XR Sunday Social – Immersive Tech Network Kent Hub Launch

Sunday 18 October, 2026
2:00 to 5:00 pm GMT
A+E Lab
Unit 1, building 64, Main Gate Road, The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, ME4 4TZ, United Kingdom (map)

Connect, Explore and Experience the Future in a Chilled Atmosphere
XR Demos / Think-Tank / Networking
Time: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

The future doesn't get decided in one place. It's shaped by local communities, by grassroots-led initiatives, by institutions, and by government, often without any of them talking to each other about what they're actually building together.

This edition of XR Sunday Social is a round table at A+E Lab, bringing together four people who each sit at one of those points, for a conversation about the society we're designing right now, where AI fits, where funding does and doesn't reach, and who holds the power to shape what comes next. It's part of Electric Medway, and marks the launch of Innovate UK's Immersive Tech Network Kent Hub, your chance to plug into a growing national network with Innovate UK's backing.

We're running this as a think-tank more than a presentation, so there's room for the audience to shape the conversation. Expect hands-on demos of new tools and artwork, direct access to the speakers, and a relaxed setting to connect over nibbles and drinks.
Grassroots, artist-led, and built for the people doing the work. No coding or tech experience needed, just curiosity. A safe and inclusive space for everyone; families and children welcome.

The event is free, and no entry ticket to the Historic Dockyard is needed, but booking is required. As we are at a gated site, we will arrange a meeting point. Refreshments provided.

About Immersive Tech Network Kent Hub
Take a look at our previous XR Sunday Socials
Get in touch: A+E Lab, aecreativeworkshops@gmail.com

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Program:
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm Arrival - XR Networking & Demos
2:30 pm - 2:35 pm Welcome & Framing by Harshini
2:35 pm - 2:55 pm Response by Asha Easton, Vince Maple, David Sefton, and Janet Moore
2:55 pm - 3:10 pm Provocation - The Undesigned Future by Tommy Lexen
3:10 pm - 3:15 pm Quick break
3:15 pm - 3:50 pm Moderated Discussion
3:50 pm - 4:10 pm Audience Q&A
4:10 pm - 4:15 pm Close by Esteban & Aoi
4:15 pm - 5:00 pm XR Networking & Demos

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++ Demos ++

Check out XR work in progress and get hands-on with the latest in creative technology, from new tools to live experiments. A chance to see where the thinking is heading and try it for yourself.

XR Demo Artists:
Harshini Karunaratne
Michi Masumi
Samuele Albani

++ Round Table ++

Five people, five points on the map, one conversation. Janet Moore, CEO & Co-Founder of Electric Medway, brings the view from the ground up and what real access means locally. Asha Easton, Head of the Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network, on how funding, policy and support actually move across industry, government and academia. Tommy Lexen, Creative Strategist and author of the forthcoming 'The Undesigned Future', on why artists and creative practitioners hold more power over what comes next than they're usually told. David Sefton, Director of the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (iCCi), on the institutional infrastructure meant to hold this together, through Creative Estuary and the incoming Docking Station. And Vince Maple, Leader of the Medway Labour & Co-operative Group and Chatham Central councillor, on what local government can and can't do to shape the conditions, and where civic power and public funding sit.

Welcome & framing
Harshini opens: why this conversation, why now, and why these four voices. Sets up the throughline, from global thesis to national ecosystem, artist-led infrastructure and local access, so the room knows the shape of what's coming.

Response: Asha Easton
Asha responds from the ecosystem-scaling view: what designing the conditions looks like in practice across industry, government and academia, and where the UK's immersive tech sector currently succeeds or fails at it.

Response: Vince Maple
Vince responds from the local-government view: where public funding and civic power actually sit, what a council can and can't do to shape the conditions, and how that lands for Medway.

Response: David Sefton
David responds from the institutional infrastructure view: how iCCi, Creative Estuary and the incoming Docking Station are attempts to build exactly those conditions regionally, and what a civic cultural institution can and can't control.

Response: Janet Moore
Janet responds from the grassroots access view: whether infrastructure and ecosystem-building actually reach the people Electric Medway works with, and what gets lost between policy-level conditions and lived access.

Provocation: Tommy Lexen
Tommy delivers a condensed The Undesigned Future, the argument that creative and experienced practitioners hold more power over the post-AI society than they're usually told, and that societies shape outcomes by designing conditions, not results.

Moderated discussion
Three or four questions moving from big-picture to local: who really holds the power Tommy describes; what the Human Layer looks like concretely in XR work; whether artist-led infrastructure can scale or only survive; and whether participation is the same thing as access. The moderator draws out disagreement between the four, not just sequential agreement.

Audience Q&A
Open the floor to the room.

Close
A+E Lab Co-Founders, Esteban and Aoi close with a short synthesis of what the four perspectives added up to, and a next step for the room, how to get involved with A+E Lab, Electric Medway, or the Immersive Tech Network. Plus a look ahead to the Docking Station soft launch coming later this year.

++ XR Networking ++
This is your opportunity to connect with artists, developers, researchers, and enthusiasts in a relaxed and engaging environment. Meet with speakers and fellow attendees, discover new collaborators, and expand your professional network, plenty of chances to make valuable connections.

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Speakers' biography

Janet Moore - CEO of Electric Medway Festival
Website
Janet Moore is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Electric Medway, a Kent-based arts organisation and annual digital arts festival that enables communities to get creative with new technology. A visual artist, educator and leader, she has over 20 years of leadership experience and specialises in working with young people, artists and underrepresented communities to tell unheard stories through XR, audio, AI, light, performance, virtual production and game design. Since co-founding Electric Medway in 2015, she has helped deliver flagship festival programmes, neighbourhood projects and skills initiatives such as Heritage and Hope and XR Schools, championing affordable, democratic and sustainable creative technology across Medway.

Asha Easton - Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network Lead
Website
Asha Easton is the Lead for Innovate UK’s Immersive Tech Network (formerly Immerse UK), the UK government’s cross-sector network supporting XR/spatial computing innovators. She works at the intersection of industry, academia and government to grow the UK immersive tech ecosystem, connect organisations to funding and shape policy, including contributions to the UK Parliament’s APPG on Metaverse & Web3 and the OECD Global Forum on Technology. A VR producer and ecosystem builder, she co-founded the XR Diversity Initiative (XRDI), is an original member of Women in Immersive Tech (London), and advises startups, funds and organisations on ED&I and immersive technology.

Tommy Lexen - Creative Strategist & Executive Adviser
Website
Tommy Lexen is a Swedish-born, London-based creative leader and former Managing Director/Chief Creative Strategist at Immersive International, a global studio for experiential design, spatial storytelling and location-based entertainment. With over 20 years in design, art and entertainment, he has directed and produced large-scale live shows, immersive exhibitions and giga-projects including the UK Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, the Mobility Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, “Palace in Motion” at the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi, and work for NEOM, the Metropolitan Opera (New York) and the Royal Opera House Muscat. He holds an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice (Directing & Producing) from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, is an FRSA, and in 2026 moved into independent consultancy and fractional leadership roles while continuing commitments to projects such as The ROARR.

Vince Maple - Leader, Medway Labour & Co-operative Group
Website
Vince Maple is a UK local-government leader and councillor based in Chatham. He has represented Chatham Central Ward on Medway Council since 2007 and leads the Medway Labour & Co-operative Group. Since January 2023 he has chaired the Financial Management Committee of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, following four years as its vice president. His earlier career includes regional organising with the GMB Trade Union, and his work centres on financial management, committee leadership, local government and public-sector governance.

David Sefton - Director, Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (iCCi)
Website
David Sefton is Director of the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (iCCi) at the University of Kent, where he leads initiatives such as Docking Station, a new hub for virtual production, motion capture and immersive media in Medway. He previously served as Artistic Director of the Gulbenkian Arts Centre (Canterbury), Director of Culture at the University of Kent, and Artistic & Executive Director of UCLA Live, transforming its programme with bold, experimental programming. His career spans roles at London's South Bank Centre/Royal Festival Hall (including founding the Meltdown Festival), and as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival in Australia. He is also a former arts journalist and has consulted for organisations including the Walt Disney Company, receiving France's Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 2010.

Harshini Karunaratne, Founder of 3AM:ENERGY
Website
Harshini J. Karunaratne (they/she) is a Sri Lankan-Peruvian digital artist and new media curator working at the intersections of film, theatre and technology. Harshini graduated in Film & New Media and Theater from New York University Abu Dhabi in 2018 and in 2021 migrated to Berlin to pursue their Masters in New Media Design. Harshini has had their work shown in the UAE, Italy, Germany, Japan, at the FILE Festival in Sao Paulo, Burning Man in Nevada, the Athens Digital Art Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lima, and at Art Dubai Digital. They have also moderated panels and spoken at The NODE Institute, UDK Berlin, Humboldt University, Art Dubai, and transmediale 2026. Based between Berlin and the UK, Harshini is the co-founder and lead curator for MANIFEST:IO, a symposium for new media and electronic art that launched in Berlin in February 2023, and also co-founded Berlin New Media Week in 2025. Dedicated to creating platforms for artists and amplifying new media and creative technology, Harshini is the founder and CEO of 3AM:ENERGY, a Berlin-based creative talent agency serving the intersections of art, technology and culture.

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This event is part of Electric Medway Festival and supported by Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network, Medway Together Fund, Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (iCCi) - University of Kent, and Visual Elements