Most Active Speakers 2023

Sessionize proudly presents the list of the most active speakers in the year 2023!

  • 758 speakers
  • Auto-generated
PJ Hagerty

PJ Hagerty

PJ Hagerty is a well-known figure in the tech industry, particularly within the developer relations and DevOps communities. He is recognized for his work as a developer advocate, community builder, writer, and speaker. PJ founded DevRelate.io, a company focused on helping tech organizations build communities and enhance developer relations. He has a strong presence in the open-source and tech communities, often speaking at conferences and producing content on topics such as software development, DevOps, and community engagement.

PJ Hagerty is a well-known figure in the tech industry, particularly within the developer relations and DevOps communities. He is recognized for his work as a developer advocate, community builder, writer, and speaker. PJ founded DevRelate.io, a comp... Show more

Miguel LLorca Gomez

Miguel LLorca Gomez

Miguel Llorca is a seasoned technologist and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the IT industry.

Since 2014, he has been honored with the Microsoft MVP award, for his contributions to technical communities. He is also a member of the Microsoft Regional Director program, recognized for his extensive technical and business acumen and leadership within the community.

Additionally, Miguel is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, an instructor and author for LinkedIn Learning, and a regular speaker at industry events and conferences, earning the distinction of LinkedIn Top Voice in 2024 and 2025.

Miguel Llorca is a seasoned technologist and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the IT industry. Since 2014, he has been honored with the Microsoft MVP award, for his contributions to technical communities. He is also a member of th... Show more

Nikola Ilic

Nikola Ilic

I'm making music from the data! Power BI and Microsoft Fabric addict, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Pluralsight Author, O'Reilly Instructor, blogger, speaker...Interested in everything related to data - always eager to extract valuable info from raw data in the most effective way. Multi-year experience working with (predominantly) Microsoft Data Platform (SQL Server, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS, and Power BI). Father of 2 and true football (and Barca) fan!

I'm making music from the data! Power BI and Microsoft Fabric addict, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Pluralsight Author, O'Reilly Instructor, blogger, speaker...Interested in everything related to data - always eager to extract valuable info from raw d... Show more

Peter Zaitsev

Peter Zaitsev

Peter Zaitsev is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Percona, Coroot and other tech companies. As one of the leading experts in Open Source strategy and database optimization, Peter has applied his technical knowledge and entrepreneurial drive to contribute as a board member and advisor to several open source startups. Additionally, Peter is the co-author of the book "High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backup and Replication," one of the most popular books on MySQL performance.

Peter Zaitsev is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Percona, Coroot and other tech companies. As one of the leading experts in Open Source strategy and database optimization, Peter has applied his technical knowledge and entrepreneurial drive to contr... Show more

Shawn Wildermuth

Shawn Wildermuth

Shawn Wildermuth has been tinkering with computers and software since he got a Vic-20 back in the early ‘80s. As a Microsoft MVP since 2003. He’s the author of over twenty Pluralsight courses, written eight books, has a popular YouTube channel, and is one of the Wilder Minds. You can reach him at his blog at http://wildermuth.com.

As a filmmaker, he creates documentaries including a feature-length, documentary about software developers today called “Hello World: The Film”. You can see more about it at http://twainfilms.com.

Shawn Wildermuth has been tinkering with computers and software since he got a Vic-20 back in the early ‘80s. As a Microsoft MVP since 2003. He’s the author of over twenty Pluralsight courses, written eight books, has a popular YouTube channel, and i... Show more

Sander Molenkamp

Sander Molenkamp

Sander Molenkamp is a principal cloud architect and Microsoft Azure MVP with over 25 years of professional experience. He works for Info Support (http://www.infosupport.com) designing and developing customer solutions using cloud native architectures.
Sander is also an accomplished speaker, having shared his insights and expertise at numerous international conferences. He is passionate about technology and freely shares his knowledge through the dotnetFlix YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/dotnetflix).
Furthermore, Sander actively contributes to the organization of multiple free community events, including the Dutch Azure Meetup, Azure Fest, and Bitbash.
In his free time, Sander enjoys traveling, is (still) learning to play the ukelele, and tinkers with technology and LEGO. He has also defeated the sword master of Mêlée Island™️.

Sander Molenkamp is a principal cloud architect and Microsoft Azure MVP with over 25 years of professional experience. He works for Info Support (http://www.infosupport.com) designing and developing customer solutions using cloud native architectures... Show more

Lisa Hoving

Lisa Hoving

Your friendly neighbourhood Data Engineer. My background is in Finance, but I have had the pleasure to be working in IT for the past 8 or so years. In my daily life, I design and build scalable data solutions in the Azure cloud.

Your friendly neighbourhood Data Engineer. My background is in Finance, but I have had the pleasure to be working in IT for the past 8 or so years. In my daily life, I design and build scalable data solutions in the Azure cloud. Show more

Jan Ketil Skanke

Jan Ketil Skanke

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 25 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 25 years. He loves to speak about anything a... Show more

Cláudio Silva

Cláudio Silva

I work as a Data Platform Architect.
I love performance tuning and I'm also a PowerShell lover who automates any process that needs to be done more than a couple of times.

I'm a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and an active SQL Server and PowerShell community member. Also, I'm a contributor to open-source projects such as dbatools (https://dbatools.io) and dbachecks (https://dbachecks.io).

I blog at https://claudioessilva.eu .

I work as a Data Platform Architect. I love performance tuning and I'm also a PowerShell lover who automates any process that needs to be done more than a couple of times. I'm a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and an active SQL Server and PowerShel... Show more

Mario-Leander Reimer

Mario-Leander Reimer

Passionate software developer and architect. Proud father. #CloudNativeNerd. Leander is the CTO at QAware. He’s continuously looking for innovations in software engineering and ways to combine and apply state-of-the-art technology in real-world projects. As a speaker at national and international conferences he shares his tech experiences and he teaches cloud computing and software quality assurance as a part-time lecturer.

Passionate software developer and architect. Proud father. #CloudNativeNerd. Leander is the CTO at QAware. He’s continuously looking for innovations in software engineering and ways to combine and apply state-of-the-art technology in real-world proje... Show more

Wesley Cabus

Wesley Cabus

Wesley is a Customer Success Engineer at Duende Software, helping Duende's customers to be successful by assisting developers with issues, documenting common problems and teaching about security / identity.

He's also a Microsoft MVP, board member of the VISUG meetup in Belgium and speaker at meetups and conferences, such as NDC London and Sydney, Copenhagen Developer Festival, WeAreDevelopers Berlin, Update Conference, TechDays, DevConf, DeveloperDays and Techorama.

Wesley is a Customer Success Engineer at Duende Software, helping Duende's customers to be successful by assisting developers with issues, documenting common problems and teaching about security / identity. He's also a Microsoft MVP, board member ... Show more

Aidan Finn

Aidan Finn

Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) is a Microsoft Azure MVP and the founder of Cloud Mechanix, where he delivers expert-led Azure training and consulting based on decades of real-world experience. With a career spanning infrastructure, virtualisation, and cloud, Aidan helps organisations design secure, scalable Azure solutions—and empowers teams to master the platform themselves. Learn more at cloudmechanix.com and his blog, aidanfinn.com.

Aidan Finn (@joe_elway) is a Microsoft Azure MVP and the founder of Cloud Mechanix, where he delivers expert-led Azure training and consulting based on decades of real-world experience. With a career spanning infrastructure, virtualisation, and clou... Show more

Marcel Lehmann

Marcel Lehmann

PowerPlatform is my passion, which is why I'm not only working in this field full-time. Also privately an app or a flow is built for everything.

PowerPlatform is my passion, which is why I'm not only working in this field full-time. Also privately an app or a flow is built for everything. Show more

Edward Pollack

Edward Pollack

Ed Pollack is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP with a passion for learning how Data Platforms work and sharing that knowledge with the community. His experiences in data architecture, database design, performance optimization, and security are motivation for public speaking, writing, coding, and other community activities.

Ed has spoken at SQL Saturday events, SQL Bits, PASS Summit, EightKB, and many other regional and international events. Ed is the organizer of the Capital Area SQL Server Group and Day of Data Albany, as well as a co-organizer of SQL Saturday New York City. He has published a number of books, including "Dynamic SQL: Applications, Performance, and Security in Microsoft SQL Server", "Expert Performance Indexing in Azure SQL and SQL Server 2022", and "Analytics Optimization with Columnstore Indexes in Microsoft SQL Server: Optimizing OLAP Workloads". Ed is also an active contributor of content to SimpleTalk.

In his free time, Ed enjoys video games, traveling, cooking exceptionally spicy foods, and hanging out with his amazing wife and sons.

Ed Pollack is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP with a passion for learning how Data Platforms work and sharing that knowledge with the community. His experiences in data architecture, database design, performance optimization, and security are motivati... Show more

Selena Small

Selena Small

Selena is a full-stack product engineer at Fresho in Melbourne Australia who is particularly passionate about TDD. As a self-taught coder with a background in management, she is well-equipped to mentor others. She is a recently retired champion kickboxer and fills her spare time with international travel, speaking at tech conferences and board appointments.

Selena is a full-stack product engineer at Fresho in Melbourne Australia who is particularly passionate about TDD. As a self-taught coder with a background in management, she is well-equipped to mentor others. She is a recently retired champion kickb... Show more

Danica Fine

Danica Fine

Danica began her career as a software engineer in financial services and pivoted to developer relations, where she focussed primarily on open source technologies such as Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink®. She now leads the open source advocacy efforts at Snowflake, supporting Apache Iceberg™ and Apache Polaris™, serves as a Jupyter Foundation Board member, and is a member of the Apache Software Foundation.

She can be found on X (Bluesky and Mastodon) @TheDanicaFine.

Danica began her career as a software engineer in financial services and pivoted to developer relations, where she focussed primarily on open source technologies such as Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink®. She now leads the open source advocacy efforts ... Show more

Sally Dabbah

Sally Dabbah

Meet Sally! Sally serves as a Data Engineer with an expertise in Azure Cloud Analytics Services, with years of experience under her belt.
Since earning her M.Sc. degree in Software Engineering, Sally has become a significant voice in Azure Cloud Analytics Services, publishing over ten blogs on Microsoft's Tech Community blog. What excites Sally most about her work is the opportunity to build Proof of Concepts (POCs) that help Microsoft customers unlock their business potential – by doing so, she remains true to her ultimate mission: to empower innovation through Azure's boundless possibilities. Away from her professional endeavors, Sally finds joy in baking pastries, a hobby she shares with her followers on Instagram for inspiration.

Meet Sally! Sally serves as a Data Engineer with an expertise in Azure Cloud Analytics Services, with years of experience under her belt. Since earning her M.Sc. degree in Software Engineering, Sally has become a significant voice in Azure Cloud An... Show more

Mandi Walls

Mandi Walls

Mandi Walls is a DevOps Advocate on the Community and Advocacy Team at PagerDuty. Before joining PagerDuty, Mandi spent a number of years at Chef Software, working with customers and community members in the US and Europe. Originally a large-scale systems administrator, Mandi has focused on IT automation; organizational culture and change; and community.

Mandi Walls is a DevOps Advocate on the Community and Advocacy Team at PagerDuty. Before joining PagerDuty, Mandi spent a number of years at Chef Software, working with customers and community members in the US and Europe. Originally a large-scale sy... Show more

Kyle Kotowick

Kyle Kotowick

Dr. Kyle Kotowick is the founder of a Canadian consulting and development firm focusing on cloud infrastructure, security, and Internet-of-Things implementations for high-growth clients. He completed his Ph.D. in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, joint with the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has served as a consultant, systems architect, and developer for global firms, startups, and universities; as a project lead for military medical and communication technology; and as a researcher for military navigation systems and for life support systems in space. He specializes in working with both startups and enterprise clients to define requirements and explore possible solutions, as well as in leading the development of project architecture, cloud services, and back-end software.

Dr. Kyle Kotowick is the founder of a Canadian consulting and development firm focusing on cloud infrastructure, security, and Internet-of-Things implementations for high-growth clients. He completed his Ph.D. in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial... Show more

Jimmy Bogard

Jimmy Bogard

Jimmy is the creator and maintainer of the popular OSS libraries AutoMapper and MediatR, and the originator of Vertical Slice Architecture. Jimmy is an independent software consultant based in Austin, TX. Jimmy has received the "Microsoft Most Valuable Professional" (MVP) award every year since 2009.

Jimmy is the creator and maintainer of the popular OSS libraries AutoMapper and MediatR, and the originator of Vertical Slice Architecture. Jimmy is an independent software consultant based in Austin, TX. Jimmy has received the "Microsoft Most Valuab... Show more

Ståle Hansen

Ståle Hansen

Ståle Hansen is the Founder, CEO and Digital Wellbeing coach at CloudWay. He is currently awarded as Copilot MVP and is a Microsoft Regional Director with over a decade working with Microsoft 365 and hybrid solutions. His passion is working smart in Microsoft 365 powered by Copilot. He is an international public speaker since 2012 and has spoken at conferences such as Microsoft Ignite, Experts Live and the Microsoft 365 Conference. In 2023, he won the Wellness Champion Award at ESPC for his GTD inspired productivity concept, Digital Wellbeing, which you can find on his YouTube channel with more than 4500 subscribers and 400 000 views.

Ståle Hansen is the Founder, CEO and Digital Wellbeing coach at CloudWay. He is currently awarded as Copilot MVP and is a Microsoft Regional Director with over a decade working with Microsoft 365 and hybrid solutions. His passion is working smart in ... Show more

Jan Vidar Elven

Jan Vidar Elven

Jan Vidar Elven is a Senior Cloud Platform & Security Architect working at Microsoft Partner Evidi AS in Norway. He is a Microsoft MVP in Security, an active speaker and blogger, and has more than 25 years’ experience inside IT infrastructure management and architecting solutions, working with Cloud & Datacenter, specializing in Azure, Microsoft Entra, Active Directory, Enterprise Mobility, Identity & Access Management, Identity Governance, Service Management, Operations Management and Automation cross On-Premise and Azure environments.

Jan Vidar Elven is a Senior Cloud Platform & Security Architect working at Microsoft Partner Evidi AS in Norway. He is a Microsoft MVP in Security, an active speaker and blogger, and has more than 25 years’ experience inside IT infrastructure managem... Show more

Kathrin Borchert

Kathrin Borchert

Hi, I’m Kathrin Borchert, a Microsoft Data Platform MVP specializing in Power BI and Fabric—the only woman in Germany with this title. With over 9 years of experience in Power BI, I’ve worked with both small businesses and enterprise customers, helping them transform data into actionable insights. As Managing Partner at YoDaBI, I support organizations in leveraging Power BI and Microsoft Fabric to drive data-driven decisions. I’m passionate about sharing knowledge, which is why I organize the Female Fabricator User Group MeetUps as well as write on my blog YoDaBI.com, and engage with the community on LinkedIN and YouTube.

Hi, I’m Kathrin Borchert, a Microsoft Data Platform MVP specializing in Power BI and Fabric—the only woman in Germany with this title. With over 9 years of experience in Power BI, I’ve worked with both small businesses and enterprise customers, help... Show more

Anna-Maria Wykes

Anna-Maria Wykes

Anna is a veteran software and data engineer as well as a Microsoft Data Platform and AI MVP, boasting over 18 years of experience. She has undertaken various projects, including real-time analytics with Scala and Kafka, constructing Data Lakes with Spark, and applying engineering to Data Science. Anna currently serves as a RSA (Resident Solution Architect) and consultant, contributing to the development of Databricks and Transatlantix's data engineering and AI practice. With a genuine passion for data, she endeavors to bridge the gap between Software Development and Data Science. Anna's other areas of interest include DevOps (DataOps, MLOps, LLMOps), Agile methodologies, and organizing or participating in local Code Clubs.

Anna is a veteran software and data engineer as well as a Microsoft Data Platform and AI MVP, boasting over 18 years of experience. She has undertaken various projects, including real-time analytics with Scala and Kafka, constructing Data Lakes with ... Show more

Marcel Meurer

Marcel Meurer

Marcel Meurer has a vast history in IT Consulting and the development of solutions and tools. Today, he is Vice President for Azure Solutions at LoginVSI and has a long history of doing and leading professional IT services.

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 with a degree 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. Today, he is Vice President for Azure Solutions at LoginVSI and has a long history of doing and leading professional IT services. His technical focus is ... Show more

Phil Nash

Phil Nash

Phil is a developer relations engineer for IBM and Google Developer Expert living in Melbourne, Australia. He's been working in developer relations for a decade, speaking at conferences since 2012, and writing JavaScript since before jQuery. Away from the keyboard, Phil enjoys travel, live music, and hanging out with his mini sausage dog, Ruby.

Phil is a developer relations engineer for IBM and Google Developer Expert living in Melbourne, Australia. He's been working in developer relations for a decade, speaking at conferences since 2012, and writing JavaScript since before jQuery. Away fro... Show more

Maina Wycliffe

Maina Wycliffe

Google Developer Expert, Author of All Things Typescript Newsletter, Open Source Contributor and Enthusiast, Developer, Speaker, and Writer.

Google Developer Expert, Author of All Things Typescript Newsletter, Open Source Contributor and Enthusiast, Developer, Speaker, and Writer. Show more

Chris DeMars

Chris DeMars

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

Mackenzie Jackson

Mackenzie Jackson

Mackenzie is the Field CTO for Aikido Security, helping tech leaders understand application security through an attacker’s lens. As the co-founder and former CTO of the health tech company Conpago, he understands the challenges of building secure applications. Mackenzie has spoken in over 30 countries, hosts popular podcast The Secure Disclosure, and contributes to multiple publications including Dark Reading, Financial Times, and Fast Company.

Mackenzie is the Field CTO for Aikido Security, helping tech leaders understand application security through an attacker’s lens. As the co-founder and former CTO of the health tech company Conpago, he understands the challenges of building secure app... Show more

Marc Duiker

Marc Duiker

Marc is a Sr Developer Advocate at Diagrid and enjoys sharing knowledge on how to build distributed applications. He's one of the Dapr Community Managers, and he loves helping developers to achieve more every day.

You might have seen Marc at a developer meetup or conference, since he's a regular speaker and event-organizer in the area of Dapr, Azure cloud, and serverless technologies. From 2019 to 2025 Marc received the Microsoft Azure MVP award for his community contributions.

In his spare time, Marc likes to give attention to the creative part of his brain. He likes to create pixel art (check out VSCode Pets), code visuals & music, and create an occasional retro game.

Marc is a Sr Developer Advocate at Diagrid and enjoys sharing knowledge on how to build distributed applications. He's one of the Dapr Community Managers, and he loves helping developers to achieve more every day. You might have seen Marc at a dev... Show more

Please note that Sessionize is not responsible for the accuracy or validity of the data provided by speakers.

Most Active Speakers 2023

Every year, we put together a list of the most active speakers. This list features the top 3% of speakers who have participated in events using Sessionize during the 2023.

The 3% is calculated from the pool of all speakers that have at least one accepted session in year 2023. We don't include inactive speakers or speakers that had no accepted sessions during the year. There are around 25 thousand unique accepted speakers this year, the 3% is 771. Not all of them have their speaker profiles set as public, and we respect that, so the list doesn't show all of them.

The calculation is based on the number of accepted events, that's the main criteria, but to get more refined results we also look at things like multiple sessions per event, sharing a session with a co-speaker and how big the event is. Number of submissions and declined sessions don't affect the list.

Please note that the count of events and sessions in this list does not represent the number of events and sessions from the year 2023. Instead, it shows the number of events and sessions featured on the speaker's public speaker profile; these numbers have nothing to do with the award itself.