Judges
We secured a group of fantastic judges for the 2023 Digital Culture Awards. Each one has decades of expertise in their respective fields and is a strong advocate for the benefits digital technology can bring to the creative and cultural sector. Keep reading to learn more about them and get inspired!
Think you or someone you work with would make a great Judge for future Awards? Get in touch.
Liam Darbon - Director of Digital and Innovation, Tate
Joining Tate 3 years ago, Liam is Director of Digital and Innovation, leading Tates Digital, Trading and Innovations strategies. Previously, Liam was Head of Omnichannel Trading and led on the commercial development of Tate Galleries and Tate Enterprises Limited. Liam is a guest lecturer at Kings College London, sits on the board of trustees at Birmingham Museums Trust and is the chair of Birmingham Museums Trading Limited. Prior to Tate, Liam held senior commercial leadership positions at John Lewis and has also worked for American Express and the marketing agency Syncredible.
Helen Spencer - Consultant, Executive Producer and Mentor
Helen has spent decades working in the broadcast, digital, arts and cultural sectors and has extensive experience as a creative practitioner, consultant and mentor. She currently works as a Tech Advisor on the Bloomberg Digital Accelerator programme helping cultural organisations build audiences and deliver dynamic programming virtually and in person. Before this, Helen was the Commissioning Executive for The Space (2016-20) and designed and managed the Capture strand on behalf of the BBC and Arts Council England. She supported large and small arts and cultural organisations to create content across multiple genres including dance, theatre, music and opera. Helen has worked as both a Creative Director and a Producer across comedy, arts, digital, gaming and festivals. She was also an award- winning Producer/Director for BBC Radio and Television managing projects around the world with A-list talent to create programmes broadcast across all the major UK network channels.
Haydn Corrodus - Digital Strategist, Warm Street
Haydn is a Social Media Strategist & Planner with over 15 years of experience in social media and marketing. Haydn has previously worked with brands such as Coca-Cola and Unilever on award-winning experiential, social and digital marketing campaigns. Throughout his role as a Digital Culture Network Social Media Tech Champion, working with Arts Council England's funded organisations and the wider arts and culture sector, he has worked with over 300+ organisations from England and America. This summer, he was invited to be a guest lecturer for the Royal Academy of Arts Executive Master's programme. Alongside his work within the arts, Haydn is also a founding partner of We Are Stripes, which works to increase opportunities in the creative industries for people from diverse ethnic backgrounds, working with the likes of Disney, Microsoft, The National Gallery, Hackney Empire and more on diverse programming and providing opportunities for diverse work and voices.
Andrew Miller MBE - Cultural Consultant, Broadcaster and Disability Champion
Transforming perceptions throughout his 35 year career in the creative industries, Andrew is recognised as one of the UK’s most influential disability advocates with extensive experience of the arts, film and broadcast sectors. Starting out in broadcasting, Andrew belongs to the first generation of disabled presenters of British television and went on to produce and direct tv arts documentaries. Subsequently becoming the first wheelchair user to run a major UK arts venue, he is now a prolific cultural commentator and his consultancy supports major new cultural infrastructure such as the University of Oxford Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and Coventry City of Culture. Andrew is a National Council member of Arts Council England, a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company and BAFTA. He is Chair of the BFI Disability Screen Advisory Group and in 2020 co-founded the UK Disability Arts Alliance #WeShallNotBeRemoved, where he developed the Seven Inclusive Principles which helped shape the cultural sector’s pandemic recovery. Between 2018-21 Andrew was the UK Government’s first Disability Champion for Arts & Culture, establishing the role as a powerful campaigning platform for greater inclusion across the arts, museums and film. His pioneering career has been recognised by the National Diversity Awards, The Stage Awards, The Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 Top 10, The Stage 100 and in the 2021 New Year Honours.
Emma Roberts - Head of eCommerce, Smartify
Previously working for Arts Council England's Digital Culture Network as the eCommerce Tech Champion, Emma spoke with many museums, galleries, and cultural institutions about their retail challenges. In 2020, Emma joined the most downloaded museum app “Smartify” to provide a new seamless retail solution for the sector - integrating the sales path into digital content and creating commercial opportunities in real time. She is currently responsible for launching and managing the product marketplace for Smartify. This venture focuses on Content led Commerce, working in partnership with museums and third-party suppliers to help build resilience and a further revenue stream for the arts and culture sector. Smartify can re-target and promote products at the right time to the right customer, whether on-site or at home, making it an exciting and very valuable tool for the sector. Learn more about Smartify on their website.
Katy Raines - Founder and CEO, Indigo Ltd
Katy Raines MA MBA is regarded as one of the UK’s leading consultants on data-driven strategy for Cultural Organisations. She has developed and led research and implementation programmes for large and middle scale organizations throughout the UK and Europe. During Covid-19 she developed and delivered the UK’s largest collaborative dataset of cultural attenders’ attitudes to returning to events, beginning with After-The- Interval, and working with over 800 organisations - capturing over ½ million responses from attenders, for which Indigo won the Ticketing Business Award (Insights and Analytics) 2021. Her current clients include the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Coventry City of Culture, UK Sport, Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and Historic England. In 2021 she and Indigo were also winners or runners up in the Covid Response Awards (Outstanding Leadership and Best Pivot), Arts Council England (Digital Culture Network) and Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (Customer Excellence) Leanrn more about Indigo Ltd on their website
Derek Richards - Head of Broadcast and Digital, Roundhouse
In 1991 Derek Richards co-founded Artec, the UK’s first media lab and centre for learning digital creation. He has since won 11 awards for his digital and interactive work including installations for London’s Science Museum and for gallery exhibition as well as online. Leading his own company HyperJAM (1997 – 2006), Derek pioneered applications of digital media and technologies to live events – connecting venues, artists and audiences around the world for real time collaborative performances and producing interactive projections and soundscapes for theatre, music, dance and events. Between 2009 and 2014 Derek ran the multi-BAFTA award winning youth media production company Hi8us South. He is currently Head of Broadcast & Digital at Roundhouse and lectures in Digital Design & Production at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Most recently (2020 – 2021), Derek served as “Broadcast Producer” on Rambert’s series of ground-breaking and award winning bespoke live streamed performances. Learn more about Derek on his website.
Zoe Amar - Founder and Director, Zoe Amar Digital
Zoe Amar is widely regarded as one of the charity sector’s leading digital experts. She founded digital agency and social enterprise Zoe Amar Digital in 2013. Their clients have included Sense, Anglia Ruskin University and The School for Social Entrepreneurs. Zoe is Chair of The Charity Digital Code of Practice. She writes for Third Sector about charities and digital issues and co-founded the Social CEOs awards . Zoe and her team produce an annual barometer of how charities across the UK are using digital, The Charity Digital Skills Report. She also co-authored The Charity Commission’s digital guidance for trustees, ‘Making Digital Work.’ Zoe has fourteen years’ experience as a charity trustee. She currently sits on the board of Charity Digital Trust (formerly known as Tech Trust). Previously, she was on the Board Audit and Risk Sub-Committee at the Samaritans as their digital expert. Before founding Zoe Amar Digital she worked for 5 years as part of the leadership team at a national charity which advised nonprofits about technology. She is the winner of an Inspiring Communicator award from Charitycomms. She was recently voted one of the 25 most influential charity leaders by Charity Times. Zoe is also the co-host of podcast Starts at the Top, which covers digital leadership and change. Learn more about Zoe on her website.
Digital Culture Network and Arts Council teams -
We’d also like to thank our expert internal Judges from the Digital Culture Network and Arts Council’s Innovation team, including Sadie Abson, James Akers, Nicola Barratt, Katherine Brown, Sinead Burke, Sue Cook, Ollie Couling, Jordain Dawkins, Lara Devitt, Emily Ditsch, Jacqueline Ewers, Paul Glinkowski, Ben Lane, Andy Leitch, Luke Moore, Anne Nwakalor, Dean Shaw, Carl Stevens.