Frontiers Day

Karen Newman, Frontiers Day Creative Director and Hayley Pepler, Frontiers Executive Director welcome you to Frontiers Day. Attendees are invited to participate in the Faster Horse game to compete for a special prize, to be announced at the end of the day. 

As AI transforms education and careers, Lara Jeetley (Young Researcher, Alan Turing Institute) makes the case that the future belongs to the generalist. Lara was a speaker at the world’s first Children’s AI Summit and is part of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum, where she runs an e-commerce business. 

Panel: Dr Mhairi Aitken (Alan Turing Institute Children & AI); Alan Brosnan (MTMN); (Virtual Decisions) 

Chaired by Csaba Berenyi (Sponge Hammer Games) 

How are young minds changing with the rollout of EdTech and AI-driven learning across schools? What’s working, who is benefitting, and where does EdTech have most value? This session brings together perspectives across children and AI, games and lived experience to ask critical questions of the first AI native generation. 

In this interactive demo, Virtual Decisions will showcase their latest VR title on stage: VAWG (Violence Against Women & Girls). Virtual Decisions create immersive experiences that allow people to control real-life scenarios and navigate consequences through safe simulations. Seeing the consequences of difficult decisions play out in a virtual environment empowers people to make the right choices when it counts in the real world, saving lives, reducing risk and improving outcomes for everyone involved. 

Panel: Alice Whorley (British Esports); Brigadier AD Griffiths (British Army) 

Chaired by Dr Rachel Farrer (Farrer Consulting) 

The British Army and British Esports are working on initiatives to recruit gamers into the military, filling critical roles in drone operation and cyber defense and tapping into skills such as rapid decision-making, situational awareness and desensitisation to conflict learned through gaming. Join Alice Whorley and Brigadier AD Griffiths to hear about how young gamers are taking up a central role in defence, as war becomes more increasingly remote. 

Bruce Asbestos (artist), Charlotte Ridley (WMGC), Dannielle McGrellis (ARUP) 

Faster Horse artist Bruce Asbestos joins West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) and ARUP to discuss the power of public art as a powerful tool for placemaking and bringing 

people together. ARUP are currently designing the new JFK terminal building, where artistic commissions are a central theme to engage audiences whilst in transit. WMGC develops high impact creative campaigns that shift global perceptions, rebranding the West Midlands as a modern, confident hub for innovation, technology, and green energy. Bruce Asbestos is a leading contemporary artist, renowned for creating bold, vibrant characters and inflatable sculptures in public places that blur the boundary between art and popular culture. 

Eloise Singer (Singer Studios), Vicki Sutherland (Outernet), Jordan Prince (Netflix) 

Chaired by Mikayla Sinead (Create Central) 

Every swipe, click and notification is competing for the same finite resource: our attention. As technology accelerates and content becomes more personalised, audiences demand greater immersion and control. So how do we create stand-out experiences that place audiences at the centre of the story, without compromising on privacy? This panel of experts from the world of interactive entertainment explore new approaches to content creation in the age of the attention economy. 

Round up of the day’s discussions, and announcement of the Faster Horse game prize winner! Signposting to networking drinks with Birmingham Tech Week attendees.