Be the Bigger Picture
At the 2025 OKRE Summit, ‘Be the Bigger Picture’, we focused on how to create more authentic, impactful worlds on screen, with a particular spotlight on stories developed in collaboration with lived experience or academic research.
Highlights included our keynote, author and screen writer Paris Lees, delivering an honest account of the process of turning her life story into the BBC drama ‘What it Feels Like For a Girl’, and a deep dive into hit ITV show The Assembly, to also showcase how inclusive practices off-screen are fuelling creativity on-screen.
Summit attendees enjoyed a day of insightful keynotes, dynamic panel discussions, and unparalleled networking opportunities with leading figures across the creative, research, and social impact sectors.
Speakers included: Chris Clenshaw (Executive Producer, BBC Studios Drama Productions), Prof. Panayiota Tsatsou, (Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity), Adjani Salmon, (BBC’s 'Dreaming Whilst Black’), Sam Tatlow MBE (Head of Diversity, ITV), Sarah Sternberg (Movember Foundation’s Reimagining Masculinities Initiative) and Ashley Storrie (BBC’s ‘Dinosaur’) and Danny Gray (ustwo games).
Event Date
October 31 2025
Location/Platform
Google London
Be the Bigger Picture
OKRE Summit 2025
The Summit continues to be one of the most energising spaces for conversations at the crossroads of entertainment, social impact, and storytelling. Every year, the sessions remind me just how much creativity can drive real-world change.
Sarah Asante, AsanteSpace
Commissioning for Impact feat Caroline O’Neil
Meeting Audiences Where they are - feat Adjani Salon and Yaw Basoah
Keynote- 20 years of YouTube with Roya Zeitioune
OKRE Development Rooms with - Jenna Al Ansari, Mischa Vertkin and Elena Rsucombe King
David Elms Describes a Room
Sunny Dancer panellists - Dr Rachael Hough, Caitlin Spiller, George Jaques, Jenna Al-Ansari
Men on Screen panellists - Susie McDonald MBE, Wendy Robinson, K Biswas, Sarah Sternberg, Chris Clenshaw
Iain Dodgeon, Director OKRE, closing remarks
Networking
A room alive with creators, broadcasters and charities exploring how entertainment can drive real social change... The energy was electric. Every session pushed boundaries of what storytelling can do.
Annika Allen Gray, ALL3MEDIA
In Conversation with Paris Lees
Power of Play panellists Prof. Panayiota Tsatsou, Dr Howard Fine, Charly Conquest, Danny Gray Maxine Thomas-Asante
Deep dive into ITVs 'The Assembly’ with Sam Tatlow MBE, Sara Missaghian-Schirazi and Michelle Singer
Debbie Ramsey, Editor, 5 News
Finding the Funny - Kyla Harris, Matt Nina, Ashley Storrie and Kate Martin
Impact production workshop with AKO Storytelling Institute
Networking
Networking
A real highlight for me was the people and feeling part of a community that truly believes in the power of stories to drive change.
Dr Maruša Levstek, CoSTAR Network & AKO Storytelling Institute
Event Date
October 31 2025
Location/Platform
Google London