2026 Jury Line-up
Olli Rantala | Head of Innovation, City of Oulu
Olli Rantala has been active in the cultural sector since 2006, holding various positions such as Executive Director at the Oulu Music Video Festival and Air Guitar Championships, Development Manager for Cultural Services, and Head of Planning.
Currently, as the Head of Innovation, Olli’s responsibilities include Smart City development, co-creation and innovation platforms with companies, knowledge management development, automation of information flow, utilisation of artificial intelligence and analytics in knowledge management, data resources and open interfaces, automation of reporting, promotion and digitalisation of urban culture, and development of digital services for citizens.
Olli has played a significant role in Education and Cultural Services, aiming to make the city more attractive and a better place for its citizens to live, study, and work. The City of Oulu has formed a strategic alliance called the Oulu Innovation Alliance, which is divided into five ecosystems: Industry 2026, Oulu Health, Northern City with Attractive Opportunities, Agile Commercialisation, and ICT and Digitalisation. Olli has been the ecosystem director for Northern City with Attractive Opportunities within the OIA.
Throughout his career, Olli has collaborated closely with cultural NGOs, ICT companies, Oulu University, and various departments within the City of Oulu to drive development, investments, and strategic plans, such as the Urban Culture Plan 2020 and the Oulu Architectural Program. He has also been involved in numerous concrete projects with stakeholders. Olli is an active member of LUCI and currently represents the City of Oulu on the LUCI Executive Committee.
Chiara Carucci | Founder & Principal Lighting Designer, Noctua
With over two decades of experience, Chiara’s journey spans diverse projects and awards, including the inaugural Wildlife Night Watch Award by DarkSky Association. Her international work – ranging from guidelines to lighting designs – addresses both the preservation of specific species and broader biodiversity, while fostering community impact and the nighttime economy.
Chiara collaborates with professionals and researchers, advancing a transdisciplinary approach and pushing the boundaries of informed lighting design. Alongside her professional work, Chiara combines teaching and volunteer activities, and supports the IALD, International Association of Lighting Designers, also serving as a delegate on the LIRC Steering Committee and Coordinator of the Southern European Chapter.
Alberto Barberá Duelo | Senior Lighting Designer, Anoche Lighting Design
Trained as an IT-Engineer, after leaving university Alberto developed a ten-year career in performing arts, designing, programming and installing lighting and media for live events.
During these professional years he learned about the power of visual technology to drive emotional impact and cooperate in storytelling. He later studied Architectural Lighting with Ignacio Valero in Madrid’s Architectural School and founded Lupercales, a lighting design collective that designed, organised and produced urban lighting workshops and interventions to promote mutual respect and recognition between urban space and the city inhabitants.
A senior Lighting Designer working in Anoche Lighting Design in Barcelona, he has had the responsibility and privilege of working in large-scale indoor and outdoor projects as the renovation of the Football Club Barcelona Stadium, the Mohamed VI Tower in Rabat or the CaixaResearch Institute in Barcelona, all three projects applying BIM methodology, and acting as a BIM coordinator.
He is a self-taught researcher and lecturer in urban lighting and is one of the coordinators of the Urban-Centric Lighting Task Group in Barcelona, an initiative of CICAT, Catalonia Lighting Cluster. His current research is focused in the practical implementation of a holistic framework that integrates health and wellness criteria applied to public space lighting.
Sara Castagné | Lighting designer and CEO, Concepto
Lighting designer since 1996 and CEO of Concepto studio, Sara Castagné holds a master’s degree in visual arts and Space Design (museography option).
She has been running Concepto since 2018, an agency in which she learned the trade at the beginning of her career alongside Roger Narboni. She received the AWARDS Lighting Days 2019 in the Lighting Design category and the Excellence Award and Peer Award at the international LuxFuturum competition in 2024.
She drives nocturnal strategy, and dark infrastructure studies and develops research on lighting eco-design, bringing together reflections on consultation, the circular economy and inclusive light. The lighting design project for the public spaces of the Olympic Village was the starting point for the agency’s global reflection on sustainable light and led to the publication of Concepto’s manifesto for dark infrastructure to live.
Youngho Baik | Chief Consultant, ECOLANT
Youngho Baik is a highly accomplished professional with over 30 years of experience in the lighting industry.
A recognised expert in his field, he holds multiple leadership roles, including being a member of the Urban Lighting Governance of Seoul City, an Executive member of the Korea Association of Lighting Designers (KALD), Korea Institute of Illuminating & Electrical Installation Engineers (KIIEE) and the LED & Light Convergence Industry Forum (LLIF).
Since 2020, his work has focused on the future of urban lighting, with a specific emphasis on AI lighting development, carbon neutrality, and smart city consulting. He is also an active contributor to the community, serving on the Urban lighting advisory and deliberative committees for several cities in Korea.
