Most Active Speakers 2023

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

  • 759 speakers
  • Auto-generated
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

Jean Joseph

Jean Joseph

Jean Joseph is a seasoned consultant and senior technical trainer specializing in data engineering and artificial intelligence. With a strong background in database design, administration, and cutting-edge data technologies including machine learning and generative AI.

He helps organizations build secure, scalable solutions across both legacy systems and modern cloud platforms. Formerly recognized as a Microsoft MVP and senior technical trainer at Microsoft, Jean brings deep technical insight and a passion for teaching.

He’s also a dynamic speaker, mentor, and the founder of the Cloud Data Driven User Group and the Future Data Driven Summit, where he champions innovation and promotes responsible use of emerging tech within the data community.

Jean Joseph is a seasoned consultant and senior technical trainer specializing in data engineering and artificial intelligence. With a strong background in database design, administration, and cutting-edge data technologies including machine learning... 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

Ines Akrap

Ines Akrap

Ines Akrap is a frontend engineer, a Google Developer Expert in Web Performance, and co-chair of the W3C Sustainable Web Interest Group, the group writing the guidelines that define what sustainable means for the web.

Her entry point wasn't environmental activism. It was a curiosity about a CO2 number tied to a JavaScript bundle and one question she couldn't stop asking: can we get rid of this? What followed was years of research, speaking across Europe, and co-authoring Building the Sustainable Web (Apress, 2026), a practical guide for web development teams who want to understand the full cost of what they build.

Ines Akrap is a frontend engineer, a Google Developer Expert in Web Performance, and co-chair of the W3C Sustainable Web Interest Group, the group writing the guidelines that define what sustainable means for the web. Her entry point wasn't enviro... Show more

Sergey Chubarov

Sergey Chubarov

Sergey Chubarov is a cloud security consultant, red teamer, Microsoft MVP, and Microsoft Certified Trainer with more than 15 years of experience in cybersecurity. His work spans offensive security, cloud security, and AI, helping organizations identify and mitigate real-world threats.

He is a frequent speaker at Black Hat, DEF CON, Hacker Halted, Wild West Hackin' Fest, and other international conferences. Sergey is known for highly practical sessions featuring live demonstrations, real attack scenarios, and actionable defensive guidance.

Sergey Chubarov is a cloud security consultant, red teamer, Microsoft MVP, and Microsoft Certified Trainer with more than 15 years of experience in cybersecurity. His work spans offensive security, cloud security, and AI, helping organizations identi... Show more

Ashley Davies

Ashley Davies

Google Developer Expert for Android and Kotlin, enthusiastic public speaker, senior engineer, Kotlin aficionado, Multiplatform manipulator, prolific facilitator of cute cat photographs, spends more time travelling than working (he/him)

Google Developer Expert for Android and Kotlin, enthusiastic public speaker, senior engineer, Kotlin aficionado, Multiplatform manipulator, prolific facilitator of cute cat photographs, spends more time travelling than working (he/him) Show more

Benni De Jagere

Benni De Jagere

Benni is a Principal Program Manager in the Fabric Customer Advisory Team (Fabric CAT) at Microsoft. Aspiring to be top notch in his field, through continuous personal development, on both technical and soft skills. He strives for maximum results in his tasks using team play, communication, thinking outside of the box, and (endless) motivation. Benni is always ready to tackle the unknown, or pick up fresh ideas to broaden his range. Building on past experiences, he continuously tries to find new, more efficient ways of obtaining results, and improving the process along the way.

Loving (almost) every day of it, he’s fascinated by the value of data, sometimes flabbergasted by the lack of awareness, and intrigued by the endless possibilities whilst discovering new ways of looking at data. He thrives on unfolding new insights for customers whilst using an open and transparent communication.

On a daily basis he turns (large amounts of) coffee into insights for customers, and references witty British comedy, lame dad jokes, and obscure facts way too often. Overly enthusiastic about anything data related, he’s trying hard to keep up with all things new and shiny.

When not working, blogging or reading, you’ll likely find him out and about being his weird self. Rumour has it that he’s also involved with a ragtag band of data enthusiasts, enjoying themselves whilst organising cool community things.
They go by the name of .. dataMinds!

Benni is a Principal Program Manager in the Fabric Customer Advisory Team (Fabric CAT) at Microsoft. Aspiring to be top notch in his field, through continuous personal development, on both technical and soft skills. He strives for maximum results in ... Show more

Damian Synadinos

Damian Synadinos

Damian Synadinos has many labels. He spent 25 years as a software executive across diverse industries, gaining deep experience in technology, quality, and leadership. Along the way, he’s also been a schoolteacher, a children’s book author, a comedic improviser, and a portrait artist - experiences that sharpened his ability to communicate, connect, and think creatively. In 2016, he founded Ineffable Solutions to become a full-time speaker focused on people and fundamental topics such as communication, empathy, risk, identity, and trust – areas that are timeless and universal. His keynotes, talks, and workshops feature original content that blends conceptual depth, practical insight, and interactive humor, engaging the audiences’ hearts, minds, and funny bones. The result is a thought-provoking, relatable message that creates a lasting impact in any context.

Damian Synadinos has many labels. He spent 25 years as a software executive across diverse industries, gaining deep experience in technology, quality, and leadership. Along the way, he’s also been a schoolteacher, a children’s book author, a comedic ... Show more

Anubhav Singh

Anubhav Singh

A seasoned developer since the pre-Bootstrap era, Anubhav has extensive experience as a freelancer and AI startup founder. He authored "Hands-on Python Deep Learning for Web" and "Mobile Deep Learning with TensorFlow Lite, ML Kit, and Flutter." A Google Developer Expert in ML & GCP, he was a co-organizer for TFUG Kolkata and formerly led the team at GDG Cloud Kolkata. Anubhav is often found discussing System Architecture, Machine Learning, and Web technologies.

A seasoned developer since the pre-Bootstrap era, Anubhav has extensive experience as a freelancer and AI startup founder. He authored "Hands-on Python Deep Learning for Web" and "Mobile Deep Learning with TensorFlow Lite, ML Kit, and Flutter." A Goo... 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

Jens Vestergaard

Jens Vestergaard

Jens is Head of Product, CatMan at Redslim, driving the BI as a Service team as well as custom build & deliver projects.
The tech stack is wide, as Jens has a couple of decades in the industry, focusing on mainly Business Intelligence tools, but is also keen on Powershell, C#, Azure and Microsoft Fabric in general.
Jens is 9 years in a row Microsoft Data Platform MVP and a frequent speaker at both local and international events.

Jens is Head of Product, CatMan at Redslim, driving the BI as a Service team as well as custom build & deliver projects. The tech stack is wide, as Jens has a couple of decades in the industry, focusing on mainly Business Intelligence tools, but is ... Show more

Andres Almiray

Andres Almiray

Andres is a Java/Groovy developer and a Java Champion, with more than 2 decades of experience in software design and development. He has been involved in web and desktop application development since the early days of Java. Andres is a true believer in open source and has participated on popular projects like Groovy, Griffon, and DbUnit, as well as starting his own projects. Founding member of the Griffon framework and Hackergarten community event. Author of JReleaser.

Andres is a Java/Groovy developer and a Java Champion, with more than 2 decades of experience in software design and development. He has been involved in web and desktop application development since the early days of Java. Andres is a true believer ... Show more

Samuel Shaw

Samuel Shaw

Sam has been in the technology space professionally for a decade after dabbling as a developer while working in academia. His spare time is spent trying new things or in the gym fighting. Most recently the focus being Krav Maga and Kung Fu.

Sam has been in the technology space professionally for a decade after dabbling as a developer while working in academia. His spare time is spent trying new things or in the gym fighting. Most recently the focus being Krav Maga and Kung Fu. Show more

Irina Dominte(Scurtu)

Irina Dominte(Scurtu)

Software Architect @Particular Software, Microsoft MVP for Developer Technologies, Microsoft Certified Trainer, always in a quest for the latest trends and best practices in architecture, .NET, and the world around it.

Irina has more than 1000 hours of delivered training, workshops, and presentations, is passionate about .NET and the world around it.

She is the founder of DotNet Iasi User Group where she tries to gather people who are willing to share their knowledge with others, and from time to time publishes articles on her blog: http://irina.codes

Software Architect @Particular Software, Microsoft MVP for Developer Technologies, Microsoft Certified Trainer, always in a quest for the latest trends and best practices in architecture, .NET, and the world around it. Irina has more than 1000 hou... Show more

Erick Wendel

Erick Wendel

Erick Wendel is an active Node.js core committer, Keynote Speaker, and professional educator. He has given over 100 tech talks in more than 20 different countries worldwide. He was awarded as a Node.js Specialist with the Google Developer Expert, Microsoft MVP, and GitHub Stars awards. Erick Wendel has trained more than 100K people around the world in his own company https://ew.academy

Erick Wendel is an active Node.js core committer, Keynote Speaker, and professional educator. He has given over 100 tech talks in more than 20 different countries worldwide. He was awarded as a Node.js Specialist with the Google Developer Expert, Mic... Show more

André Melancia

André Melancia

Doing AI stuff since before it was cool!
• Developer / DBA / Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) focusing on Microsoft's Data Platform, AI, Azure, IoT and Security.
• Developing information and multimedia systems, DBA, project and IT management, for over 27 years.
• Speaker with over 350+ sessions delivered since 2015 at international conferences and community events (mostly in-person before pandemic times) on multiple technologies, Internet Governance and Human Rights, as well as volunteer and moderator.
• Organiser and founder at technical communities: IT Pro Portugal, PowerShell Portugal, Data Community Portugal, and multiple other online communities such as IPv6 Portugal, DNSSEC Portugal, etc.
• Organiser of technical events: Global AI Bootcamp Lisboa, Global Power Platform Bootcamp Lisboa, Ctrl-Alt-Shell, Ctrl-Alt-Xmas, Global Diversity CFP Day Lisboa, Power BI Roadshow Lisboa, Programar Saturday, Community Evenings, etc.
• Go to https://Andy.PT and you'll know the same as the NSA...

Note: The sessions listed below have been presented in at least one or more events. The list of events below only includes Sessionize-driven events.

Doing AI stuff since before it was cool! • Developer / DBA / Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) focusing on Microsoft's Data Platform, AI, Azure, IoT and Security. • Developing information and multimedia systems, DBA, project and IT management, for ... Show more

Emiliano Montesdeoca

Emiliano Montesdeoca

Emiliano is a Uruguayan-Spanish software developer, Microsoft MVP in Developer Technologies, and passionate community advocate based in Tenerife. He’s also a proud dad, balancing family life with a deep commitment to tech and community.

As Team Lead at Intelequia Technologies, he drives the design of scalable cloud solutions using Microsoft technologies, blending strategic vision with hands-on execution. With years of experience tackling complex challenges, Emiliano brings strong expertise in cloud architecture and team leadership.

A frequent speaker and blogger, he shares practical insights to support and mentor the global developer community—giving back to the ecosystem that shaped his own journey.

Emiliano is a Uruguayan-Spanish software developer, Microsoft MVP in Developer Technologies, and passionate community advocate based in Tenerife. He’s also a proud dad, balancing family life with a deep commitment to tech and community. As Team Le... Show more

Cassandra Faris

Cassandra Faris

Cassandra Faris is passionate about the human side of tech. She is a Community Delivery Manager at Stack Overflow who focuses on supporting technologists through training, open source, marketing, and mentoring. As a speaker, she teaches people to be more inclusive, advance their careers, and care for their mental health. She's President of Stir Scholarship for women pursuing tech degrees. When she's not busy with the tech community, she's a gamer, corgi mom, and soccer fan who travels as much as possible.

Cassandra Faris is passionate about the human side of tech. She is a Community Delivery Manager at Stack Overflow who focuses on supporting technologists through training, open source, marketing, and mentoring. As a speaker, she teaches people to be ... Show more

Gabriel L. Manor

Gabriel L. Manor

Gabriel is an engineering executive with extensive experience in security and developer platforms. Over the years, I have worked as a technical leader and principal engineer at large corporations such as Cisco and Palo Alto Networks and a few startups.
For the last couple of years, Gabriel has mainly focused on fine-grained authorization. As the VP of developer relations at Permit.io, he advocates for and creates content around security and permissions, guiding engineers in this journey.
In my spare time, I'm an avid writer, kitchen enthusiast, and adventurous traveler.

Gabriel is an engineering executive with extensive experience in security and developer platforms. Over the years, I have worked as a technical leader and principal engineer at large corporations such as Cisco and Palo Alto Networks and a few startup... Show more

Ben Kadel

Ben Kadel

Developer, Presenter/Teacher, Open source advocate, Ultimate frisbee player & Board game hoarder.
I love the fact that I get to code for a living, but I am also incredibly passionate about sharing, collaborating and helping others on their dev journey!
I also have a growing YouTube channel (youtube.com/benkadel), where I try to make entertaining & educational content about programming, the tech industry and specific tutorials to breakdown complex topics.
I adore presenting, story-telling and just generally engaging with an audience. If I am able to make life, even just a little brighter for someone then I have succeeded!

Developer, Presenter/Teacher, Open source advocate, Ultimate frisbee player & Board game hoarder. I love the fact that I get to code for a living, but I am also incredibly passionate about sharing, collaborating and helping others on their dev journ... Show more

Chirag Patel

Chirag Patel

Chirag is an Independent Consultant & Trainer at Patel Consulting, based in London UK, focusing on enabling secure & compliant collaboration and productivity solutions in organisations using Generative AI, Microsoft 365 and Purview technologies.

With over 25 years of experience in technology professional services and training delivery, Chirag’s career spans from database development & administration, implementing collaboration & information management solutions to cloud deployments & migrations. Key roles include, Product Owner, Solution Architect & Engineer specialising hands-on delivery of technical solutions with demonstrated results in designing & implementing secure, reliable, scalable and fault tolerant mission critical enterprise solutions. Chirag’s contributions extends to various channels and partners on practical consultancy, classroom training, and personalised training with clients in many sectors, he establishes himself as leader and problem solver on projects for broad adoption of tech and is also a regular speaker at community events.

Chirag holds MSc in Business Systems Analysis & Design and is a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), TOGAF Certified Architect, BCS Chartered IT Professional and a recipient of Microsoft MVP award every year since 2020. He is also an Approved Chartered Membership Assessor at BCS (British Computer Society).

Chirag is an Independent Consultant & Trainer at Patel Consulting, based in London UK, focusing on enabling secure & compliant collaboration and productivity solutions in organisations using Generative AI, Microsoft 365 and Purview technologies. W... Show more

Andrew Murphy

Andrew Murphy

Over the past 15+ years, Andrew Murphy has led engineering teams across consultancies and SaaS companies, and coached tech leaders stepping into the leadership role for the first time. Again and again, he's watched technically competent engineers get promoted without the skills or support to succeed. His mission is simple: make sure they don't have to learn leadership the hard way.

Andrew now runs in-person workshops and coaching programs where new and established tech leaders learn, build, and practice real leadership skills. Andrew shares his mindset, tools and techniques that turn engineers into happy, confident and effective leaders.

Leadership skills can be learned, and learning them will change your life.

Credentials
• Mentored Tech Leads, Staff Engineers, Engineering Managers into leadership roles
• Currently Fractional CTO at AI health-care company, PatientNotes.app
• Led engineering teams from 10 to 100+, shipping products at scale-ups and enterprises
• Creator of tech leadership platform, Tech Leaders Launchpad

Over the past 15+ years, Andrew Murphy has led engineering teams across consultancies and SaaS companies, and coached tech leaders stepping into the leadership role for the first time. Again and again, he's watched technically competent engineers get... Show more

Mihail Mateev

Mihail Mateev

Mihail Mateev is an owner, Solution Architect, Senior Technical Evangelist at SoftProject, responsible for .Net, IoT and cloud solutions. Mihail currently works as a Senior Solution Architect at EPAM Systems. He also worked many years like a Technical evangelist in the Infragistics. Last years Mihail was focused on various areas related to technology Microsoft: Visual Studio , ASP.Net, Windows client apps, Data Platform, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Foundry.

Mihail Mateev is an owner, Solution Architect, Senior Technical Evangelist at SoftProject, responsible for .Net, IoT and cloud solutions. Mihail currently works as a Senior Solution Architect at EPAM Systems. He also worked many years like a Techni... Show more

Soumaya Erradi

Soumaya Erradi

I'm an experienced web developer and a passionate IT and electronics trainer, specializing in frontend development and enterprise applications built with Angular.
I spend most of my time exploring what's new in the tech world and helping other developers improve their skills.
As a conference speaker, I bring advanced Angular topics, tips for the integration of smart contracts and best solutions for web3 applications.

I'm an experienced web developer and a passionate IT and electronics trainer, specializing in frontend development and enterprise applications built with Angular. I spend most of my time exploring what's new in the tech world and helping other devel... Show more

Lemon 🍋

Lemon 🍋

With a lifelong passion for the weirdness of the internet and a day job as a development lead for whoever hired him, Lemon spends his professional time making websites for money and his free time making websites for no money.

He's created a number of stupid things for the internet, like all the games on kinda.fun, the wikiHow guessing game damn.dog, the Google Autocomplete game idiots.win, and a bunch of other things of questionable use. He also hosts a podcast that looks at some of the internet's weirder subcultures. It is not safe for your work, unless you work somewhere really cool.

With a lifelong passion for the weirdness of the internet and a day job as a development lead for whoever hired him, Lemon spends his professional time making websites for money and his free time making websites for no money. He's created a number... Show more

Yannis Martin

Yannis Martin

Yannis Martin is an engineer and sociologist by training. With over twenty years of experience supporting digital transformations, he has worked for the past decade as a consultant in project management, cybersecurity governance, and interim management. In 2024, he began doctoral research on the interactions between artificial intelligence, complexity theory, and the humanities and social sciences. His research focuses on AI considered both as a mediating device for human cognition and as a constituent element of complex socio-technical systems. A lecturer at the University of Avignon since 2021, he joined emlyon business school and INSA Lyon in 2025. In 2026, he became a member of the CNRS research group "Internet, AI and Society."

Yannis Martin is an engineer and sociologist by training. With over twenty years of experience supporting digital transformations, he has worked for the past decade as a consultant in project management, cybersecurity governance, and interim manageme... Show more

Simon Painter

Simon Painter

I've been working as a .NET developer for over 16 years now in a variety of industries including government, retail and manufacturing. But I've been hacking around with computer code since I was old enough to read my Dad's copy of the ZX Spectrum BASIC coders manual.

I've been speaking about Functional C# at various user groups and conferences around the UK, USA, Europe and Australia and am particularly interested in seeing just how far we can push C# without breaking it.

In 2023 I released my first technical book: "Functional Programming with C#", published by O'Reilly Media.

When I'm not coding, or running after my two small children, I have been known to enjoy the classic series of Doctor Who, Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, Cryptic Crosswords, and rather more coffee than is probably good for me.

I've been working as a .NET developer for over 16 years now in a variety of industries including government, retail and manufacturing. But I've been hacking around with computer code since I was old enough to read my Dad's copy of the ZX Spectrum BAS... Show more

Guy Royse

Guy Royse

Guy has a single mission in life: learn how everything works and share it. He's spent a lot of time learning how technology works—analog and digital, hardware and software—but Guy explores all sorts of interesting topics and he spread the knowledge he gains with communities worldwide.

Teaching and community have long been a focus for Guy. He is president of his amateur radio club. He ran a local JavaScript meetup in Ohio for more than a decade. He has served on the selection committees of numerous conferences. He has even helped teach programming at a prison in Central Ohio.

In his personal life, Guy is a hard-boiled geek interested in role-playing games, science fiction, and technology. He has a slightly less geeky interest in history, linguistics, and geopolitics but these are really just more ways to understand how things work. He has an entire wall of role-playing games and science fiction books, speaks Spanish like a two-year old, and is a ham radio operator—callsign W8GUY.

Guy lives in Ohio with his wife. His three sons are adults now and are all moved out. He is immensely proud of the men they have become.

Guy has a single mission in life: learn how everything works and share it. He's spent a lot of time learning how technology works—analog and digital, hardware and software—but Guy explores all sorts of interesting topics and he spread the knowledge h... Show more

Himanshu Singh

Himanshu Singh

Himanshu is a Full Stack Kotlin Engineer specializing in Android development. Recognized as a Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Android, he is an active speaker and content creator. Passionate about community building, Himanshu loves mentoring aspiring developers and helping them transition into the tech world.

Himanshu is a Full Stack Kotlin Engineer specializing in Android development. Recognized as a Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Android, he is an active speaker and content creator. Passionate about community building, Himanshu loves mentoring aspiri... Show more

Liji Thomas

Liji Thomas

Liji Thomas is a seasoned technologist with over 15 years of experience in creating transformative digital experiences. As Engineering Director at H&R Block, she drives innovation by leveraging generative AI to enhance customer experiences and deliver business value. Her expertise spans AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and conversational AI.

Liji is passionate about harnessing AI's transformative potential to revolutionize business and human interaction with technology. A thought leader in the field, she actively shares her insights through speaking engagements, publications, and community involvement. Committed to diversity and inclusion, she mentors aspiring technologists and advocates for the next generation of AI leaders.

Liji Thomas is a seasoned technologist with over 15 years of experience in creating transformative digital experiences. As Engineering Director at H&R Block, she drives innovation by leveraging generative AI to enhance customer experiences and delive... 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.