Literature need no longer be defined and combined by theobjects that contain it—books and magazines and pages. New Media technologies like Augmented Reality, Transmedia Storytelling, and Interactive Stories offer new ways for narratives to be created and experienced. How can writers work to create new forms of storytelling? Experts who are committed to this vision will talk about examples of work and discuss the opportunities in this emerging field.
Andrew Lewellen earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Southern Illinois University, where he decided to focus his work on creating literature for digital mediums. While finishing his thesis, he moved to Chicago to work in the digital industry and now works as a Content Strategist for Razorfish. He is currently adapting his first novel into an interactive experience. He also manages the blog River Narratives, where he writes about and promotes interactive narratives.
Esther Lim is a seasoned Digital Marketer, Social Media Strategist and Game Analyst. Esther has over fifteen years of combined interactive agency and consulting experience creating and leading digital, social media and transmedia storytelling programs for Fortune 500 brands, designed to attract, engage, and retain consumer audiences while building brand advocacy. Her expertise includes gaming industry market monitoring, trending and analysis, social media marketing and analytics, community development and outreach, transmedia narrative, game design and mechanics, web development, e-commerce, user interaction and experience design, online advertising, direct marketing and brand development programs.
Esther writes for Girls in Tech on the convergence of social media strategy, digital entertainment, gaming and emerging technology and was recently quoted in Forbe’s article on women and gaming. She has also contributed articles on interactive design and usability with iMedia Connections.
Esther has appeared as a moderator and panelist on social media marketing and analytics for Online Market World 2007, 2008, been a committee and advisory board member for Siggraph Asia 2007, 2008, and a unified jury member and Chair of the Arts and Visualization Session for Siggraph 2010 and Siggraph Dailies! 2010.
Josh Koppel is founder and Chief Creative Officer of ScrollMotion, a media and technology company that develops digital platforms for the world’s leading text book, children’s book and magazine publishers. Responsible for the creative direction of the company, Koppel has driven ScrollMotion’s technology development with the singular mission of preserving the art and culture of print in the digital publishing business.
Drawing on a multimedia background that has included extensive broadcast, film, digital and print media production, Koppel brings a clear editorial vision to ScrollMotion’s leadership and product development teams. Prior to ScrollMotion, Koppel was founder and executive producer at Josh Koppel Productions, a full service branding and production firm specializing in creating broadband video for media companies. He has produced work for AMC, Adult Swim, Comedy Central and MTV, among others.
Prior to Josh Koppel Productions, Koppel was co-founder of Tunebooks, a digital music packaging company which was adopted by Apple in the iTunes music store as the industry standard for digital music collateral (liner notes, album art, posters, etc.). His work developing scrolling album artwork for the first generation iPod ultimately paved the way for the technology behind ScrollMotion’s reader applications. Before starting Tunebooks, Koppel was an on-air promo producer for Oxygen Media. His career began at Sony Online Entertainment, where he was an online producer.
Koppel is also the author of the genre-bending Good Grief, a graphic novel/memoir for the digital age published in 2000 by Harper Perennial. Koppel received a bachelor of arts in English and fine arts from Amherst College.
Robert Pratten is CEO and Founder of TransmediaStoryteller.com a service for interactive storytelling and cross-platform audience engagement. He has more than 20 years experience as an international marketing consultant working with producers, writers, game developers and leading brands such as Ericsson, advising them on business development, market positioning, transmedia storytelling, social media strategy and distribution.
Robert has also written, produced and directed two award-winning, critically acclaimed feature films - London Voodoo (2004) and Mindflesh (2008) - and produced the successful transmedia crime mystery Lowlifes.tv. He is a mentor for StoryLabs an organization of leading international multi-platform and transmedia creators dedicated to the education and mentoring of storytellers.
Robert has established himself as a thought-leader in the field of transmedia storytelling through major contributions to the evolving field in the areas of new business models, development processes and documentation. He has written for Indie Slate magazine and Culture Hacker. He is the co-creator of the Transmedia Talk podcast and author of the book Getting Started in Transmedia Storytelling: A Practical Guide for Beginners.
