Barbara Poček - Programme Facilitator 

Barbara Poček has been collaborating with Ljubljanas Glej theatre since 2010. She is a member of the Glej’s Artistic Council, Programme Coordinator of the TRIGGER platform and takes care of internationalisation projects, executive production and the Resident Programme. She was one of the co-founders of the open platform for the promotion of contemporary illustration, Biennial of Independents (2007-2015) and of the educational platform Design Biotop (2013-2019), which promotes design as a tool for strategic solutions to social and economic challenges. She nurtures an interest in the intersections between different media and disciplines, and therefore maintains a broad spectrum of activities fostering connections between different social and professional communities.

Between 2017 and 2022, she was a member of the Board of Directors of IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts) and in 2022 she joined the IETM Team as the coordinator of the Local Journeys for change and the Green School programmes.

Mike van Graan - Programme Facilitator 

Mike van Graan is a South African playwright with vast experience in cultural policy, building networks and advocacy. After the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, he was appointed as a Special Advisor to the minister responsible for arts and culture, where he played an influential role in helping to develop post-apartheid cultural policies.

Mike was the founding Secretary General of Arterial Network, a pan-African organisation advocating for the cultural dimension of development, human rights and democracy. He served on the expert facility of UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions from 2011-2018. Since March 2018, he has helped to devise the programme and to facilitate the Atelier for Festival Managers, a project initiated by the European Festivals Association. He produced the toolkit Beyond Curiosity and Desire: Towards Fairer International Cultural Collaboration in association with IETM, On the Move and Dutch Culture.

As a playwright with 36 plays under his belt, he is regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost contemporary playwrights having garnered numerous awards and nominations for his work.

Dr Vishwas Satgar - Speaker

Dr Vishwas Satgar is an Associate Professor of International Relations, editor of the Democratic Marxism series and principal investigator for Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is a veteran activist and co-founder of the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign and Climate Justice Charter Movement.

Sarah O'Hare - Workshop Facilitator 

With a background in co-design and engagement, Sarah works with Creative Carbon Scotland as Green Arts Officer. She leads the development and delivery of training and events, in particular with members of our flagship Green Arts Initiative, as well as contributing to our wider Green Arts programme supporting cultural organisations and artists in addressing the climate emergency. Prior to her work with CCS, Sarah worked on projects such as Scotland’s Young People’s Forest, the first forest in Scotland co-designed by young people. She also worked on the COP26 Co-Design Group, and the National Youth Arts Advisory Group, as well as projects with the Scottish Government, NHS Lothian, and Transport Scotland. Whilst working, she completed service design training with the Service Design Academy, which grew her interest in participatory learning and dealing with complex challenges collaboratively. She also completed the 2050 Climate Group Young Leaders Development Programme in 2021.

Emmanuelle Lejeune - Workshop Facilitator

After studying cultural policies, Emmanuelle Lejeune became particularly interested in the ecological and social transition in the performing arts. She first explored sustainability issues at the Paris Opera, before moving on to the European level and working in culture and education, as well as on the New European Bauhaus initiative. She is now in charge of the Sustainability Strategy of the Théâtre de Liège (Belgium) and leads the European project STAGES, focusing on the creation of a protocol to help theatres analyse and transform their buildings and working practices, using the Doughnut Economics.

Iphigenia Taxopoulou - Workshop Facilitator 

Iphigenia Taxopoulou is a founding member and general secretary of the European theatre network mitos21. She has worked in theatre as a literary advisor, programming consultant and international projects manager in Greece and abroad for several years. She is an experienced sustainability consultant, lecturer and educator and an associate partner of Julie’s Bicycle, the UK-based charity that mobilises the arts and culture to take action on climate change. She holds a degree in Philology & Modern Greek Studies from Aristotle University (Thessaloniki) and an MA in Cultural Management & Theatre Criticism from City University of London. Her book Sustainable Theatre: Theory, Context, Practice was published by Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama in May 2023.