Having studied medicine at Turin University, Barbara Ghella worked as Information Systems Manager at HAUT, also in Turin. In 1990, she moved to Olivetti Information Services, where she was Communication Coordinator. In this capacity she was responsible for the implementation of strategies, operational supervision and guidance of all communication activities in connection with enterprises belong to the OIS group.
Since 1992, Barbara Ghella has been Chief Executive Officer of MiLàNo Interaction Design in Milan. Here, major interface system projects have included: nationwide implementation of the interface functions of a data system concerning all emergency calls to the police (i.e. 113 service); back office logistics and operations by employees and officers of Toro e Nuova Tirrena (a major Italian insurance group); regional interface system relating to public psychiatric institutions, day hospitals and other presidiums throughout Piedmont; communication study and related implementation on behalf of an advanced training center of Fiat Melfi; application tests relating to the introduction of an interface system belonging to the Fiat group ( Fiat Auto, Lancia, Autobianchi, Alfa Romeo).

An expert on design and innovation, John Thackara is a director and firstPerceptron of Doors of Perception — the conference and knowledge network based in Amsterdam. Prior to this, he was the first director (1993—1999) of the Netherlands Design Institute. He is a member of the Virtual Platform, a body which advises the Dutch government on media cultural policy, and is Visiting Professor in computer—related design at the Royal College of Art in London. He is also an advisor to the Museum of Modern Art in New York on a major exhibition in 2001 on the future of work. In addition, John runs design scenario workshops for companies who wish to explore the consequences of the Internet for their business. John Thackara studied philosophy and journalism before working in publishing in London and New York. He edited Design for four years and was Modern Culture Editor of Harpers & Queen. During the 1980s, he set up and directed Design Analysis International (DAI), a consultancy and production company with offices in London and Tokyo. DAI organised conferences and exhibitions at the Pompidou Centre, Museum of Modern Art and Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. John Thackara has written policy studies for governments and companies and lectured in many countries. He has written for many European newspapers. Among his nine books is Winners! How Successful Companies Innovate By Design. He is currently working on a new publication, The Edge Effect: Designing the Contexts of Innovation.

An interaction designer, human—factors engineer and visiting scholar at Stanford University, Bill Verplank studied mechanical engineering and product design at Stanford between 1960 and 1965, returning there to teach 'visual thinking' with Robert McKim from 1971 to 1974. He obtained his PhD (in 1977) from MIT in man—machine systems with Thomas Sheridan. As a graduate student, he won MIT's top teaching award, the Goodwin Medal; he also built kinetic sculpture at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies. At Xerox (1978—1986) he helped to test and refine the Xerox Star graphical user interface. For seven years, he taught tutorials at the ACM SIGCHI conference and participated in the development for ACM of curriculum recommendations. He worked as a design consultant with Bill Moggridge at IDTwo and Ideo (1986—1992) to bring graphical user—interfaces into the product design world. They coined the phrase 'interaction design' to denote what had previously been known as 'user—interface design.' At Interval Research (1992—2000), he directed research and design for collaboration, tangibility and music. During this period he worked at Stanford with Terry Winograd to establish a studio course on interaction design, which he then taught for five years. For the last two years, he has taught an experimental course on input devices.

An architecture graduate of Florence University, Marco Zanini spent several years in the USA before returning to Milan to work as an assistant to Ettore Sottsass in 1977. He subsequently became a partner and managing director of Sottsass Associates. In 1981, he was one of the founder members of Memphis; he designed pieces for each of the group's collections. In addition to exhibiting all over the world with the Memphis group, Marco Zanini also works independently, designing ceramics, jewellery, furniture and objects in blown glass. He has lectured on architecture and design in Japan, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Chile and Spain. He is also a founding member of the Milan—based cultural group, ABC. With Sottsass Associates, he has been design manager on many projejects, including office furniture for Knoll International and retail stores for Esprit, as well as exhibitions, interiors and industrial products for a variety of international clients.