Although living on a tropical island, Jochen Kirstätter is a business owner and entrepreneur in different industry sectors. Mainly operating in the development of tailor-made software solutions since more than 20 years, he is also venturing into the world of cloud computing. You can either meet him at the regular meetups of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community or reach him on X and Mastodon: @JKirstaetter.

Jochen is a Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Google Cloud and a Microsoft Most Valuable Programmer (MVP) for Developer Technologies for several years. He founded the now largest IT community in Mauritius, and organises the annual Developers Conference. Following his interest in cross-platform technologies he is also an organiser of the Google Developer Group (GDG) Mauritius.

Although living on a tropical island, Jochen Kirstätter is a business owner and entrepreneur in different industry sectors. Mainly operating in the development of tailor-made software solutions since more than 20 years, he is also venturing into the ... Show more

Marcel Meurer has a vast history in IT Consulting and the development of solutions and tools. Previously, he led the professional IT services business unit at sepago GmbH in Cologne and is currently Vice President for Azure Solutions at LoginVSI.

His technical focus is on Microsoft Azure platform services, and he has been recognized as a Microsoft Azure MVP since 2016, having also been honored with the Azure Virtual Desktop MVP award.

Since 2021, Marcel has also run the company ITProCloud GmbH. The company focuses on delivering cloud-based solutions for all types of companies. The well-known solutions for managing Azure Virtual Desktop easily and automatically are Hydra for Azure Virtual Desktop or WVDAdmin. ITProCloud was acquired in 2025 by LoginVSI, which continues to create the right solution for the right purpose and make it available to customers.

Marcel's journey in the IT industry began in the early 1990s, a time when personal computers were just emerging (and before that, the Commodore 64 was the norm). His focus on assembler and hardware-related programming, particularly in the context of the IoT of the 1990s, showcases his early dedication and passion for the field.

In 1995, he began studying electrical engineering. During his studies, machine learning and neural networks were among his favorite topics. In addition to his studies, he worked for a small computer company in Aachen, where he developed operating systems and applications using automated methods on multiple computers.

Marcel Meurer graduated as an engineer in electrical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Aachen.

Marcel Meurer has a vast history in IT Consulting and the development of solutions and tools. Previously, he led the professional IT services business unit at sepago GmbH in Cologne and is currently Vice President for Azure Solutions at LoginVSI. ... Show more

Mike Maadarani is a Microsoft 365 MVP, a board member of the Microsoft Global Community Initiative, and a Cloud Solutions Architect who has been providing strategic solutions surrounding architecture, planning, migration and governance for medium to large-scale organization. With 30 years of IT industry experience, Mike spent the last few years managing and delivering collaboration solutions to a wide range of mid to large scale projects. He is an evangelist and visionary where he can and provide the business and technical leadership required for delivering successful global Microsoft 365 projects. This has giving him the opportunity to work with great talented colleagues and people who I have a lot of respect for their passion and dedication.

He is an active member in the Microsoft 365 community and have spoken in many Microsoft conferences, local events, and corporate functions.

Mike Maadarani is a Microsoft 365 MVP, a board member of the Microsoft Global Community Initiative, and a Cloud Solutions Architect who has been providing strategic solutions surrounding architecture, planning, migration and governance for medium to ... Show more

Olivier Van Steenlandt is a Business Intelligence Professional who spent most of his early career assisting retail companies to get more value of their data using the Microsoft BI Stack (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Power BI).

As his first experience in the field (in Business Intelligence), Olivier worked as a Big Data Analyst using tools such as Hadoop and Spark.

In 2015 the focus changed to traditional data warehousing & reporting using SSIS, SSRS & MicroStrategy. A bit later, around June 2019, the opportunity arose to fill the position of BI Teamlead. In this function he was able to set up a hybrid BI Team (team members in Belgium and Belarus).

Early 2020, Olivier joined the dataMinds crew as a core member, assisting to organise several events.

Around April 2021, Olivier started a new position as BI Teamlead in another Retail Company to support business growth. Besides the challenge to help the BI Team grow and deliver projects on time, he started to use SSAS & Power BI.

In April 2025, Olivier stepped away from internal positions and became an independent consultant.

When Olivier is not working there is a high chance that you find him on a football field, studying (BI Related), playing music (Saxophone / Piano) or cooking.

Olivier Van Steenlandt is a Business Intelligence Professional who spent most of his early career assisting retail companies to get more value of their data using the Microsoft BI Stack (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Power BI). As his first experience in the ... Show more

Bob Ward is a Principal Architect for the Microsoft Azure Data team, which owns the development for Microsoft SQL ground to cloud to fabric. Bob has worked for Microsoft for 31+ years on every version of SQL Server shipped from OS/2 1.1 to SQL Server 2025 including Azure SQL and SQL database in Fabric. Bob is a well-known speaker on SQL Server, Azure SQL, AI, and Microsoft Fabric often presenting talks on new releases, internals, and specialized topics at events such as SQLBits, Microsoft Build, Microsoft Ignite, PASS Summit, Fabric Community Conference, and VS Live. You can also learn Azure SQL from him on the popular series https://aka.ms/azuresql4beginners. You can follow him at @bobwardms or linkedin.com/in/bobwardms. Bob is the author of the books Pro SQL Server on Linux, SQL Server 2019 Revealed, Azure SQL Revealed, SQL Server 2022 Revealed, and Azure SQL Revealed 2nd Edition available from Apress Media.

Bob Ward is a Principal Architect for the Microsoft Azure Data team, which owns the development for Microsoft SQL ground to cloud to fabric. Bob has worked for Microsoft for 31+ years on every version of SQL Server shipped from OS/2 1.1 to SQL Server... Show more

Mark is Director of the Microsoft Practice at Protiviti and a 10-year Microsoft MVP with more than 25 years of experience designing and developing software solutions. Mark’s daily responsibilities include forging the direction of solution architecture and development projects for clients while providing the best solutions for clients' unique problems. Mark has a unique ability to breakdown complicated technical topics in a way that are easily consumable by a non-technical audience and engages his audience with humor and real-world stories. As a globally recognized M365 geek, Mark is an active blogger, presenter, author (and bacon aficionado) who is eager to lend his real-world knowledge of SharePoint to all who need it.

In addition to speaking at various SharePoint & Office 365 conferences around the world, Mark is the organizer of The North American Collaboration Summit (www.collabsummit.org) in Branson, Missouri

Mark is Director of the Microsoft Practice at Protiviti and a 10-year Microsoft MVP with more than 25 years of experience designing and developing software solutions. Mark’s daily responsibilities include forging the direction of solution architectur... Show more

Raised and trained as an IT Engineer, transitioned to a solution architect role (focusing on Azure infrastructure, automation, and identity). Passionate about DevOps, "security built-in, not bolted on" and "everything as code" principles. You can find my professional bio at https://no.linkedin.com/in/pazdedav and my AboutMe page at https://about.me/davidpazdera

Raised and trained as an IT Engineer, transitioned to a solution architect role (focusing on Azure infrastructure, automation, and identity). Passionate about DevOps, "security built-in, not bolted on" and "everything as code" principles. You can fin... Show more

Staff Developer Advocate for Snyk, Java Champion, Oracle Ace Pro, and Software Engineer with over a decade of hands-on experience in creating and maintaining software. He is passionate about Java, (Pure) Functional Programming and Cybersecurity. Brian is a JUG leader for the Virtual JUG and the NLJUG. He also co-leads the DevSecCon community and is a community manager for Foojay. He is a regular international speaker on mostly Java-related conferences like JavaOne, Devnexus, Devoxx, Jfokus, JavaZone and many more. Besides all that, Brian is a military reserve for the Royal Netherlands Air Force and a Taekwondo Master / Teacher.

Staff Developer Advocate for Snyk, Java Champion, Oracle Ace Pro, and Software Engineer with over a decade of hands-on experience in creating and maintaining software. He is passionate about Java, (Pure) Functional Programming and Cybersecurity. Bria... Show more

Johan Ludvig Brattås is a director at Deloitte, and a dedicated community guy. He has worked with MS SQL server since late 1999, mostly with BI in one form or another. Since 2015, most of his work has been in the cloud working on data platform services such as Snowflake, Databricks and Synapse.

Combining his passion for MS SQL Server with his passion for sharing knowledge, he started speaking at various events in the SQL Community. This is also a way to give back to the community for all the things he has learned over the years. When not working, Johan Ludvig either spends his time with his kids, playing with new technology or teaching coeliacs how to bake glutenfree food.

Johan Ludvig Brattås is a director at Deloitte, and a dedicated community guy. He has worked with MS SQL server since late 1999, mostly with BI in one form or another. Since 2015, most of his work has been in the cloud working on data platform servic... Show more

Paul is the Owner/Principal Architect at Don't Pa..Panic Consulting. He has been working in the information technology industry for over 30 years, and has played key roles in several enterprise SharePoint architectural design review, Intranet deployment, application development, and migration projects. he has been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for the last 17 consecutive years and earned his Microsoft Certified SharePoint Masters (MCSM) certification in 2013.
His core skills include architecting and customizing SharePoint environments both on-premises and in the cloud. He has significant experience leading SharePoint migration teams, troubleshooting infrastructure issues, and evaluating SharePoint environments for adherence to “Best Practices” and industry standards. He's authored several books and is a frequent contributor to the Microsoft forums.

Paul is the Owner/Principal Architect at Don't Pa..Panic Consulting. He has been working in the information technology industry for over 30 years, and has played key roles in several enterprise SharePoint architectural design review, Intranet deploym... Show more

Marco Minerva has been using .NET since its first introduction. Today he proudly lives in Taggia, Italy, works as a freelance consultant and is involved in designing and developing solutions for the Microsoft ecosystem. His greatest expertise is backend development as a software architect. He holds training courses. He is a speaker at technical events, writes books and articles about developing and regularly makes live streaming about coding on Twitch. He is a Microsoft MVP since 2013.

Marco Minerva has been using .NET since its first introduction. Today he proudly lives in Taggia, Italy, works as a freelance consultant and is involved in designing and developing solutions for the Microsoft ecosystem. His greatest expertise is back... Show more

Joe Guadagno is a currently Senior Vice President of IT for realtime Technologies. He has been writing software for over 20 years, has been an active member of the .NET community, formerly serving on the .NET Foundation Board of Directors, as President, and has been a Microsoft MVP in .NET for more than 15 years. He has spoken through the United States and international events on topics ranging from Microsoft .NET, Microsoft Azure, Ionic, Bootstrap, and many others. You can see the complete list at https://www.josephguadagno.net/presentations. When not sitting at a computer, Joe loves to hang out with his family and play games. When not playing games with the family, Joe is checking out the latest in Home Automation. You can connect with Joe on Bluesky at @jguadagno.com, Facebook at JosephGuadagnoNet, and on his blog at https://www.josephguadagno.net

Joe Guadagno is a currently Senior Vice President of IT for realtime Technologies. He has been writing software for over 20 years, has been an active member of the .NET community, formerly serving on the .NET Foundation Board of Directors, as Preside... Show more

Horovits lives at the intersection of technology, product and innovation. With over 20 years in the hi-tech industry as a software developer, a solutions architect and a product manager, he brings a wealth of knowledge in cloud and cloud-native solutions, DevOps practices and more.
Horovits is an international speaker and thought leader, as well as an Ambassador of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). He runs the successful OpenObservability Talks podcast, where he evangelizes on Observability in IT systems using popular open source projects such as Prometheus, OpenSearch, Jaeger and OpenTelemetry.

Horovits lives at the intersection of technology, product and innovation. With over 20 years in the hi-tech industry as a software developer, a solutions architect and a product manager, he brings a wealth of knowledge in cloud and cloud-native solut... Show more

Dwayne has been working as a Developer Relations professional since 2015 and has been involved in tech communities since 2005. He loves sharing his knowledge, and he has done so by giving talks at over a hundred events worldwide. Dwayne currently lives in Chicago. Outside of tech, he loves karaoke, live music, and performing improv.

Dwayne has been working as a Developer Relations professional since 2015 and has been involved in tech communities since 2005. He loves sharing his knowledge, and he has done so by giving talks at over a hundred events worldwide. Dwayne currently liv... Show more

Tobias Fenster started as a developer in the 1990s. Holding different positions including Head of Technical Consulting, Head of Development and CTO for multiple Microsoft partners during his career, he is now a Managing Director at 4PS Germany and Chief Engineer at Hilti. He is also a Microsoft Regional Director, holds dual Microsoft MVP awards for Business Applications and Azure and is a Docker Captain.

He is blogging on tobiasfenster.io, where he writes about Business Applications, Docker and Windows Containers, but also tooling like Azure DevOps, Visual Studio Code and infrastructure automation. His other focus is Azure, mainly around container environments and SQL.

Tobias Fenster started as a developer in the 1990s. Holding different positions including Head of Technical Consulting, Head of Development and CTO for multiple Microsoft partners during his career, he is now a Managing Director at 4PS Germany and Ch... Show more

I'm Alec Harrison, a Microsoft Azure MVP and software consultant specializing in cloud-native development, AI integration, and developer enablement. I lead several user groups, including the Iowa Microsoft Azure User Group, and I'm passionate about helping developers stay ahead of the curve with emerging tech.

I also host the Engineer in the Loop podcast and blog at EITL.ai, where I explore the intersection of AI, cloud, and real-world software engineering.

I'm Alec Harrison, a Microsoft Azure MVP and software consultant specializing in cloud-native development, AI integration, and developer enablement. I lead several user groups, including the Iowa Microsoft Azure User Group, and I'm passionate about h... Show more

Ryan is a Solutions Engineer at pganalyze focusing on PostgreSQL. Ryan has worked as a PostgreSQL advocate, developer, DBA and product manager for more than 25 years, primarily working with time-series data on PostgreSQL and the Microsoft Data Platform.

Ryan is a long-time DBA and developer, starting with MySQL and Postgres in the late 90s. He spent more than 15 years working with SQL Server before returning to PostgreSQL full-time in 2018. He’s at the top of his game when he's learning something new about the data platform or teaching others about the technology he loves.

Ryan is a Solutions Engineer at pganalyze focusing on PostgreSQL. Ryan has worked as a PostgreSQL advocate, developer, DBA and product manager for more than 25 years, primarily working with time-series data on PostgreSQL and the Microsoft Data Platfo... Show more

Chris DeMars is a Senior Developer Advocate with over 20 years of technical experience. He speaks all over the world on web accessibility, feature flags, A/B testing, and CSS. For his community contributions, he holds awards as a Progress Champion and former Microsoft MVP, Google Developer Expert, Cloudinary Media Developer Expert, and Auth0 Ambassador. When he is not working on making the web great and accessible you can find him fishing, on the paintball field, rating Detroit Style pizza, and looking for UFO's.

Chris DeMars is a Senior Developer Advocate with over 20 years of technical experience. He speaks all over the world on web accessibility, feature flags, A/B testing, and CSS. For his community contributions, he holds awards as a Progress Champion an... Show more

Tracy, a Senior SQL Developer with Abarca Health, juggles SQL queries and civic responsibilities. When she isn't busy exchanging banter with databases, Tracy amplifies her impact in the real world. Her dedication to the NC Guardian ad Litem program since 2003 has been louder than any keynote speech, providing a voice for the voiceless foster children. SQL Server might be her day job, but it's clear that her heart beats for these kids. She's not just a member but an active voice on several councils and boards, defending those with mental illness and foster families. A Day in the Life of Tracy: from data architect to architect of change!

Tracy, a Senior SQL Developer with Abarca Health, juggles SQL queries and civic responsibilities. When she isn't busy exchanging banter with databases, Tracy amplifies her impact in the real world. Her dedication to the NC Guardian ad Litem program s... Show more

Giorgi is a software developer with almost two decades of experience. He works mainly with C#, ASP.NET Core, REST, GraphQL, MAUI, Xamarin, Entity Framework Core, AWS, Azure, and SQL Server. He has also worked with many other frameworks and systems such as ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, WCF, Avalonia, WinForms, Oracle, and many more.

Giorgi has spoken at several conferences such as Developer Week (DWX), KCDC, .NET Conf 2023, JetBrains .NET Day Online ’23, and so on.

Giorgi is an open-source author and contributor on GitHub, Microsoft MVP, and a member of the .NET Foundation.

Giorgi is a software developer with almost two decades of experience. He works mainly with C#, ASP.NET Core, REST, GraphQL, MAUI, Xamarin, Entity Framework Core, AWS, Azure, and SQL Server. He has also worked with many other frameworks and systems su... Show more

Jan Ketil is an Microsoft MVP since 2016 and are working as a COO and Principal Cloud Architect at CloudWay in Norway. He has been working in the industry for Microsoft Partners and Microsoft for more than 20 years. He loves to speak about anything around Endpoint Management, Identity, Security and Automation. He is also the lead for both community conferences Workplace Ninjas Norway and Nordic Virtual Summit. Jan Ketil has presented at large industry conferences like Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Inspire, MMS, TechMentor HQ, Experts Live Europe, WPNinja and NIC Conference in Oslo. He is also a regular speaker at various User Group events across Europe.

Jan Ketil is an Microsoft MVP since 2016 and are working as a COO and Principal Cloud Architect at CloudWay in Norway. He has been working in the industry for Microsoft Partners and Microsoft for more than 20 years. He loves to speak about anything a... Show more

Co-Author of 'Coaching for Learning; the Art and Practice' and 'Create Your Dojo; Upskilling Your Organization for Digital Evolution,' Joel helps organizations evolve through learning. This combines a blend of XP, agile, lean, devops and product thinking practices all to embrace learning in the context of work.
With deep experience in architecture modernization, blending product discovery with delivery and architecture, and systems thinking, Joel helps organizations make it easier for their teams to do great work.

Co-Author of 'Coaching for Learning; the Art and Practice' and 'Create Your Dojo; Upskilling Your Organization for Digital Evolution,' Joel helps organizations evolve through learning. This combines a blend of XP, agile, lean, devops and product thi... Show more

Pamela Paterson, MS, CBAP, PMP, is a best-selling author and senior IT consultant specializing in business analysis and project management. With a strong background in systems engineering and experience working with over 100 organizations, Pamela has delivered workshops, webinars, and presentations worldwide and authored 10 books, including two international best-sellers: Creating Requirements for Software Projects and Get the Job. Pamela has also taught project management for over ten years in Toronto, Canada. In 2023 and 2024, she stands out as one of the most active speakers on Sessionize. For more details, visit her LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelapaterson/.

Pamela Paterson, MS, CBAP, PMP, is a best-selling author and senior IT consultant specializing in business analysis and project management. With a strong background in systems engineering and experience working with over 100 organizations, Pamela has... Show more

After a decade in social work, Magali decided to change course and became a web developper. She tries to find a delicate balance between the technical aspects of the job (fun !), the creativity (fun too !) and trying to follow her ethics and change the culture of the industry (the less fun aspects of it anyway) by being an advocate and an activist. She recently chose to specialize in web accessibility by joining Access42.

She is co-founder and president of Compositech, an organization advocating for the inclusion of women and non-binary people in tech. She also is the founder and president of La Première Ligne, a feminist magazine created by tech women and non-binary people. She has a dog, Trufa and talks either way too much about her (according to people) or way not enough (according to herself).

After a decade in social work, Magali decided to change course and became a web developper. She tries to find a delicate balance between the technical aspects of the job (fun !), the creativity (fun too !) and trying to follow her ethics and change t... Show more

Richard Campbell wrote his first line of code in 1977. His career has spanned the computing industry both on the hardware and software sides, development, and operations. He was a co-founder of Strangeloop Networks, acquired by Radware in 2013, and was on the board of directors of Telerik, which was acquired by Progress Software in 2014. Today, he is a consultant and advisor to a number of successful technology firms and is the founder and chairman of Humanitarian Toolbox (www.htbox.org), a public charity that builds open-source software for disaster relief. Richard also hosts three podcasts: .NET Rocks! (www.dotnetrocks.com) for .NET developers, RunAs Radio (www.runasradio.com) for IT Professionals, and Windows Weekly (https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly).

Richard Campbell wrote his first line of code in 1977. His career has spanned the computing industry both on the hardware and software sides, development, and operations. He was a co-founder of Strangeloop Networks, acquired by Radware in 2013, and w... Show more

Ginger Grant is a distinguished Microsoft Data Platform MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), renowned for her deep expertise in advanced analytics, machine learning, AI, data warehousing, and the evolving landscape of Microsoft Fabric. As a sought-after consultant, Ginger empowers organizations to harness the full potential of their data ecosystems.

Beyond consulting, Ginger is a prolific thought leader and speaker for both keynotes and technical training. She contributes regularly as a columnist for Pure AI, authors insightful books, and shares practical knowledge on her blog, DesertIsleSQL.com. Her educational impact spans a wide range of technologies, including Azure Synapse Analytics, Python, and Azure Machine Learning, making her a trusted voice in the data community.

Whether on stage, in print, or in the classroom, Ginger’s passion for data and commitment to knowledge-sharing make her a standout figure in the world of data and AI.

Ginger Grant is a distinguished Microsoft Data Platform MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), renowned for her deep expertise in advanced analytics, machine learning, AI, data warehousing, and the evolving landscape of Microsoft Fabric. As a sou... Show more

George is a distributed systems expert and a hands-on engineering leader. He is a Director of Engineering at MongoDB, focusing on implementing cloud native technologies at enterprise scale. He is an Ambassador of the Data on Kubernetes community and the author of The Platform Engineering Playbook, by Packt. Most recently, he has been a speaker at global events like Kubecon, OpenSource Summit, Hashiconf, LeadDev, SaaStr, and more.

George is a distributed systems expert and a hands-on engineering leader. He is a Director of Engineering at MongoDB, focusing on implementing cloud native technologies at enterprise scale. He is an Ambassador of the Data on Kubernetes community and ... Show more

Andreas spent most of his professional life and a career of over 25 years integrating "backend" applications. First inside or between Enterprises and Startups directly, then - "in the cloud".
Before that, Andreas dabbled with Virtual Reality in the 90s. In 2013, he integrated an innovation focus into his work - from Kinect for Windows, Microsoft HoloLens, and Mixed Reality, to a strong focus on Applied Artificial Intelligence. Andreas told audiences years before ChatGPT to look at Generative AI.
He cannot stop talking about technology, which apparently some people like so Microsoft gave him the MVP award. Because he has shown leadership can advise C-levels and business, he also got accepted into the ranks of the Microsoft Regional Directors .
Andreas helps customers as a trusted advisor, external CTO and innovation consultant, he also produces exciting applications and solutions with a great team of skilled individuals.
He acts as CTO Applied AI for daenet.

Andreas spent most of his professional life and a career of over 25 years integrating "backend" applications. First inside or between Enterprises and Startups directly, then - "in the cloud". Before that, Andreas dabbled with Virtual Reality in the ... Show more

JJ works as a Developer Advocate representing IBM worldwide. He mainly focuses on open-source AI and OpenShift, trying to help companies and users successfully onboard to the Cloud-Native ecosystem. He’s also known in the DevOps tooling ecosystem and generalized Linux communities. If he isn’t building automation to streamline his work, he’s building the groundwork to do just that.

He lives and grew up in Austin, Texas. A father and husband, trying to learn to balance his natural nerdiness with family life. He enjoys a good strong dark ale, hoppy IPA, some team-building Artemis, and epic Gloomhaven campaigning.

He has recently dove headfirst into Fedora since IBM bought Redhat, but still secretly wants FreeBSD everywhere. He’s always trying to become a better web technology developer, though he normally just uses bash to get the job done.

JJ works as a Developer Advocate representing IBM worldwide. He mainly focuses on open-source AI and OpenShift, trying to help companies and users successfully onboard to the Cloud-Native ecosystem. He’s also known in the DevOps tooling ecosystem an... Show more

Erin is currently the Enterprise Architect at Trean Corporation in Wayzata, MN, USA. Since 2023, Erin is a Data Platform MVP for her involvement in the SQL Server/Fabric community. She has been working with SQL Server for 20 years, both as a developer and a database administrator. Over the past several years, PowerShell and Azure DevOps have become areas of focus.

Erin is currently the Enterprise Architect at Trean Corporation in Wayzata, MN, USA. Since 2023, Erin is a Data Platform MVP for her involvement in the SQL Server/Fabric community. She has been working with SQL Server for 20 years, both as a develope... Show more