Programme Revealed for the OKRE Summit

Hosted by journalist and broadcaster Mishal Husain, speakers at the OKRE Summit include writer and director Gurinder Chadha, CEO of the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) Simon Gunning, BBC Commissioning Editor Ruby Kuraishe, MD of Dazed Media Priya Matadeen, former BAFTA Chair and BBC exec and now Creative Director, Factual Porgammes of independent production company Nevision Anne Morrison, CEO of Comic Relief Samir Patel, Channel 4 Head of Creative Diversity Naomi Sesay, BAFTA Special Award-winning children’s writer and producer Jocelyn Stevenson, and Greenpeace UK Deputy Director of Fundraising Chris Till.

20 years on from the cultural phenomenon Bend it Like Beckham, and following the recent success of her most recent film Blinded By The Light, Gurinder Chadha in conversation with Mishal Husain will explore the themes of identity and British-Asian culture and the impact of her Chadha’s films in widening understanding of different communities.

Panel event From Fraggle Rock to Ru Paul’s Drag Race will explore the social impact of entertainment hits, featuring BAFTA Special Award-winning writer and producer for hits including Sesame Street, Jocelyn Stevenson, BBC Commissioning Editor Ruby Kuraishe, writer of The People Vs Tech: How the internet is killing democracy and presenter of two-part BBC TWO documentary series Secrets of Silicon Valley Jamie Bartlett, founder of Playtra Games Dan Bernardo, whose upcoming release Grid Force, which teaches players to understand different perspectives, was created in partnership with the It Gets Better Project connecting LGBT+ youth around the world, and former Chair of BAFTA and BBC Controller of Documentaries and Contemporary Factual, Anne Morrison, now Creative Director, Factual Programmes at Nevision, the independent production company behind ITV’s BAFTA-winning The Missing Children.

Two events will take place discussing mental health. Deborah Coughlin, Founder of Method X Studios, working at the intersection of mental health, science, tech, and media, will discuss the design of entertainment to improve audience mental wellbeing, and Beyond Talking will explore the depiction of mental health in content, featuring Sangeeta Pillai, Founder of South Asian network Soul Sutras, BAFTA-nominated director Stewart Kyasimire, whose films include BBC Scotland’s Black and Scottish, Head of Media at Mind Alex Bushill, and Kate Martin, Head of the Lived Experience team in Wellcome’s Mental Health Programme.

Further diverse sessions will range from a discussion of continuing drama’s pioneering approach to developing storylines tackling big issues, to a presentation from Greenpeace on Connecting with Gen Z through GTA, bringing the real world impact of climate change into gaming, to a discussion of immigrant storylines with Erica Rosenthal, Director of Research at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, which studies the social, political, economic and cultural impact of entertainment on the world.