Helen Bagnall (GBR)

She founded Salon London in 2008, Salon North in 2012, The Transmission Prize for the Communication of Ideas in 2013 and the award winning ALSO ideas and music festival in 2014, all designed to connect audiences to ideas that can help them in whatever it is that is facing them in their lives. She was one of the first people to develop the idea of engaging with speakers and experts and their ideas in an evening style Salon setting and created the concept of an ideas-based festival with ALSO which has been voted one of the Best Festivals in the World by Conde Nast Traveller in 2020.

Helen was the first in the UK to design and host digital festivals in 2020 and curated highly complex, multistage digital festivals during 2020/21, interviewing over a thousand speakers, academics, and passionate experts at festivals in the UK and internationally. She has also curated for cultural partners in the UK (including Latitude, Wilderness, Blue Dot, Festival No 6, Standon Calling, Soho House, The Groucho and Lost Village).

Helen has written extensively for RTE, Sony Pictures, Penguin Books, Brilliant Films, The Idler and Fiver. She has twice won the KidScreen award for best TV film for teens. She also writes about digital storytelling and publishing, having worked in book publishing in New York, and has taught immersive storytelling at The National Theatre and for Guardian Masterclasses, and is currently cycling Lands’ End to John O’Groats in stages over the course of a year on her much-loved bike.