Gabriella Matyas-Kollar
Chief Operating Officer for Technology AT Morgan Stanley
Gabriella Matyas-Kollar is the Chief Operating Officer for Technology at Morgan Stanley in Hungary and member of the local Technology Management Committee. Previously she worked for a global insurance company as CEE Head of Product Development. Gabriella graduated from the Global Executive MBA program at INSEAD, studied in France, Singapore, the UAE and San Francisco. Her interest areas include innovation and emerging technologies, also, how we can make virtual collaboration and employee engagement work efficiently in today’s fast changing environment.
Lynda Girvan
Head of Agile and Business Analysis Practice AT CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd.
Lynda is Head of Agile and Business Analysis Practice at CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd. She is a leader, business consultant, trainer, agile coach, author, practitioner, and international speaker, and has over 25 years’ experience of adding value to organisations in both the private and public sectors. Her strength is helping organisations become adaptive through the adoption of agile behaviours and mindset thereby accelerating learning and delivery success. Lynda is co-author of the 2017 book, ‘Agile and Business Analysis’, a fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, Certified Scrum Professional (CSP-SM) with Scrumalliance.org and regular speaker and keynote speaker on agile and business agility topics.
Fanni Karolina Toth
Karolina, as a young teenager, led a weekly radio program in her native Hungary. Then she was a production intern at the local radio station while she was completing her degree in cognitive science at the University of Evansville. Now she is an internal coach at Coding Sans, a software development agency, while she also hosts the Level-up Engineering podcast, interviewing accomplished leaders in the tech industry from all across the globe.
Joseph Pelrine
Agile Psychologist
A quiet and reserved researcher and practitioner, Joseph Pelrine is considered by cognoscenti to be one of the pioneers and top experts on Agile methods. He has spent over 25 years defining and refining processes to help some of the world’s most well-known companies improve their ability to satisfy the needs of their customers. As a psychologist, his focus on people and his experience in applying leading-edge techniques from social complexity and psychology to process optimisation goes far beyond the domain of software development, and extends to the whole organisation. Although Joseph Pelrine often works as a consultant or interim manager, his preference is passing his knowledge on by counselling and advising individuals and organisations, often in the role of a CTO/CIO/CDO "whisperer". He conducts research in novel applications of psychology to agile processes, and is also a PhD researcher in psychology and psycholinguistics.
Talk: Data, not opinions: The psychometrics of team and organisational dynamics
Richard Dec
Head of High Performance AT Vega Factor
Rich Dec leads the high performance practice at Vega Factor and is a consultant, executive coach, public speaker and advisory board member. He is an expert at boosting performance and human outcomes for organizations, teams, and individuals. He brings cutting edge science-based approaches to implementing sustainable improvements in performance and culture across the globe. Rich received his B.S. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and executive coaching certification from the Teleos Leadership Institute. Outside of work Rich enjoys playing tennis, reading, and exercising.
Talk: The Science of Performance
Balázs Lóránd
Head of AI Development Centre AT Continental
Balazs is currently responsible for the AI Development Centre of Continental at Budapest, the biggest team in Hungary focusing on deep learning based SW development. He has 20 years of experience as a leader in different positions and at various organisations, where he was able to analyse the dynamics of management. In the last 8 years Balazs worked for various multinational companies and established different teams, projects in the field of machine learning. Servant leadership is the most important concept influencing his practice as a leader. Balazs also has a research background, he obtained PhD from the University of Pécs where he was responsible for several management courses. In the last few years, he was a visiting lecturer of Central European University.
Talk: Early seniority and organizational maturity
Damon Centola
Author & Communication, Sociology and Engineering Professor AT University of Pennsylvania
Damon Centola is a Professor Communication, Sociology and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group. He is a leading world expert on social networks and behaviour change. His work has been published in Science, Nature Human Behavior, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Journal of Soci- ology, Circulation and Journal of Statistical Physics. He is also a series editor for Princeton University Press, and the author of How Behavior Spreads, a counterintuitive theory for how social networks influence the spread of behavior. His new book, Change: How New Ideas Take Off and Take Hold, is a bold and paradigm-busting new theory about the complex way ideas and behaviors spread, and how to efficiently effect the change you want to see in the world.
Talk: Creating Change: How To Make Big Things Happen
Bernadett Bene
Java developer AT Morgan Stanley
Bernadett started to work for Morgan Stanley as a Java developer in February of 2020. This is her first workplace in IT since before graduating as a software engineer she worked in hospitality in the USA and in logistics in the UK. She successfully completed a reskilling academy in order to change her career into IT.
Magda Fabian
Software Developer AT Morgan Stanley
Magda currently works as a software developer at Morgan Stanley but previously worked for 4 years with kids. She worked as a nursery school teacher and taught English in a private kindergarten. In March 2020 she decided to change career and in October 2020 she started a programming school where she gained full-stack developer skills like Python, Java, React, CSS, SQL, and several soft skills like GIT, scrum, growth mindset and time management.
Nyari Samushonga
CEO AT WeThinkCode_
Nyari Samushonga is the CEO of WeThinkCode, a South African tech academy that operates in Joburg, Durban and Cape Town. As an Entrepreneur and Tech Executive, Nyari is passionate about seeing Africa take its place as a maker of cutting edge technology. She has accelerated the recruitment of women students to the point of parity within the academy. In her role as CEO of WeThinkCode_ she has driven effective initiatives to scale the impact of the organisation. These include doubling the recruitment capacity and launching a home grown curriculum that caters to the South African market. A Chartered Accountant by training, Nyari has previously operated as the Managing director of ThoughtWorks Africa, a subsidiary of the global software development consultancy, and a Manager in Deloitte's audit and assurance division operating in both Harare and New York. Born in Zimbabwe, she also lived and worked in the United States and Tanzania. A passionate cyclist, she is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Talk: Going the distance- navigating organisational growth when the journey is as important as the destination.
Jon Smart
Founder, Business Agility Coach and Leader AT Sooner Safer Happier
Jon is a business agility practitioner, servant leader, and coach. Jon is the lead author of the award winning and bestselling 'Sooner Safer Happier: Patterns and Antipatterns for Business Agility' (IT Revolution Press, Nov 2020) and co-founder of Sooner Safer Happier Ltd, helping large organizations deliver Better Value, Sooner, Safer, and Happier (#BVSSH) through the application of better ways of working, including agile and lean principles and practices. //
Jon previously was Global Business Agility Lead and Partner at Deloitte. Prior to this, Jon led Ways of Working globally for Barclays Bank, across an organisation of 80,000 people, founded in 1690, supporting teams to triple productivity on average. Jon and team won the Best Internal Agile Team at the UK Agile Awards in 2016. Jon has been an agile and lean practitioner since the early 1990s. //
Jon is also the founder of the Enterprise Agility Leaders Network, a member of the Programming Committee for the DevOps Enterprise Summit, a member of the Business Agility Institute Advisory Council, a guest speaker at London Business School, and speaks at numerous conferences a year.
Talk: Better Value, Sooner, Safer & Happier
These are lessons learnt the hard way, when improving ways of working across large organizations, in order to deliver Better Value Sooner Safer & Happier. Jon will share learnings so that you don't need to make the same mistakes!
Dawn Parzych
Manager of Developer Marketing AT LaunchDarkly
Dawn is Manager, Developer Marketing at LaunchDarkly where she helps developers ship code faster and safer. She specializes in the socio-technical aspects of technology and how humans are often the hardest part. Her career in tech has included roles with companies like Catchpoint and F5. Her mission is to make tech more accessible and inclusive by using straightforward language and fewer buzzwords. Dawn recently relocated from the pacific northwest to the midwest and she's slowly adjusting to life without mountains and oceans.
Crux Conception
Founder AT Crux Conception
Crux resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and has over 20 years of Law Enforcement (LEO), Criminal Profiling and teaching experience.
Law Enforcement experience: Homicide Detective, Criminal Profiler, Gang Unit Specialist Detective, Hostage Negotiator, Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Officer, School Resources Officer (SRO), Five years as a Special Agent with the DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND (DHS)
Crux, now retired, worked as a Homicide Detective, Criminal Profiler and Hostage Negotiator with the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Police Dept.
Teaching experience: Currently, Crux is an Adjunct Professor: Psychology, Business Psychology, Social Media Psychology, Criminal Profiling, Criminal Behavior, Computer Psychology, Sociology (Group Dynamics)
Education: Bachelor of Science degree; Criminology (Ball State University, 1994), Master’s degree; Forensic Psychology (Walden University, 2012).
Talk: Enhanced Methods to Recruit Qualified Minorities in The Tech World
•Necessities that make you distinct, skills that make you stand out. The diversities that make us rare and unique, if it’s your ethnic background, race, ethnic customs, religious beliefs, sex, sexuality, or form of individuality, may also be a cause of contention.
•Discover how to bring out that which is already within you and communicate, work with diverse individuals, and strike up a great conversation with one another.
•Also, this presentation will also contribute to your attendees fostering a positive change and cultivating a more inviting place of work.
•This presentation will discuss the impacts of diversity collectively, identifying what variety can be combined with how it affects a business.
•The presentation will assist with explaining what it signifies to be an inclusive place of work, offer comprehensive measures to assess best what degree one’s place of work fosters inclusion and diversity.
Allison McMillan
Director of Engineering AT GitHub
Allison McMillan is a Director of Engineering at GitHub. She's worn many hats including community builder at the University of Michigan Hillel, software developer, and Managing Director of a national non-profit. Allison also started a podcast about being a parent in tech, Parent Driven Development. She is an internationally-recognized keynote speaker and speaks on a variety of topics including experiential education for engineers, working remotely, and more. When she's not coding, you can find her encouraging her son's climbing skills, making faces at her toddler daughter, or pretending she has time to bake. Allison lives in the Washington, DC area.
Talk: Offsite Planning for the Faint of Heart
Amber Vanderburg
Founder AT The Pathwayz Group
Amber Vanderburg is a multi award winning international businessperson, keynote speaker, and founder of The Pathwayz Group. In 2016, she left her job in corporate HR to become the only female, only American, and only blonde Academy elite football coach for the Adidas Gameday Academy/Paris Saint Germain Academy in Bangalore, India. She worked with an international team of coaches to transform the organizational design, training development, and corporate culture to cultivate a higher-performing team. Today, Amber and The Pathwayz Group work with international teams that struggle with co worker tension, inefficient processes, and unmet performance expectations in an action focused approach to guide teams in the path to becoming more effective, more efficient, and more enjoyable.
Talk: How to lead change
Michael Nir
President AT Sapir Consulting US
Michael Nir, President Sapir Consulting US, is a team and enterprise agile coach; known for his passion, creativity and innovation; His Masters in Engineering and, training in Gestalt balance his technical know-how with emotional intelligence. Michael inspires people and teams to change, experientially and emotionally, while climbing the hill AND reaching the summit. The author of twelve books on influence, consumer experience, and Lean Agile project management, Michael delivers practical skills gained from eighteen years of experience leading change at global organizations in diverse industries.
Talk: Liberate Your Remote Team to High Performance How to revolutionize teams employing liberating structures to produce awesome results?
You will learn by doing:
• How to harness microstructures to instantly accelerate remote and hybrid team collaboration and trust
• Experience by doing unique and foolproof practices to enhance remote participation among individuals and teams
• Synthesize simple collaboration tools to influence in real-time high-performance team interactions
Bart den Haak
OKR Coach & Author of Lean OKRs AT Moving the Needle
Bart den Haak is an experienced expert in Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). As a coach and consultant, he has more than 10 years experience in applying OKRs and training professionals. He is the founder and CEO of “Moving the Needle,” helping tech companies to define their most critical Objectives. He has advised executive teams all over the world including Nike, ING, BinckBank (part of SaxoBank), Mural, Jampp, Mambu, Backbase, and Bol.com to use OKRs to their advantage. Bart specializes in Lean and Agile (software) teams to strengthen their current way of working with his revolutionary goal setting methodology: Lean OKRs. With his background in software engineering and Agile Product Development, he is positioned well to advise SaaS companies and their leaders on changing the way they operate for the better. Bart has recently written a book “Moving the Needle with Lean OKRs” that discusses how his Lean approach to OKRs can drive innovation through behavioural changes, empowering and motivating teams and bringing the soul back to OKRs.
Talk: Making OKRs Lean again
Linda Rising
Independent consultant
Linda Rising has a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in the field of object-based design metrics and a background that includes university teaching and industry work in telecommunications, avionics, and strategic weapons systems. An internationally known presenter on topics related to patterns, retrospectives, agile development approaches, and the change process, Linda is the author of numerous articles and five books. She was honored by the World Agility Forum in 2020 with their Lifetime Achievement Award.
Talk: Incentives: why or why not?
Alex Kudelka
Vice President of Sales AT Bitrise
Alex has spent the last 12+ years in early and growth phase startups, predominantly in SaaS. Before Bitrise he spent his time scaling revenue at Doodle while they made their breakout into B2B. Prior to Doodle he was an early employee at Algolia and managed their global BD team. His passion is deeply rooted in building anything from companies to lego sets, as well as french wine.
Talk: Scaling your revenue organization - what matters and what doesn't in the early days
Alan Watkins
Founder & CEO AT Complete
Alan is recognised as an international expert on leadership and human performance. He has a broad mix of commercial, academic, scientific and technological abilities. Over the past 24 years he has been a coach to many top business leaders and worked with the GB Olympic squad, coaches and athletes prior to London 20 l 2 and Rio 20 l 6. Originally trained as a medical doctor at Imperial College in London he worked for 11 years in the UK's National Health Service, in primary care in Australia and for a year in academic medical research in the USA. He ended up in Neuroscience research before leaving medicine to work with global business leaders.
Talk: Developing leadership teams - how to go further, faster
Dénes Kemény
Former Trainer and President of Hungarian Men's Water Polo Team
Talk: Lead your team to win
Jutta Eckstein
Coach, Consultant AT independent
Jutta Eckstein works as an independent coach, consultant, and trainer. She holds a M.A. in Business Coaching & Change Management, a Dipl.Eng. in Product-Engineering, and a B.A. in Education. She has helped many teams and organizations worldwide to make an Agile transition. She has a unique experience in applying Agile processes within medium-sized to large distributed mission-critical projects. She has published her experience in her books Agile Software Development in the Large, Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams, Retrospectives for Organizational Change, and together with Johanna Rothman Diving for Hidden Treasures: Uncovering the Cost of Delay in your Project Portfolio.
Jutta has recently pair-written with John Buck a book on Company-wide Agility. This book focuses on synthesizing Beyond Budgeting, Open Space, Sociocracy, and Agility.