Dr Oli Mival is the Principal Research Fellow at Edinburgh Napier University's Centre for Interaction Design and Director of the Future Interactions group. He is an internationally renowned expert on the application of emerging technologies into a multitude of domains of social spaces and work practice, specialising in local and remote collaborative activity. From creative industries to law enforcement, Oli has consulted for as well as designed and deployed solutions in a wide range of government, public sector and industrial settings with clients including the NHS, BBC, Blue Rubicon, Toshiba Medical Visualisation, Astra Zeneca, Logica, FBI and US Naval Intelligence to name but a few. A masters in psychology and a PhD in computer science has led to an approach, a specific philosophy for the successful implementation of technology to enhance and augment people's activities, not to get in the way as can so often be the case. Put simply, it's people first, technology second. Easy to say, a little more complicated to deliver.

Oli is often an invited speaker at The London Science Museum's Dana Centre for public outreach and has spoken on topics as diverse as gesture and speech computer interfaces, digital tourism and interactive collaborative environments. Alongside this and other speaking engagements, Oli writes about the implications of various technologies (both good and bad) for magazines and newspapers and is the author of several book chapters on design practice and methods plus over 50 journal and conference papers.