Thamsanqa Gumpo is the Founder and CEO of ForgeStack Africa, an AI-powered Operational Intelligence platform helping multi-site businesses make faster, better operational decisions.

After nearly 20 years leading operations across hospitality and multi-site businesses, he experienced firsthand how critical information becomes trapped across disconnected systems. That experience inspired him to build ForgeStack, a platform that brings compliance, maintenance, labour, sales and operational data together into a single AI-powered decision engine.

Today, ForgeStack is working with enterprise customers across South Africa, helping operators identify risks, improve accountability and prevent costly operational failures before they happen.

Thamsanqa is passionate about building practical AI products, modern SaaS architecture, and sharing lessons from taking an idea from real-world operations to enterprise software.

Thamsanqa Gumpo is the Founder and CEO of ForgeStack Africa, an AI-powered Operational Intelligence platform helping multi-site businesses make faster, better operational decisions. After nearly 20 years leading operations across hospitality and m... Show more

Pablo Vannini es Licenciado en Sociologia con una Maestria en Economía Social, se acercó al Movimiento de Software Libre hace casi 30 años y hace 20 fundó gcoop - Cooperativa de Software Libre.
Es docente Universitario, entusiasta de la tecnología libre y la Economía Social.

Pablo Vannini es Licenciado en Sociologia con una Maestria en Economía Social, se acercó al Movimiento de Software Libre hace casi 30 años y hace 20 fundó gcoop - Cooperativa de Software Libre. Es docente Universitario, entusiasta de la tecnología l... Show more

I am working professional in Unisys, part of the AI Practice team, office of CTO. I explore and experiment with latest AI tech. I am also a sustainability enthusiast. I have participated and won in some national and International Hackathons, also enjoy tinkering and playing with IoT projects. Big time Foodie - Love to travel and taste different foods.

I am working professional in Unisys, part of the AI Practice team, office of CTO. I explore and experiment with latest AI tech. I am also a sustainability enthusiast. I have participated and won in some national and International Hackathons, also enj... Show more

Natalia, da novembre 2025 ricopre il ruolo di Product Owner presso Spiagge.it, startup innovativa con sede a Rimini, dopo oltre dieci anni trascorsi in tutta Italia come consulente di prodotto in ambito digitale, collaborando con realtà dei settori automotive, fashion, health e banking.

È una persona positiva, dotata di grande capacità di ascolto, appassionata di sport e orientata alle sfide. Ha una forte predisposizione per il metodo, l’organizzazione e l’innovazione, con un approccio al digitale sempre sostenibile e concreto.

Nel 2020 ha lanciato un progetto personale dedicato ad accompagnare professionisti creativi nello sviluppo del proprio mindset imprenditoriale, aiutandoli a costruire il proprio ecosistema digitale con il giusto equilibrio tra creatività, innovazione e tecnologia.

Da allora i suoi progetti si sono evoluti e diversificati in differenti ambiti, mantenendo sempre al centro la crescita personale e professionale, dentro e fuori l’azienda, creando sinergie tra il proprio percorso imprenditoriale e il contesto aziendale.

Il suo obiettivo è portare nel mondo la giusta dose di creatività ed empatia per trasformare opportunità in prodotti digitali B2B e B2C capaci di generare valore reale.

Natalia, da novembre 2025 ricopre il ruolo di Product Owner presso Spiagge.it, startup innovativa con sede a Rimini, dopo oltre dieci anni trascorsi in tutta Italia come consulente di prodotto in ambito digitale, collaborando con realtà dei settori a... Show more

I am Shahriyar , currently working on Quantum Computing , AI , ML for research and alongside that, I am multi cloud certified and DevOps enthusiast.

Alongside academics, I love community work and have been a @CNCFAmbassadors Ambassador, @CDeliveryFdn Ambassador , @Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador, @github Campus Expert, @awscloud Cloud Cloud Captain, AWS Community Builder, @GitKraken Ambassador, @getpostman Student Lead, @gitlab Hero and many more.

I have also founded @devchangemakers , I am also a TensorFlow User Group Bangladesh Lead, AWS User Group Bangladesh Co-Lead, Cloud Native Dhaka ana Chattogram Lead, GitLab Meetup Bangladesh Lead. I love to write blogs, create content and talk at events , sessions etc.

I am also Section Lead at Stanford University's Code In Place, ML Fellow at Oxford University

I am Shahriyar , currently working on Quantum Computing , AI , ML for research and alongside that, I am multi cloud certified and DevOps enthusiast. Alongside academics, I love community work and have been a @CNCFAmbassadors Ambassador, @CDeliv... Show more

I am a Country Manager with several years of experience leading companies through the journey of implementing Cloud and modernizing applications to reach the market faster and more securely.

What drives me is working in complex environments with technological and business challenges, where I can present cloud-based solutions that transform companies’ delivery capabilities and positively influence the end customer experience. I’m also passionate about sharing knowledge with as many people as possible. I truly believe that technology can change people’s lives!

I am a Country Manager with several years of experience leading companies through the journey of implementing Cloud and modernizing applications to reach the market faster and more securely. What drives me is working in complex environments with t... Show more

Nils Hyoma is a business informatics post-graduate from Hamburg University, a professional agile coach, and a passionate amateur water polo player. Nils studied Japanese studies, international business studies, and business informatics in Hiroshima and Hamburg. Many years as an active developer, he learned the basics of agile software development. After working in online retail / eCommerce and in IT consulting, he is now part of the coaching team at MHP - A Porsche Company since 2024. Nils supports and coaches both local and distributed, international teams and projects. Nils has been active in team sports since childhood. It also reflected team spirit in his professional life: As a coach, he forms well-established units out of developers and analysts, who can then independently develop products. The guiding principle is always the focus on customer satisfaction.

Nils Hyoma is a business informatics post-graduate from Hamburg University, a professional agile coach, and a passionate amateur water polo player. Nils studied Japanese studies, international business studies, and business informatics in Hiroshima a... Show more

Abdul is a Senior Solutions Architect in Ververica with expertise in real-time Streaming Analytics. He is a strategic technical advisor of Ververica, helping customers solve complex data engineering challenges. Before working with Ververica, specialising in Cloud computing and Steaming Analytics, he worked in Amazon Web Services as a Solutions Architect. In AWS, he helped startups and enterprises in their journey toward the cloud and big data by building petabyte-scale data pipelines. He has over 15 years of diverse experience in various roles, from startups to enterprises, solving data and distributed system-related challenges.

Abdul is a Senior Solutions Architect in Ververica with expertise in real-time Streaming Analytics. He is a strategic technical advisor of Ververica, helping customers solve complex data engineering challenges. Before working with Ververica, speciali... Show more

Ashmi is a doctoral researcher at the TU Munich, focusing on Recommender Systems. She graduated with a master's degree in Computer Science in 2019 and has three years of industry experience in Germany.

A Google Developer Expert and AI/ML Champion Innovator, Ashmi was named one of the 100 technologists to watch for 2023 and has received multiple awards, including the GDE Community Award and the Women Who Code Applaud Her Awards for 2023.

As a Google Women Techmakers Ambassador, she advocates for closing the gender gap in STEM. Ashmi enjoys traveling and training for triathlons. 🏊‍♀️ 🚴 🏃‍♀️

Ashmi is a doctoral researcher at the TU Munich, focusing on Recommender Systems. She graduated with a master's degree in Computer Science in 2019 and has three years of industry experience in Germany. A Google Developer Expert and AI/ML Champion ... Show more

Vincent Koc is a distinguished and lead AI Research Engineer at Comet, working on open-source evaluation, optimization, and agentic AI systems used by teams across industry. Founding team of Build Club the words fastest growing AI community and prior advocate for Deeplearning AI he shares a passion for community. He is a Forbes Technology Council member and a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders (Australia), with research and teaching affiliations including the University of Queensland, Oxford University, MIT, and UT Austin.

His work focuses on AI agent evaluation, multimodal systems, automatic prompt and agent optimization, and the reliability and ethics of AI in production. Vincent has delivered 100+ keynotes globally, including TEDx and SXSW, and has led AI initiatives across finance, telecom, travel, FMCG, healthcare, and government spanning from startups to global enterprises. Vincent has held prominent positions as an ex-researcher at Microsoft, ex-head of AI at Qantas Airways, and various other senior board appointments and clients including AT&T, Coke Cola, Expedia, Federal Goverment, LVMH, Macdonalds, Vodafone, Volkswagen.

He specializes in translating research-grade depth into a universal language that resonates with both technical and non-technical audiences, across formats from lightning talks to full-day workshops and is open to travel.

Vincent Koc is a distinguished and lead AI Research Engineer at Comet, working on open-source evaluation, optimization, and agentic AI systems used by teams across industry. Founding team of Build Club the words fastest growing AI community and prior... Show more

Lead UX/Digital Product Designer with over 20 years of experience and certification in design strategy. My career spans major tech hubs, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London, where I've delivered impactful digital solutions across diverse industries.

Beyond client work, I'm committed to advancing the design community through thought leadership and mentorship. I regularly publish insights on UX and product design, speak at industry conferences and events, and mentor emerging designers. My work has built an engaged audience of 10,000+ followers across Medium, LinkedIn, and X.

Lead UX/Digital Product Designer with over 20 years of experience and certification in design strategy. My career spans major tech hubs, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London, where I've delivered impactful digital solutions acro... Show more

David is the founder of ARGOS Cloud Security (htttps://argos-security.io) and has previously held a Microsoft MVP award for 9 years, including the prestigious MVP for Azure.
A regular speaker at international conferences, meetups, and user groups he combines his interest to travel the world with his passion to share IT stories with the community.
He has been blogging about cloud, security, and automation for over a decade and regularly delivers in-person training courses across the world.
Outside of IT David is an active aviator with over 20 years' flying experience, and an aspiring Strongman athlete.

David is the founder of ARGOS Cloud Security (htttps://argos-security.io) and has previously held a Microsoft MVP award for 9 years, including the prestigious MVP for Azure. A regular speaker at international conferences, meetups, and user groups he... Show more

A product-passionate developer focused on building scalable applications and AI features.

A product-passionate developer focused on building scalable applications and AI features. Show more

Sreekanth Putta is a Senior Software Engineer at SAP Concur with more than seven years of experience building enterprise software. His work includes internal AI agents, workflow automation, and MCP integrations, along with the less visible problems that determine whether those systems are useful: evaluation, guardrails, tracing, and understanding what happened when an agent fails.

Outside his day-to-day role, Sreekanth spends much of his time experimenting with ML and LLM systems. He prefers learning by building a small, inspectable system, testing its assumptions, and following the evidence when the result is different from what he expected. He regularly runs internal technical sessions, shares practical demonstrations, and helps other engineers find useful ways to work with AI tools.

Sreekanth has won five hackathons and received an internal Spot Award. Outside work, he plays tennis and goes skydiving.

Sreekanth Putta is a Senior Software Engineer at SAP Concur with more than seven years of experience building enterprise software. His work includes internal AI agents, workflow automation, and MCP integrations, along with the less visible problems t... Show more

Brian is a Senior Developer Advocate at NetApp Instaclustr. Brian is an author, public speaker, father, tinkerer, and adventurer. When Brian is not working, you can find him spending time with his wife and 7 kids, camping/hunting, or traveling the world. Brian is ex-EMC, ex-VMware, and ex-AWS.

Brian is a Senior Developer Advocate at NetApp Instaclustr. Brian is an author, public speaker, father, tinkerer, and adventurer. When Brian is not working, you can find him spending time with his wife and 7 kids, camping/hunting, or traveling the w... Show more

Researcher. Builder. Hacker. Traveler.

Researcher. Builder. Hacker. Traveler. Show more

Shekhar is a seasoned open-source developer and advocate, with contributions to Aapche Software Foundation, Kubeflow, SymPy, NumPy, SciPy, Bundler, and as the author of daru and daru-view in the SciRuby ecosystem. A two-time Google Summer of Code alumnus (2016, 2017) and former SciRuby org admin, he has mentored across multiple open-source communities. He has spoken at leading conferences, including RubyConf, PyCon, ApacheCon, and Community Over Code,Iceberg Summit alongside regional tech meetups. Currently, he is a Senior Software Engineer at Atlassian, driving innovation in Data Platform.

Shekhar is a seasoned open-source developer and advocate, with contributions to Aapche Software Foundation, Kubeflow, SymPy, NumPy, SciPy, Bundler, and as the author of daru and daru-view in the SciRuby ecosystem. A two-time Google Summer of Code alu... Show more

Commonly described as the boy next door (although next door to whom has never been quite defined), Warren fell in love with SQL when he was accidentally thrust into it after going to see a girl at a tech company. He liked it so he put a ring on it. That was the girl, and as for SQL and Data the affair continues. Warren consults as a Data Engineer for Moyo Business Advisory and is a volunteer Lead for Johannesburg Data Platform. In his spare time he likes Mountain biking, Ice Skating, Offroad 4x4ing and Cleaning up Rivers

Commonly described as the boy next door (although next door to whom has never been quite defined), Warren fell in love with SQL when he was accidentally thrust into it after going to see a girl at a tech company. He liked it so he put a ring on it. T... Show more

I'm a developer using the .NET ecossystem for more than 20 years, providing solutions for e-commerce, callcenters, healthcare and all kind of business where IT can make the difference.
6x Microsoft MVP on Developer Technologies category, I love to contribute and help other people on software development.
Also, I spend some time playing drums too :)

I'm a developer using the .NET ecossystem for more than 20 years, providing solutions for e-commerce, callcenters, healthcare and all kind of business where IT can make the difference. 6x Microsoft MVP on Developer Technologies category, I love to c... Show more

Software engineer working on frontend and tooling (Internal/External) at MyVest, currently building F1 Travel — a live, independent project bringing Amazon-style checkout to F1 race weekend planning.

F1 travel website : https://f1-travel.vercel.app/

Software engineer working on frontend and tooling (Internal/External) at MyVest, currently building F1 Travel — a live, independent project bringing Amazon-style checkout to F1 race weekend planning. F1 travel website : https://f1-travel.vercel.ap... Show more

Arun Balakrishnan is the founder of **Nool**, an AI engineering control plane built for a future where software is increasingly written by fleets of coding agents.

A software engineer with 14 years of experience, Arun started building Nool after encountering the limits of using multiple AI agents on a large, complex software project. While agents made code generation dramatically faster, coordinating them introduced a different problem: architectural drift, lost context, conflicting changes, and decisions that failed to persist across agents and over time.

Nool emerged from that experience. It provides durable engineering context, impact awareness, policy guardrails, and cross-agent continuity so teams can control how their software evolves—not just how quickly code is generated.

Based in Berlin, Arun focuses on the emerging challenges of AI-native software development, multi-agent engineering systems, and how engineering organizations will need to change as autonomous agents become a significant part of the software development workforce.

Arun Balakrishnan is the founder of **Nool**, an AI engineering control plane built for a future where software is increasingly written by fleets of coding agents. A software engineer with 14 years of experience, Arun started building Nool after e... Show more

Jaime is a Google Developer Expert focused on Flutter. He has created and currently maintains some useful and popular packages related to this toolkit. He is a very active member of the community and co-leads the Spaniard Flutter Community.

Jaime is a Google Developer Expert focused on Flutter. He has created and currently maintains some useful and popular packages related to this toolkit. He is a very active member of the community and co-leads the Spaniard Flutter Community. Show more

Tutaleni, is the driving force behind the growth of Game Development in Namibia and in Africa as a whole, as well as the bridge between South America and Africa when it comes to the Game Development space. After successfully completing the Enter Africa game development program Mr, Ilonga created his own game studio/company called TL Entertainment whereby he created games and was successfully able to import Global Game Jam and Game Jam +, whereby together with the partnership between TL Entertainment and Game Jam+ there was a bridge built between Namibia and Brazil.

With the games that where created not proving to be profitable, Mr Ilonga would take part in a CEP program whereby he would like up with Vaughan, Veronica and Ndamono and together they would form Edu-Game Namibia to create an innovation hub around gaming to ensure that the market because sustainable around gaming and ensure future Namibian generations will be able to profit from it.

With 7 Years’ experience in Gaming Mr Ilonga has won a few awards and also became the flag career for Gaming especially at the Forbes where he and Vaughan would help Edu-Game Namibia make it to the top 3 pitch battle final. Currently Mr Ilonga together with Edu-Game are working on a curriculum to gamify the education system.

List of Achievements
Forbes 30 Under 30 Top 3 Pitch Battle Finalist 2024
Boost Up Pitch Winner 2023
Xbox Games Camp Alumni 2023
Sanlam Bridge Beneficiary 2023
CEP WINNER 2022
Game Industry Africa Awards Winner 2022
Class of 2022 Game Developers Conference SCHOLARS:

Events/Interviews I have Spoken At
Xbox Games Camp - Topic - Why Africa Is The Best Place To Invest When It Comes To Gaming
Africa Partnership For Growth Symposium - Topic - Why Investing In Gaming is Profitable
PathfindinGS -Topic - Gamifying the Namibian Education System
Africa Comicade Topic -Getting Local Businesses to Invest in Game Development
Game Jam Plus Topic -Importance of Game Jam In The Local Ecosystem
African Creative Meeting Topic -E-Sports In Africa
ESQUENTA Topic - Importance of GJ + For the Local Ecosystem
BBC World Service TV Topic - CES 2020: What’s in it for Africa?

Tutaleni, is the driving force behind the growth of Game Development in Namibia and in Africa as a whole, as well as the bridge between South America and Africa when it comes to the Game Development space. After successfully completing the Enter Afri... Show more

Mrugesh Kharwar is a Business Analyst and Operations Manager at Jala Bapa Hospitality LLC, where he leads day-to-day operations and data strategy for Aqua Inn Hotel and other properties under the same ownership in Los Angeles. He combines hands-on hotel management with analytics—building Power BI dashboards, modeling occupancy and revenue trends, and translating PMS, OTA, and financial data into decisions independent operators can actually act on. His work focuses on the practical side of hospitality intelligence: clean data pipelines, reliable KPIs (ADR, RevPAR, GOP), competitive rate positioning, and guest sentiment analysis across Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor.
Before moving into hospitality, Mrugesh spent over a decade in enterprise data and risk analytics — most recently as a Risk Assessment Analyst at Delta Dental of California, supporting their Enterprise Risk Management and GRC programs. He holds an MBA in Business Statistics & Data Analytics from Westcliff University and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Business Intelligence & Data Analytics at the same institution. He speaks and writes on dashboard reliability, data trust, and bringing enterprise-grade analytics discipline to independent hotels and motels.

Mrugesh Kharwar is a Business Analyst and Operations Manager at Jala Bapa Hospitality LLC, where he leads day-to-day operations and data strategy for Aqua Inn Hotel and other properties under the same ownership in Los Angeles. He combines hands-on ho... Show more

Mustafa Dayıoğlu is a senior security architect and cloud-native solutions leader with nearly 25 years of experience, specializing in cybersecurity, DevSecOps, and AI-driven security architectures. He began his career at TÜBİTAK, leading national projects in network and information security, compliance, and digital identity. As a director at TÜBİTAK’s National Cyber Security Institute, he managed flagship NATO SPS projects and contributed to national security standards.

Beyond his technical leadership, Mustafa holds a PhD in Business Model Innovation, focusing on the commercialization and large-scale adoption of technology-driven solutions. His research was published in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management in 2023, underlining his commitment to bridging the gap between innovative engineering and practical business impact.

Today, Mustafa focuses on building open-source, privacy-preserving, and self-improving AI systems on Kubernetes and Kubeflow, with an emphasis on explainable security, federated learning, and compliance (NIST CSF, MITRE ATT&CK, GDPR, HIPAA). His recent work integrates vLLM, GraphRAG, and ONNX to deliver practical, autonomous security pipelines for healthcare, OT, and critical infrastructure.

An active participant in CNCF and Secure AI events, Mustafa’s mission is to enable security and DevSecOps teams to implement interpretable, adaptive, and policy-aware AI defenses in production environments. He is committed to fostering an open-source ecosystem that advances both technical excellence and real-world adoption of cybersecurity intelligence.

Mustafa Dayıoğlu is a senior security architect and cloud-native solutions leader with nearly 25 years of experience, specializing in cybersecurity, DevSecOps, and AI-driven security architectures. He began his career at TÜBİTAK, leading national pro... Show more

Gina is a dynamic technology leader with 15+years of experience driving digital transformation and AI innovation within the Microsoft partner ecosystem. Experienced in building AI service portfolios and leading adoption programs that deliver consistent results, from productivity gains to improved decision-making to accelerated innovation, across diverse industries. At Kyndryl, Gina blends strategic vision with execution, leveraging deep expertise in AI Enablement, M365 Copilot and Google Gemini adoption, and context engineering frameworks across platforms. Recognized as both a thought leader and hands-on practitioner, she guides executive teams, technical stakeholders, and business users in harnessing AI for measurable growth.

Gina is a dynamic technology leader with 15+years of experience driving digital transformation and AI innovation within the Microsoft partner ecosystem. Experienced in building AI service portfolios and leading adoption programs that deliver consiste... Show more

Amit is the Chief Analytics Officer (CAO)/Data Architect at Kanerika and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of data analytics. Amit is Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional (2023) and Power BI Community Super User since 2020.

Amit is the Chief Analytics Officer (CAO)/Data Architect at Kanerika and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of data analytics. Amit is Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional (2023) and Power BI Community Super User since 2020. Show more

Aspirante Nerd, Data Engineer per lavoro, sviluppatore per passione, pigro per naturaData Engineer @ Bitbang, lavoro nella progettazione e ottimizzazione delle architetture dati. Di notte e nel tempo libero, combatto la pigrizia sperimentando con Python.

Aspirante Nerd, Data Engineer per lavoro, sviluppatore per passione, pigro per naturaData Engineer @ Bitbang, lavoro nella progettazione e ottimizzazione delle architetture dati. Di notte e nel tempo libero, combatto la pigrizia sperimentando con Pyt... Show more

Soy ingeniero de software con más de 5 años de experiencia, actualmente en ThoughtWorks. Me apasiona el cruce entre inteligencia artificial y diseño de software: no usar IA para generar código genérico, sino integrarla en pipelines de desarrollo reales donde la arquitectura, el testing y las convenciones del equipo se respetan.
He trabajado en proyectos con DDD, Ports & Adapters y TDD estricto, y en los últimos meses he estado construyendo un sistema de desarrollo asistido por agentes que va desde un ticket de Jira hasta un Pull Request revisable. He dado charlas internas sobre IA aplicada al desarrollo y esta es mi primera vez llevando ese trabajo a una comunidad externa.

Soy ingeniero de software con más de 5 años de experiencia, actualmente en ThoughtWorks. Me apasiona el cruce entre inteligencia artificial y diseño de software: no usar IA para generar código genérico, sino integrarla en pipelines de desarrollo real... Show more

I'm Alejandro Vazquez Moreno, Principal Consultant and Presales Leader for Europe at LS Retail, based in Barcelona, Spain. Since starting out as a developer in 2006, I've spent nearly two decades in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem, growing from hands-on development into leading cross-functional teams that deliver end-to-end LS Retail implementations on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central across Retail, Hospitality, Hotels, and Pharmacy.

I'm Alejandro Vazquez Moreno, Principal Consultant and Presales Leader for Europe at LS Retail, based in Barcelona, Spain. Since starting out as a developer in 2006, I've spent nearly two decades in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem, growing from hand... Show more