Smart City Futures

Futurist and award-winning serial entrepreneur Melissa Sterry founded pioneering sustainable innovation think tank, agency and incubator Societás in 2004. Melissa is co-founder of three annual international visual arts awards that bring the spotlight to the world's best emerging talent - the Creative Graduate Prize launched in 2005, the Iconique Societás Awards launched in 2007 and The Message is The Medium sustainable arts awards launching in 2009. She also sits on the jury of several prestigious sustainable design and innovation awards including the LA-based International Design Awards. Melissa has teamed-up with environmental scientist Matt Prescott, former MD of the RSA's Carbon Limited, to create New Frontiers - a visionary sustainable design awards / knowledge sharing platform being unveiled later this year in partnership with a number of leading design, architecture, engineering and scientific institutions.

Sustainable Innovation & Social Enterprise Editor for Sustained magazine and Creative Director of online green glossy TheGINLady.com, Melissa has previously held three editor-in-chief roles and has written for many international titles on a wide range of issues including emerging trends in design, media and business. She sits on the steering groups / executive boards of several sustainability and social enterprise projects across the UK including the WWF's ‘Awakenings' initiative, Anti-Apathy, Take Heart India, Watering Hole and Musecology - a sustainable music enterprise of which she is co-founder. A visiting fellow at the University of Salford and a member of its Assembly, she credits its pioneering art & design school with providing her with the foundation for future success in her career.