The Digital Stage

Helen Kerr has over 25 years' experience as the leader of one of North America's pre-eminent, research driven, innovation, Foresight, design and strategy companies. Multidisciplinary approaches to highly complex problems have been the undercurrent of her career and she brings business analytics and creative thinking to all projects. Helen has facilitated major research and strategy projects with the South Pacific Community, Southern Africa climate change partners, City of Chicago, Creative State Michigan, Western University, Elections Canada, and Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. Helen's first degree is in Environmental Science and she studied Industrial Design at the Ontario College of Art. Helen has designed award-winning products and systems for global distribution. Helen also teaches Healthcare Innovation and Strategic Foresight at OCAD University and is Practitioner in Residence for the Future Cities Program at the University of Waterloo. Helen was featured in a CBC documentary Great Minds of Design and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Nigel Smith has 25 years' experience with diverse international clients in a variety of sectors including the performing arts, architecture, healthcare, transportation, philanthropy, universities, art museums, cities, fashion retailers and wealth management. As creative director, Nigel Smith has collaborated on research and design projects with Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His role includes research, strategy, branding and communication, graphics, and information design. Nigel taught at Harvard University for seven years at the Graduate School of Design. He approaches his work with an assessment of context, and viability. His design process is a dialogue with clients where research, prototyping, critique, humour and writing are used with the formal elements of design to solve problems. Currently he is exploring guerrilla signage as a catalyst for placemaking