Mária Virčíková is a cyberneticist and innovator fascinated by a single question: how to design an interface so natural that people stop noticing it altogether. She studied artificial intelligence and conducted research on human–robot interaction in Europe, Japan, and the USA. Today she is the co-founder of MATSUKO, creators of the world's first holographic communication app, where meetings with people and AI take place as realistic holograms in a shared space – work that earned the top prize in its category at the prestigious SXSW festival in Austin. Mária is also a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum.
Mária comes to Eastern to talk about how AI and XR are merging into a single layer of user experience – changing everything we thought we knew about interface design.

Lukáš Timulak studied at the Dance Conservatory in Bratislava and the Académie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo. As a dancer, he performed with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and Nederlands Dans Theater. He has choreographed for companies around the world, including NDT, Gothenburg Ballet, Balé da Cidade de São Paulo, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Staatsballett Hannover, and Lyon Opera Ballet. His interest in cinematography led him to the New York Film Academy and to collaborations with director Ruben van Leer, including the award-winning film Symmetry, shot inside CERN. Most recently, he created the choreography for Loss, a production by Symphonic Cinema. Since 2004, he has been collaborating with designer Peter Biľak on new concepts for contemporary dance – together they founded the Make Move Think foundation for interdisciplinary artistic collaboration in 2017.
Lukáš comes to Eastern to talk about what emerges at the intersection of dance, design, and film.

Viktória Mirvajová is an editor, copywriter, and freelance content strategist. She has worked for several Slovak and international media outlets. As an editor and content director, she worked at studio Folk and later at Milk, where she co-founded, led, and co-created a number of print and online magazines for clients across various fields. She is the founding editor of TANGO, a print periodical about football nostalgia, and Babilon, a magazine dedicated to food with an emphasis on local culinary tradition and the contemporary stories around it.
Viki comes to Eastern to talk about bread and games – how popular topics like food and football can be turned into independent print periodicals, which, fortunately, are still not entirely dead.

Ervín Gejdoš has been part of Pergamen studio since 2014. Since its founding in 1993, the studio has kept a rather narrow focus – packaging design, identity, and books. It is precisely this specialisation that has helped it stand out in the region from the very start, and today its work sits on the shelves as staples like TATRATEA, the ever-evolving Pierre Baguette brand, and recent redesigns of two regional classics at once: Zlatý Bažant beer and Sedita biscuits.
Ervín comes to Eastern to talk about how to carry a big redesign all the way through – from the first concept to the printing presses.

For almost eight decades, Lúčnica has been preserving and developing Slovak cultural heritage. Today, however, it sees tradition not as something to merely protect, but as living material to work with, communicate, and create anew. In recent years, Lúčnica has been undergoing a conscious transformation of what a cultural institution can look like, sound like, and how it can operate today. From visual identity through digital communication to the way it brings its story to a new generation – it seeks a balance between respect for its roots and the courage to stay current.
Michal and Pavol come to Eastern to show that tradition doesn't have to stay stuck in the past – it can also speak today's language.

Pavel Fuksa began his design career at the age of four, drawing his own maps and flags. At 25, he became a creative director and went on to work in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Dubai, Japan, Qatar, and Lebanon, including positions at JWT, Dentsu, Y&R, and TBWA. His clients have included Coca-Cola, HSBC, Expo 2020, Vodafone, Visa, Nike, Budweiser, KitKat, and LEGO. Today he leads his own Prague-based studio, working across art direction, branding, typography, illustration, packaging, and motion. His work has been recognised by D&AD, Cannes Lions, ADC Global, and New York Festivals, among others; he has been selected three times for Lürzer's Archive's 200 Best Illustrators, featured in Computer Arts' 30 Under 30, and named Czech Music Designer of the Year three years running.
Pavel comes to Eastern to show how intelligence, humour, and unexpected connections can bring power to visual communication.

Bartek Witański is a co-founder and designer at Blank Studio, one of the few companies in Poland and Europe that specializes exclusively in designing complex wayfinding systems for a variety of public spaces. The studio's projects in this field have earned recognition in numerous industry competitions, including the Red Dot Communication Design Award, iF Design Award, European Design Award, German Design Award, Golden Pin, Joseph Binder Award, the Polish Graphic Design Award, Project of the Year, SEGD, and many others. In addition to designing and managing the studio, Bartek shares his knowledge by lecturing and leading thematic workshops (Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw, the University of Arts in Poznań, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice).
Bartek comes to Eastern to show the power of navigation in design.

Dominic Wilcox works across the worlds of art, design, craft and technology to create thought-provoking objects that inspire, surprise and delight. His diverse creative work includes GPS shoes, the world's first art exhibition for dogs and a stained glass car of the future recently shown at London's Science Museum. Designer Thomas Heatherwick described Dominic's work as "serious challenges to the real world to keep looking at itself with innocent eyes, wondering what else is possible". He is also on a mission to inspire children around the world to become the creative thinkers of the future with his Little Inventors organisation that transforms children's ideas into reality.
Dominic comes to Eastern to show how enriching design can be when seen through a child's perspective.

Since 2012, the grafický odpad ("graphic waste") project has been using humour to point out basic mistakes in graphic design. It lives primarily on Facebook, Instagram, and the web. Its creators firmly believe that repetition is the mother of wisdom – once you've seen a particular mistake several times, you'll watch out for it in your own work. They like to reach beyond their bubble, often trying to get a specific case in front of the people who could actually do something about it. Their goal is to spread awareness of basic mistakes in graphic design and improve the situation, not least in public space. Their reward is the reactions of their fans, a growing follower base, and support in the form of purchases of products inspired by real graphic waste.
Filip comes to Eastern to show why bad design hasn't disappeared from public space – and probably never will.

Alicja Kobza is a graphic designer, researcher, and author. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, she specializes in publication and art book design, working mainly with cultural institutions on exhibition graphics and visual identities. As a researcher, she focuses on the work of female graphic designers and the reasons their contributions have been overlooked in the postwar history of Polish design. Since 2021, she has run the Instagram profile @polish.female.designers, documenting forgotten designers active between 1945 and 1989, and in 2026 she published the pioneering book Graficzki. She regularly writes for Harper's Bazaar Polska.
Alicja comes to Eastern to talk about the forgotten Polish female graphic designers – and why their stories fell out of design history.

Illah van Oijen has a diverse background connecting the Netherlands, Slovakia, and the USA. She is an artist, writer, facilitator, community development expert, and project consultant – primarily in Bratislava. As Creative Director of the renowned urban civic association PUNKT, she is a key figure in participatory creative projects that lead to deep systemic change at the level of small communities, neighbourhoods, and urban policy. Her work is aimed at a more caring society.
Illah comes to Eastern to talk about how participatory creative projects change communities, neighbourhoods, and urban policy.