Semiofest Session 41: Case Files

In the regular course of our research and analysis, we commercial semioticians tend to discover all sorts of things — whether amazing, amusing, or tragic — that challenge our assumptions, make us sit up and say “Wow!”… but that don’t necessarily mesh well with the client’s brief or business objective. Josh Glenn has invited semio colleagues from China, Portugal, Argentina, Switzerland, Mexico, and Italy to share their stories of serendipitous discoveries… and to reveal how these were received by their clients.

ALFREDO TRONCOSO is director of the semiotics division at de la Riva, one of the top quant & qual research companies working from Mexico. Alfredo has taught Greek philosophy, rhetoric and semiotics at universities including UNAM, Tec de Monterrey, and Universidad de Querétaro. His 2025 publication for Penguin-Aguilar, México Rifado 2.0, was co-authored with Gabriela de la Riva.

STEFANIA GOGNA is an Italian semiotician and cultural analyst, qualitative researcher, and professor of Philosophy and Human Sciences. She specializes in Research Methodology, Semiotics, and Human Behavior Research, and is a freelance consultant to many brands and agencies worldwide.

PETER GLASSEN is a Switzerland-based brand consultant and semiotician. Focusing on cultural codes and signs, he advises and supports companies and organisations in the strategic development of their brands. He is founder of the Swiss expert network for applied semiotics and he is a university lecturer for image theory.

SÓNIA MARQUES is a Lisbon-based commercial semiotician. She is the founder of Indiz, a pioneering market research company that applies insights from semiotics, cognitive linguistics, narratology, discourse analysis, and anthropology. A guest lecturer at Porto Business School, she was co-organizer of Semiofest Porto 2024.

XIMENA TOBI co-founded Semiotica Studio in 2010 with Gabriela Pedranti. She lectures on the Semiotics of Mediatization at the University of Buenos Aires—Argentina; and she works as a sustainability consultant. She is cuurently training to become a reading mediator, having recently founded Semillas (Seeds), a small educational center in a Buenos Aires slum.

WILLIAM LIU is director and semiotician at Inner Chapter Shanghai. He is also a stage performer as tenor singer of Shanghai's Rainbow Chamber Choir. These roles make him very passionate about revealing subtle human subconsciousness shifts, and then transforming opportunities into brand innovation ideas.

This session is going to be one-of-a-kind and we can't wait to see you there. Semiofest is a non-profit organisation that relies on kind donations to help us cover our expenses. We recommend a minimum donation of £5.

Thank you.

The Semiofest Team