MEET THE FIRST SPEAKERS

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  Dr. Kevin Freiberg

  One of the world’s leading authorities on innovation and disruptive change.

  Razor-sharp Insights. Concrete Examples. Entertaining Stories. Incredible Energy. This is why Dr. Kevin Freiberg is on a short list of global thought-leaders CEOs turn to for the kind of disruptive thinking that accelerates innovation, drives growth, and gets people excited about the future. With over one million copies in print, Kevin is a worldwide best-selling author and speaker. His books and speeches have shaped the thinking of executives in more than 2,000 companies in 60 industries across the globe—leaders who now believe they have the power to change themselves, disrupt their organizations (before someone else does), and revolutionize their industries. Recognized as one of the “Top 30 Best Minds on Leadership” by Leadership Excellence Magazine, Kevin has also appeared on CNBC, CBS Sunday Morning, and CNBC India. Kevin has been published in Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Washington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, India’s Economic Times, India’s Business Standard, India’s Financial Times and Capital Business & Finance Magazine of Dubai. Current articles by Kevin and his wife Jackie can be found at Forbes.com where they are regular leadership contributors. Kevin is known for taking on the big issues that hold organizations back: Complacency and indifference. Unquestioned assumptions. Dead People Working™. Entitlement. Talented people who make excuses and act like victims. Self-important, arrogant bosses. Fear-based cultures. Bureaucracies that choke passion, imagination, and initiative. And, people who are held hostage by history. People listen to Dr. Freiberg because he’s real, he’s relevant, and he has a knack for translating fresh ideas into simple strategies that are deployable.

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  Shed Simove

  Entrepreneur and must-see keynote motivational speaker, CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, SALES & GUERRILLA MARKETING

  Shed Simove is an entrepreneur, author and keynote speaker. His core areas of expertise are creativity, innovation, guerrilla marketing and generating ideas which lead to increased sales and opportunities. Following a degree in Experimental Psychology at Balliol College, Oxford, and two years working in Disney World, Shed worked in TV Production, heading up programmes including The Big Breakfast and Big Brother. He then went on to forge a highly innovative merchandising empire – creating conceptual gifts, executive toys, best-selling adult sweets, books, greetings cards, and even his own currency. To date, Shed has sold over 1.5 million novelty gifts worldwide and has won Gift Of The Year twice. He is also the creator of Deets - an innovative app (and official sponsor of this conference), that allows people to swap and import their contact details, eliminating the need for business cards! Shed performs highly memorable, entertaining, instructive and inspiring talks that showcase his business insights, methods for sales growth, tips for creative thinking and his amazing adventures. He uses his own entrepreneurial journeys to deliver concrete techniques that give any company, organisation or audience practical methods for creative thinking and ways to come up with new ideas, and his talks help people to think differently in order to obtain huge success.

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  Lukasz Zelezny

  Top 10 UK social media influencer. UK search awards judge and SEO Expert. Head of organic acquisition at uSwitch.com

  Lukasz Zelezny, top 10 UK social media influencer, UK search awards judge and former director of organic performance at ZPG. Previously leading his team he is responsible for the uSwitch.com, Zoopla.co.uk and PrimeLocation organic visibility, conversion rate, traffic and engagement. Lukasz is a hands-on person; he spends lots of his time keeping up to date with the changes in the technology of online marketing. Lukasz started his career in 2005 and has since been responsible for the organic performance of a number of companies including HomeAway, Thomson Reuters, The Digital Property Group and Fleetway Travel. He is a graduate from the Silesian University of Technology with a BA in Marketing. He travels up to 75,000 km a year speaking at many SEO and social media conferences including ClickZ Shanghai China, ClickZ Jakarta Indonesia, SiMGA Malta, SES London in the United Kingdom as well as conferences held in Europe; Marketing Festival in Brno, Brighton SEO in Brighton, UnGagged in London. Every year he is actively participating in 10 to 20 events as an SEO/Social Media keynote speaker. Additionally, he organizes workshops and meetups where he is sharing tips around SEO, Social Media and Analytics.

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  FLAVIU (AVI) CICIREAN

  Entrepreneur, Creator Director, Branding Expert, BRAND MINDS & BRAND EMOTION

  As an entrepreneur, Flaviu Cicirean has founded two companies that are considered landmark in both Romanian and Eastern European business environment. We’re talking about BRAND EMOTION and BRAND MINDS. The first one develops and curates the sound identity for some of the biggest brands in Romania (BMW, Mini, Hornbach, Baneasa Shopping City, Radio 21, VibeFM, Antena1, RadioZU, ZU TV), with over 20,000 advertisements created since the year it was founded/ BRAND MINDS is an authentic source of inspiration for people who want to start building something of their own and create a better world in the meantime. The company is the leading player in the business events industry for Romania and Central Eastern Europe as well. In 2017’s Fall, they broke into the asian market too, by organising the first event in Singapore: BRAND MINDS ASIA. All of these built on the overall vision that Avi has shaped for BRAND MINDS since the beginning.

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  Harald Gruber

  Head of Digital Infrastructure at the Projects Directorate of the European Investment Bank

  Harald Gruber is head of Digital Infrastructure at the Projects Directorate of the European Investment Bank based in Luxembourg. His team oversees project appraisal and advises on the Bank’s business strategy with respect to financing of broadband infrastructure, digitalisation, nanoelectronics, photonics space policy, cybersecurity and high performance computing. The large size of the EIB activities in these domains provides a good overview of the conditions of access to finance of the different companies in the sector. Harald is currently representing the EIB on the Steering Committee for the IPCEI on High Performance Computing/Big Data. He was also EIB Sherpa on the first KET Steering Committee. Harald has a research track record in the field of innovation and competition policy. He has published a monograph on the semiconductor industry and a book on the Economics of Mobile Telecommunications. Harald holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics, specialising on innovation in the semiconductor industry.

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  Sarah Hodkinson

  the General Manager of SmarterTravel, a TripAdvisor company

  She joined the company in 2016 as VP of Marketing and was promoted to General Manager last year. SmarterTravel operates a network of 8 travel websites that includes Jetsetter.com, Airfarewatchdog.com and Oyster.com. In this role Sarah oversees a team of over 100 employees across Product, Editorial, Marketing, Sales and Engineering. SmarterTravel is headquartered in Boston with satellite offices in New York and LA. Previously, Sarah spent 5 years as Senior Director, Marketing at PayPal, overseeing marketing operations and strategic partnerships. A passionate advocate for diversity in tech, Sarah is the executive sponsor for TripPride, TripAdvisor’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group. She formerly served on the board of StartOut, a non-profit that cultivates entrepreneurship within the LGBTQ community and she has spoken at events including Lesbians Who Tech in New York, MITX’s InfluenceHer summit and the Be Bold Boston Business Women’s conference. In October Sarah was named a finalist for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s Emerging Executive of the Year and in 2015, she was honored by Boston-based venture capital firm, Accomplice, as one of Boston’s Top 20 Women in Tech. Originally from the UK, Sarah graduated from Lancaster University. She is also an active angel investor, advisor to start-ups and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Radius Bank.

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  JOHN TSCHOHL

  Customer Service strategist and best-selling author

  Called the “Guru of customer service” by USA today, Times and Entrepreneur magazine, John Tschohl is a internationally recognized service strategist and President of service quality institute, the global leader in Customer service. For the last 34 years he has solely focused on helping organizations drive a service culture and create a customer experience through his technology built on practicality, simplicity and common sense. With his credibility and focus on empowerment and the power of the social media he has the ability to emotionally communicate the power of the service strategy from Top executives to the total workforce. Tschohl is dynamic, hard hitting, and inspirational. He will create an emotional Buy-in using measurable data that CEO’s respond to. His books are recognized and highly esteemed by Senior executives as the most powerful must-reads in Customer Service. John’s message is based on common sense built around his 44 years in speaking, designing training programs and developing a high performance workforce. He is featured on major television shows from Good Morning America, CNBC and PBS to USA Today’s cover story, newspapers, radio stations, and magazines from almost every corner of the world. John’s technology and books are translated in 11 languages, represented in over 45 countries, and 90 percent of Service Quality Institute’s business is international.

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  Alexander Lozhechkin

  Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture, Amazon Web Services, Central & Eastern Europe

  Alexander Lozhechkin leads the Solutions Architects team across 30+ countries of Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Solution Architects at AWS help customers to get the most of cloud technologies. This team works across various customer segments, from startups and cloud native companies to large enterprises. Solution Architects also focus a lot on building technical communities around cloud. Before joining AWS, Alexander lead a Developer Experience team in Central & Eastern Europe at Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft in 2004, he was leading a software development in a startup. Alexander is passionate about the opportunities for individuals and organizations that building software on cloud platform presents. Many of his team activities are to stimulate local software economies in both emerging and developed countries in our region by helping CEE companies to succeed globally.

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  Fahim R. Kibria

  CMO at Kotler Impact Inc. and Executive Director of the World Marketing Summit Group

  Dr. Fahim R. Kibria is also working as exclusive Business Director worldwide for Professor Philip Kotler, the one & only re-known Guru of marketing whose books are taught in all the business colleges & universities around the globe. Lately, they together launched Kotler Business Program in collaboration with Pearson Education UK, in 35 + countries (to-date) around the world. Prior to joining Kotler Impact Inc., he worked as marketing management consultant with Prof. Philip Kotler. As Director on the Pan-American desk, his primary role in providing consultancy to both private and public sectors. Prior to that, he worked as Director Strategy & Business Development at Philip Morris, spearheaded the firm`s Global Products Development strategy firstly out of Albany-NY, and then in Toronto, where he moved to redefine the Canadian business. Fahim is also involved in marketing consultations to companies worldwide, while assisting for corporate governance assessments and improvement plans in NAFTA, SAARC, SAFTA & ASEAN.

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  DRAYTON BIRD

  Top Marketing expert, known as the "Father of the Direct Marketing"

  In 2003, The Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton Bird one of the 50 people in the world who have shaped today`s marketing. David Ogilvy said he “knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world”. Former Worldwide Vice Chairman and Creative Director of the agency now Ogilvy One he has had 60 years’ experience in 55 countries. He has worked for some of the world’s biggest brands including Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, P & G, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen. As a writer, Drayton has helped sell a variety of products – from Airbus aircraft to the Peppa Pig animation. He has written 6 books, out in 17 languages, one “Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing” has been a bestseller since 1982. David Ogilvy also said his speeches are “Instructive and hilariously funny.”

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  Martin Olczyk

  Managing Director at Techstars

  Martin is a Managing Director at Techstars. He has +10 years experience in investment banking, especially in internet and technology M&A and online business development. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded a successful software business and acted as its CFO/COO, a technology-focused investment banking boutique in Southeast Asia and an online marketplace in Europe. He has been working with dozens of companies as a founder, advisor, mentor, and early-stage investor.

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  MARIYA GABRIEL

  European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society

  Mariya Gabriel is the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society since July 2017. The overall objective of her overarching portfolio aims at the full realization of the Digital Single Market. Her strategic vision has consistently placed European citizens at the center of the policies, helping them acquire digital skills to succeed in the digital transformation process. She has focused her efforts on putting forward an ambitious digital programme in the context of the next MFF, investing in HPC, AI, cyber security, but also the creative, audio-visual industries and media, bringing benefits to all European citizens. She has extensively engaged with external EU partners to enhance digital cooperation, in particular with the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean region. Mariya Gabriel served as Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to July 2017. Being the EPP Group Vice-President, she tackled issues related to EU enlargement, Mediterranean region, Middle East and Africa and focused on priorities, e.g. security, migration, women issues. Mariya Gabriel also has considerable achievements in the area of the EU visa policy - she is the EP rapporteur on 1/3 of all EU visa liberalisation agreements. She was awarded twice the prestigious prize "MEP of the year" - in 2016 for the Development category, and in 2013 for the Gender equality category. She is the 2018 winner of the prize "Tecnovisionarie" awarding excellence in research, technology, innovation, and business. In 2017 she was honored with the Royal Spanish Order of Civil Merit for her contribution to the foreign relations of the country and 2016 - with the Columbian Order of San Carlos for merits to the country in international relations and diplomacy.

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  Dinis Guarda

  CEO and Founder @Lifesdna. Serial entrepreneur and Fintech influencer

  Dinis Guarda is an author, serial entrepreneur, advisor and experienced CEO. He creates and helps build ventures focused on global growth, 360 digital strategies, sustainable innovation, Blockchain, Fintech, AI and new emerging business models such as ICOs / tokenomics. Dinis is the founder/CEO of Lifesdna - one AI P2P, blockchain, search engine and PaaS in consumer wellness healthcare and life sciences with a global team of experts and universities. Dinis is the author of various books. His upcoming books “Blockchain, AI and Crypto Economics - The Next Tsunami” and “Tokenomics and ICOs - How to be good at the new digital world of finance / Crypto” will be launched in 2019. Dinis has advised and was responsible for some top financial organizations, 100 cryptocurrencies worldwide and Fortune 500 companies. Dinis is involved as a strategist, board member and advisor with the blockchain reward community app Glance technologies, where he leads its white label blockchain division Blockimpact, the seminal Hyperloop Transportations project, Kora and Token Communities. He is listed in various global Fintech, Blockchain, AI, social media industry top lists as an influencer in position top 10/20 within 100 rankings

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  Gina London

  CEO of Language of Leadership Ltd. and former CNN anchor.

  She has worked and lived in dozens of countries across six continents and she is proud that her speaking, training and coaching transform and positively influence lives. An Emmy-winning former CNN correspondent and anchor, Gina brings her passion for people and helping leaders tell their stories better to whatever event she is privileged to be a part of. She is an internationally recognized high energy speaker, facilitator and premier strategic communications expert based in Ireland.

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  Jag Singh

  Managing Director at Techstars, investing in high-growth potential founders and their companies

  Jag is one of Europe's most active angel investors, and is currently the Managing Director of Techstars Berlin. Previously, he was the Managing Director for the METRO Accelerator for Retail, powered by Techstars. He's founded several companies (including two exits and a spectacular failure), and invested in over 70 startups over the last six years, including three that went through Techstars accelerators. He’s an ad-man at heart, and spent over a decade as a political strategist advising high-profile politicians, campaigns and corporations across the US and Europe. Jag is fluent in six languages

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  Mark Turrell

  CEO Vork & Orcasci , WEF YGL & Tech Pioneer

  Mark is an expert in Science of spread - how do you spread ideas, behavioral change, products and services. Method incorporates neuroscience, behavioral science, networks, emergence, sync, complex systems, fractal patterns, collective intelligence - with innovation and creative problem solving thrown in. Client use - go-to-market strategy development, and solving “extreme problems”. He is also interested in Collective Intelligence / crowdsourcing - how to tap into the brainpower of the masses to solve problems, capture ideas, develop business plans, generate engagement. And in Work using human psychology - plus software (software as a service - ideas in the cloud). He is also inspired by the idea that he could work for Changing the World (for Better) – by appling the techniques above to help NGOs, non-profits, and people doing good in the world to solve problems and scale and spread the good things. This includes developing methods for crowdsourced election monitoring for fraudulent elections, and supporting the Arab Spring revolutionary movements as a strategist. Start-ups and growing companies - work with start-ups as a friend / advisor / consultant to address various issues. He speaks on topics including spread, how the world is changing, innovation, and other things he finds interesting. His ambitious goal is to change the entire world for better, all of it, at the same time so that people can be happier, be less sad, and be free to choose. As a pragmatist (not an idealist), he develops and has developed plans and tactics to achieve this.

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  Dale Howarth

  Business Mentor, Professional Speaker & Writer delivering ‘Practical Lessons for Better Business’

  For over 20 years he has mentored leaders and teams from new start businesses to some of today’s most successful SME’s. From new start businesses, entrepreneurial spirits and SME’s to well-known corporate clients, across a broad range of industries and sectors. He is an officer and board member to several companies.

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  Michael Leander

  Marketing Innovation Global speaker

  Michael Leander is an accomplished digital marketing entrepreneur and an award-winning marketing speaker with a global footprint. A recognized thought-leader in "martech" and marketing innovation for growth, he has delivered great experiences to audiences in 51 countries on 6 continents. This has earned him a reputation as a “great marketing speaker and marketing trainer”. He currently heads up Markedu - an innovative marketing training institute headquartered in Portugal with local operations in Europe, East Africa and Iran. Michael Leander is also the principal data-driven marketing consultant at GIDMA - a boutique data-driven marketing consulting firm helping companies grow.

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  Louise McDonnell

  Social Media Speaker, Facebook Author, Trainer & Coach

  Louise has been working with SMEs and business startups for 20 years now. She has helped over 8000 businesses use social media as a marketing tool. She knows and understands the issues small businesses and startups face. As the Author of Facebook Marketing: The Essential Guide for Businesses and Community Groups Louise has international credibility. She is an excellent, engaging speaker. She has been voted one of the top worldwide 50 Facebook Marketing Bloggers by Feedspot and Springboard.com listed her as one of the top 108 digital marketing experts worth following. BloggerLocal listed hee as one of the top 10 worldwide Facebook experts and more recently Designwizard listed her number 16 on a list of Ireland`s top 50 marketers. Louise has been working in the area of Digital Marketing since 2009 and has trained and coached in excess of 8000 people. She has been a keynote speaker at the Social Media Summit Ireland, The Digital West Summit, The Wedding Band Association Annual Conference, the Women Inspire Conference Galway and Irish Wedding Association Conference. She works with Irish Government Agencies including Failte Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise Offices in Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Roscommon. She also provides corporate training to businesses all over Ireland and online coaching to business owners all over the world.

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  Jordi Gili

  Social Selling author, speaker, trainer.

  The company that he currently works for as a Country Managing Director and Chief Product Officer (Execus) helps B2B sales teams design and execute their strategies to develop more business using social networks. Throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia they help with Social Selling Consulting and Training, Linkedin presence and Marketing campaigns outsourcing and Sales systems integration. He is really interested in the evolution that Social Selling is continuously experiencing in Professional Social networks and new tools have radically changed the traditional establishment. He considers that today we are living the third revolution in Selling in modern history. Now we have the tools to connect and target a single person within our universe. And every sales professional and organization should be using these tools to boost sales. Partner at Social Health, the Revolution of Social in Health Care Senior Start-up Advisor at Lead To Win.

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  ROD BANNER

  Investor, Entrepreneur, Marketer, Brand and Proposition Architect [UK]

  Rod is a MADtech lifer – Marketing Advertising and Technology. He founded the technology marketing group, „Banner Corporation”. It had grown to become the largest Business to Business agency in Europe. In 2014 Rod made it into the TechCity Insider 100 list and the 2014/15 Fresh Business Thinking Power 100. In 2015 he was chosen as one of The Maserati 100 – A list of UK-based entrepreneurs who are giving back to the next generation. Rod is also an angel investor – specialising in MADtech Specialties: Architecting and building brands. Discovering and telling corporate ‘stories’. Monetising social media, mobile and marketing automation. 25 plus years in creating tangible, marketing-driven success for technology companies located in EMEA.

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  Robert Neivert

  Venture Partner at 500 Startups

  Robert is a venture partner at 500 startups focusing on B2B enterprise software and a veteran of nine companies. Twice as CEO, and multiple times as CFO, COO, and heads of sales and marketing organizations. Рreviously held the position of Executive in Residence at Quest Venture Partners. Robert is also mentor and advisor for Cardinal Ventures, Stanford iFarm, and Stanford`s Treehacks program as well as an executive advisor for over 15 funded startups.

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  MARC WESSELINK

  Founder of Venturerock

  Serial Entrepreneur, started 12 companies in FMCG, Home Electronics, Healthcare, E-Commerce, HR and Finance. Because of this, he has an in depth knowledge on many fields which can help entrepreneurs to maintain a 360 degree view on their business. He is a motivator, business coach, critical optimist. With his skills and experience, he is currently in charge of selecting Startups for the Accelerator programs in Amsterdam and helping the alumni from Startupbootcamp Amsterdam with the execution of their business. He is also co-founder of Startupbootcamp Africa with programs in Johannesburg & Cape Town.With his entrepreneurial experience, Mark advises managers and entrepreneurs to let their company grow faster and helps them establish a solid infrastructure. After founding and having bootstrapped 12 companies and failed 4 times, he is definitely an experienced entrepreneur with an international focus. After interviewing hundreds of startups as Selection & Alumni Manager at Startupbootcamp, he went on to co-found Startupbootcamp Africa.

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  Marius Ghenea

  Partner, 3TS Capital

  Marius is serial entrepreneur and business-angel with successful investments in many CEE countries, ranks in Forbes fortune Romanian survey. He is Co-Founder at VentureConnect and SchoolforStartups Romania, president of the Romanian Association of Online Stores. Also he is the author of “Entrepreneurship”, first Romanian entrepreneurship book, one of the Romanian Dragons from the TV show Dragons’ Den; Co-organizer of the BusinessDrive mini-MBA program, professor of Entrepreneurship. Marius is awarded with “Investor of the Year Romania 2016” by Central European Startup Awards.

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  Valentin Kuntorov

  Director Marketplace in eMAG Bulgaria

  Valentin Kuntorov is the Director Marketplace in eMAG Bulgaria which is the biggest online shop in Easter Europe. He manages the sales and operations of more than 3000 companies selling in the eMAG platform. He is responsible for the planning and execution of strategic actions within the company. He offers tech support and educates local businesses of digital culture and the benefits of Marketplace. Before eMAG, Valentin was the Director Strategic Partnerships, residential sales division. He managed all sales channels, planned and executed different campaigns for cross and up sale and retention for specific group of customers. Valentin is a true leader because he motivates his team. He can give you great insights on how to be successful in e-commerce.

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  Joanna Riley

  CEO of Censia, a company that unites enterprises and AI

  Joanna Riley is an entrepreneur, advocate, and mentor in technology for the Future of Work, and the CEO and Co-Founder of Censia. Censia was built to transform the way enterprise companies hire talent. Its platform is a true system of intelligence for the enterprise, predictively matching the most in-demand people to opportunities at scale—and powered by AI. Prior to Censia, Joanna was the co-founder and CEO of 1-Page, a SaaS solutions provider in the Talent Acquisition sector. In 2014 she led 1-Page to a successful IPO, and onto the S&P/ASX 300 by 2016. Before 1-Page, she experienced two successful acquisitions of her companies, was part of the International Training Unit for the FBI, was a national rower. She earned her BA degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia as a full scholarship athlete. She is currently part of the Presidents Program at Harvard Business School where she is receiving her MBA. Joanna has been featured in Fortune, Fast Company, Forbes, Inc, WSJ, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, NYSE, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and others. In 2017 she was named one of 100 highest-ranking women in tech, and in 2016, she was awarded the Most Powerful and Influential Woman Award by the California Diversity Council, and the Power '30 Under 30' for Professional and Community Excellence. She currently is the Chapter Chair for Young Presidents Organization (SF Bay Chapter) and is an active angel investor in early-stage companies. Speaker: G20 Summit, Web Summit, Collision, Web.it Festival, Horasis Global Summit, NOAH, DLD, F.ounders, C.reators, HR Tech Europe, HR Tech Asia, Goldman Sachs Private Internet Conference, Leade.rs, and others.

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  Jonathan Bixby

  Active angel investor, Executive Director at Growlab [CA]

  Jonathan currently invests out of both Stanley Park Ventures and Oak Mason Investments. Jonathan is a founder and on the Board of Advisors of HIGHLINE.VC a VC backed Co-Venture Platform with programming in four cities (Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, New York) and powered by some of Canada’s best entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem partners. HIGHLINE is a merger of GrowLab and Extreme Startups. Jonathan was the Executive Director of GrowLab before merging with Extreme Startups. Jonathan Bixby was the CEO and a co-founder of Strangeloop Networks, creator of the first network appliance and cloud service for accelerating dynamic web applications. The Strangeloop Site Optimizer dramatically increases the performance of revenue generating websites, allowing for faster page loads, higher conversion and revenue. Under Jonathan’s leadership, Strangeloop raised over $21M in financing, including a Series A round of $11.5 million, one of the largest rounds of private Series A financing for a technology start-up in Canadian history. Strangeloop was selected the Best Employer in British Columbia for a record five straight years (2008 to 2013).

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  Katrina Collier

  Author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter & candidate engagement expert at The Searchologist

  Katrina Collier helps companies solve the problem of candidate engagement. HR, recruiters and sourcers don’t have an issue finding people, they have an issue evoking a response, engaging people and stopping candidates from ghosting. She is the author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter and delivers keynotes, inspiring all those involved in the recruitment lifecycle to change their mindset and use a candidate-centric approach. She is also the founder of multiple DisruptHR events across the UK, an Ambassador for Retrak Charity, and co-host of The #SocialRecruiting Show podcast. You’ll find her tweeting @KatrinaMCollier and on Instagram, LinkedIn & Facebook, championing the #BeHuman cause.

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  Kris Beyens

  C-Level Executive: GM, COO and CFO across e-commerce, healthcare and manufacturing businesses. Investor, Board Member & Advisor

  A dynamic leader with over 20 years of operational and finance experience working in industries covering oil & gas, electrical components, medical devices and e-commerce. Proven leader able to balance long term goals with short term operational decision making. Passionate, reliable, trustworthy and driven with a strong track record in general management, operational and finance positions. Extensive global experience developing long range plans & strategy frameworks. Proven ability to implement and execute multi-year operational plans while managing short term expectations and commitments. Experience leading M&A, BD and integrations. Finance business partner with the ability to achieve operational efficiency, drive business growth and maximize shareholder value through achievements in finance management, planning, centralization, outsourcing while overseeing internal controls. Execution enabled through a high focus on driving insight, analytics and tool implementation Experienced people leader with demonstrated experience motivating and leading cross-functional teams with high culture and employee feedback scores. Known for a high say-do ratio and maintaining focus on the bigger picture. Regulatory, data privacy and payments in e-commerce experience as leader and board member of the payments & customer billing institution in. Instrumental in setting up KYC and anti-corruption practices processes across eBay and StubHub. Exposure to leading an e-commerce advertising business managing 3P and 1P advertising buyers with industry leading technology and enabling 1P advertising

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  Nancy Nemes

  Founder Ms. AI, former Sales & Marketing leader at Google and Microsoft.

  Nancy Nemes is a tech trendsetter with 20 years of global experience in high tech across Europe, USA, Canada and South America. Nancy is the founder of Ms.AI - Artificial Intelligence for and with women. Until recently, she was heading up Google's Hardware business in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Prior to that, she spent 15 years at Microsoft leading up IOT in its early days, Digital & Consumer Marketing, Business Development and Sales for various products and services. In recent years, Nancy has pioneered, implemented and optimized the impact of mobile, digital, and social aiming at enriching people lives through smart connected devices and services.

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  Javier Ortiz-Sanchez

  CEO & Cofounder of Sextaplanta

  He has seen the travel industry from many points of view throughout his professional career. He has played roles in tour operators and online travel agents. He has also worked for the public sector as Area Manager for the G2B Department at the Innovation Area of the Andalusia Tourist Board. He took part in the launch of the Fuerte Hoteles start-up, ResponsibleHotels.travel where he was responsible for the development of the online platform as well as the marketing plan. Javier also played a major role in the Account Management Team at Booking.com in Andalusia. He currently collaborates with the University of Málaga and runs the web project, Habitacion61.com. Currently he also leads a team of experienced professionals in Sextaplanta aimed to work closely with hotels and other travel companies to enter the digital era. Specialties: Revenue Management, E-Commerce, Hotel representation, revenue management & yield management. Sales, pricing & negociation techniques. E-Marketing, Social Media Marketing & ORM. Team building, group meetings & people management. Work forecast & deadlines.

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  Elena Sokolova, PhD

  Senior Machine learning Data Scientist and Team Lead at Booking.com

  Data scientist and a public speaker with 8 years of diverse experience in real world projects in machine learning, recommender systems, NLP, causality, Bayesian networks, statistical analysis and process optimization. Working with Big data, using Spark, Hive, SQL, H2O, and Python. Before accepting the position of a Senior Machine Learning Data Scientist and Team lead of Machine Learning team in the beginning of 2019, Elena was Team Lead of the Machine Learning Team. She manages successfully a team of data scientists and backend developers that worked on developing machine learning models to automate customer service department workload by personalising content that users see and autoreplying text messages with chat bot. Her job included also applying advanced NLP algorithms to automate the work in customer service department. Before that she started working for Booking.com in 2016 as a Machine Learning Data Scientist. As a student at Radboud University, Netherlands (2012 - 2016) she developed new machine learning methods and applied them to analyze real-world data sets in medical domain and e-commerce. Implemented these methods in Matlab, R and Python.

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  Cüneyt Erpolat

  Country Manager of Alibaba.com Turkey

  Аppointed as Country Manager of Alibaba.com, one of the largest e-commerce portals in the world, Cüneyt is responsible for all business processes and stakeholder relationship management of Alibaba.com in Turkey since May 2013. Cüneyt Erpolat graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University and started his career as Product Manager at Xerox. He then worked as Channel Manager at Microsoft between 2000 and 2002, as Head of SME Department at Avea between 2002 and 2007, and as one of Anadolu Yatırım`s founding partners in 2007 serving as investment consultant. Erpolat, who served as Sales Director in Datamarket for one year in 2010, became Sales Director of Grenke Turkey between 2011-2013.

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  Michael Roberts

  Lead Solution Engineer @ Salesforce

  Michael started his career as a digital marketer and quickly became a thought leader on B2B Marketing trends in Australia. He is passionate thinking about how data and artificial intelligence is helping brands to deliver more personalised messages across every channel. He is an energetic communicator, speaking at Salesforce World Tour, Dreamforce and the B2B Marketing Leadership Forum in Australia. Michael is also passionate about #EqualityForAll, founding Salesforce`s interfaith group, Faithforce globally.

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  Mike Doherty

  Founder of Doherty & Associates

  Mike Doherty, the founder of Doherty & Associates, has a long history of business development, strategy, and planning. Mike has launched and managed several ventures personally, so he understands the challenges of managing day-to-day operations while remaining focused on growth opportunities and the bottom line. He has also worked as an investor and a lender and therefore recognizes the demands and expectations these parties bring to the mix. Mike’s clients benefit from both perspectives.

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  Hilla Brenner

  Managing Director Techstars Tel Aviv

  A serial entrepreneur in the high-tech industry for the past 15 years. A true believer in innovation and team spirit. A lawyer in Israel and NY, founder of 3 companies, one is listed on TASE, a mentor and an investor . Named one of the top 100 influential people in hi-tech in 2015. Founder of the" Yazamiyot" the largest organization for women entrepreneurs in Israel and "campus for moms" the first "baby friendly" start up school with Google.

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  Valentin Radu

  Tech entrepreneur, data-driven marketer, eCommerce expert

  Valentin Radu is a successful tech entrepreneur, data-driven marketer, eCommerce expert, international speaker, father, husband, and pet owner. Nowadays he is the CEO and founder at Omniconvert, an awarded personalization software used by global players such as Whirlpool, ING, Orange, Avon, and Wordstream and backed by European Investment Fund, 3TS, and European Union. He has spoken at over 100 International events over the last 6 years, including DMEXCO, Mobile Web Congress, SMXL, Growth Marketing Conference, Conversion World, Webit, WebSummit, SemDays, Tech in Asia, Ecommerce Brazil, Iceefest, HowToWeb, etc.

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  Ivan Brezak Brkan

  CEO of Netokracija | Employer branding, content marketing and tech community consultant, writer and speaker

  Ivan is the founder and editor of Netokracija who started his tech-journalistic career writing for TechCrunch and various Croatian tech/business magazines but also advising companies like Microsoft and Kolektiva on their internet presence. Forbes has called him “The internet aristocrat” in its special “Generation 2013” issue. Ivan has also been a startup mentor and advisor at Hubraum, Seedcamp, Eleven, Shift Split, How to Web and others, as well as being the director of Netokracija’s own RockPaperStartups and OMGcommerce conferences. As a speaker, Ivan has talked in front of audiences of 500+ people; at both tech and business conferences. Ivan is a member of the new media commission of the Croatian Olympic Committee.

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  Jonny Round

  Managing Director of The Sound Agency

  Jonny Round is a speaker, a music composer and Managing Director of The Sound Agency. For the past seven years, he has worked in sound branding. After working as head of audio for Pearl DME, Jonny joined The Sound Agency in 2016. The agency advises some of the world’s leading brands on how to use sound and music effectively. The outcomes from TSA's work - like happier customers and lower crime rates - have made headlines worldwide. The company has proved that good sound really is good business. Jonny currently manages The Sound Agency's key clients around the world, from the US and Europe to the UAE, and has spoken internationally on how sound affects people, designing sound for spaces, audio branding principles, and the distinctions between music and soundscapes. His extensive musical vocabulary allows him to consult and advise on pioneering Sound Branding projects ensuring the final project is harmonious with the vision and values of any particular brand.

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  Shah Karim

  Big Data and multi-channel retail expert , CEO at SafeRock

  Shah Karim is an expert on big data and multi-channel retail, and chief executive officer of SafeRock, a New Jersey-based company that provides analytic solutions to improve shareholder value and improve return on investment. Shah has deep experience in retail, e-commerce, mobile and digital solutions, energy, technology, education technology, and customer engagement. With customer behavior and technology changing constantly, management must simultaneously handle Amazon's impact, grow the business, succeed online, and attract new customers. A seasoned and collaborative team player, Shah works with companies and Boards to tackle these challenges head on. He is an Innovation Fellow at Columbia Business School. He serves as an elected member of Yale University's YAA Board of Governors and is an Executive Board Member of Yale Graduate School Alumni Association. Since 2013, he has served on the Board of Governors for University of North Texas merchandising and digital retailing program. Shah was invited to Penn State’s Industry Advisory Board for Enterprise Systems, and is an Advisory Board Member of NJIT School of Management. He works with C-level executives and shareholders at public and private companies as well as Private Equity portfolios to improve value. Shah is at ease hacking competitive strategy and industry challenges, and equally engaged with hands-on guiding data scientists on Big Data, ML, AI, and algorithms. Among 100+ projects that he has led personally, he supported public company transaction valued at $8.3 billion; created online platform for $12 billion company in 400+ markets; enabled an international retailer achieve 5 year growth of 19.6%. Shah speaks widely at international conferences in the US, Europe, and Asia. He delivered keynotes at InCommerce 2016 in Berlin, 9th CIO Summit at IGDS, SXSW 2016 German Haus, 2017 Asia-Pacific Retailers Conference, 2018 Annual Retail Conference (Istanbul), and is recognized as a top 100 retail industry influencer by Retail Digest. Shah has authored and co-authored research published in CITI Research, Retail & Leisure, Retail Solutions Online, Chain Store Age, Apparel News, Handelsblatt, and Shopping Center Business. He is privileged to be a Fellow of the Tribeca Disruptors Foundation - linked to Tribeca Film Festival – which is a community of accomplished and promising innovators dedicated to propelling their respective fields further. Shah received his B.A., M.A., and M.Phil. from Yale University. Shah actively welcomes C-level engagement and Board opportunities.

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  Scott Cohen

  Chief Innovation Officer at Warner Music Group, Co-Founder at Cyborg Nest

  Scott Cohen is Chief Innovation Officer, Recorded Music, Warner Music Group. Scott works closely with Warner’s senior management team to help chart the long-term course of the company at the intersection of music, technology, and culture. A prominent public speaker and lecturer, Scott travels the world evangelizing new business models for the digital age. An outspoken proponent of AR, VR, Blockchain and AI, he is also the co-founder of CyborgNest, a company exploring the interface of biological and digital intelligence.   Scott began his music career in the late ‘80s in independent and major label artist management.   In 1997, Scott and Richard Gottehrer started The Orchard on New York’s Lower East Side to provide independent artists the ability to sell their music to mainstream audiences. With the launch of iTunes in 2003, The Orchard delivered the largest catalogue of independent music to the digital music consumer. A year later, they had become the first indie digital distributor to hit one million paid downloads. In subsequent years, The Orchard expanded into video, music licensing, marketing & analytics, royalty collections, sports media, and other arenas. Two decades after its formation, the company is now owned by Sony Music and has operations in 40 global territories.    Scott sat on the British Phonographic Industry Council for many years and sits on the boards of several cutting-edge companies.   Scott is a human rights activist and strict vegan.  No meat, fish, cheese, milk, honey, leather, wool or anything else derived from an animal.  And did you know he himself is a cyborg?

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  Anabela Luca

  Managing Director & Online Marketing Consultant/One of the top 5 Google certified trainers in Romania

  Anabela Luca is Managing Director & Online Marketing Consultant/Google Trainer at adLemonade.com, award-winning Google Premier Partner agency in Romania. Anabela loves digital, especially Pay Per Click marketing that she masters for over 10 years now. She is dedicated to tailoring custom PPC strategies that dramatically improve the revenue and profits for her agency's clients. Her experience with both large-scale clients seeking international success and SMBs eager to get the most out of their advertising budget, she gladly solved challenges by providing strategies that simply work. As one of the 5 Google certified trainers in Romania, Anabela delivered over 150 trainings on Google Ads & Analytics in Google programs like Online Marketing Academy & Google Partners in Romania&internationally. Through her webinars as well as her offline classes, she trained over 3.000 students and professionals in growing their skills as online marketers.

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  Jeremy Abbett

  Creative Evangelist (formerly at Google), Founder Fork Unstable Media, Design Consultant, Maker

  Jeremy Tai Abbett is an American designer and maker of delightful interactions between people, machines and culture. Jeremy spent four years as Google’s Creative Evangelist, co-founded multidisciplinary studio Truth Dare Double Dare, was a founding post-graduate student at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, and was an award-winning creative director at a handful of advertising agencies. In 1996, after Jeremy established his own design agency Fork Unstable Media with two friends he was privileged to develop products and services for companies such as Nivea, Lufthansa, Daimler, and Wired Magazine to name just a few. In addition to the bread-and-butter projects, Fork Unstable Media had three projects that were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art – San Francisco as well as a game that enraged the British Monarchy.

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  Catalin Butnariu

  General Manager at Carbon Incubator, President of the Romanian Game Developers Association

  As the President of the Romanian Game Developers Association, Catalin considers himself an advocate of the Romanian games industry and is a firm believer in the talent and potential of Eastern Europe in the world of games. He is a Co-Founder and General Manager of Carbon, a Bucharest-based games incubator and the Founder and CEO of Dev.Play, a game development conference focused on Eastern Europe. Prior to RGDA and his recent initiatives, he had spent a significant time at Gameloft, where he was managing a global division of over 1000 people.

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  Dan Calugareanu

  Managing Partner at Early Game Ventures

  Dan is Managing Partner at Early Game Ventures. Humble, curious, open-minded, enthusiastic. Ask for hard work and respect. Always happy to work in a team, as a team. Skilled in Negotiation, Business Planning, E-commerce, Business Development and Entrepreneurship.

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  Rokas Tamošiunas

  Partner at Open Circle Capital

  Rokas Tamosiunas is partner at Open Circle Capital, and has been investing in nearly 40 startups in Europe in past 10 years. He specializes in SaaS, AI, drones, and new Space tech. Rokas used to run accelerators, advises large number of entrepreneurs, has a large network of European investors and is excited about the changes startups bring.

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  Malin-Iulian Stefanescu

  President TechAngels, Founder and CEO of EEU Software

  Founder and CEO of EEU Software, business angel (invested in Green Horse Games, SmartDreamers, TypingDNA, SymphoPay, Promo.com, Tokinomo and Critique Gaming) and mentor for different accelerators. I believe angel investing is a form of giving back by helping entrepreneurs to build and grow new companies. However, I do see as well a huge business potential in tech startups.

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  Bram Kanstein

  Innovation Strategist & Co-Founder Company NameVenture Minds

  Bram Kanstein is an entrepreneurial startup enthusiast turned startup expert. He has seen 1000's of startups and has worked with dozens of companies on the development, launch and growth of new initiatives. He also built and launched his own product Startup Stash, “A curated directory of 400 resources and tools to help you build your Startup”. It was named as one of the 100 Best Websites For Entrepreneurs in 2015 by Forbes Magazine and til date has helped 800.000+ entrepreneurs for around the world while building their startup. Startup Stash was acquired in 2017. Now Bram is using his startup mindset and skills to help ambitious organisations and their operators to establish the right mindset, workflow and environment for innovation.

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  Darya Yegorina

  New Growth Hacking Methods and Digital Digital transformation expert, AR AI Emerging Tech

  Darya Yegorina is a serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of CleverBooks and other ventures in multiple industries. Apart from being an entrepreneur, she has a massive professional experience from start-ups to multinational corporations. Darya's current focus is on emerging technologies for education where she has the mission to deliver the most innovative Augmented Reality technology to schools around the world to create equal access to technology for kids globally. She is a professional speaker on a global scale representing women in tech and inspiring new entrepreneurs. Darya is the winner of Digital Female Leaders Award in the category Entrepreneurship in 2018, named as Innovator by Irish Times in 2018, awarded Young Irish Entrepreneur in 2016, featured in Inc.com, Forbes and other global media as the promoter and facilitator of education technology for the best future of the kids in the world. Darya supports and drives the following initiatives: Darya is Dublin Ambassador for Women of Wearables (https://www.womenofwearables.com/new-blog/wow-woman-in-ar-and-wow-ambassador-in-dublin-darya-yegorina-serial-entrepreneur-and-ceo-of-cleverbooks) Darya is Industrial Advisory Board member at TETRAMAX ICT technology transfer initiative supported by European Union: https://www.tetramax.eu/team/ Darya is an Ambassador at HundrEd (https://hundred.org/en/articles/hundred-ambassador-in-focus-darya-yegorina) Darya is a board member and co-founder at Eirmersive (Irish Immersive Technologies Association) MIT Ambassador Innovators under 35

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  Daniel Nay

  CEO of Metagame Studio

  Daniel is the CEO of Metagame Studio, one of the rising game developers in Romania focused on mobile free to play games. He has extensive experience in the technology field and first got involved into mobile games in 2004 at Gameloft, one of the pioneers of the industry. He then held leadership positions at Thales and Adobe where he built teams and delivered projects ranging from web products to safety critical applications before founding Metagame together with a group of industry veterans.

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  Iulia Porneala

  Manager of Product Management Festival

  Iulia is currently leading one of the biggest product management conferences and education providers in Europe and APAC, Product Management Festival. Before that she was Head of Product Management at the security provideр CyberGhost VPN, one of the biggest Romanian exits estimated at EUR 9.2 million. Prior to her work in project management, Iulia studied engineering and worked as a software developer. Some of her passions include hiking, cooking and technology innovation.

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  Aiste Lehmann

  Founder and CEO at re: event

  Aiste Lehmann is strategist, obsessive data cruncher and founder of re:event platform. re:event is a curated database of 1.000+ tech conferences and festivals in 80+ countries, providing event recommendations, insights and analytics in the increasingly crowded tech eventscape. Aiste Lehmann is also co-founder of TIDEA.eu, where together with a team she develops projects and evaluation frameworks to enable collaborative ecosystems for research-driven business and innovative research centres, and consults on topics of innovative business development and creation of new products, services or processes. She is the initiator of Researchers' Night in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the biggest edutainment event in the country since 2012, and deeply involved with European startup ecosystem as event advisor and mentor. In the free time she focuses on consolidation of scientific and entrepreneurial community in Western Balkans.

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  Dan Olthen

  CEO – Black Sail Games, Warsaw, PL

  Dan founded his own game development studio, early 2018 in Warsaw Poland, with the mission to not only create video games, but also to develop new technologies in the sector of game development based on neural networks. Dan is a part of the gaming industry since early 2007, being in production positions at companies like Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Bigpoint, Ci Games and others. His experience covers all aspects of video game development on all relevant platforms, as well as being a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Kajaani, Finland. He is an advocate for breaking the boundaries in technology and modern game design and continuously strives for cross industrial collaborations in order to broaden the horizons and capabilities of today’s and tomorrow’s technology and the way people interact with the world around them.

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  John Collins

  Director of Content at Intercom, Experienced Journalist and Editor

  John is the Director of Content at Intercom, the customer platform helping internet businesses accelerate growth. Founded in 2011, Intercom now has 30,000+ paying customers globally, has raised $241m in funding, and has over 600 staff at offices in Dublin, San Francisco, London, Chicago and Sydney. John is a former journalist and editor with over 20 years- experience, covering technology and business for publications including The Irish Times, where he held positions including Assistant Business Editor, Assistant News Editor and Health Editor. He now leads the team who produce Intercom's award-winning blog, podcast, books and social media.

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  Edial Dekker

  Product Management Leader

  Currently, Edial is an advisor and angel investor in several start-ups. With more than 10 years of product management experience, his expertise is product leadership and e-commerce. After graduating New Media studies in the University of Amsterdam, Edial moved to Berlin to start a digital design agency with his brother and two friends. After successfully working for clients such as Universal Music, BMW and others, they decided to focus their energy on their own start-up called Gidsy. The start-up was a marketplace for activities and got funded by Index Ventures, Werner Vogels (CTO, Amazon), Alexander Ljung (CEO, Soundcloud) and other known investors. Eventually, the start-up got acquired by GetYourGuide, a big European player in the tours & activities industry. After leading and spearheading all the mobile efforts at the company, Edial moved to San Francisco to join Eventbrite's product team. At Eventbrite, he was responsible for the core user flows of the e-commerce that generated more than 1 billion USD in gross revenues. Returning to Amsterdam, Edial became Head of Product at TravelBird, where he was responsible for all e-commerce touch points of the company, including revenues generated from apps, web and newsletters.

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  George Lemnaru

  CEO & Founder Green Horse Games

  George Lemnaru - CEO & Founder Green Horse Games. George is an experienced Romanian entrepreneur who founded 2 financially successful companies: Green Horse Games and eRepublik. While creating and scaling the 2-mobile gaming companies, he raised 4M euro investments and built games for more the 15M players. He is a serial entrepreneur focused on community based social games. He has strong experience in Lean Development, Freemium Business Models, Results Oriented Environment and Communinity Building/Management.

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  Sean Kane

  Co-founder of F6S, Startups growth

  Sean is dedicated to growing startups. He currently does this as co-founder of F6S, which is the fast-growing 3 million member strong global network of founders corporates and governments. He has led growth at tech companies like Bebo (acquired by AOL), Intercasting (acquired by Good Technology), mp3.com (IPO'd and acquired by Vivendi). He has also completed coursework at the Harvard Kennedy School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Meiji Gakuin Daigaku (Japan) and ITAM (Mexico)

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