Arts

Talented creative individuals working in the field of visual, auditory and performance arts

Todd Fisher

Todd Fisher

In his current role Todd co-launches a new venture backed startup every few months, acting as an interim CTO / founding engineer. Over Todd’s close to 20 year career, he has held titles such as head of engineering, director of engineering and principal software engineer. Todd loves to build things and, like many of us, has been enjoying the shift into the AI native mindset of software development. When Todd is not telling an AI to write code, he can be found strumming his guitar in random places, such as the beach, in the mountains, on his front porch, or even at a tech conference such as this one :). Todd is passionate about creating positive experiences for people, including through writing music, building products, and community building . Todd is always open for a jam session or the occasional paired programming with strangers, just ask.

In his current role Todd co-launches a new venture backed startup every few months, acting as an interim CTO / founding engineer. Over Todd’s close to 20 year career, he has held titles such as head of engineering, director of engineering and princip... Show more

Blake Beckemeyer

Blake Beckemeyer

Blake Beckemeyer is a technical lead of Power Platform and Fabric solutions at Applied Information Sciences, specializing in knitting low-code and analytics into simple, governed solutions — and in pushing nascent tooling into production ahead of his peers. A professional tenor based in Indiana, he brings an energetic, visceral style to the stage.

Blake Beckemeyer is a technical lead of Power Platform and Fabric solutions at Applied Information Sciences, specializing in knitting low-code and analytics into simple, governed solutions — and in pushing nascent tooling into production ahead of his... Show more

Ankur Roy

Ankur Roy

I am a Solutions Architect at Online Partner AB and a Cloud GDE. I have worked on several projects involving Google Cloud services and Google Workspace along with multiple other technology stacks and platforms.

I am a Solutions Architect at Online Partner AB and a Cloud GDE. I have worked on several projects involving Google Cloud services and Google Workspace along with multiple other technology stacks and platforms. Show more

Gunnard Engebreth

Gunnard Engebreth

Gunnard Engebreth is a software engineering manager, architect, author, and conference speaker with more than 30 years of experience building software and leading engineering teams.

His career began during the early web and Dot Com era in Atlanta, where he moved from Perl into PHP and never really stopped building things. Since then, he has worked across application development, APIs, architecture, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, legacy modernization, and engineering leadership.

Gunnard's current interests are where software engineering is heading next: AI-assisted development, agentic software engineering, developer productivity, automation, and the challenges of applying these technologies to real-world production systems. He is particularly interested in how teams can use AI to move faster while maintaining the testing, architecture, security, and engineering discipline required to ship reliable software.

He is also passionate about legacy application modernization and the practical techniques required to bring aging systems into the modern development ecosystem without simply throwing them away and starting over.

A longtime advocate for Free and Open Source Software, Gunnard has contributed to projects including WordPress, Devilbox, and DischordPHP. He has written for php[architect] and is the author of two PHP 8 books published by Apress.

Gunnard has spoken at MadisonPHP, LonghornPHP, Techlahoma, Chaos Carnival, and other technology events. He currently works as an engineering manager and architect while continuing to build software products, experiment with emerging technologies, and write about what he learns.

He lives with his wife and two sons in the North Georgia mountains.

gunnard.org

Gunnard Engebreth is a software engineering manager, architect, author, and conference speaker with more than 30 years of experience building software and leading engineering teams. His career began during the early web and Dot Com era in Atlanta,... Show more

Micha Wets

Micha Wets

As a Microsoft MVP, Micha enjoys talking about all Azure & Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) topics and has already spoken at Microsoft conferences, International (User Group) events, Microsoft hosted webinars & Workshops and more.
He has over 15 years of experience as a Azure & DevOps engineer and has in depth knowledge of private, hybrid and public clouds.
Today Micha mainly focuses on Azure, DevOps, Windows 365 & AVD environments and is particularly knowledgeable about migrating those environments to Azure.
Micha is freelance Azure Architect @ Ahold Delhaize and works with Microsoft on Azure, Windows 365 & AVD

As a Microsoft MVP, Micha enjoys talking about all Azure & Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) topics and has already spoken at Microsoft conferences, International (User Group) events, Microsoft hosted webinars & Workshops and more. He has over 15 years of... Show more

Hanne Rentsch Ersdal

Hanne Rentsch Ersdal

Co-founder and CEO of Aiga AS with 10+ years in product design, UX and design leadership. Hanne combines design-led product development with commercial experience, having built teams, led regional design organisations and delivered complex B2B solutions for clients such as Equinor, Aker BP and Halliburton. She teaches design-driven business development at the University of Stavanger.

Co-founder and CEO of Aiga AS with 10+ years in product design, UX and design leadership. Hanne combines design-led product development with commercial experience, having built teams, led regional design organisations and delivered complex B2B soluti... Show more

Cateline Puccetti

Cateline Puccetti

Cateline Puccetti est Head of product chez iSYBUY. Depuis plus de dix ans, elle conçoit et fait évoluer des produits numériques complexes et a piloté plusieurs refontes majeures chez Eurécia, Berger-Levrault et aujourd’hui iSYBUY.

Formée à l’accessibilité numérique et sensible aux enjeux d’inclusion, elle s’intéresse aussi à la manière dont le design contribue à la qualité d’un produit.

Elle est également autrice de romans contemporains et cofondatrice de Tech Speak’Her, une communauté qui organise des meetups et un tremplin pour aider les femmes de la tech à prendre la parole en conférence.

Cateline Puccetti est Head of product chez iSYBUY. Depuis plus de dix ans, elle conçoit et fait évoluer des produits numériques complexes et a piloté plusieurs refontes majeures chez Eurécia, Berger-Levrault et aujourd’hui iSYBUY. Formée à l’acces... Show more

Joseph Parzel

Joseph Parzel

I have been writing code for about 25 years yet strive to learn something new every day. I’ll never let a technical issue get the best of me and will always find a solution to the problem. My specialties over the last 10 years have been NET C# and Office 365 development. I can make SharePoint look good!

I have been writing code for about 25 years yet strive to learn something new every day. I’ll never let a technical issue get the best of me and will always find a solution to the problem. My specialties over the last 10 years have been NET C# and ... Show more

Simon Muiruri

Simon Muiruri

Passionate Mobile Developer
TechVangelist.
Minister of Word and Worship-Musician

Passionate Mobile Developer TechVangelist. Minister of Word and Worship-Musician Show more

Francisca Ramón Fernández

Francisca Ramón Fernández

Catedrática de Derecho civil en la Universitat Politècnica de València
Licenciada y Doctora en Derecho por la Universitat de València
Investigadora principal de distintos proyectos competitivos
Premio UPV a la transferencia de conocimiento

Catedrática de Derecho civil en la Universitat Politècnica de València Licenciada y Doctora en Derecho por la Universitat de València Investigadora principal de distintos proyectos competitivos Premio UPV a la transferencia de conocimiento Show more

Jerry Black

Jerry Black

Jerry Black is a seasoned IT program manager, stand-up comedian, and the founder of IT Misfits, a movement that helps technical professionals build confidence, communication skills, and leadership presence through comedy. With more than 20 years leading infrastructure and software initiatives across enterprise environments, Jerry understands the real-world friction between business and IT firsthand.

As a performer who has taken the stage in cities across the U.S., Jerry turns the everyday chaos of IT into humor, insight, and connection. Through IT Misfits, he has built a platform where engineers, analysts, and architects write and perform their own comedy, and in doing so, become sharper communicators and stronger collaborators.

His workshops blend public speaking, leadership communication, and comedy frameworks to help technical professionals become more compelling in the rooms that matter. Audiences leave laughing, thinking, and seeing the people behind the technology differently.

Jerry Black is a seasoned IT program manager, stand-up comedian, and the founder of IT Misfits, a movement that helps technical professionals build confidence, communication skills, and leadership presence through comedy. With more than 20 years lead... Show more

Nicolò Del Zotto

Nicolò Del Zotto

Italian Certified Scrum Master and Agile Coaching Expert with an MSc in Economics and Management.
Versatile, cross-industry Delivery Lead with extensive experience across both dynamic startups and large-scale enterprises.
Hands-on experience with scaling, team leadership, and client engagement spanning Europe, the UK, the US, and the UAE.
Agile Coaches Alliance Italian Chapter Lead.

Italian Certified Scrum Master and Agile Coaching Expert with an MSc in Economics and Management. Versatile, cross-industry Delivery Lead with extensive experience across both dynamic startups and large-scale enterprises. Hands-on experience with s... Show more

Aashish Manchanda

Aashish Manchanda

I am a UX design leader and product strategist with a decade of experience in creating user-centric digital solutions. Currently, I work as a product design leader focusing on enterprise design for Cisco. My expertise lies in scaling design systems, leading cross-functional teams, and driving business impact through innovative UX strategies.

I’ve had the privilege of speaking at global conferences like UXDX and NFT.London, where I share insights on blending creativity, research, and technology to deliver impactful results. My experience also includes leveraging design and AI to drive sustainable practices through in-depth research, usability testing, and exploring how design influences user decisions toward eco-friendly outcomes. Additionally, I’m passionate about mentoring emerging designers at premier institutions, helping them shape the future of user-centered design.

I am a UX design leader and product strategist with a decade of experience in creating user-centric digital solutions. Currently, I work as a product design leader focusing on enterprise design for Cisco. My expertise lies in scaling design systems, ... Show more

Mareike Kroschel

Mareike Kroschel

Focus areas: Artificial Intelligence & Ethics, AI Safety & Governance, Voice AI & Synthetic Trust, Human-AI Interaction, AI Bias & Inclusion, Leadership under Pressure, High-Stakes Decision Making, Negotiation & Influence, Crisis Communication, Autonomic Resilience & Regulation

Member of Global Health HUB Berlin, Global Institute for Negotiation (Zurich) and Women in AI Germany. Has worked with parliamentary groups, politicians and internationally recognised entrepreneurs.

Mareike Kroschel explores the interaction between AI and human voices. Her concept of Subcortical Contact Bias describes why the body trusts AI voices before the mind decides, and what that means for leadership, communication and trust when we can no longer reliably tell voices apart. She also asks how AI voices change the way we listen and speak, and who decides how AI sounds.

Voice is identity. With this idea, Mareike Kroschel founded VoiceDoula Concept. It is not a training but an accompaniment: people listen, pause and let their voice emerge.

Her work rests on three principles. Cognitive: how voice, identity and leadership shape each other. Somatic: breath, body and nervous system as the ground of the voice. Artistic: sound, image and play as a space where the voice can appear. Her work is grounded in her training as a state-certified breath and voice therapist, many years of work in federal health care, and her career as a singer and composer in contemporary and avant-garde music.

She works with leaders (Grounded Voice), organisations (Living Cycles) and founder teams (Pitch Lab), and hosts “The Breath Room”, a space to breathe, listen and arrive.

Focus areas: Artificial Intelligence & Ethics, AI Safety & Governance, Voice AI & Synthetic Trust, Human-AI Interaction, AI Bias & Inclusion, Leadership under Pressure, High-Stakes Decision Making, Negotiation & Influence, Crisis Communication, Auton... Show more

Dora Makszy

Dora Makszy

You know what’s truly rewarding? Helping someone learn and grow. There’s nothing quite like being part of someone’s journey and knowing you played a role in their progress. As a human being, a mother, a team member, and Head of Design, my mission is to contribute to as many growth stories as possible. Over the past 18+ years, I’ve gained a wealth of experience in design, product, and leadership - and now, it’s time to give back.

You know what’s truly rewarding? Helping someone learn and grow. There’s nothing quite like being part of someone’s journey and knowing you played a role in their progress. As a human being, a mother, a team member, and Head of Design, my mission is ... Show more

Gary Keeler

Gary Keeler

I integrate design leadership, product strategy, and system architecture to turn complex enterprise workflows into high-impact growth engines. Over 15 years, I have led design for platforms serving 8+ million active users and processing $1+ billion in annual transaction volume.

Currently, I serve as Director of Product Design at Pager Health, where I focus on scaling design operations, strengthening cross-functional product systems, and leveraging AI to eliminate administrative drag across design, product, and engineering.

I integrate design leadership, product strategy, and system architecture to turn complex enterprise workflows into high-impact growth engines. Over 15 years, I have led design for platforms serving 8+ million active users and processing $1+ billion i... Show more

Tino Vivo

Tino Vivo

Tino Vivo is co-founder and CEO of Kollectiff, a creative technology company building AI-powered campaigns, interactive platforms and immersive experiences for global agencies and brands. With partners including BBDO, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and MSL, Kollectiff has delivered work for Bayer, Cheetos, Pedigree and Liquid I.V., including Bepanthen’s “Skin Like Me” with Energy BBDO, an AI tool that lets kids with skin conditions see themselves in their favorite cartoon, recognized at Cannes Lions, The One Show and the Clios, to name a few.

An Argentinean entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, Tino leads a team spread across LA, Mexico City, Barcelona and Buenos Aires. He speaks about turning emerging technology into work people actually use, and about how agencies and tech partners can build ambitious ideas faster.

Tino Vivo is co-founder and CEO of Kollectiff, a creative technology company building AI-powered campaigns, interactive platforms and immersive experiences for global agencies and brands. With partners including BBDO, Goodby Silverstein & Partners an... Show more

Kurt Devlin

Kurt Devlin

Kurt Devlin is a retired software development leader with more than 30 years of experience building software, guiding teams, and helping people navigate complex projects and change. He is interested in practical ways to help people think, create, collaborate, and get unstuck.

These days, Kurt spends more time playing, making, and exploring. He is a lifelong board gamer, enthusiastic game teacher, maker, and occasional builder of things that probably didn't need to exist. He enjoys turning ideas into prototypes and helping people learn through stories, games, and hands-on experiences. He lives in Rochester, New York, where his current side quests usually involve board games, 3D printing, or whatever project has captured his attention this week.

Kurt Devlin is a retired software development leader with more than 30 years of experience building software, guiding teams, and helping people navigate complex projects and change. He is interested in practical ways to help people think, create, col... Show more

Celina Del Turco

Celina Del Turco

Celina Del Turco is a software developer and educator from Argentina working at the intersection of technology, education, and human-centered design.

She develops educational technology and software systems focused on making technology more accessible, understandable, and resilient in real-world environments. Her current work includes Utopía, an offline-first educational technology project exploring adaptive learning, accessibility-aware interaction, local AI, and architectures that remain useful when connectivity and computational resources are limited.

Alongside software development, Celina teaches programming and technology through hands-on workshops, working with learners who often begin with little or no technical background. This experience has shaped her approach to engineering: systems should not force people to adapt to technology when technology can be designed to adapt to people.

Her interests include AI engineering, adaptive systems, offline-first architectures, accessibility, educational technology, and the practical challenges of building technology under real-world constraints.

Celina Del Turco is a software developer and educator from Argentina working at the intersection of technology, education, and human-centered design. She develops educational technology and software systems focused on making technology more access... Show more

Philip Chidera

Philip Chidera

Philip Chidera is a Product Designer and entrepreneur building fintech, SaaS, and Web3 products for clients and companies across Nigeria and internationally. He is also the Co-founder of Termwise, a school management platform built for Nigerian schools. He serves as Design Lead (UI/UX) for Port Harcourt Talent Tribe under ATC Africa, where he mentors and supports emerging tech talent. He combines product design with AI and no-code tools to build and ship production-ready interfaces. His work and speaking focus on product design, AI, emerging tools, and the evolving ways modern digital products are designed and built.

Philip Chidera is a Product Designer and entrepreneur building fintech, SaaS, and Web3 products for clients and companies across Nigeria and internationally. He is also the Co-founder of Termwise, a school management platform built for Nigerian schoo... Show more

Lawrencia Oluwole

Lawrencia Oluwole

Lawrencia is a Creative AI Designer standing at one of the most exciting intersections in tech right now where human experience meets artificial intelligence.
Currently working as a contractor at tastelabs , she works as design prompter and evaluator , training AI models to generate design outputs and evaluate them . Also, she works on AI projects (Build and deploy live websites using AI ) , shipping products faster and also explore how AI is reshaping the way designers think, build, and solve problems. She is not just watching the AI revolution from the sidelines , she is actively in it, asking the questions that matter most: How do we design AI experiences that actually serve people? How do we keep the human at the center when the technology moves this fast?
With two years in the tech space, Lawrencia brings something rare to the conversation ,the perspective of a designer who grew up in design alongside AI not before it. Her approach to Human-Centered AI is grounded in real project experience and a deep belief that the best AI products are the ones that feel invisible because they just work for the people using them.
She speaks because she believes the design community needs more voices that are in the middle of the journey not just reflecting on it from the other side. Raw and research-informed and that is what you get when Lawrencia takes the stage.

Lawrencia is a Creative AI Designer standing at one of the most exciting intersections in tech right now where human experience meets artificial intelligence. Currently working as a contractor at tastelabs , she works as design prompter and evaluat... Show more

Anjaneya Sastry Kappagantu

Anjaneya Sastry Kappagantu

Anjaneya Kappagantu is an Expert Solution Architect at AT&T with 25+ years architecting enterprise and telecom (BSS) systems — including as AT&T's solution architect for the first-ever iPhone launch and end-to-end Apple integration. He mentors principal architects and advises leadership on GenAI and agentic AI.

Alongside his career, he is an AI educator and researcher focused on local and edge AI — fine-tuning models on Apple Silicon with MLX, designing agentic AI workflows, and researching test-time adaptation, including a human-in-the-loop method he developed, Reinforce-or-Retrain (RoR). He mentors students and product teams, speaks at AI and engineering conferences and meetups, and has judged several hundreds of AI pitches. He also explores non-standard architectures such as Kolmogorov–Arnold Networks (KANs) applied to Pāṇinian Sanskrit grammar. He is a trained aerospace engineer and a professional tabla player.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjsastry

Anjaneya Kappagantu is an Expert Solution Architect at AT&T with 25+ years architecting enterprise and telecom (BSS) systems — including as AT&T's solution architect for the first-ever iPhone launch and end-to-end Apple integration. He mentors princi... Show more

Jeremiah Tillman

Jeremiah Tillman

Jeremiah Tillman is an IT professional, technical instructor, and full-stack software developer based in Chicago, Illinois. He manages instructor development and delivery for advanced technical and cybersecurity training. Jeremiah focuses on connecting deep infrastructure engineering with practical security solutions. His experience covers enterprise IT design, full-stack development, and systems engineering. In his free time, he researches hardware security, audits consumer electronics, strips firmware, and creates affordable ways for defensive teams, educators, and independent researchers to test hardware.

Jeremiah Tillman is an IT professional, technical instructor, and full-stack software developer based in Chicago, Illinois. He manages instructor development and delivery for advanced technical and cybersecurity training. Jeremiah focuses on connecti... Show more

Sebastián Medina

Sebastián Medina

Sebastián Medina (Brown Director) es co-fundador y Director Creativo de HeyBrown Studio, una agencia de marketing digital construida como AI-first: usa inteligencia artificial en todo su flujo, creación de contenido, estrategia y pauta, para entregar a escala lo que antes requería equipos y presupuestos mucho mayores. Antes de fundar HeyBrown en 2022 se formó en producción audiovisual (2018–2021) en dirección de fotografía, dirección de comerciales y animación 3D, con más de 20 comerciales, +300 proyectos de CGI y más de 2.000 piezas para redes en su carrera. Hoy, siendo director creativo y no programador, está construyendo con IA un producto que convierte el trabajo de agencia estrategia y entregables de marketing, en un servicio de suscripción, usando una arquitectura multi-agente que él mismo levantó apoyándose en IA como su equipo de desarrollo.

Sebastián Medina (Brown Director) es co-fundador y Director Creativo de HeyBrown Studio, una agencia de marketing digital construida como AI-first: usa inteligencia artificial en todo su flujo, creación de contenido, estrategia y pauta, para entregar... Show more

Marie Wiese

Marie Wiese

Marie Wiese is the CEO Marketing Copilot®, an AI-enabled sales and marketing firm. She is a best-selling author and host of the podcasts, Women Talk Tech and The Hot Seat for Microsoft Partners. Marie has worked in the technology sector for 30+ years and focuses on marketing automation/CRM and the digital transformation of the sales and marketing function. Marie helps Microsoft Partners, software developers and end customers build demand generation programs for their organizations with the right strategy and technology.

Marie Wiese is the CEO Marketing Copilot®, an AI-enabled sales and marketing firm. She is a best-selling author and host of the podcasts, Women Talk Tech and The Hot Seat for Microsoft Partners. Marie has worked in the technology sector for 30+ years... Show more

Rob LeGood

Rob LeGood

Rob LeGood has been building software, and the teams behind it, since 1996. He started as a developer and worked his way up to Director, Technology Solutions at OCAS, where he led a department of 30 developers and testers. Along the way he led teams at D2L and in financial services, and since 2021 he has taught web development and SQL as a part-time professor at Conestoga College.

Rob's leadership philosophy is simple: the work happens through people, or it doesn't happen. He writes about people-centric leadership at pcl.roblegood.ca. Lately he's also been writing code again, with an AI pair programmer that is very eager and occasionally wrong.

When he's not on a conference stage, he's on an actual one. He has acted and directed with Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre since 2000. He also plays a lot of board games.

Rob LeGood has been building software, and the teams behind it, since 1996. He started as a developer and worked his way up to Director, Technology Solutions at OCAS, where he led a department of 30 developers and testers. Along the way he led teams ... Show more

Brian Collins

Brian Collins

As a Walt Disney Imagineer, Brian helped create the stories and magic for some of the world’s most beloved attractions. Over the past 30+ years, he has produced work for a who’s-who list of corporations, as well as small entrepreneurial ventures. As an Instructor at the University of Central Florida, Brian taught a variety of classes related to immersive/thematic design, entertainment business, and emerging technologies. He is also a sought-after Futurist and Innovation Consultant through his practice known as The Brainstorm Institute where he works with both large and small companies to help them gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace through design thinking and adopting innovative practices. He has spoken at conferences around the world, is passionate about education, and is an advisory board member for several innovative tech start-ups.

As a Walt Disney Imagineer, Brian helped create the stories and magic for some of the world’s most beloved attractions. Over the past 30+ years, he has produced work for a who’s-who list of corporations, as well as small entrepreneurial ventures. As ... Show more

Scott Rigby

Scott Rigby

Scott is an artist, engineer & dad, collaborating on a different kind of world. Into collective art, activism, therapy & open source nerdy stuff. Scott is a Cloud Native Ambassador, speaker, organizer of CNCF community events including the New York Kubernetes Meetup and New York KCD, and international conferences including GitOpsCon. He enjoys helping develop Free and Open Source Software that anyone can use, including co-maintaining CNCF projects Helm, Flux and OpenGitOps.

Scott is an artist, engineer & dad, collaborating on a different kind of world. Into collective art, activism, therapy & open source nerdy stuff. Scott is a Cloud Native Ambassador, speaker, organizer of CNCF community events including the New York K... Show more

Kevin Leal

Kevin Leal

Kevin is a professional in cloud technologies, specialized in Microsoft Azure Data Solutions, mainly working for Brazil Region architecting complex Big Data, and Data Warehouse environments, he also has wide experience in other regions like US and LATAM.

Feel free to add him in Linkedin to share cloud thoughts. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-leal/

Outside of Microsoft Kevin is a landscape photography enthusiast that enjoys traveling to learn and capture more about his and other cultures.

Kevin is a professional in cloud technologies, specialized in Microsoft Azure Data Solutions, mainly working for Brazil Region architecting complex Big Data, and Data Warehouse environments, he also has wide experience in other regions like US and LA... Show more

Iva Silla

Iva Silla

Iva Silla već više od desetljeća vodi maštovite tematske razglede grada pod zajedničkim nazivnikom Secret Zagreb. To je samo dio njenog opusa u kreativnom turizmu i interpretaciji baštine, a trenutno joj je najveća strast razvoj igrificiranih istraživanja diljem Hrvatske.

Iva Silla već više od desetljeća vodi maštovite tematske razglede grada pod zajedničkim nazivnikom Secret Zagreb. To je samo dio njenog opusa u kreativnom turizmu i interpretaciji baštine, a trenutno joj je najveća strast razvoj igrificiranih istraži... Show more

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