About

Alistair Braidwood runs the website Scots Whay Hae! as well as hosting the accompanying podcast where he talks to some of the most interesting names involved in Scottish culture and the arts. He also fronts the Scots Whay Hae! Show on CamGlen Radio, reviews and interviews for a number of literary and cultural publications, regularly chairs and MCs at book, music, and art events and festivals, and has been published in a number of academic journals and books.

Briana Pegado FRSA is an award-winning social entrepreneur and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts with nearly a decade's experience as a senior manager in the creative industries in Scotland. In 2010, she helped set up the University of Edinburgh first ever Black History Month. She was elected Edinburgh University Students Association's (EUSA) first black woman President in the union's 130-year history in 2014. In 2015 her social enterprise the Edinburgh Student Arts Festival (ESAF) won the Inspiring Youth Enterprise Award from Social Enterprise Scotland and in the same year was named one of Scotland's Top 10 Social Innovators by Third Force News. In 2016 she was shortlisted to win the Social Enterprise Champion Award. In 2017, she was named one of Scotland's 30 Under 30 Inspiring Young Women.

She has a Master of Arts with Honours in Sustainable Development from the University of Edinburgh and studied for an MBA at Central Saint Martins in 2017. She received the only Sundstrom Scholarship for Women’s Leadership to CSM in 2017. In 2018, she designed and co-produced an Executive Education Programme for Tesco Bank alongside the Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh Chris Speed, focusing on Data-Driven Design Education. She has worked across the National Theatre of Scotland, Custom Lane - Scotland's Centre for Design & Making, Voluntary Arts Scotland (now Creative Lives), and the contemporary art world. In 2019 she became Chief Executive of Creative Edinburgh and a Co-Director of Creative Informatics an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project to invest in data-driven innovation in the creative industries across the Lothians in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, and Codebase the largest tech cluster in Europe. She is now a data-driven innovation ambassador for the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

She was co-director of We Are Here Scotland CIC, an organisation that supports Black and POC creatives into the creative industries in Scotland from 2021-2023. She was creative director of Fringe of Colour Films in 2021 and then became interim CEO of YWCA Scotland - the Young Women's Movement, an intersectional, feminist charity that supports young women's leadership, offers consent-based sexual education, and provides women from marginalised communities with work opportunities. She was the community engagement producer for the short film OMOS, a project that explored the hidden black history of Stirling Castle which toured across the UK in Berlin and Brazil.

She worked as a consultant and member of The Collective Scotland from 2021-2023, a feminist social policy and research collective that specialises in consultation, policy reviews, and training. The Collective Scotland was formed in 2020 as a research consultancy centring intersectional and feminist analysis, co-production, and participation while challenging systemic inequality. She has also delivered training on Intersectionality in Practice and Power, Participation, and Lived Experience in collaboration with colleagues at The Collective.
She is a governance and anti-racism specialist who has worked with the Scottish Policy and Research Exchange (SPRE), the Universities Policy Exchange Network (UPEN), Africa in Motion Festival (AiM), Be United, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow International Festival, Glasgow Life, Stellar Quines Theatre Company, Rape Crisis Scotland, and Craft Scotland. She also works as an intersectional funding evaluator for three of Creative Scotland's funding programmes and provides intersectional equity workshops for organisations working to take an anti-oppression approach to their work. She is currently the coach and mentor for the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC). Briana recently published her book Make Good Trouble: A Guide to the Energetics of Disruption this April. She is currently chair of the Scottish Government’s Culture Fair Work Taskforce.

She has served as chair of the board of Edinburgh University Students' Association and the Young Women's Movement. She has served as Vice Chair of the Young Women's Movement. She has also served on the board of the University of Edinburgh University Court, the University of York's University Council, the Edinburgh Students Charities' Appeal, as a member of Culture Secretary's National Partnership for Culture, Culture Counts, the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Post Covid-19 Futures Commissions - Public Debate and Participation Group.

She also co-founded Povo, a ‘conductancy’ that supported collaborators to use play to better understand their creative processes, problem solve, and strategise, she channeled creative methods into problem-solving tactics. She continues to employ these methods to discover values-driven solutions to all sorts of innovation challenges, from anti-racism to governance consulting and organisational design. Her background in sustainable development and training as a trauma-informed facilitator enables her to bring a health, wellness, and wellbeing focus to all of her work to support the dynamic development of company culture.

David Pollock has written about music in Scotland and beyond for two decades. His byline has appeared in magazines including Electronic Sound, Record Collector and Mixmag, in national newspapers including the Guardian, the Times and the Telegraph, and in most major Scottish newspapers, especially the Scotsman. He also writes books, including guides to launching and running a grassroots music venue which were commissioned by the Music Venue Trust with the Mayor of London’s office and Ticketweb.

Doug Johnstone is the author of eighteen novels. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts was shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, The Big Chill longlisted for the same prize. Four of his books have been shortlisted or longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral directors. He’s also a songwriter and musician with ten albums released, and drummer for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers.

Scottish artist manager and mental health advocate, currently working in industry relations and content creation for tech companies.

Karen Dunbar is one of Scotland’s best-known comedy actors and DJs. Starting off in the sketch show Chewin’ the Fat, she then went on to star in her own show, The Karen Dunbar Show, which received 4 Golden Rose nominations.

Karen has trod the boards in everything from Glasgow Panto to West End Classics, performed Burns, Shakespeare, done stand up and DJ-ed in New York and Ibiza, and in 2014 she opened the Commonwealth Games in front of one billion viewers. From Oran Mor to the National Theatre, Karen has captivated audiences with mix of comedy, music and acting talents. And if that wasn’t enough she also runs a social enterprise called Beats Therapy (as seen on BBC 1 Scotland’s ‘Karen Dunbar’s Schoool of Rap’, available on iPlayer).

Through my company Oleia we currently run the Welsh Music Prize with its founder Huw Stephens, and also work on projects with Sain, the biggest and oldest music company in Wales.

Leonie Bell is director of V&A Dundee, Scotland’s Design Museum. As Director, she leads the organisation from its spectacular home on Dundee’s reimagined waterfront and delivers the museum’s vision to inspire and empower through design and to champion design and designers. The museum’s unique architecture is animated through an ambitious and dynamic programme that generates joy and sparks curiosity in design as well as creating spaces and ways to explore, reflect and learn.

Leonie is an Honorary Professor of Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee, a Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow, a Design Economy Ambassador with the Design Council, a member of the Bonnetmakers Craft, one of the Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee, a member of the Policy Evidence Centre for Creative Industries Advisory Board and a trustee of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Paul is the Professional Development Director at MMF, the world’s largest trade body of music managers. He leads several initiatives, including Accelerator, a YouTube Music-supported program aiding 135 music managers, representing artists like The Staves, Walt Disco, PinkPantheress, and more. Paul oversees strategy and development for over 1,500 members and the partnerships with academic and talent development organisations across the UK.

With a robust background in both commercial and non-profit cultural sectors, Paul specializes in Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, leadership and organizational development, community engagement, and program management. He holds a BASc in Social Sciences from City, University of London.

BBC introducing presenter Stephanie Cheape also known as Cheape on social media for her singer songwriting, snippets of life in Scotland as well as sharing her views and experience, Cheape amassed over half a million fans and growing. Redefining the limitations of being an artist and carving her own path between presenting bbc introducing, writing for other artists on her record label, presenting various adverts from some of the largest brands from sport to YSL - Cheape has set her own path and shares a message of owning your authenticity.