Momo Wang is an award-winning animation director, original IP creator, and author. She created Tuzki, the first original Chinese character IP to achieve global recognition, later acquired by Warner Bros. Her books have sold over one million copies worldwide. A CalArts graduate, Momo served as Animation & Creative Director at Illumination, where she directed content for Minions, Despicable Me, and The Grinch. She also directed Penglai, Illumination's first Chinese-themed animated short, narrated by Scarlett Johansson and Oscar-qualified in 2023. Today, Momo is at the forefront of AI-driven filmmaking and original IP development. Her AI short film WINK premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, and she is among the first filmmakers whose AI-generated work has been collected by the China National Film Museum. Through her studio, Bunny Galaxy, she collaborates with leading entertainment and technology companies to explore new production models and next-generation animated storytelling.

Katya Alexander, Head of Production, Fable Studios: I am a multi-award-winning producer, podcast host, and currently the Head of Production at Fable’s Showrunner, where I’m helping shape the future of storytelling at the intersection of film and AI. I produced Pretty Problems, which was featured on the 2022 SXSW Deadline “Hotlist,” named one of USA Today’s “biggest movies out this fall,” and trended on Hulu in 2023. My work has screened at SXSW, Tribeca, and festivals around the world. Producing, to me, is about identifying stories with a strong emotional core, protecting and amplifying that heart, and building production environments where cast and crew can thrive. My job is to create the conditions where creativity flourishes and people feel taken care of. I also host two podcasts. Reel Intelligence brings together leading minds in AI to explore how it’s transforming the film industry. Pocket Change Films is a resource for aspiring filmmakers, focused on how to make your irst project with minimal resources and maximum impact.

Jason Zada, founder, Secret Level: Jason Zada is an award-winning storyteller and director. In 2016, his first theatrical feature film, The Forest was released into theaters by Focus Features. Previously, Jason was most recognized for the Emmy Award-winning cinematic personal experience ‘Take This Lollipop’, which has been seen by over 100 million people all over the world. The film gathered 13 million Facebook Likes, making it the fastest growing FB app of all time. Jason’s unique blend of multi-screen storytelling landed him in Adweek/Creativity’s Top 50 most influential creative personalities of 2012. Starting at an early age, Jason was attracted to non-traditional storytelling. Creating Super8 films, programming text adventures on his Commodore 64 and video games formed a strong foundation as both an avid geek and storyteller. During the 1990’s Jason spent time telling stories in CD-ROMs and on the Internet. In the fall of 2000, Jason started the digital advertising agency Evolution Bureau and over the next 8 years grew EVB into a 65-person, world-renowned agency. This led to the holding company, Omnicom, to acquire a majority stake in the company. As a commercial director, Jason has worked with some of the most prominent advertising agencies in the world, such as Weiden + Kennedy, Crispin Porter Bogusky, Sid Lee, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, RPA, Y&R, Draftfcb, Kaplan Thaler and Grey on a variety of digital and broadcast projects. A lover of telling stories in front of strangers, Jason is often asked to speak at a variety of industry events including Cannes, South by Southwest and FITC. Jason’s work has appeared in New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Adweek, Shoot Magazine, Communication Arts, IndieWire, Contagious and a variety of other film and advertising publications.

Brett Leonard, Legendary Director, "Lawnmower Man" “Virtuosity,” Co-Founder/CCO, UBIQUITY VX: For over 30 years, Brett Leonard has been an award-winning film maker and technologist at the forefront of the digital media revolution. He is widely recognized as a top thought-leader in Virtual Reality since introducing the concept and term to popular culture as the Director/Writer of the seminal hit cult-classic film "Lawnmower Man" starring Pierce Brosnan, which is also one of the most commercially successful independent films of all time, grossing over $200MM globally in all markets on a $5MM budget. Brett was one of the first to pioneer modern stereoscopic techniques and photo-realistic CGI in his hit IMAX 3D film “T-Rex” (100MM on IMAX screens alone), and introduced American audiences to Russell Crowe in his film “Virtuosity” (which also starred Denzel Washington) along with many other talents both in front of and behind the camera.Brett’s work as a visionary Director/Producer/Futurist has always pushed the edge of innovation in the entertainment industry, and continues to do so with a project slate dedicated to defining a new process of content production for the emerging era of Generative A.I. and Immersive Interactive StoryWorlds. Brett directed “Hollywood Rooftop”, the first film to be shot in both 360VR and traditional cinema, combining the mediums for the first time with Generative A.I., and the theatrical feature film “Triumph”, starring Academy Award Nominee Terrence Howard, star of the hit television series “Empire”, and RJ Mitte, star of the legendary series “Breaking Bad”. - “Triumph” won the Ruderman Family Foundation’s award for authentic portrayal of disability in a motion picture, and was released broadly in theaters. Brett has several new feature projects slated for production in 2025. Brett recently co-founded a company called UbiquityVX (UVX1) with business pioneer David Kerzner and world-renown clinical VR researcher Dr. Albert 'Skip' Rizzo, with a mission to provide groundbreaking Virtual Therapies on an assessable easy-to-use web-based platform that can be described as the “Netflix of Interactive Health, Wellness and Performance” Brett recently completed work with the Entertainment Technology Center at USC (founded by George Lucas) as a core team member of the Narrative Context Protocol (NCP) project, which is a next-generation A.I. interactive story-engineering format designed to enable creative professionals a developmental process for both traditional legacy storytelling forms, and the new medium of emergent Interactive Narrative StoryWorlds. Brett’s involvement with the NCP project is indicative of his passion for pioneering new mediums of human interaction and story. Brett’s core philosophy, born out in all of his work is: “To empower people to create and experience transformative story, character, and emotion in any medium, no matter what the technology being used to enable it”.

Ty Roberts, Chief Commercial Officer, MusiMap Pty Ltd: Ty Roberts is a proven creative technologist and serial entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience in the music and technology industries. Since 2020, as Co-Founder and CEO of FanTracks Digital, LLC, Ty has led developments in live and hybrid concerts as well as AR Music Adventure Movies utilizing Next-Gen technologies. Roberts has worked with artists across multiple genres. He collaborated with Todd Rundgren, David Bowie, Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel, created interactive and immersive experiences with all and is developing modernized approaches for these icons. His experience includes artist partnerships involving the real-time generation of special personalized and generative NFTs which can foster additional sustaining revenue. He has been at the forefront of addressing issues relating to rights, royalties and innovative funding. Ty is highly skilled in hybrid productions and concerts in the Metaverse which can incorporate NFTs, Avatars (versus video) and Xtended Reality (XR versus Augmented Reality). As Chief Technology Officer of Universal Music Group, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Gracenote, and CEO of ION, Roberts promoted new formats and standards that fostered the growth of music, movies and television. His knowledge and long-standing relationships allow Roberts to work across multiple industries to create innovative entertainment experiences. He holds dozens of patents for his inventions and has created multiple technical developments and standards across the industry.