THE HEAT will bring alive the optimism of climate-tech — with future-food tastings, product demos, music, art, expert workshops and storytelling. Here are some of the creative minds working on content.
THE HEAT's head of content
THE HEAT's future-food curator
THE HEAT's music curator
THE HEAT's art curator
THE HEAT's partnership curator
MARTINS
THE HEAT's curator of participants
SANDER
THE HEAT's energy-tech curator
THE HEAT's new-materials curator
THE HEAT's climate-film curator
THE HEAT's climate robotics curator
MICHELLE MILES
THE HEAT's logistics curator
THE HEAT's curator of stories
There will be no dull panels or over-long keynotes at THE HEAT.
Instead, come and experience short, lively presentations from some of the key people leading the battle to decarbonise our planet.
MORE SPEAKERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED OVER FUTURE WEEKS.
NALA EARTH; PLANETLY
SYSTEMIQ
NALA EARTH
THALERON
ONE•FIVE
FINANCIAL TIMES;
AUTHOR
REGROW AG
POLAR EXPLORER;
KINTANNA VENTURES
GEOGRAPHER, AUTHOR
ZERO INSTITUTE
AUTHOR, "POSSIBLE"
AUTHOR, "WASTELAND"
It’s a festival. Not a conference. So prepare to get hands-on at THE HEAT.
MORE DEMOS WILL BE ANNOUNCED OVER FUTURE WEEKS.
BY CYANOCAPTURE
BY COLD ELECTRIC
BY SPACE SOLAR
BY FIRST LIGHT FUSION
BY INVERTO EARTH
BY MOCCI
BY TOKAMAK ENERGY
BY PROXIMA FUSION
BY TUAL
BY FREEGLIDE
BY MAGICAL MUSHROOM CO
BY SAMUDRA OCEANS
Taste tomorrow’s food — including innovative approaches to meat, cheese, chocolate and more, curated by future-food expert Daniel Skaven Ruben.
MORE FOOD TASTINGS WILL BE ANNOUNCED OVER FUTURE WEEKS.
BY WIN-WIN
BY HOXTON FARMS
BY BETTER DAIRY
BY JULIENNE BRUNO
BY NOTPLA
BY WILLICROFT
BY FERMTECH
COMING SOON
Broaden your knowledge in compelling interactive sessions led by experts.
MORE WORKSHOPS WILL BE ANNOUNCED OVER FUTURE WEEKS.
BY THEIR CLIMATE TEAM
BY FRANCESCO SCIORTINO
BY JENNIFER DUNGS
BY EDO PERRY
From drumbeats to DJs, we’ll bring the festival vibe to THE HEAT.
MORE MUSICIANS WILL BE ANNOUNCED OVER FUTURE WEEKS.
COMEDIAN
BEN CULLEN WILLIAMS
"HOT TAKES"
COMING SOON
David Rowan is founder of VOYAGERS and chief curator of THE HEAT. He was founding UK editor-in-chief of WIRED and wrote the book “Non-Bullshit Innovation” (Penguin). David also runs the VOYAGERS Climate-Tech Fund.
Daniel is founder of Solvable Syndicate, founding editor of FoodTech Weekly, operating advisor to Mudcake / Nordic FoodTech VC / Blume Equity, angel investor in 30+ startups, advisor to 15+ food-tech and bio-economy startups, and mentor at accelerators Big Idea Ventures, Katapult and Norrsken.
Nathalie Nahai is an artist, musician and founder of the Flourishing Futures Salon. Author of the bestselling book, Webs of Influence, she works at the intersection of psychology, technology and the arts.
Leonora Chance is a cultural strategist who is head of brand communications at WeTransfer and its commissioning arts arm WePresent. She has spent the past decade working with creatives, brands and institutions on building their reputation and shaping projects across the creative spectrum.
What started off as a marketing career in the corporate world turned into a mission to support climate-tech founders solving what I believe is the most pressing issue of our era: the rapid collapse of our natural world. A large part of my time is devoted to enabling dialogue, fostering collaboration, creating inspiration-inducing, action-triggering events and experiences that I hope will lead to a better tomorrow. Another big part goes to enjoying the here and the now with my wife and two kids, most likely playing outside near our home in Hamburg, Germany.
Mariana is the VOYAGERS Community Builder, responsible for building valuable connections between the 3,500+ people in the VOYAGERS community of people working on impactful things in climate tech, health tech and more. Her role includes organising three-day adventure weekends in magical places; local dinner meetups in 24 cities; online workshops and networking; direct introductions between VOYAGERS; and other online and offline activities that build peer support.
Emma oversees the development and management of the Energy Tech Cluster at Harwell, which is supported by the Science Technology Facilities Council at UK Research and Innovation. She has been instrumental in building on the strong foundations of the Cluster with innovative energy-technology companies, UK public bodies, academia and industry to share knowledge, focus on funding streams and concentrate on areas of growth. Key to the Energy Tech Cluster’s success is taking its primary focus and ensuring that across collaboration with a multidisciplinary focus approach is actively supported.
After some years in design and innovation consulting for global brands and lately transforming the Design Hotels platform into a more conscious business, Ksenia is currently focused on impact and sustainability advisory within looms.world, exploring new ideas of circularity and the role of creativity in climate change.
Tristan is an award-winning filmmaker, founder and anthropologist focused on accelerating climate action. He is co-founder of the London-based production company Possible Studio, and has published films and stories with The Guardian, Al-Jazeera and the Huffington Post. Tristan is a Shuttleworth Foundation grant recipient and MIT Innovator Under 35.
Dr Patrick Meier leads the Climate Robotics Network and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL). He is a 5x founder with 15+ years of leadership experience in humanitarian- and climate-tech. Patrick is also a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and was born and raised in Africa.
Michelle is the event lead at Fusion Events, an agency based in Oxfordshire that specialises in managing events that have sustainability at their core. Working in the events sector for 20+ years, she has experience managing an unusual variety of events, including festivals, award ceremonies, conferences and technology showcases — all of which feed into THE HEAT’s varied programme. Michelle is an IEMA associate member.
Joe Rowan is VOYAGERS’ Chief of Staff and curator of stories at THE HEAT. He’s writing stories about participants for the festival magazine, as well as all other content that goes out on THE HEAT’s social-media channels.
Henrietta Moon is the CEO and co-founder of Carbo Culture, drawing down CO2 and storing it in a functional, stable form for thousands of years. Originally from Finland, Henrietta speaks five languages and has lived in four countries.
Tessa is co-founder and CEO of Olio, an app tackling the climate crisis by solving the problem of waste in the home and local community. Olio does this by connecting people with their neighbours so they can give away rather than throw away their spare food and other household items, and lend and borrow instead of buying brand new. They also have over 100,000 volunteers who collect unsold food from local businesses such as Tesco, Iceland and Holland & Barrett, and redistribute it to the community via the Olio app. Eight million people have joined the Olio community to date, and each month over 3 million items are successfully shared.
Dr Liz Gilligan is founder and CEO at Material Evolution. She and the team are working on decarbonising the cement industry at scale using both a hardware and software solution.
David is the CEO/founder at CyanoCapture — a climate-tech company using synthetic biology to make industrial-scale CO2 removal affordable worldwide. The core technology uses genetic engineering to manipulate the photosynthetic machinery found in cyanobacteria to bring down the energy cost of carbon capture below 350 kWh/T CO2.
Anna Alex is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor dedicated to addressing significant challenges in climate and nature. She recently founded her third company, NALA Earth, which quantifies biodiversity and nature for businesses. Prior to this, she established Planetly and Outfittery. Anna’s Wild&Free Animal Fund supports organisations combating livestock farming.
Irena leads Systemiq Capital, the climate-tech VC spin-off from the world’s largest pure-play climate advisory firm Systemiq. She built the current team and led most investments in Fund I, including companies like Charm Industrial and Brimstone, which are directly involved with CDR. In 2022, Irena led the spin-out of Systemiq Capital from Systemiq with a launch of Fund II, continuing to back early-stage companies across the UK, EU and North America. The restoration of climate through carbon and methane removal is one of the fund’s focus areas alongside decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors, climate biotech and software as a service.
Nick is one of the co-founders & CEO of Nala Earth, a software platform that enables businesses to make the complex world of nature & biodiversity manageable. Nick is an economist and data scientist who has previously worked at BCG Gamma building net-zero solutions for large financial institutions.
Constantine is COO of Thaleron, which is building a new mechanical-energy-storage solution that harnesses subsea pressure to dramatically reduce material costs. He previously led operations at Let’s Do This, and before that he competed at the Olympics in rowing, winning a gold medal in Rio 2016.
Martin is co-founder of one • fıve, an AI-powered packaging innovation platform. Utilising new biomaterials, one • fıve empowers decision-makers at major consumer brands to achieve their ultimate packaging solutions — from pre-development to full-scale industrial production — without compromising performance, affordability or sustainability. Martin is an active seed investor with a portfolio of over 30 companies and several early-stage funds.
Simon Mundy is the Moral Money editor at the Financial Times, covering environmental and sustainability issues for the award-winning Moral Money platform and the wider FT. He began his reporting career in Johannesburg, where he covered Southern Africa for the FT before a period writing on the London financial sector. He then spent seven years in Asia, heading the FT bureaux in Seoul and Mumbai, before two years travelling through 26 countries on six continents to research Race for Tomorrow, a book on the global scramble to respond to climate change.
Anastasia is co-founder and CEO of Regrow Ag, shaping the category of agricultural resilience. She has 10+ years of software experience and more than a decade of experience in academia and business. Anastasia holds a PhD in aerospace engineering and has been named a 2023 UBS Global Visionary, one of BBC’s “Top 100 Women” and is on the TIME100 Next list.
The founding partner of Kintanna Ventures, Ben Saunders spent 20 years as a pioneering polar explorer. He is the third person in history to ski solo to both the North and South poles, and holds the world record for the longest ever polar journey on foot.
Danny Dorling is a professor in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. He was previously a professor for a decade at the University of Sheffield, and before then at the University of Leeds. He has also worked as an academic in Newcastle and Bristol. He was born and brought up in Oxford. In 2020 he published “Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration—And Why It’s Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives”; and in 2021, jointly with Annika Koljonen: “Finntopia: What We Can Learn from the World’s Happiest Country”. He slowed down for a year in 2022, and his 2023 book was titled: “Shattered Nation: Inequality, and the Geography of a Failing State”. In 2024 he publishes two books: “Seven Children” and “Peak Injustice”. Danny is a patron of the road-crash charity RoadPeace, of Heeley City Farm in Sheffield, and of the educational campaign group Comprehensive Future. In his spare time, he makes sandcastles on beaches with clean streams and the right kind of sand. He errs towards being optimistic about the future, because his academic work suggests, to him, that this is the most rational stance to take – despite what you may see around you.
Paul Shearing is Professor of Sustainable Energy Engineering at the Department of Engineering Science, and director of the ZERO Institute, at Oxford University. He holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Battery Technologies.
Chris Goodall, who writes the Carbon Commentary newsletter, is a researcher and author on climate technologies. His latest book, Possible: Ways to Net Zero, lays out how the world can deal with the remaining challenges on the route to full decarbonisation. He is also an investor in climate-tech, with several successful exits (and a couple of stunning failures).
Oliver Franklin-Wallis is an award-winning journalist and the author of “Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, And Why It Matters”. His work often covers the environment and technology, and has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, WIRED, and British GQ, where he is a features editor.
ARIA is a new kind of R&D funding agency. It funds scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible. ARIA was established by the UK Government in January 2023 with high levels of autonomy – granted via the ARIA Act. From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world-class R&D in new ways, to meet these head on.
Take a break for reflection and relaxation by joining this session on Sound Mediation and Saving the Planet. The session, led by Edo Perry, will incorporate instruments, breathing techniques and meditation to reset you for the days to come (which requires no prior knowledge or any other action other than just…being). Edo is the VOYAGERS Bay Area chapter lead and CEO and cofounder of Elements. Based in San Francisco, Edo has been working in climate for 12 years — in NGOs, political campaigns, ecosystem building, lecturing and mentoring at universities. He worked at Apple on sustainability and most recently joined as an advisor to a climate-tech fund. Edo has guided sound-meditation sessions for six years and believes that these sessions allow you to connect to yourself and others in more harmonic ways.
Dembis Thioung, renowned as a master of the dunduns in West African music, embodies the rich cultural tapestry of Senegal. Born in 1986 to a Serer Griot mother and a Peul/Fula Laube father in Dakar, Dembis was immersed in traditional Senegalese music from a young age. His upbringing alongside his professional dancer mother and drum-maker father laid the foundation for his lifelong passion for percussion. Dembis honed his craft at prestigious cultural centres in Senegal, refining his skills on instruments like the Dundun, Djembe, Sabar, and Asico drums. Embracing his cultural heritage, Dembis is deeply connected to the Senegalese Baye Fall Brotherhood, influenced by the teachings of Cheikh Ahamdou Bamba. Since relocating to the UK in 2010, Dembis has become a sought-after performer and educator. He has collaborated with numerous artists and companies across Europe and the Caribbean, including Irineu Nogueira’s Afro-Brazilian Dance Company and Akomaasa Performing Arts Academy. Additionally, Dembis fosters community engagement through weekly drum and dance circles, creating spaces for connection and spiritual exploration. His versatility extends beyond West African rhythms, as he collaborates with artists worldwide, showcasing his ability to bridge cultural divides through music.
Hot Poets is an ambitious, award-winning, internationally focused CIC, working to powerfully communicate climate-change science and action through spoken-word poetry. They do this by creating dynamic arts and science collaborations with top climate-change organisations, scientists and world-class artists, including UNFCCC’s Resilience Frontiers, The Met Office, LSE, RSPB, UCL, Southbank Centre, The Gaia Foundation and 3M. Their poems have been viewed, heard or seen over 6 million times, presented at the Southbank, NBC UNIVERSAL, TedXLondon, and COP26, 27 and COP28 in collaboration with the UN. By giving science a story, Hot Poets has positively impacted the work of scientists, farmers and academics across the world.
Liv Torc is world-shaping, creativity-championing poet, performer, producer and UN consultant, who seeks and delivers creative solutions to the pressing problems of our time. Co-Artistic Director of Hot Poets and producer of the poetry stage at WOMAD, Liv has performed at Glastonbury Festival, UNESCO in Paris, TEDxLondonWomen and R4’s Poetry Please. Her published books include Show Me Life and The Human Emergency.
Chris Redmond is a writer, musician and multi-artform facilitator. Co-Artistic Director of Hot Poets, founder of Tongue Fu, his career spans 30 years and 20 countries, with collaborators including Kae Tempest, Lemn Sissay, Irvine Welsh and Hollie McNish. His poetry and music has featured on BBC Radio 1-6, ITV, Sky Arts, CBBC, in The Guardian and Independent.
Blanche Ellis is a multidisciplinary artist and musician. With intricate lyrics, folk in her fingers and blues in her voice, Blanche sings mostly in intimate spaces, using music as a way to weave connection and community. “Acapella and harmony, the naked voice and the rhythm of the body, are home.” Blanche has performed her songs from her first home, Camden Town, London, across the UK, USA and Europe, solo and in a variety of musical collaborations. Blanche lives in Barcelona, where she paints, sings and hosts musical gatherings to which all are welcome.
Growing up in the vibrant culture of post-reunification East Germany, Arno fell in love with electronic music at kindergarten. At high school, he started a daily radio show, DJing and organising parties in Dresden and Berlin. Arno balances his engineering career with his DJing passion, his sound ranging from downtempo electronic and house to trance and rave, tailored to the time and setting. He is known for creating unforgettable experiences in intimate clubs and house parties. Arno draws inspiration from Berlin’s legendary techno clubs, such as RSO, Watergate, Sisyphos and Golden Gate, and infamous park raves or festivals, like Nachti and Fusion, infusing his music with a unique and sustainable energy.
Stuart Goldsmith is an internationally award-winning comedian, podcaster, speaker and comedy expert. His TV credits include performing stand-up on Conan, hosted by comedy icon Conan O’Brien. He has performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the New Zealand International Comedy Festival and the prestigious, invitation-only festivals Just For Laughs in Montreal and SXSW in Texas. His 2023 solo stand-up show Spoilers won the prestigious Best Show 2023 at Leicester Comedy Festival and was one of the best-reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023, where he played to sellout audiences. The Times praised Stuart’s “excellence” and his “intelligent, well-crafted act” and The List said: “He’s especially, piercingly funny on the hypocrisies we all indulge in.” Stuart performs his climate comedy at eco festivals and at corporate events internationally. The purpose is to engage attendees in the important issue of sustainability and climate change; to send out a call to action and alleviate our collective dread by tackling a very serious subject via a very entertaining medium. He has appeared at high-profile climate festivals including Net Zero Festival and Blue Earth Summit in the UK and GreenBiz in the US. Stuart hosts the internationally renowned “Comedian’s Comedian” podcast, with over 25 million downloads. stuartgoldsmith.com
Under-23 (Proof of Age Required)
Team Festival Pass (5 tickets)
VIP Festival Pass
All Access Festival Pass
