CEO of nēdl, Serial Entrepreneur
Ayinde Alakoye is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of nēdl, his third live broadcast radio streaming venture. Ayinde was also the creator of the original iheartradio app served as a Speechwriter, Staffer, and Senior Message Advisor for Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, during both elections.
Founder of Capway, Author
Sheena Allen is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and creative architect. She is the founder of Capway, a neobank for those who do not fit into the traditional banking system, which gave Sheena the title of the youngest female in America to own and operate a digital bank. Sheena has been featured in various documentaries and publications, including Inc Magazine and Forbes.
Strategist, Author, Advisor on Emerging Technologies
Paul Armstrong is an in-demand speaker on emerging technologies, social technologies and strategy, and regularly advises brands like Coca-Cola, Experian, Sony Music, P&G, PwC and several technology start-ups. He writes a column for Forbes and also advises the UK Government on digital strategy.
Master of Transformation, Author
Chris is a master of transformation. His unique energetic approach challenges businesses to embed a dynamic creative culture within their company ethos. Brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Unilever, Sony, and WPP come back time and again as his results produce tangible returns on investment.
Founder and CEO of Seed&Spark
Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark. An advocate for equity inclusion in the entertainment industry (and the entire working world), Best regularly speaks at conferences and events about leveraging entertainment to build equity and sustainability for everyone, crowdfunding, and pitching, building equitable startups, and serves as an advisor and mentor to dozens of early-stage companies.
Futurist Speaker, Business Strategist, Bestselling Author
Daniel Burrus is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts helping clients profit from technological, social and business forces that are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities. The New York Times has referred to him as one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker.
Cofounder & COO of ShearShare
Courtney Caldwell is the Cofounder & COO of ShearShare, the first on-demand salon and barbershop space rental app. She is also an award-winning entrepreneur and tech founder and has spent two decades building winning teams in tech marketing.
Cofounder & CEO of ShearShare
Dr. Tye Caldwell is the Cofounder & CEO of ShearShare. Recognized as a tech visionary and industry pioneer, Dr. Caldwell’s mission is to help beauty and barbering professionals around the world maximize their earnings potential. He has worked in beauty for 25 years as a master barber-stylist, educator, and small business coach, offering his 20+ years of industry knowledge as a proven roadmap.
Executive Coach, Business Advisor, Transformational Life Coaching
Vish Chatterji is an accomplished business leader turned executive coach with a twenty-year business track record spanning multiple industries. In parallel, he has studied and practiced yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda (mind-body medicine). Vish coaches business leaders enabling more of their greatness to show up at work.
Former NASA Astronaut and International Space Station Commander
Dr. Chiao began his professional career as a chemical engineer, and his passion for space exploration led him to NASA. Following a stellar 15-year astronaut career, he moved on to leadership positions in entrepreneurial startups, applying his space experience to the business world.
CEO and founder of the GUILD, Serial Entrepreneur, and Super Connector in Silicon Valley
Anne Cocquyt, CEO and founder of the GUILD, is an inspirational speaker on entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. She speaks on how to start businesses, prototyping, building successful partnerships, and how to attract and retain winning diverse teams. She moderates and joins panels on gender bias in AI, product management, and technology trends, and teaches design-thinking workshops on building innovation ecosystems.
Bestselling Author and Entrepreneur
Mark Coopersmith is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, Fortune 500 executive, and educator. Mark has mentored hundreds of startup teams which have launched groundbreaking new ventures in sectors as varied as web services, consumer electronics, medical devices, internet-of-things, education, cleantech, fintech, and fashion.
Founder & CEO of PopCom
Dawn Dickson-Akpoghene is a serial entrepreneur and inventor with over 19 years of experience in technology, marketing, and business development. Her most recent ventures are Flat Out of Heels and PopCom. Dawn is a seasoned professional speaker, business advisor, and angel investor. She continues to be recognized as one of the nation’s top retail tech entrepreneurs.
Acclaimed Global Futurist, Trendcaster, NY Times Bestselling Author
Acclaimed global futurist, trendcaster, and best-selling author Dr. Shawn DuBravac sits at the nexus between innovation and disruption. DuBravac delivers pragmatic and provocative insights into the trends, technologies, and paradigms transforming business and society along with actionable strategies organizations in every industry can apply.
Professor & Global Leader in Tech, IP, Crypto Innovation
Professor Tonya M. Evans is a global leader, accomplished academic and administrator, and world-renowned speaker with over twenty years of experience in law, innovation, academia, and entrepreneurship. She writes, speaks and teaches primarily in the areas of intellectual property, blockchain and crypto assets, tech and innovation, information privacy, financial inclusion, and economic empowerment.
Award Winning Author and Speaker
Mike has developed a unique perspective from 20+ years working alongside world-renowned thought leaders. He is a leading authority on unleashing personal and organizational accountability. Clients rely upon Mike’s solutions to accelerate change, shape their optimal culture, flawlessly execute key strategies, ignite leadership capacity at all Levels, amplify employee engagement, and cultivate peak performance.
Educator, Author, Leadership Expert
David is the author of Paid to THINK: A Leader’s Toolkit for Redefining Your Future, a work for which he has earned comparisons to Peter Drucker, the father of modern-day management. Considered by some to be the “Thought Leaders’ Thought Leader”, he is known for replacing common leadership thinking with bold, proven, and sometimes counter-intuitive approaches to address leadership challenges and opportunities.
Disruptive Innovation Speaker, Bestselling Author
Jim Harris is one of North America’s foremost thought leaders, management consultants, and authors on disruptive innovation. With 20 years experience as a professional speaker and consultant, Jim Harris speaks internationally at more than 40 conferences a year on and is ranked as one of the nation's top ten speakers by Association magazine.
One of The Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales & Marketing
Bruce Himelstein is the Ritz-Carlton executive who transformed customer service for one of the world's most recognizable luxury brands. He is credited with leading some of the travel and hospitality industry’s most prestigious domestic and global brands during a 30+ year illustrious career setting the global standards in hospitality, marketing, and C-level executive management.
Founder & CEO of Bandwagon
Harold Hughes is the founder & CEO of Bandwagon – an analytics and identity management company that uses Blockchain technology to help teams & entertainers create more personalized fan experiences while eliminating ticket fraud. He has become a leader in the growing startup community in Greenville, South Carolina, speaking with entrepreneurs, youth, and his peers.
Intersection of Law, Innovation, and Pop Culture
Shontavia Johnson serves as a highly acclaimed writer, speaker, and commentator thriving at the intersection of law, innovation, and pop culture. She is host of The Shontavia Show and creator of the Brand+Business academy, teaching working professionals how to grow and operate businesses and build personal brands. She was the first African-American woman to receive full tenure at Drake University Law School and is the Associate VP for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Clemson University.
Chief Evangelist of Canva, Former Chief Evangelist of Apple, Bestselling Author
Guy Kawasaki is a bestselling author, former chief evangelist of Apple, and a former trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. Today, he is the chief evangelist of Canva (an online graphic design tool), brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz, and is also an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley).
Founder & CEO of Avisare
Sky Kelley is the founder & CEO of Avisare, an enterprise software marketplace simplifying the government RFP process to foster an inclusive ecosystem for small businesses. Sky found a need to help non-technology companies use technology to innovate their products and services. Her focus is on making technology simple and user-friendly with the ability to grow the bottom line.
Brand Marketer, Venture Investor, Startup Advisor
As a brand marketer, venture investor, and startup advisor, Dave Knox bridges the worlds of the Fortune 500 and entrepreneurship and is widely recognized as an industry thought leader.
Speaker, Author, Investor, Innovation Expert
Joseph Kopser serves as an Executive-in-Residence at the McCombs School of Business. Prior to that his company, RideScout, was acquired by Mercedes. He served in the Army for 20 years after graduating from West Point and Harvard. He was recognized as a White House Champion of Change in clean energy and won the U.S. DOT Data Innovation Award. Co-author of, Catalyst, he is an advisor for CleanTX.
Futurist and Bestselling Author
Tom Koulopoulos is acknowledged as one of the industry’s leading futurists. He is the author of ten books and founder of Delphi Group, a 25-year-old Boston-based think tank, which was named one of the fastest growing private companies in the US by Inc. Magazine.
Internationally Acclaimed Inspirational Performing Artist
With over 20 years in the Performing Arts - from Broadway to comedy clubs to high-profile television to commercials including a Super Bowl spot - Victoria Labalme helps people perform at their highest levels by awakening their hidden genius.
Marketing Innovator, Author, Founder
Max Lenderman has a pulse on the future so that you and your business can win today. As founder and chief creative officer, he is a pioneering authority on purpose-led brand building, experiential marketing, and large-scale advertising campaigns.
Employee Experience Pioneer, Globally Minded HR Leader
Mark Levy is a seasoned globally-minded Employee Experience Leader who has chosen to work for big-hearted companies and focus on how he can unleash the talents and passions of a company’s employees. Mark was the pioneer of designing the Employee Experience at Airbnb and most recently at Allbirds, showing organizations what is possible when you empower employees and rethink HR.
eCommerce Business Expert, Influencer, Coach, Author
Karl Lillrud is a best-selling author of 6 books, two times TEDx speaker. Also, He has been honored as one of the world’s Top 50 eCommerce experts, Top 30 eCommerce influencers, Top 50 speakers on online growth and eCommerce.
Karl Lillrud educates and inspires his audience on subjects related to online consumer behavior, internet-based business, e-commerce, and online strategies.
Hyper-Growth CEO, NY Times Bestselling Author, Venture Capitalist
Josh Linkner, who started his career as a jazz guitarist, has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He is also a deeply experienced business leader, venture capitalist, top-rated keynote speaker, and author of four books which include the New York Times bestsellers: Disciplined Dreaming and The Road to Reinvention.
EVP & COO of The Future Hunters
Erica Orange is Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms. She evaluates emerging social, technological, economic, political, demographic and environmental trends – and identifies the strategic implications of those trends for several of the most influential Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, and public sector clients.
Founder & CEO of EndeavorVR
Amy Peck is the founder & CEO of EndeavorVR, a leading global VR/AR (XR) strategy & consulting firm. Amy is a recognized thought-leader in the space and speaks globally on the future of XR.
General Partner of Backstage Capital
Christie Pitts is an inventor and early-stage investor at Backstage Capital and co-founder of Backstage Studio, currently leading Backstage’s global Accelerator program. She identified a passion for working with early-stage companies while working as Venture Development Manager at Verizon.
Executive Coach, Consummate Storyteller
Joseph is a thought leader in business agility and uses that expertise to motivate his audience to think of breakthrough ideas in their industries. Integrating startups with legacy corporations, running technology operations for the world’s largest payment processor, building a nationwide franchise organization has given Joseph the breadth and depth required of any executive.
Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Author, Mentor
Bill Reichert is co-founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, a well-known seed and early-stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Bill travels around the world giving presentations and workshops on innovation, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and technology trends.
Founder, Political Activist, Miss Black America
Ryann Richardson made history when she became the 50th Anniversary Miss Black America. The tech marketer-turned-founder and Diversity & Inclusion advocate spent 10 years building brands and culture for companies spanning early-stage startups to billion-dollar "unicorns" to the Fortune500. Her work earned her a spot as the youngest honoree on Savoy Magazine’s list of Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America, and set her on the path to discovering her unique purpose as a champion for underrepresented voices.
Gender Economist, International Keynote Speaker
Katica Roy is an ambassador for gender equity in the workplace and beyond. She is a gender economist and the CEO and founder of Denver-based Pipeline, an award-winning SaaS platform that leverages artificial intelligence to drive economic gains through closing the gender equity gap.
IBM Master Inventor, AI & Technology Expert, Author
Neil Sahota (萨冠军) is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations (UN) Advisor, Artificial Intelligence (AI) subject matter expert, Faculty at UC Irvine, and author of Own the A.I. Revolution. With 20+ years of business experience, he works with organizations to create next-generation products/solutions powered by emerging technology.
Technical Founder, CTO of Wallbreakers
Leah La Salla is the CTO of Wallbreakers, an AI-powered platform that enables companies to identify, evaluate, recruit, and retain the next generation of software engineers. As an inventor, she is best known for “hacking NASA” with a toaster (a toaster-sized neuromechanical unmanned aerial vehicle, that is!). La Salla gained a decade of experience in software engineering while teaching herself to program in an additional 9 languages becoming a polyglot software architect.
Serial Entrepreneur in Social Innovation & Systems Change
Dr. Astrid J. Scholz is a serial entrepreneur in social innovation and systems change. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Sphaera, Founding Director and Treasurer of XXcelerate Fund and the Founding Director and Treasurer of Zebras Unite. Astrid’s work focuses on democratizing innovation and capital to solve today’s wicked problems.
Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author, Strategic Consultant
A strategic adviser to CEOs and four-star generals, firms like IBM, PwC, and the US Dept. of Defense regularly seek his insight. As the CEO of BIZDEV: The International Association for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, and management consulting + market research firm FutureProof Strategies, he helps partners stay one step ahead of emerging trends – and drive growth around them.
Founder of Novoron Bioscience
Dr. Travis Stiles is the founder of Novoron Bioscience, which is developing therapeutics to reverse damage of the brain and spinal cord. A member of the Cherokee Nation, Dr. Stiles is a passionate advocate for diversity, equality, science and informed solutions to the world’s problems and speaks across the spectrum from innovators to policymakers to encourage the ideas and policies that will shape the future.
Entrepreneur & Innovator, Co-founder of Fast Company, Bestselling Author
Bill Taylor shows business leaders a path to go from now to next in a world filled with nonstop disruption. As a young entrepreneur, Bill co-founded Fast Company, the bold business magazine that redefined the genre and chronicled the tech-fueled revolution that transformed business and work.
Professional Trend Forecaster, Speaker, Author
A professional trend forecaster, speaker, and author, Michael speaks and writes about cracking the code of the future applying his unique framework of Ubertrends — massive waves that are reshaping global behavior.
Futurist and Innovation Expert, Bestselling Author
Nicholas Webb is one of the world’s top innovation strategists and futurists. As a professor, successful inventor, bestselling author and world-renowned innovation strategist, Nicholas brings the perfect pedigree and the best research to each and every one of his customized talks on the future, innovation, business, and healthcare.
“The Woz”, Co-Founder of Apple
A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for more than thirty years, Steve Wozniak has helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products the Apple I and II. In 1976, Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer Inc. with Wozniak’s Apple I personal computer. Since then, Wozniak has received countless awards for his technological advancements and philanthropic endeavors and is also a published author and co-founded Woz U.
Go-to Expert on Brand Leadership, Bestselling Author
Denise Lee Yohn is the go-to expert on brand leadership for national media outlets, an in-demand speaker and consultant, and an influential writer, authoring the bestselling book What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest.
