International Forum

Huei is a marketing & business professional in gaming, XR and emerging tech. She has been a co-founder, founding partner at VR and Web3 gaming companies, where she led marketing, business, and partnerships.
She has spearheaded numerous international collaborations across APAC, the US, and Europe. Her work spans marketing, community, product design, production, launches, and fundraising in the gaming, public institutions, culture, and education fields. Her deep interest in human behaviour drives her passion for creative product design, crafting unique interactions between products and audiences. Outside of work, she enjoys diving, social dancing, and the gym, and dedicates her free time to advising indie developers.

Jörg is a London based film- and game-maker. His game debut was the critically acclaimed The Last Worker (2023), the only game nominated at the 78th Venice Film Festival, which made in collaboration with Taiwanese talent thanks to a TAICCA grant.

Also in 2023, Jörg founded RapidEyeMovers in order to put games at the centre of future entertainment and to apply his vast experience in film, live and transmedia production to making games in a more sustainable and innovative way. Their first game, C-SMASH VRS, a collaboration with SEGA, was named Digital Foundry’s VR Game of 2023 and was nominated for a Golden Joystick Award. It was released on PlayStation 5 (as a non-VR game) on 26th September 2024, featuring revolutionary hybrid multiplayer between physical PS VR2 and regular PS5 players.

Jörg is also the lead producer on A Winter’s Journey, a movie starring John Malkovich coming from Sony Pictures Classics in 2025. A live-action / animation hybrid with live music, a lot of the film was designed, built and even animated using a bespoke version of Dreams, PlayStation’s multiple BAFTA winning game technology.

Fabrizio Caruso is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of global experience in high-growth technology companies. He has a proven track record of scaling both early-stage startups and managing large-scale operations for multi-billion-dollar businesses across the APAC region. His expertise spans strategic leadership, operational excellence, and commercial growth, with a focus on bridging global headquarters and the dynamic markets of APAC, EMEA, and North America.

Currently, Fabrizio is the Founder and CEO of S8 Advisory, where he provides strategic guidance to portfolio companies for Venture Capital, Private Equity and Family Offices. He is also an angel and seed investor in tech/AI, enterprise, and sustainability sectors.

Prior to this, he held the role of Managing Director at Meta, where he was responsible for leading Audience Network in APAC, partnering with leading mobile and gaming publishers in the region, helping them growth their business using Meta monetisation solutions. His tenure at Meta was marked by leadership in global mid-market sales, business integrity, and the launch of key regional initiatives, driving significant commercial growth and team development.

Before Meta, Fabrizio was the Chief Revenue Officer at Appier, a Taiwanese artificial intelligence SaaS company, where he played a pivotal role in growing revenue, geographical expansion, securing venture capital funding and guiding the company to a $1.5 billion IPO. His earlier career includes leadership positions at Opera Software, Out There Media, and Buongiorno Hong Kong, where he managed cross-functional teams and secured strategic partnerships across Asia.

Fabrizio holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science Engineering and has earned various leadership certifications from institutions such as SDA Bocconi and the New York Institute of Finance. Passionate about digital innovation, he is also actively involved in community initiatives, serving as a board member and president of the Digital Innovation Committee at the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.

Director, Europe Investments & Dev Relations
Corporate Development Division

Victor is the Director of Europe Investments and Developer Relations at Krafton, based in Krafton's Amsterdam office. He oversees Krafton's investment and M&A sourcing efforts in Europe, as well as studio relationship management including portfolio studios in the region. Previously, he led Riot Games' Strategy and Operations in APAC, covering Riot’s growth strategies, as well as commercial partnership efforts, across multiple countries in APAC. And before that, he spent time in product strategy at a fintech unicorn in Korea, and as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group in their Atlanta office. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and has been a lifelong gamer, ranging from FPS, MOBA, RPG, to strategy games.

Huei is a marketing & business professional in gaming, XR and emerging tech. She has been a co-founder, founding partner at VR and Web3 gaming companies, where she led marketing, business, and partnerships.
She has spearheaded numerous international collaborations across APAC, the US, and Europe. Her work spans marketing, community, product design, production, launches, and fundraising in the gaming, public institutions, culture, and education fields. Her deep interest in human behaviour drives her passion for creative product design, crafting unique interactions between products and audiences. Outside of work, she enjoys diving, social dancing, and the gym, and dedicates her free time to advising indie developers.

Hails from Tokyo. Born in 1972. Graduated St. Cloud State University in Minnesota in 1998. Joined CoMix Wave Inc., the predecessor of CWF, in 1999 In charge of overseas implementations for works directed by Makoto Shinkai since “Voices of a Distant Star” (2002); accompanies Director Shinkai on his world tours as well as Middle East workshops. Appointed to the post of Director at CoMix Wave Films Inc. in 2007. Currently administers business developments at the company, and supports domestic and overseas business.

Production Assistant

Background: Worked as a production assistant at an animation company, joined the company and participated in production as a Key Animator starting with “Suzume”.

Participated works
2022: Key Animator for “Suzume”
2024: Set Producer for “Motoyama Engineering Works 100th Anniversary Commemorative Commercial - Connecting to the History”
2024: Set Producer for “Motoyama Engineering Works 100th Anniversary Commemorative Commercial - Connecting to the Future”

Sean Leeis the CEO of d'strict, a digital design and art company. He joined d'strict in 2007 and has dedicated 17 years to the design industry, progressing through roles in management and business development before assuming leadership in 2016. Lee gained recognition for leading projects like “WAVE” and “ARTE MUSEUM”, transforming work models for creatives. He continues to push the boundaries of media art with groundbreaking showcases like “Waterfall-NYC” in New York and “FLOW” in London. A certified public accountant (KICPA), Lee left a stable career to pursue an unconventional path, committed to driving innovation in the design business.

Jaehwan RYU
Speciality: VFX Supervisor
Works : The Witch Part 2 / Hunt / Along with the Gods:The Two Worlds / Okja

(Now) VA CORPORATION | Vice President
STUDIO VIRD | Business DirectorWYSIWYG | VFX Director
4thCreative Party | VFX Director

Top VFX industry veteran, from professional supervisors to company management.
Works: “The Restless,” “Sunny,” “Flu,” “Tazza: The Hidden Card,” “Swing Kids,” “Bargain,” and “Boston 1947,” Etc.
Winner of the Best Visual Effects award at the 44th Grand Bell Awards and the 28th Blue Dragon Film Awards.

Speciality: VFX Producer, Immersive Media Contents(CEO)
Works: The Wailing / Ode to My Father / Sunny / 71-Into the Fire / Reign of Assassins (John Woo)

(Now) VA CORPORATION | Director of New Media Dept.
(Now) MORPHEUS STUDIO | CEO
KYUNGSUNG UNIVERSITY | Adjunct Professor
STUDIO 2L | CEO
4thCreative Party | VFX Producer

18 years of experience as a VFX Producer, contributing to over 80 top-tier domestic and international films such as “The King and the Clown,” “Peninsula,” “The Restless,” “The Forbidden Kingdom,” “Stoker,” “Kundo: Age of the Rampant,” “Flu,” and “The Berlin File.”
Proven creative planning and development skills through continuous development of video technology and innovative immersive content initiatives.

Emiko Ogawa is a Japanese curator and artist based in Linz, Austria. Since 2013, she is Head of Prix Ars Electronica which is known as the world’s most time-honored media arts competition organized by Ars Electronica. She has worked for the launch of the new Ars Electronica Center in 2008 and since then she has curated the exhibition for the Ars Electronica Center, Ars Electronica Festival and Ars Electronica Export. She has also been involved in many of Ars Electronica’s art thinking programs for educational institutions, companies, and governments, where essential questions are discussed and shaped as a starting point for the future. She is a visiting professor at the Osaka University of Arts - Art Science Department, and jury of the LINZ_media_arts 2024-2027. She also contributes many articles on media art such as wired.jp and the Nikkei.

Escher TSAI devotes himself into digital art research, promotion and creation. He is the Creative Director of Dimension Plus and Hello World, and Director of Arts and Technology: Creative Innovation and Counseling Project, and 5G Computing Art Project. He also curated 2024 TTXC《 G.A.M.E.》,《Hello, Human》at MoCA Taipei, 《The Era of Human-made》and 《RE:CAVE》at, National Taichung Theater, 《LIVES》at Jut Art Museum, 《Taoyuan Art and Technology Festival》, and , 《C-LAB Future Media Arts Festival》.

Yamagata has produced and directed live shows, events, television programs, stage productions and video productions.

His principal works in Japan include the general direction of the martial arts event “PRIDE”; planning, design, construction and production of dwango’s live performance “nicofarre”; as well as direction and production of “Niconico Chokaigi” and “Cho Kabuki”.

Yamagata founded Lateensail Japan in 2010, and later, taking advantage of the business merger with Livegraphics, a company specializing in the VR/AR technology, he changed the corporate name to the current “LATEGRA” and established the business as a new company in 2017. The company then merged with StudioFun Corporation, a company in the domain of sales promotions, in 2021.
Since 2014, Yamagata has been the general producer of the virtual character in China, “Luo Tianyi”, who has appeared in numerous major television shows and performed solo live concerts. He has developed this character into a national idol.
He is currently involved with production work in the XR domain, primarily with entertainment live programs for Vtubers in Japan, as well as game characters.

Hayashi graduated from Waseda University and joined Daiwa Securities, where he was engaged in the underwriting of stocks and bonds, as well as advisory services for M&A. In 2012, he joined Phoenix Capital, a PE fund,, to work on investment and post-investment value improvements. In 2015, after working on business management and new business developments at the corporate planning department of Happy Elements, Hayashi realized that there was potential for content development using the xR technology in 2015; in 2017, he founded Balus Co., Ltd.

Ishimaru worked for Polygon Pictures Inc., a computer graphics production company, for 13 years, as a producer involved in a broad range of media production work for film, television series, projection mapping and the like. In 2017, Ishimaru was appointed to the post of CEO at Kodansha VR Lab, Ltd., where focused his efforts on the planning and production of contents with a particular specialization on VR. Works he has produced have been screened at many international film festivals such as the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the Venice International Film Festival, where he received high commendations.

Liang-Hsun Huang is the 5th generation head of the renowned puppetry Huang family in Taiwan, and the General Manager of PILI International Multimedia Inc, the largest Taiwanese puppet media production company. Known as the main driver behind the hit series Thunderbolt Fantasy Sword Seekers, a collaborative puppetry TV animation series with famous screen writer Gen Urobuchi from Nitroplus, Liang-Hsun Huang has introduced innovative multimedia production technologies into puppet shows. He develops state-of-the-art puppet animation, plans for international multimedia collaborations, and brings the artistry of hand puppet shows to the international stage. He is devoted to transforming traditional Taiwanese hand puppet show culture into a unique, world-known, state-of-the-art format.

Among his credits are Puppet movie The Arti: The Adventure Begins (Screenwriter and Special Effects Director), Live-action movie Rookie Chef (Special Effects Director), Demigod: The Legend Begins (Executive Producer), and TV puppet animation series Thunderbolt Fantasy Sword Seekers (Executive Producer).

Joining Sanrio in 2019, initially assigned to the Global Business Department, overseeing overseas subsidiaries in the Asian region and involved in the establishment of the Singapore subsidiary. In 2022, transferred to the Digital Business Development Department and directed the VR metaverse event ""SANRIO Virtual Festival."" Currently serving as a Senior Manager of the XR Business Team, planning and producing VR projects and VTuber projects.

Jesse started developing games on a home PC as a child. The creativity and unlimited expression called to him. His first job in the games industry was with EA Sports, working on the NHL, NBA and FIFA franchises. Missing the creativity of game development he founded a game studio with another former EA developer. A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games did Xbox live and playstation plus work before moving full time into Unity development. VRChat is his most expressive and creative endeavour to date. When Jesse and his cofounder, Graham Gaylor, started it, we knew our creators would be the stars and it was our job to set them free.

Born in 1971.
Gained numerous awards with self-produced animated films, with official debut as a commercial film director in the multi-segment film “Killers” in 2003.
Handled many high-entertainment works, including action, Tokusatsu, and animation.
Notable directorial works include “Hard Revenge Milly” (2008), “The Next Generation Patlabor” (2014), and “Resident Evil: Vendetta” (2017).
Participation in the Tokusatsu series Ultraman with “Ultraman X” (2015), and his latest work, “Ultraman Arc” (2024), marks his debut as the main director.

Born in 1970, Shibuya hails from Tokyo. After her encounter with the movies “Star Wars” and “Back to the Future”, she became interested in VFX film production. She joined Shirogumi in 1989 as a miniature maker, and participated in the production of the film “The Last Dance” (1993) directed by Juzo Itami, as a compositor. Since then, Shibuya has worked on VFX for many films, soap operas and commercials. She has been the VFX director for all films directed by Takashi Yamazaki at Shirogumi.

Representative works include “Juvenile” (2000), “Returner” (2002), “Always: Sunset on Third Street” series, “The Eternal Zero” (2013) and “The Great War of Archimedes” (2019). The latest film directed by Yamazaki, “Godzilla Minus One” (2023), became the first Japanese film to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards.

The current VFX Director at Reno Studios has won the Golden Horse Award for ""Best Visual Effects"" consecutively with the films Detention and My Missing Valentine. Additionally, Detention earned the ""Best Visual Effects"" award at the 14th Asian Film Awards. Kuo has contributed to the VFX production of numerous films and series, including The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon, Old Fox, Breaking and Re-entering, Hello Ghost, Treat or Trick, and Dead Talents Society.

Daito Manabe, Artist, interaction designer, programmer, and Composer.
Launched Rhizomatiks in 2006, followed by Studio Daito Manabe in 2022. Specially-appointed professor at Keio University SFC.

Manabe’s work, which ranges into a variety of fields, takes a new approach to everyday materials and phenomena. However, his end goal is not simply rich, high-definition realism by recognizing and recombining these familiar elemental building blocks. Rather, his practice is informed by careful observation to discover and elucidate the essential potentialities inherent to the human body, data, programming, computers, and other phenomena, thus probing the interrelationships and boundaries delineating humans and machines, the analog and digital, and the real and virtual.
A prolific collaborator, he has worked closely with a diverse roster of artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Björk,OK Go, Nosaj Thing, Squarepusher, Andrea Battistoni, Mansai Nomura, Perfume and sakanaction. Further engagements include groundbreaking partnerships with the Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics in Manchester, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.
He is the recipient of numerous awards for his multidisciplinary contributions to advertising, design, and art. Notable recognitions include the Ars Electronica Distinction Award, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Titanium Grand Prix, D&AD Black Pencil, and the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize.

Maywa Denki
The art unit produced by Novmichi Tosa.

While wearing blue working clothes, which is a typical style of small businesses that supported Japan’s high economic growth, they develop and introduce various nonsense machines all over the world in forms of concert and exhibition.
In 2003, it received the Semi Grand Prix Prize in the Interactive Art category at the Ars Electronica. Also, they develop mass products such as a note shaped electronic musical instrument "Otamatone" in 2021. Currently, they are successfully holding "Maywa Denki Nonsense Machine Factory Exhibition" in Beijing (China) with all exhibits set up remotely in 2023 debut 30th anniversary.

Joel Kwong, a media art curator, producer, transmedia specialist, writer and educator based in Hong Kong, with over 18 years of curatorial & project management experience. Graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, received her MA in 2010. She is currently the Programme Director for Microwave International New Media Arts Festival (www.microwavefest.net), and the founder of SIBYLS, a creative consultation & production company since 2018. She has been curating numerous media art, design and advertising campaigns in many different cities, recent projects include Urban Canvas: On & On screen-based curation 2023/2024 at Airside HK, Encounter Across Culture – touring exhibitions in HK, Chengdu, Beijing & Shanghai 2023/2024, Out of Thin Air – Hong Kong Film Art & Costume Design Exhibition (2023), Reimagines Heritage – experimental media art projects 2023 etc. She is also devoted into education, has been given talks and lectures in schools, festivals and universities, including Shenzhen Media Art Festival, ACT Festival in Gwangju/Korea, Transmediale in Germany, Ars Electronica in Linz, National University of Taiwan and the University of Eletro-communications in Tokyo, International Symposium - Future Crisis, etc. Currently, she is also a part-time lecturer for various institutions in Hong Kong, for their MA & BA programmes, e.g., HKDI, HK CityU, HKAPA, PolyU, HSU etc.