springnews channel.

Jean-Michel Germys

Graduated from the IAD in 1985, Jean-Michel Germys quickly entered the RTBF as a director (sports, entertainments, culture…) for 10 years. He was head of the Entertainment programs unit from 2003 to 2016, before being designated as counsellor of the CEO regarding strategic matters, such as a project focused on the evolution of the working methods. He also teaches TV direction and production at the IAD.

Laurent Grumiaux

Laurent Grumiaux, started his career in Liverpool England, with an e-commerce business selling limited edition signed rock star memorabilia. Back in Belgium, he works for 3 years as a consultant in the digital sector. Joined Fishing Cactus in 2010, Laurent has been mostly responsible for the business development side, and now focuses on Producing internal projects and co-productions. Laurent also co-created WALGA, a regional structure helping new studios and video game development. He is also a European commission expert on technical-creative project, a coach an a Jury in various gaming project selections.

Laure Hendrickx

Laure Hendrickx is currently a programmer for new audiovisual narratives at Brussels Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR). Since 2015, she is coordinating Are You series? - an international TV series festival – focusing on innovative storytelling and new digital forms. Being in charge of immersive content, Laure is also seeking to bring the most groundbreaking VR stories in BOZAR.

Benjamin Hoguet

Benjamin Hoguet is an author and creator of narrative works for new medias: interactive comics, transmedia documentary, virtual reality, social networks fictions, etc.

http://benhoguet.com
http://facebook.com/nouvellesnarrations

Vincent Housiaux

Vincent Housiaux graduated at IAD (Institut des Arts de Diffusion) as a film/radio/TV director in 1992. That same year, he joins RTBF (Radio Télévision Belge Francophone) as an assistant director in the entertainment division. A year later Vincent starts his career as a director. Expert in multi-camera and live shows, he spends 6 years focusing on entertainment and talkshows before joining the sports division in 1998. 5 years later, Vincent takes-on a new double challenge as he simultaneously embraces the charge of being the Art director for the programs at RTBF and a teaching position for TV directors at IAD.

François Jadoulle

Graduated from IHECS (Journalism), François Jadoulle started his career as a communication manager, then as a community manager and webcreation project manager (webseries, webdocumentaries, VR, podcasts). En 2018, he got in charge of the research and development for the newly created Content Pole at the RTBF.
He also teaches project methodology at IAD, sharing his skills in new storytellings and production to students in direction, writing and production.

Iliesse Kasrou

Illiesse Kasrou started as a web journalist and evolved towards the creation of content for social media platforms. As a Multimedia Content Creator for RTBF, he also developed video projects from A to Z. From filming and editing to the feedback of the community (e.g.: in the "stories" format). With this digital expertise, his mission is also to coach the various talents towards digital production and awareness of its codes.

Suzanne Kieffer

Suzanne Kieffer is professor at the School of communication (COMU) at Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). She owes a PhD in Computer Science from Henri Poincaré University Nancy 1, France (2006). Her research focuses on human-computer interaction, user-centered design and user experience.

François Klein

François Klein is a movie producer specialised in new technologies. He has worked 10 years on various productions for video, animation and S-3D contents. In 2016, he creates Digital Rise, a creative studio dedicated to fiction in virtual reality and new storytelling forms. His work lead VR pieces to major festival such as Sundance, SXSW, Sheffield Doc.

Alexander Knetig

Alexander Knetig is in charge of ARTE’s digital editions: web only projects (series, VR programs, videogames) and digital edition and distribution of ARTE contents (website, apps, connected TVs). Before joining ARTE he was a journalist for French, Spanish, Austrian and US medias, as well as digital producer.

Matthieu Labeau

Matthieu Labeau graduated from the Universities of Gent and Brussels in Pedagogy, Literature and development studies. Before joining the private sector, he started his career by teaching history of art and cinema at the universities of Budapest and Brasilia. Matthieu is now managing the VR business development at Nozon. The company is conducting advanced R&D both in technology (PresenZ) and storytelling (Nozon VR studio). Nozon recently joined the Starbreeze group.

Martin Landmeters

Martin Landmeters graduated in 2009 from the IAD (Institut des Arts de Diffusion) where he studied Multimedia. He founded in 2012 the creative studio Geometry based in Brussels. As a multidisciplinary studio, Geometry produces a diverse range of projects like graphic design, videos, or websites. Martin wrote and directed the music videos of Nicola Testa. He also wrote and directed "La Théorie du Y", a RTBF webseries about bisexuality, and is currently working on Season 2.

Georges Lauwerijs

Georges Lauwerijs is in charge of the Media and editorial practices pole of RTBF Academy. He has been a journalist at RTBF since 1991 before turning to managing editor of the information pole. He has constantly worked on bringing radio, TV and Web teams together. He now gives lectures to RTBF journalists.

Gaëtan Libertiaux

Instigator of collective or intimate experiences, Gaëtan Libertiaux is the artistic director of Superbe (interactive design studio) and Kikk. He apprehends the world through perceptible sensibilities, gaps and openings. Delighted with Katerine, chips and philosophy, he is interested in the universe, the language, the music, the way the thought takes shape, and a lot of other things. For him, everything is first and foremost becoming.

Vincent Manniez

Graduated from the University of Valenciennes, Vincent Manniez has been a director for over 15 years. He is making « Envoyé Spécial » on France2, the news on France3. Until 2018, he directed "L'Angle Eco" presented by François Lenglet and "Thalassa" presented by Fanny Agostini. Previously, he directed many documentaries for Arte and Francetélévisions. He often uses augmented reality in his creations, and frequently works with Dreamwall, a key reference in the field of virtual set creation in Europe.

Bruno Masi

Fabrice Massin studied political sciences at ULB, became Chief Transformation & Digital Officer at RTL Belgium. After a MBA in Marketing in à Solvay Business School and a training on management at the INSEAD, he worked for 13 years in the telecoommunication field at Belgacom before working for 10 years at RTBF.

Fabrice Massin

Fabrice Massin studied political sciences at ULB, became Chief Transformation & Digital Officer at RTL Belgium. After a MBA in Marketing in à Solvay Business School and a training on management at the INSEAD, he worked for 13 years in the telecoommunication field at Belgacom before working for 10 years at RTBF.

Fabien Mezzafonte

Since his graduation, Fabien Mezzafonte has been working within the audiovisual field: musical documentaries, live captations, museum targeted video projects, advertising, etc. In 2009 he takes part in the development of the web pole of ARTE Concert platform. Three years later, he joins Radio France to develop innovative video contents (nouvOson). His mission is now to coproduce audiovisual contents in partnership with other producers, broadcasters and sound innovation services of Radio France: SEQUENCES (France TV/Culturebox et Milgram prod), TANTALE (Générale de Production), Uaxuctum (Les Films de la butte), etc.

Dominique Moulon

Independent curator, art critic and professor, Dominique Moulon holds a PhD in Arts and Sciences of the Art. Since 2015, he has been associate curator of the Nemo Biennial of the greater Paris. Member of IKT (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art), AICA (International Association of Art Critics), OMNSH (Observatory of Digital Worlds in Humanities), he teaches at Parsons Paris and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sébastien Nahon

Sébastien Nahon directs the production of the Media Innovation & Intelligibility Lab – MiiL of UCLouvain. This interdisciplinary center for media innovation studies the uses and appropriations ofdigital media, identifies their future and develops newsolutions. Sébastien’s favorite fields are transmedia, new narratives as well as augmented, virtual and mixed reality.

Magali Philipp

Hired in RTS in 1999 as a PR journalist, she has worked on many reportages and even won the Public French-speaking Radios Prize of the reportage in 2010. She’s the happy creator of the concept of the mobile app of Ligne Directe, as well as the social network part. She’s now in charge of the social networks for RTSinfo and columnist in Vertigo.

Thibault Philippette

Thibault Philippette is a professor at the UCLouvain School of Communication. He’s also a member of the GReMS (research group in knowledge mediation) and of the LabJMV (Virtual games and worlds Lab). His research focuses on the social appropriation of technologies, digital skills and mediatic literacy, play studies and mediatic ludology.

Eric Poivre

Eric Poivre graduated from IAD in Radio/TV direction in 1990. Hired in RTBF as a director and producer, he became head of La Une before being designated as Head of RTBF programs in 2010. He’s now head of « Les médias francophones publics » (Paris), an international French-speaking organisation dealing with the cooperative relationships between 11 public media groups : Belgian, Swiss, Canadian and French.

Jérémy Pouilloux

Jérémy Pouilloux is associate producer of La Générale de Production since 2005. Expert in audiovisual production and transmedia devices, he cerated the Transmedia Immersive University, as well as the event I LOVE TRANSMEDIA in Paris. La Générale de Production, based in Paris, focuses on fiction, documentary and magazine by developing many linear and interactive projects, video games, VR or R&D.

Tama Rchika

Tama Rchika is a doctoral researcher at the Language and Communication Institute of UCLouvain. Member of the Social Media Lab, she is conducting a thesis project that questions the collaborative practices of entrepreneurs across various collective places through the prism of the concepts of boundary objects and communities of practice. Alongside this thesis, Tama is also part of a research project (EPRACO) aimed at analyzing and understanding collaborative practices within the Brussels entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Jean-François Rees

Professor at the UCLouvain School of Biology, Jean-François does not hesitate to explore other fields of action. Animator of debates, animator of natural history workshops for children, actor in theater plays, entrepreneur, nothing really seems to scare him. The proof: he agreed to lead the round tables that will close the odyssey.

Damien Renard

Damien Renard is professor at the School of communication of UCLouvain and holds a Ph.D. in Management Sciences from Paris Dauphine University, France. His current research focuses on creative practices within innovation communities and on the impact of socio-digital devices on individual and collective practices. He is the author of articles in several journals such as Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Advertising Research, International Journal of Innovation.

Bruno Schröder

Bruno Schroder is the National Technology Officer of Microsoft Belux. In charge of technology policy discussions and cooperation with regional and federal governments, he created the 3 regional Microsoft Innovation Centers of Belgium as public private partnerships. He is a member of the AI4BE expert group tasked by the Federal Government to write the recommendations for an national AI plan for Belgium. He is also president of the board of CETIC, an interuniversity IT research center, and member of the board of several technology related organisations. Active on the internet for over 30 years, he is a keen observer of the impact of technology on our organisations and daily life.

Pablo SCHWILDEN DIAZ

CTO at Demute, Pablo is a perfect mix of game programmer and sound engineer. He is a specialist in interactive audio and makes sure that the sound of every video game is unique and flawless from start to end. Despite the common trend to work abroad to survive the harsh industry of video game development, Pablo decided to create his dream job in Belgium and to help the growing game development community in Belgium.

Sarah Sepulchre

Sarah Sepulchre is professor at the Université catholique de Louvain where she mainly teaches cultural studies, television studies, characters,  gender studies and cultural uses of transmedia. Her main research field is television studies. She has edited the book Décoder les séries télévisées (de Boeck, 2017).

Olivier Servais

Olivier Servais is professor at UCLouvain where he teaches anthropology (nature, digital worlds, symbolical systems). He also teaches at the IAD and at Saint Louis University (Brussels). His research works (in Belgium, Canada, Philippines) focus on video games, digital worlds, religions and their relationships with their natural or technological environments.

Patrick Séverin

Journalist, documentary film director, digital experience creator, producer, Patrick Séverin works every where you can find a link between innovative storytelling and citizenship. Through HorsZone or Instants Productions, he’s been active in the field of transmedia for 10 year and many projects have been awarded in Belgian or International Festivals.

Laurent Sick

With a graphic design background crossing the architectural space, Laurent has always enlarged his creations beyond paper layout. 10 years of exhibition design experience and Kascen studio partner, he developed several graphic designs for exhibitions like “Verlaine, cellule 252” for Mons2015 and recently the entire set of the walls of the subway station Simonis in Brussels. Designing global experience with his partners, he tries to imagine new ways to develop an exhibition and to surprise visitors.

Olivier Standaert

Olivier Standaert is an assistant professor at the Louvain School of Journalism (UCLouvain, Belgium). His research and teaching focus on methodological issues in journalism studies, journalism cultures, professional identities, careers and labour markets of media workers. As a former freelance journalist, he previously worked for various Belgian newspapers and magazines.

Caroline Taillet

Caroline Taillet graduated in 2010 from UCLouvain, where she studied Literature and Languages, and from IAD, where she studied acting until 2014. As an actress, she played in "Les Mots Perdus" by collective Les Alices or "Le Mariage de Lila" by Les Nouveaux Disparus. She wrote and directed "La Théorie du Y", a theatre play about bisexuality. She also wrote and directed its screen adaptation as a webseries with the RTBF, and is currently working on Season 2. She is also a radio host for Pure.

Benjamin Torrini

Benjamin Torrini is actor and director. Besides his studies, he creates and co-directs Typique (RTBF, FR4) that leads to the birth of Narrativ Nation, a fiction production company. On stage he joins Jean-Michel d’Hoop and the Point Zero for Gunfactory and L’herbe de l’oubli. He is also directed by Eric de Staercke and Dominique Serron, as well as he writes and directs many films and series (Lucas etc.). He’s now working on two new series (on screen in 2020).

François Tron

François Tron followed a path entirely dedicated to the audiovisual sector and medias. Hestarted in 1981 at Radio France where he remained until 1991 holding various positions including the direction of development. He notably participated in the creation of the France Info channel, at the launch of local radio stations (today the “France Bleue” network). In 1991, he joined the group France Télévisions where he will be head of programs of France 3 and France 2, then joined the CEO as advisor for film co-productions and acquisitions until 2000, where he became Director of Program Strategy and Studies. Appointed director of France 2 in 2001 until 2004 before choosing the private production and the consultancy. From 2006 and 2008 he is a consultant of the Qatari group Al-Jazeera in Doha. At the end of 2008, he joined RTBF in Brussels as Television Director. Since November 2017, he is Director of Contents (TV / Radio / Digital) of the Belgian public group. Professor at ISERP, as well as at the INA / Paris I Sorbonne Media Department for many years, François Tron is also the author of two books: "Le gout de la Télévision (2007)" and "La Television pour les Nuls" "(2010).

Eric Van Cutsem

Graduated in molecular biology and French literature (cinema writing), Eric started his career as a freelance data processing consultant beside his editor job at Cinopsis (organization working on cinema events and critiques). The he got IT specialist at Cisco Systems before lauching Uchrony his own web company in 1997. In 2015, he joined Business & decision as a Practice Manager of the Web & Mobile division. He’s now the head of Synapse, their innovation lab.

Louis Van de Leest

Project Manager & Labor Market Consultant @ mediarte.
Profound knowledge of the Belgian audiovisual landscape (approach to SME's and knowledge sharing), job profiles, educational programs, vacancy management, skill gaps, vocational training. Multidimensional, creative project manager with a professional career spanning more than 15 years of experience in the broad audiovisual industry, from on-field production (ENG/EFP) to corporate HR-support regarding traineeships, recruiting & training programs.
Highly skilled in project management, online communication, CMS-management, content production.

Marie Vanoost

Marie Vanoost is a Postdoctoral Researcher for the National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) and an invited lecturer at the School of Communication at the Université catholique de Louvain. Her current research interests include the reception of narrative journalism and the development of new narrative forms in journalism.

Xavier Wielemans

Xavier Wielemans was born in 1975. When he was very young, his grandfather brought him to see the dinosaures at the natural sciences museum and the elephant at the Africa museum. Since then, Xavier loves museums. When he was still quite young, his parents offered him a Commodore 64. Since then, Xavier loves computers. When he was still young, he became a scout leader. Since then, Xavier loves telling stories, making up games and having other people play them. Now he has become big and not that young, Xavier found a way to combine these three passions into one exciting job: designing and programming interactive applications for museums.