Karoliina is the Head of Modern Work at OP Financial Group, the largest financial services group in Finland. She has over ten years of experience in developing teamwork and internal communications with modern digital tools and leading long-term change in organisations. Karoliina is a Microsoft MVP and a multi-awarded role model for her enthusiasm, knowledge-sharing, and community leadership. She is an experienced and inspiring speaker at international conferences, and she co-organizes the Finnish M365 Copilot User Group and CollabDays Finland Conference 💜 Community rocks!

Karoliina is the Head of Modern Work at OP Financial Group, the largest financial services group in Finland. She has over ten years of experience in developing teamwork and internal communications with modern digital tools and leading long-term chang... Show more

With a high spirit and a low sense of mortality, Diana completed her master’s in CS despite never having coded before grad school. Through her passion for learning and teaching tech, she found her calling in advocacy, where she exercises her creativity through conference talks and content creation. Her hobbies include snowboarding, competing in beauty pageants, making lifestyle content on IG (@cachefeelings_), and finding the best happy hours.

With a high spirit and a low sense of mortality, Diana completed her master’s in CS despite never having coded before grad school. Through her passion for learning and teaching tech, she found her calling in advocacy, where she exercises her creativi... Show more

“You’re not here to change people. You’re here to move them.”

Joel Silverstone helps leaders and teams have conversations that build trust, create buy-in, and move work forward, especially when the stakes are high or teams are working across silos.

For more than 25 years, Joel has trained and coached thousands of leaders across North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. He has worked with organizations including QuidelOrtho, Kearney, RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC, Abbott, and Hyundai.

As founder of TFR: This Feels Right, Joel combines practical communication and leadership tools with skills drawn from acting and improvisation: reading the room, choosing your intention, and connecting with what matters to others.

A former professional actor and improviser, Joel brings energy, humour, and “Hollywood Tips” to every session. His approach is simple: “Learn, Laugh, Do.” Participants practise real workplace conversations and leave sounding like themselves, their voice now better matched to their intention.

Joel also hosts the 'TFR: This Feels Right' podcast about leadership, communication and influence.

“You’re not here to change people. You’re here to move them.” Joel Silverstone helps leaders and teams have conversations that build trust, create buy-in, and move work forward, especially when the stakes are high or teams are working across silos... Show more

Margo Sakova is a B2B SaaS marketing leader, OKR strategist, and the Head of Marketing at Oboard. With over a decade of experience scaling growth engines, she specializes in bridging the gap between high-level business strategy and daily technical execution.

Recognized globally as an Atlassian ecosystem Champion, Margo builds vibrant tech communities and designs the systems that power them. Today, she helps marketing teams move beyond basic tools to implement agile frameworks, data-driven OKRs, and custom AI workflows.

On stage, Margo translates complex operational methodologies into practical, actionable playbooks, equipping business leaders with the exact blueprints they need to automate growth without losing their brand's human edge.

Margo Sakova is a B2B SaaS marketing leader, OKR strategist, and the Head of Marketing at Oboard. With over a decade of experience scaling growth engines, she specializes in bridging the gap between high-level business strategy and daily technical ex... Show more

Sagar is a Staff Android Engineer who has been building apps for 11 years now. He is also a Google developer expert in Android and a co-organizer for Google Developer Groups at Boston and enjoys educating for the mobile dev community.

Sagar is a Staff Android Engineer who has been building apps for 11 years now. He is also a Google developer expert in Android and a co-organizer for Google Developer Groups at Boston and enjoys educating for the mobile dev community. Show more

Sr. DevOps Automation Platform Engineer.
Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence program student.
Technical Writer and International Speaker.
IBM Champion - AWS Community Builder - LocalStack Ambassador

Former GitHub Campus Advisor, GitKraken Ambassador, Progress NativeScript Developer Expert, Auth0 Ambassador, Uno Platform Evangelist, and GitLab Hero.

Sr. DevOps Automation Platform Engineer. Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence program student. Technical Writer and International Speaker. IBM Champion - AWS Community Builder - LocalStack Ambassador Former GitHub Campus Advisor, GitKr... Show more

Everyone has their niche in the world where they find the most joy and fulfillment. For me that has become Accessibility. Some of my experience comes from my personal ordeals I have gone through as I have steadily learned more about what makes my brain tick and what makes my joints throw a temper tantrum. My professional experience has helped me along the way because it is where I learned just how diverse the options were for accommodations, treatment, and more.

I was initially thrown into the deep end during my amazing journey with the American Printing House for the Blind's Internal IT department. I gained insight to some of the struggles caused when environments, processes, technology, and attitudes are not accessible. However, I also experienced great joy every time I managed to help make someone's day easier by helping them be more independent and confident in themselves. Since then, I have held many other Accessibility related roles and made it my mission to spread Accessibility awareness. I've done so through by improving Code Louisville's Accessibility policies and coursework as a mentor, speaking at domestic & international events, providing support online, and so much more. I plan to continue to do what I can for as long as I am able.

Everyone has their niche in the world where they find the most joy and fulfillment. For me that has become Accessibility. Some of my experience comes from my personal ordeals I have gone through as I have steadily learned more about what makes my bra... Show more

Graduated in Software Engineering from the Technological University of Havana, Cuba, Alejandro brings over two decades of front-end development experience. Currently, he is the Principal Front-end Engineer at World Kinect in Miami, and a GDE (Google Developer Expert) in Angular. Alejandro is also a member of the ng-Champions program and the host of the Angularidades podcast.

Graduated in Software Engineering from the Technological University of Havana, Cuba, Alejandro brings over two decades of front-end development experience. Currently, he is the Principal Front-end Engineer at World Kinect in Miami, and a GDE (Google ... Show more

Andrew O’Young is an AI Workforce & Security Capability Lead at Informotion, focused on enabling secure and responsible AI adoption across Microsoft 365 and Copilot.

A dual Microsoft MVP in Security and Microsoft 365, Andrew advises organisations on Microsoft Purview data security strategy, and governance models that create the foundation for trusted AI adoption. He partners with government and regulated industry leaders to align innovation with accountability, ensuring Copilot initiatives are supported by strong data controls, clear risk ownership, and measurable security outcomes.

Andrew has co-led the Adelaide Microsoft IT Pro Community for over seven years and co-founded Out of Band: A Microsoft Security Podcast in 2025, contributing actively to the broader technology community. Starting 2026, he is also a Chapter Lead for the Global Security Community in Adelaide, and recently accepted as a Microsoft Global Community Initiative Regional Leader.

Outside of work, Andrew is a husband and father, a runner, gamer, and karaoke enthusiast who believes great ideas often start with strong coffee and even stronger community conversations.

Andrew O’Young is an AI Workforce & Security Capability Lead at Informotion, focused on enabling secure and responsible AI adoption across Microsoft 365 and Copilot. A dual Microsoft MVP in Security and Microsoft 365, Andrew advises organisations ... Show more

Erica Hakonson is the CEO of Maven Collective, a multi‑award‑winning Partner Marketing & GTM Strategy firm built exclusively for Microsoft Partners. She has led the firm to serve 500+ Partners globally, earn 200+ awards, and become one of the most trusted strategic advisors in the Microsoft ecosystem. Recognized as 2026 & 2025 Top Women We Admire in Marketing and Technology, she has been featured in The Globe & Mail and honored with titles such as Female Entrepreneur of the Year and SME National Business Awards Editor’s Choice.

She also leads the Microsoft Partner Global Benchmark & Success Index, delivering insight that cuts through noise and drives real growth. In 2025, Hakonson guided Maven Collective to B Corp Certification, joining the global movement to use business as a force for good, without sacrificing performance.

Erica Hakonson is the CEO of Maven Collective, a multi‑award‑winning Partner Marketing & GTM Strategy firm built exclusively for Microsoft Partners. She has led the firm to serve 500+ Partners globally, earn 200+ awards, and become one of the most tr... Show more

Lester Martin is a seasoned developer advocate, trainer, blogger, data engineer, and polyglot programmer focused on data pipelines & data lake analytics using Trino, Iceberg, Hive, Spark, Flink, Kafka, NiFi, NoSQL databases, and, of course, classical RDBMSs. Learn more about Lester at https://linktr.ee/lestermartin.

Lester Martin is a seasoned developer advocate, trainer, blogger, data engineer, and polyglot programmer focused on data pipelines & data lake analytics using Trino, Iceberg, Hive, Spark, Flink, Kafka, NiFi, NoSQL databases, and, of course, classical... Show more

Kimasia Ayers is a sociologist, systems thinker, consultant, and strategist whose work lives at the intersection of business analysis, human behavior, design, and organizational change. She is widely recognized for helping organizations navigate complexity with clarity, guiding insight from discovery through decision and into action in ways that hold under real-world conditions.

Rooted in social innovation, Kimasia brings a rare blend of creative human-centered insight and rigorous structure to change enablement. Her work centers on preserving meaning under pressure, designing for adoption, and strengthening how understanding moves across strategy, technology, governance, and execution. She is known for developing original frameworks that help teams communicate complexity, align across disciplines, and sustain transformation within the complexity of society.

Through her consulting practice, Kimasia partners with organizations, institutions, and leaders to support thoughtful, resilient change. She also leads a social enterprise dedicated to translating complex social and organizational dynamics into accessible, actionable understanding that empowers individuals, teams, and communities. Grounded in empathy, systems awareness, and deep analytical discipline, Kimasia’s work reflects a core belief that meaningful change emerges when human insight and structured analysis work together.

Kimasia Ayers is a sociologist, systems thinker, consultant, and strategist whose work lives at the intersection of business analysis, human behavior, design, and organizational change. She is widely recognized for helping organizations navigate comp... Show more

Osita Ifezue is a researcher, international keynote speaker, and storytelling strategist. He is the founder of Njiko Storytelling, with over 25 years of experience training individuals and developing storytelling strategies. He has created the Storyboard Backcasting and Origin Story-Loop Strategic Frameworks, strategic storytelling tools designed to enhance learning in the storytelling process. Beyond entrepreneurship, Osita founded Entergrate, an NGO in Finland that focuses on social inclusion, and he hosts the podcast Think About It! With Osita Ifezue.

Osita Ifezue is a researcher, international keynote speaker, and storytelling strategist. He is the founder of Njiko Storytelling, with over 25 years of experience training individuals and developing storytelling strategies. He has created the Storyb... Show more

Field CTO @ Tabular Editor. ex-Databricks, ex-Microsoft, organizer of Singapore Fabric & Power BI User Group, I specialize in Big Data Analytics, Data Engineering, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. In addition to helping customers building out data platforms and solving real world problems using data, I also write about Data & AI, make demos and tutorials on YouTube and do public speaking on related topics.

Field CTO @ Tabular Editor. ex-Databricks, ex-Microsoft, organizer of Singapore Fabric & Power BI User Group, I specialize in Big Data Analytics, Data Engineering, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. In addition to helping customers building ... Show more

With 15+ years in digital and 7 Sitecore Technology MVP awards, I bring a practitioner's perspective to every session I deliver — grounded in real-world enterprise implementations across industries including Healthcare, Finance, Auto, Insurance, and Consumer Products. I have led large-scale Sitecore implementations and Composable DXP projects, helping organisations move from monolithic platforms to connected, headless digital experiences. My sessions cover the full Sitecore ecosystem — from XM Cloud and CDP to Sitecore Search, Personalize, and third-party integrations with Salesforce and Power BI. Beyond the technology, I care about making complex ideas accessible. As Co-Founder of Sitecore User Group India and host of the Sitecore TECH Talks podcast, I've spent years building a community of practitioners who learn from each other and grow together. I'm based in Vadodara, India and always open to speaking at Sitecore and DXP events globally.

With 15+ years in digital and 7 Sitecore Technology MVP awards, I bring a practitioner's perspective to every session I deliver — grounded in real-world enterprise implementations across industries including Healthcare, Finance, Auto, Insurance, and ... Show more

Giuliano is a Solutions Architect at BMW and Microsoft MVP for Microsoft 365, enthusiastic and a lover of his job, he is a specialist in Microsoft technologies like Microsoft 365 and Azure.
During his career, he has achieved several Microsoft certifications.
He is also a blogger, vlogger, and international speaker.
delucagiuliano.com
@delucagiulian
https://www.linkedin.com/in/delucagiuliano/
https://www.youtube.com/GiulianoDeLuca

Giuliano is a Solutions Architect at BMW and Microsoft MVP for Microsoft 365, enthusiastic and a lover of his job, he is a specialist in Microsoft technologies like Microsoft 365 and Azure. During his career, he has achieved several Microsoft certif... Show more

Anja Schröder is a Microsoft MVP and Modern Workplace Architect at Skaylink. She designs and builds Microsoft 365 architectures and leads their technical implementation from initial concept to rollout. Her approach ensures that solutions are not only secure and reliable but also improve the day-to-day work experience. Her expertise lies in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Copilot. In her sessions, she combines deep technical knowledge with practical examples to show how organizations can unlock the full potential of Microsoft 365.

Anja Schröder is a Microsoft MVP and Modern Workplace Architect at Skaylink. She designs and builds Microsoft 365 architectures and leads their technical implementation from initial concept to rollout. Her approach ensures that solutions are not only... Show more

I'm the founder organizer of Experts Live India, organizing physical and online conferences. I also host a tech/semi tech podcast, Experts Live India podcast.

I'm a 3x Microsoft MVP and been awarded Azure content hero and Azure community hero badgers by Microsoft.

I'm active in the Copilot, Power Platform and Governance space.

I'm the founder organizer of Experts Live India, organizing physical and online conferences. I also host a tech/semi tech podcast, Experts Live India podcast. I'm a 3x Microsoft MVP and been awarded Azure content hero and Azure community hero badg... Show more

Sammie Walker Herrera runs a public speaking coaching consultancy called Speak Y'all (yes, she's from Texas), leveraging 10+ years coaching leaders on their impromptu speaking, interviewing, and leadership skills. Her clients are senior leaders at companies like Amazon, IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft. She focuses on creating a fun, non-judgmental space for folks to hone their speaking strengths. Sammie is a Certified ADHD Coach through the ADD Coach Academy & the International Coaching Federation. She is passionate about supporting fellow neurodivergent professionals. Sammie earned two Bachelor's degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master's of Arts in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Slippery Rock University. Sammie is also a Latin dance instructor and performs improv comedy.

Sammie Walker Herrera runs a public speaking coaching consultancy called Speak Y'all (yes, she's from Texas), leveraging 10+ years coaching leaders on their impromptu speaking, interviewing, and leadership skills. Her clients are senior leaders at co... Show more

No pitch decks. No service demos. Just real solutions to real developer problems.

That's the promise Vishal Alhat brings to every stage. A former AWS Hero turned Developer Advocate at AWS, he has spent over 11 years as a practitioner — architecting cloud-native systems, automating infrastructure, and learning (sometimes the hard way) what it actually takes to ship resilient applications at scale.

Vishal specializes in AI/ML, Security, DevOps and FinOps. He speaks at major global conferences on zero-trust architectures, MLOps pipelines, and responsible GenAI development — always from a developer's perspective, focused on solving pain points with open standards and battle-tested patterns, not promoting platforms.

His community impact speaks for itself: 5,000+ developers mentored, the Community Builder of the Year award, and the HashiCorp Ambassador recognition — credentials earned by the ecosystem, not by a corporation. Through technical writing, open-source contributions, hands-on workshops, and speaking engagements, Vishal makes complex cloud concepts accessible to developers at all skill levels.

Whether he's helping a team adopt zero-trust without the complexity or demystifying secure AI pipelines, his mission is simple: help developers build boldly, ship confidently, and sleep peacefully.

Vishal is available for global speaking engagements and does not require travel or accommodation assistance.

No pitch decks. No service demos. Just real solutions to real developer problems. That's the promise Vishal Alhat brings to every stage. A former AWS Hero turned Developer Advocate at AWS, he has spent over 11 years as a practitioner — architectin... Show more

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

Espen is a developer and architect with over 25 years of experience. He has worked on everything from embedded systems, electronics and games to large-scale cloud applications. He is as full-stack as they come. Espen started coding at age six on a C64 and has been cranking out software ever since.

He served as the principal architect, tech lead and lead security
engineer on the compensation scheme for Covid-19 suffering
businesses released by the Norwegian government.

Espen was the Senior VP of Technology Exploration for DNB in San Francisco and is currently doing technology and security research in DNB NewTechLab.

Espen is a developer and architect with over 25 years of experience. He has worked on everything from embedded systems, electronics and games to large-scale cloud applications. He is as full-stack as they come. Espen started coding at age six on a C6... Show more

I build and teach how to build awesome fullstack applications. I'm a core team member of Solid.js, and I make content on YouTube and Twitch. I talk about web development, architecture, reactive programming, home brewing coffee, and heavy metal music.

I build and teach how to build awesome fullstack applications. I'm a core team member of Solid.js, and I make content on YouTube and Twitch. I talk about web development, architecture, reactive programming, home brewing coffee, and heavy metal music. Show more

A professional with more than 20years of experience in the IT Industry, all of them working with Microsoft Technologies. His principal activities are Development and Solution Analysts on his first years and as Team Leader and Solution Architect on the last 6 years. Currently Chief Technology Innovation Officer in ENCAMINA, leading Microsoft technology software development and member of the management board.

For the Spanish Community, he works as organizer and speaker in the most important Microsoft technologies conferences which he is one of the most important leaders. Author of several books and articles in professional magazine, from 2013 he began a new career as co-director of CompartiMOSS, a Microsoft technologies magazine.

In 2011 he was named Microsoft MVP and he still retaining recognition for the seventh consecutive year. He defined himself as a geek, smartphones lover and developer. For the community, has founded TenerifeDev (www.tenerifedev.com) with other friends, a technical community in Tenerife, coordinator at SUGES (SharePoint Users Group on Spain, www.suges.es) and at Comunidad Office 365 Spain.

A professional with more than 20years of experience in the IT Industry, all of them working with Microsoft Technologies. His principal activities are Development and Solution Analysts on his first years and as Team Leader and Solution Architect on th... Show more

Paul (AKA @mrpaulandrew) is the Co-Founder & CTO of Cloud Formations, a specialist data consultancy based in the UK. With nearly 20 years’ experience designing and delivering Microsoft data architectures, Paul leads a passionate team of engineers, supporting businesses small and large with scalable cloud platforms. Business value delivered through data insights. Over the years, Paul has covered the breadth and depth of design patterns and industry leading concepts, including Lambda, Kappa, Delta Lake, Data Mesh and Data Fabric.

Paul is also a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, director for the Data Relay community conference, East Midlands user group leader, book author and mentor. In addition to the day job(s), Paul is a father of three, husband, foodie, runner, blood donor, geek, Lego, and Star Wars fan! Lastly, Paul confesses to enjoying a Ramstein playlist when given half a chance to do some coding for a customer project.

Paul (AKA @mrpaulandrew) is the Co-Founder & CTO of Cloud Formations, a specialist data consultancy based in the UK. With nearly 20 years’ experience designing and delivering Microsoft data architectures, Paul leads a passionate team of engineers, su... Show more

OSS contributor since 2013. Co-creator of Yrs: a library for building cross-platform, cross-language, collaborative applications. In the past: core team member of Akka.NET and F# GraphQL Server. Area of expertise: P2P, CRDTs, Databases and Distributed Systems.

OSS contributor since 2013. Co-creator of Yrs: a library for building cross-platform, cross-language, collaborative applications. In the past: core team member of Akka.NET and F# GraphQL Server. Area of expertise: P2P, CRDTs, Databases and Distribute... Show more

Christian Weyer is Co-Founder and CTO of Thinktecture AG and a catalyst for new technologies with a strong focus on the practical implementation of Generative AI in modern software solutions. With 30 years of experience in software engineering, he advises ISVs and enterprises across industries on how to efficiently integrate LLMs and advanced AI technologies into real-world applications.
As a cross-vertical AI technology advisor, Christian bridges strategy and execution — helping organizations move Generative AI from theory into productive practice. He is a passionate international speaker, sharing hands-on insights at conferences and events worldwide.
Christian is a Microsoft MVP for AI and a Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Web AI, maintaining close relationships with the product teams in Redmond and Mountain View.

Christian Weyer is Co-Founder and CTO of Thinktecture AG and a catalyst for new technologies with a strong focus on the practical implementation of Generative AI in modern software solutions. With 30 years of experience in software engineering, he ad... Show more

Mathew Caplan has spent more than 25 years helping organisations improve cybersecurity and build resilience in an increasingly complex world.

As Director of Professional Services at Orange Cyberdefense, Mathew works with people across multiple industries and countries to address cyber risk and regulatory challenges.

Alongside his leadership role, he is a regular international conference speaker who believes cybersecurity should be accessible, engaging and people focused.

Through real-world insights, practical experience, storytelling and creativity, his talks explore how identity and human behaviour shape modern cybersecurity, making complex concepts understandable, memorable and actionable.

Whether advising executives, leading consulting teams or speaking on stage, his focus remains the same: helping organisations build trust, resilience and confidence amid constant change.

Mathew Caplan has spent more than 25 years helping organisations improve cybersecurity and build resilience in an increasingly complex world. As Director of Professional Services at Orange Cyberdefense, Mathew works with people across multiple ind... Show more

With a zest culture hacker and a dose of product coach, I wear the mask of product manager on a daily basis. I like to take care of a close-knit team crafting a software that works in a healthy and psychologically secure environment.

Avec un zeste de culture hacker et une dose de coach produit, je porte le masque de product manager au quotidien. J'aime m'occuper d'une équipe soudée qui conçoit un logiciel qui fonctionne dans un environnement sain et psychologiquement sûr.

With a zest culture hacker and a dose of product coach, I wear the mask of product manager on a daily basis. I like to take care of a close-knit team crafting a software that works in a healthy and psychologically secure environment. Avec un zeste... Show more

Elian Van Cutsem or "ElianCodes" is a full-stack developer, creative technologist, and all-around internet troublemaker based in Belgium. He’s the CTO at Vulpo and works in Developer Relations at React Bricks, focusing on developer experience, documentation, and education. Previously, he was a Software Engineer and core maintainer at Astro.

Elian is also a co-organizer of several major JavaScript communities and events, including BeJS, React Paris, React Brussels, and React Africa.

Alongside his professional work, he creates provocative and experimental AI projects, designed to challenge our assumptions about ethics, automation, and human behavior. His work blends code and commentary, often in ways that are both hilarious and uncomfortably real.

Elian is known for his passion, puns, and offbeat sense of humor. His talks combine technical insight with a strong dose of creative chaos—guaranteed fun on stage.

Elian Van Cutsem or "ElianCodes" is a full-stack developer, creative technologist, and all-around internet troublemaker based in Belgium. He’s the CTO at Vulpo and works in Developer Relations at React Bricks, focusing on developer experience, docume... Show more