Most Active Speakers 2024

Sessionize proudly presents the list of the most active speakers in the year 2024!

  • 1011 speakers
  • Auto-generated
Barry O'Reilly

Barry O'Reilly

Barry is a veteran Architect who has held Chief Architect positions at Microsoft among others. He has also been a startup CTO, the Worldwide Lead for the Solutions Architecture Community at Microsoft, and founder of the Swedish Azure User Group. He is also a PhD candidate in software design and complexity science.

Barry is a veteran Architect who has held Chief Architect positions at Microsoft among others. He has also been a startup CTO, the Worldwide Lead for the Solutions Architecture Community at Microsoft, and founder of the Swedish Azure User Group. He i... Show more

Jessica Randall

Jessica Randall

Jessica Randall is a Master's graduate in Mathematics, an Android developer Co-lead at Mentorlst, and a Zindi Ambassador. Deeply immersed in the world of Android development, she is passionate about Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, thriving in the collaborative environment of Android Studio.

She applies her background in data science and Topological Data Analysis to address complex societal issues. As a Zindi Ambassador, she advocates for data science and machine learning, empowering others to solve real-world problems through technology.

As an organizer for GDG Cape Town, she fosters local developer communities and shapes impactful tech events in South Africa. Her journey as a Google Crowdsource Influencer sparked her interest in AI and Machine Learning, fueling her continuous learning. A forward-thinker, she is an inspiring figure in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Jessica Randall is a Master's graduate in Mathematics, an Android developer Co-lead at Mentorlst, and a Zindi Ambassador. Deeply immersed in the world of Android development, she is passionate about Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, thriving in the collabo... Show more

Brian Alderman

Brian Alderman

Brian Alderman is a six-year Microsoft MVP alumni, twenty-eight consecutive years as an MCT, and seven years as a PMP. Since 1995 he has held several Microsoft certifications that include MCSE for SharePoint, MCSA for Office 365, MCITP for SQL Server(R), and MCSE for Windows Server(R). As a Senior Technical Instructor, and consultant he has over 30 years of experience in networking, SQL Server databases, SharePoint technologies, Microsoft 365, and project management. Brian's publications include Windows 2000 Professional, SQL Server 2000 Administration, SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Companion and Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Administration Inside Out. He is an active speaker at SharePoint, SQL Server, and Microsoft 365 Industry conferences including SharePoint Saturday's, CollabDays, SPLive, DevIntersection, SharePoint Fest/365 EduCon, North American Collaboration Summit, Microsoft 365 Conference, Microsoft Ignite and several international SharePoint conferences including London, Milan, Dublin, Madrid, and Copenhagen. Brian has a BS and MS in Computer Information Systems where he graduated summa cum laude from Regis University of Colorado Springs and now lives in Scottsdale, AZ where he enjoys playing golf year-round and traveling around the world.

Brian Alderman is a six-year Microsoft MVP alumni, twenty-eight consecutive years as an MCT, and seven years as a PMP. Since 1995 he has held several Microsoft certifications that include MCSE for SharePoint, MCSA for Office 365, MCITP for SQL Server... Show more

Gomolemo Mohapi

Gomolemo Mohapi

Gomolemo is a young South African who is determined to make a long-lasting impact on the world through technology.

A .NET developer with a history of creating written programming tutorials for university students and conducting multiple coding workshops, hackathons and speaking at various conferences across the globe.

Gomolemo eventually fell in love with the Power Platform, because it was a low-code platform which gave way for him to empower and upskill not just those with a technical background, but anyone from any industry who was looking to learn how to build applications.

He has since co-authored a Power Platform Udacity course and is now a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft focused on Power Apps and Fusion Development leveraging his love and skill for both traditional and low-code development.

Gomolemo is a young South African who is determined to make a long-lasting impact on the world through technology. A .NET developer with a history of creating written programming tutorials for university students and conducting multiple coding wor... Show more

Cory House

Cory House

Cory is an author, a 12 time Microsoft MVP, and international speaker. He is founder of reactjsconsulting, where he helps companies transition to React. He has trained over 10,000 software developers at conferences and businesses worldwide. Cory has authored over a dozen courses on JavaScript, React, C#, testing, and web development on Pluralsight and Dometrain. He shares software development tips daily on X as @housecor.

Cory is an author, a 12 time Microsoft MVP, and international speaker. He is founder of reactjsconsulting, where he helps companies transition to React. He has trained over 10,000 software developers at conferences and businesses worldwide. Cory has ... Show more

Eric Overfield

Eric Overfield

Eric Overfield is a Microsoft Regional Director, a Microsoft MVP, a PnP team member, and a leading expert in Generative AI, Microsoft 365, data insights, and Azure architecture, strategy, and development. Chief Innovation Officer of Creospark, Eric has over 25 years' experience with web design best practices and techniques, and over 19 years' experience in digital workplace architecture and implementation. Besides his in-depth knowledge of SharePoint’s capabilities, his expertise includes AI, data, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Azure technology, design, and architecture along with custom solutions, TypeScript, JavaScript, and React. He is a co-author of Pro SharePoint 2013 Branding and Responsive Web Development (Apress 2013) and Black Magic Solutions for White Hat SharePoint (EUSP Press 2013). An engaged speaker and organizer of Microsoft 365 events as well as an active member of the PnP team.

Eric Overfield is a Microsoft Regional Director, a Microsoft MVP, a PnP team member, and a leading expert in Generative AI, Microsoft 365, data insights, and Azure architecture, strategy, and development. Chief Innovation Officer of Creospark, Eric h... Show more

Andrew Block

Andrew Block

Andrew Block is a Distinguished Architect at Red Hat who works with organizations to adopt Open Source solutions with a focus on Cloud Native, security and emerging technologies. Andrew is the author of multiple technical publications and frequently shares his knowledge and experiences related to relevant industry topics. He is a recognized leader, maintainer and contributor within the Open Source community, and partners with organizations to incorporate Open Source practices and their benefits.

Andrew Block is a Distinguished Architect at Red Hat who works with organizations to adopt Open Source solutions with a focus on Cloud Native, security and emerging technologies. Andrew is the author of multiple technical publications and frequently ... Show more

Gene Gotimer

Gene Gotimer

Gene Gotimer is a DevSecOps Engineer who loves playing with new tools, focusing on agile processes, securing development practices, and automating everything. Gene feels strongly that repeatability, quality, and security are all strongly intertwined; each depends on the other two, making agile and DevSecOps crucial to software development.

Gene Gotimer is a DevSecOps Engineer who loves playing with new tools, focusing on agile processes, securing development practices, and automating everything. Gene feels strongly that repeatability, quality, and security are all strongly intertwined;... Show more

John White

John White

John P White is the CTO of tyGraph and Evangelist at AvePoint. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Guelph and has been a Microsoft MVP since 2010 and a dual MVP since 2018 in both Microsoft Apps and Services and Data Platform.  He has spent far too long (since 1990) in the Information Technology space, and possesses a skill set that spans both architecture and development. He has been instrumental in delivering projects and applications that have been recognized with both local and global awards from Microsoft and IBM.
 John has accumulated a plethora of legacy technologies over the years like Novell, Lotus Notes and Java, and of course Microsoft technologies. This experience has proven invaluable when architecting systems. Over the past decade, he has been focused on the Microsoft collaborative and data platforms and is a frequent speaker on these topics.
 He blogs as actively as possible at the White Pages and is the co-host of the weekly https://bifocal.show/ which covers the Microsoft business intelligence space. John lives in the country just outside of Guelph, Canada. He is a father to 5, is an avid scuba diver, gardener, and photographer, both under and above the water (but mostly under).

John P White is the CTO of tyGraph and Evangelist at AvePoint. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Guelph and has been a Microsoft MVP since 2010 and a dual MVP since 2018 in both Microsoft Apps and Services and Data Plat... Show more

Marco Ippolito

Marco Ippolito

Marco is a Senior Security Engineer at HeroDevs.
Active contributor, releaser, and member of the Node.js Technical Steering Committee, he is a renowned international speaker and a former Microsoft MVP. Marco is actively involved in many projects within the Node.js ecosystem and also serves as a delegate in TC39.

Marco is a Senior Security Engineer at HeroDevs. Active contributor, releaser, and member of the Node.js Technical Steering Committee, he is a renowned international speaker and a former Microsoft MVP. Marco is actively involved in many projects wit... Show more

Hemanth Malla

Hemanth Malla

Hemanth Malla is a Principal Engineer working on Kubernetes and container networking at Microsoft. He is also a Cilium CNCF maintainer. Previously he worked on various distributed systems in industries like observability, e-commerce, fintech and high frequency trading. Apart from computers, he enjoys all things photography, drones and dark chocolate.

Hemanth Malla is a Principal Engineer working on Kubernetes and container networking at Microsoft. He is also a Cilium CNCF maintainer. Previously he worked on various distributed systems in industries like observability, e-commerce, fintech and high... Show more

Hila Fish

Hila Fish

Hila Fish is a Solutions Architect @ AWS, with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry.
Hashicorp & Women tech Makers Ambassador, and an International public speaker who believes the DevOps culture is what drives a company to perform at its best and talks about that and other DevOps/Infrastructure topics at conferences.
She advocates for enhancing business success through the strategic application of technology.

In her spare time, Hila is a lead singer of a cover band, giving back to the community by co-organizing DevOps-related conferences (Inc. "DevOpsDays TLV" & "StatsCraft" monitoring-focused event), providing mentorship and managing programs in “Baot” (The largest technical women’s community in Israel), and enjoys sharing her passion and knowledge wherever she can, including across diverse technology communities, initiatives and social media.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hila-fish
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hilafish1

Hila Fish is a Solutions Architect @ AWS, with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry. Hashicorp & Women tech Makers Ambassador, and an International public speaker who believes the DevOps culture is what drives a company to perform at its... Show more

Jiří Činčura

Jiří Činčura

https://www.tabsoverspaces.com/about

https://www.tabsoverspaces.com/about ... Show more

Mitchel Sellers

Mitchel Sellers

Mitchel Sellers is globally known as a 17-time Microsoft MVP, an ASPInsider, a DNN MVP, is an MCP (Microsoft .NET, ASP.NET and SQL Server), and CEO of IowaComputerGurus Inc. Sellers has a deep understanding of software development and when speaking focuses on proper architecture standards, performance, stability, security, and overall cost-effectiveness of delivered solutions. This message and his abilities resonate in the technical war room as well as the executive board room.

Mitchel is a prolific public speaker, presenting more than 400 sessions at user groups and conferences globally, such as DevUp, SDN, and Code PaLOUsa. Sellers has been the author of multiple books and a regular blogger on technology topics.

When Mitchel is not working in technology, you will find him flying his airplane, teaching others how to fly, or spending time with his family He is also actively involved in the Open Source Community working diligently to further the movement. Find out more about Sellers at his website http://www.mitchelsellers.com.

Mitchel Sellers is globally known as a 17-time Microsoft MVP, an ASPInsider, a DNN MVP, is an MCP (Microsoft .NET, ASP.NET and SQL Server), and CEO of IowaComputerGurus Inc. Sellers has a deep understanding of software development and when speaking f... Show more

Sohan Kunkerkar

Sohan Kunkerkar

Sohan Kunkerkar is a Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat, bringing expertise in distributed systems, backend engineering, and containers. His active contributions extend to CRI-O, a container runtime engine, and various sub-projects within the Kubernetes Sig-Node community. Sohan has a robust background, having worked on impactful projects such as Kubefed and Fedora CoreOS.

Sohan Kunkerkar is a Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat, bringing expertise in distributed systems, backend engineering, and containers. His active contributions extend to CRI-O, a container runtime engine, and various sub-projects within the Kubern... Show more

Muhammad Shahmeer

Muhammad Shahmeer

Shahmeer Amir is a world-renowned Ethical Hacker and the 3rd most accomplished bug hunter who has helped over 400 Fortune companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter, resolve critical security issues in their systems. He has founded multiple entrepreneurial ventures in the field of Cyber Security, and currently leads three startups in four countries.

As the CEO of Younite, Shahmeer's premier company is working on next-generation audio-video communication technologies. He is also the CEO of Veiliux, Asia's first mainstream Cyber Security startup present in the Asia Pacific, UAE, and the UK. Authiun, another startup, is a complete passwordless authentication solution for the 21st century.

Shahmeer is the Cyber Security Advisor to the Ministry of Finance Government of Pakistan, involved in multiple projects regarding Deep Sea Tracking, Digital Transformation of Legislation, and Digitization of Pakistani Cultural Content. He is also a member of Forbes Technology Council.

As an Engineer and a Cyber Security professional with relevant certifications from renowned organizations like EC-Council, Mile2, SANS, etc., Shahmeer is currently looking at the Blockchain technology for his doctorate. He has authored three books, including Bug Bounty Hunting Essentials, and a dozen research papers.

Shahmeer is a highly sought-after keynote speaker on Cyber Security, Blockchain, and other technologies, having been invited to over 80 conferences globally. including Blackhat, GiSec, FIC, AEC Alberta, Hackfest and many more. He has also been accepted at multiple prestigious academic institutions in their entrepreneurship programs, including Stanford. As a CTO of companies, Shahmeer has learned to code in 25 languages and read code in 35, making him an expert in multiple technologies.

Shahmeer Amir is a world-renowned Ethical Hacker and the 3rd most accomplished bug hunter who has helped over 400 Fortune companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter, resolve critical security issues in their systems. He has founded ... Show more

Savannah Dill

Savannah Dill

Savannah Dill is an influential Business Intelligence Analyst, deeply passionate about Microsoft's Power Platform. Her mission is to demystify data analytics and empower individuals and organizations to make informed decisions using data insights, blending technical with storytelling.

Outside of her professional life, Savannah dedicates her time to managing "Not a Pickle Blog" and is in the process of launching a podcast named "D20 Dynamics," aiming to broaden her educational outreach and foster deeper community engagement. S

Always warm and human.

Savannah Dill is an influential Business Intelligence Analyst, deeply passionate about Microsoft's Power Platform. Her mission is to demystify data analytics and empower individuals and organizations to make informed decisions using data insights, bl... Show more

Aleksandar Nikolić

Aleksandar Nikolić

Aleksandar Nikolić is a Microsoft Azure MVP and a co-founder of PowerShellMagazine.com, the ultimate online source for PowerShell enthusiasts. As a Microsoft Azure Advisor, he provides valuable feedback and insights to the Azure engineering team. With over 18 years of experience in system administration, he is a trusted trainer and speaker who travels the globe to share his knowledge and skills on Azure and PowerShell. He has spoken at prestigious IT events such as Microsoft Ignite, ESPC, NIC, Techorama, PowerShell Conference Europe, NTK, and various others.
You can find him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/alexandair) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandair).

Aleksandar Nikolić is a Microsoft Azure MVP and a co-founder of PowerShellMagazine.com, the ultimate online source for PowerShell enthusiasts. As a Microsoft Azure Advisor, he provides valuable feedback and insights to the Azure engineering team. Wit... Show more

Ernesto Cardenas

Ernesto Cardenas

Microsoft MVP - Microsoft Azure, Arquitecto Cloud.
Apasionado por los temas DevOps y Cloud, es speaker usual en diversos eventos de las comunidades agile, cloud y Microsoft.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernestocardenasalmdevopscloud/

Microsoft MVP - Microsoft Azure, Arquitecto Cloud. Apasionado por los temas DevOps y Cloud, es speaker usual en diversos eventos de las comunidades agile, cloud y Microsoft. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernestocardenasalmdevopscloud/ Show more

Jess Pomfret

Jess Pomfret

Jess Pomfret is a Data Platform Engineer and a dual Microsoft MVP. She started working with SQL Server in 2011, and enjoys problem-solving and automating processes with PowerShell.

She also enjoys contributing to dbatools and dbachecks, two open source PowerShell modules that aid DBAs with automating the management of SQL Server instances. She has also contributed to the SqlServerDsc module, adding several new resources to use when configuring your SQL Servers.

She grew up in the South West of England and outside of her DBA life enjoys Crossfit, cycling and watching proper football.

Jess Pomfret is a Data Platform Engineer and a dual Microsoft MVP. She started working with SQL Server in 2011, and enjoys problem-solving and automating processes with PowerShell. She also enjoys contributing to dbatools and dbachecks, two open ... Show more

Olivier Bierlaire

Olivier Bierlaire

Ex-first dev team of Canva, I've worked at Elastic, and now focused on founding in sustainability in IT. With Rebase.green we focus on reducing energy waste in software industry. Based in Nantes, France.

Ex-first dev team of Canva, I've worked at Elastic, and now focused on founding in sustainability in IT. With Rebase.green we focus on reducing energy waste in software industry. Based in Nantes, France. Show more

Rustam Mehmandarov

Rustam Mehmandarov

Experienced Software Engineer | Architect | Keynote & Public Speaker | Java Champion | Google Developer Expert for Cloud | Docker Captain | Oracle ACE Pro | Community Leader | Mentor | Ex-leader of JavaZone and Norwegian JUG – javaBin.

Experienced Software Engineer | Architect | Keynote & Public Speaker | Java Champion | Google Developer Expert for Cloud | Docker Captain | Oracle ACE Pro | Community Leader | Mentor | Ex-leader of JavaZone and Norwegian JUG – javaBin. Show more

Mohammed Aboullaite

Mohammed Aboullaite

Mohammed is a community catalyst, a true open source believer, Java Champion and one of Google developer expert.

Mohammed is a community catalyst, a true open source believer, Java Champion and one of Google developer expert. Show more

Ralf Richter

Ralf Richter

Ralf Richter is a renowned IT expert with over two decades of professional experience, specializing in cloud technologies. He has demonstrated his expertise across various industries, including medical technology, finance, automotive, and manufacturing. As a consultant, Ralf has worked on cloud projects at various levels, from strategic to methodical aspects, advising both executive boards and developer teams.

Ralf has been repeatedly honored as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), underscoring his profound knowledge and significant contribution to the IT community. He serves as a Cloud Solution Architect and is also active as a coach and trainer for cloud and software technologies. Ralf is known for always being at the forefront of technology, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence, where he develops and implements innovative solutions.

Additionally, Ralf engages as a Community Leader, where he shares his knowledge and acts as a mentor for emerging professionals in the technology sector. His commitment and expertise make him a key figure in the world of IT and cloud technology.

Ralf Richter is a renowned IT expert with over two decades of professional experience, specializing in cloud technologies. He has demonstrated his expertise across various industries, including medical technology, finance, automotive, and manufacturi... Show more

Jeff Iannucci

Jeff Iannucci

Jeff Iannucci is a Principal Consultant with Straight Path Solutions. With over 20 years of experience with SQL Server development and administration, he enjoys sharing what he's learned by speaking, blogging, and creating video content. He has been a speaker at PASS Data Community Summit, a content author for Pluralsight, and is author of the book "Learn SQL in a Month of Lunches". He is also the primary resource for Straight Path's community tools like sp_CheckSecurity, sp_CheckBackup, and sp_CheckAG.

Jeff Iannucci is a Principal Consultant with Straight Path Solutions. With over 20 years of experience with SQL Server development and administration, he enjoys sharing what he's learned by speaking, blogging, and creating video content. He has been ... Show more

Rory McCune

Rory McCune

Rory is a senior advocate for Datadog who has extensive experience with Cyber security and Cloud native computing. In addition to his work as a security reviewer and architect on containerization technologies like Kubernetes and Docker he has presented at Kubecon EU and NA, as well as a number of other cloud native and security conferences. He is one of the main authors of the CIS benchmarks for Docker and Kubernetes, a published author on the topic of Cloud Native Security and member of Kubernetes SIG-Security. When he's not working, Rory can generally be found out walking and enjoying the scenery of the Scottish highlands.

Rory is a senior advocate for Datadog who has extensive experience with Cyber security and Cloud native computing. In addition to his work as a security reviewer and architect on containerization technologies like Kubernetes and Docker he has present... Show more

Nadia Jiang

Nadia Jiang

Nadia Jiang is an entrepreneur, open-source enthusiastic, and DevRel expert. She currently serves as the Head of Open Source Growth at Ant Group, where she leads initiatives to drive innovation and collaboration within the open-source ecosystem. Previously, she was the COO of SegmentFault, China's largest developer Q&A community, and co-founder of Apache Answer.

Beyond her professional roles, Nadia is a passionate contributor to the global open-source community. She actively participates in organizations such as the China Open-Source Alliance (KAIYUANSHE), the Apache Software Foundation, OpenInfra Foundation, Linux Foundation, FOSSAsia, OpenUK, Chance Open-Source Foundation, China Computer Federation (CCF), and the China Institute of Communications (CIC). Her influence extends across borders, having spoken at major global open-source conferences, including CommunityOverCode Asia/EU/NA, Open Source Summit, State of Open Con, and FOSSAsia Summit.

Her dedication extends to organizing and volunteering for prominent open-source events. She serves as a core organizer and conference chair for events such as CommunityOverCode Asia, Dev.Together Summit China, and OSPO Summit China, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange within the developer community.

Nadia Jiang is an entrepreneur, open-source enthusiastic, and DevRel expert. She currently serves as the Head of Open Source Growth at Ant Group, where she leads initiatives to drive innovation and collaboration within the open-source ecosystem. Prev... Show more

Lars Andersen

Lars Andersen

Lars is Program Manager on Fabric Customer Advisory Team at Microsoft. His passion is helping organizations getting insights out of data. He joined Microsoft in 2014 and has been working with BI solutions since 1999.

Lars is Program Manager on Fabric Customer Advisory Team at Microsoft. His passion is helping organizations getting insights out of data. He joined Microsoft in 2014 and has been working with BI solutions since 1999. Show more

Cathrine Wilhelmsen

Cathrine Wilhelmsen

Cathrine loves data and coding, as well as teaching and sharing knowledge 🤓 She is based in Norway and works as a Data & Analytics Principal Consultant in Evidi, focusing on Data Modeling and Data Integration. Her core skills are Microsoft Fabric, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL, SQL Server and T-SQL development, but she enjoys everything from programming to data visualization. Outside of work she’s active in the Azure and Microsoft Data communities as a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, international speaker, blogger, organizer, and chronic volunteer. She blogs at cathrinew.net and posts as @cathrinew.net on Bluesky.

Cathrine loves data and coding, as well as teaching and sharing knowledge 🤓 She is based in Norway and works as a Data & Analytics Principal Consultant in Evidi, focusing on Data Modeling and Data Integration. Her core skills are Microsoft Fabric, A... Show more

Ignat Korchagin

Ignat Korchagin

Ignat is a systems engineer at Cloudflare working mostly on Linux, platforms and hardware security. Ignat’s interests are cryptography, hacking, and low-level programming. Before Cloudflare, Ignat worked as a senior security engineer for Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Communications Division. His solutions may be found in many older Samsung smart phones and tablets. Ignat started his career as a security researcher in the Ukrainian government’s communications services.

Ignat is a systems engineer at Cloudflare working mostly on Linux, platforms and hardware security. Ignat’s interests are cryptography, hacking, and low-level programming. Before Cloudflare, Ignat worked as a senior security engineer for Samsung Elec... Show more

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

Most Active Speakers 2024

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 2024.

The 3% is calculated from the pool of all speakers that have at least one accepted session in year 2024. We don't include inactive speakers or speakers that had no accepted sessions during the year. There are around 38,000 unique accepted speakers this year, the 3% is 1036. 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 2024. 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.