Name: NDC Sydney 2024
Start: 2024-02-12
End: 2024-02-16
Location: NDC Sydney

Aaron is a Developer Advocate at Microsoft. Having spent 15 years doing web development he's seen it all, from browser wars, the rise of AJAX and the fall of 20 JavaScript frameworks (and that was just yesterday!). Always tinkering with something new he explores crazy ideas like writing your own implementation of numbers in .NET, creating IoC in JavaScript or implementing tic-tac-toe using git commits.

Adam Cogan blogs at adamcogan.com and interviews for tv.ssw.com frequently. He is the Chief Architect at SSW, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner specializing in custom enterprise .NET and Azure solutions mostly using Angular and React. His solutions also involve Office365, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, and Power BI.

*Clients* - At SSW, Adam has been developing custom solutions for businesses across a range of industries such as Government, engineering, banking, insurance, and manufacturing since 1990 for clients such as Microsoft, CBA, and Aurecon.

*Scrum* - Adam is a Certified Scrum Trainer with scrum.org, trains developers in Australia, the US, UK and Europe, and contributes to scrum.org thinking. He consults with development teams on improving their scrum process through mentoring and being an SSW Solution Architect and Scrum Master. He has written many rules around Scrum best practices.

*China* - Adam has also run multiple consulting firms in China for the last 12 years. Adam has seen the whole Chinese software ecosystem develop and understand the differences that the Chinese market requires in order to be successful. Adam helps western companies modernize their software, so they are not only servicing the USA and European markets, but also grabbing a slice of the Chinese market of 1.4 billion consumers.

*Speaking* - In addition to being a Microsoft MVP in Azure DevOps, Adam is one of only 3 Microsoft Regional Directors in Australia. In this role, he regularly presents in conferences such as TechEd (USA, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Malaysia). A couple of times a year, he visits Microsoft headquarters in Seattle to learn the latest on Microsoft strategic directions and to undertake training in development technologies. His favourite Microsoft teams that he loves to work with are Nat Friedman’s GitHub and Azure DevOps team, James Phillips’ Power BI team, and Jeff Teper’s SharePoint team.

*Software Architecture* - Adam enjoys working with teams, improving their usage of Scrum and DevOps, reviewing the architecture of large .NET and Azure projects, while also taking an active interest in the overall User Experience (UX). He is also the founder and a mentor of SSW’s FireBootCamp, an intensive 9-week .NET training course where developers are retrained learning developer and architecture best practices.

Adam is an Azure Innovation Specialist at Microsoft. He loves helping organisations and teams deliver business innovation using cloud solutions (this year it's all AI, all the time). 

Adam is passionate about building awesome teams,  helping developers deliver more and love their jobs, growing technical communities and helping organisations understand where AI & the cloud can help them be successful.

Adam believes communication and agility lead to success: 'fail fast', inspect, adapt, have a lot of fun. 

Akanksha is a Data and AI Consultant, a Microsoft AI MVP and an international speaker. After studying Financial Maths and Actuarial Science at UCC, Ireland, she realised she wanted to work with people as well as numbers. As a consultant, she works with clients to help them solve problems by making more informed decisions with data. 

She is a firm believer of diversity and inclusivity. She loves machine learning, and that it is becoming more accessible to everyone. She is an avid advocate for women in STEM and is currently the network director of Women Who Code Melbourne and advisory board member for Tech Diversity Lab - Kaleida.

Amy is a business owner,  senior developer, mentor and international conference speaker. She has a passion for sharing knowledge with the community with a focus on nurturing the next generation of developers. This has led to her organising and volunteering at events, running technical workshops, and writing and producing her own video content. She also regularly presents and keynotes at events all over the world, informing and entertaining audiences from a variety of industries and backgrounds.

A familiar face in the developer community Amy volunteers her time with several groups, including DDD Perth as Vice Chair and Director of Conference Content, Perth Azure User Group as one of the organising team and She Codes as a regular mentor. These contributions are not unnoticed, as she’s been recognised as a Microsoft MVP and a Twilio Champion since 2019 for her contributions to the tech community and ongoing commitment to helping those around her.

Anders Lybecker is a Principal Software Engineering Lead at Microsoft. He has over 20+ years of experience as an architect and has worked with some of the biggest accounts at Microsoft such as VW, WHO, Vestas, NHS, Nokia… He is a former Global Black Belt IoT specialist and Technical Evangelist at Microsoft.

Anders specializes in digital transformation through cloud technologies, software, and process optimization. His passion is sustainability through green software saving the world one system at a time.

Anjuan Simmons is a technologist with a successful track record of delivering technology solutions from the user interface to the database. He is an energetic and informative speaker who presents at conferences, seminars, schools, and community centers around the world on topics including Agile software development, diversity, and leadership. Anjuan has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Texas A&M University.

Anton is a Front-End Developer, speaker and community organiser. He is passionate about clean, structured code, web standards, accessibility and optimisation. He prides himself on delivering robust, high quality and beautiful solutions. Anton co-organises Fenders Front-End Developer meetup and DDD Perth. Anton has also volunteered as a mentor introducing others to the world of coding.

Arafat Tehsin is a Solution Architect at EY and Microsoft MVP (AI) based in Sydney, Australia. He has a passion for solving complex business problems using innovative technologies and delivering high-quality solutions. He has more than a decade of software development experience with a specialization on digital transformation and business automation. He has worked with Global SIs of Microsoft and developed some next-gen solutions using Azure AI and .NET with the empowerment of our business users by Power Platform and more.

Arafat co-founded Global AI - The Podcast, which talks about everything around Microsoft AI with guests from different backgrounds and domains. He is also a speaker at various developer conferences, such as NDC Sydney, Global AI Bootcamp and THAT Conference, where he shares his insights on building next-gen solutions using cutting-edge Microsoft technologies. Arafat is always keen to learn new things and explore new possibilities in the field of Applied AI.

Aurora Walberg is a full-stack cloud developer from Norway. She is skilled in multiple technologies and domains such as React, Angular, .NET, and Azure, and has recently gained a great interest in web development specifically. She holds a bachelor's degree in Robotics and Intelligent Systems, with knowledge of engineering mathematics, robotics, algorithms, data structures, and computer architecture. After working for a couple of years at a financial technology startup, she continues developing as a consultant at Inmeta.

Ben Dechrai is a technologist with a strong focus on security and privacy, recognised as an MVP for his exceptional contributions to the community. Known for his ability to distil complex technical concepts into engaging, digestible portions, Ben empowers developers through a deep understanding of design principles, security considerations, and coding practices. With over two decades of experience in software engineering, security, and architecture, Ben is a published author and has consulted for companies and investors across numerous industries. He is deeply involved in the tech community, running technology conferences and workshops to share his expertise.

Brandon is a Microsoft MVP and a .NET Developer Advocate at AWS where he gets to work closely with the developer community to help fellow mobile app and cloud developers make 5-star apps.

Brandon previously worked at Xamarin + Microsoft where he focused on creating mobile apps in C# using Xamarin + .NET MAUI.

An avid mobile app developer, Brandon loves to code and has contributed to and published countless apps!

Bronwen is a developer based in Brisbane who likes to play with new technology. She is an organiser of DDD Brisbane, a Microsoft MVP and Regional Director,  WTM Ambassador, Coralus (formally SheEO) activator and wildlife carer who loves to travel the world and take photos.

Callum Whyte is a x4 Microsoft MVP and x6 Umbraco MVP specialising in building robust scalable solutions on Azure and the .NET stack, as well as websites with the open-source Umbraco CMS.

Away from his desk you can find him organising community events; from local meetups and hackathons, to global conferences and roadshows. He’s an active contributor to open source projects, a regular speaker at events all over the world, as well as co-host of a weekly YouTube series “UmbraCoffee”!

Chris is a Startup CTO Coach helping startups realise their vision and new CTOs flourish in their roles. He also supports executives & boards with strategic technology advice, and engineering teams with training, mentoring and consulting in architecture, quality, domain-driven design and test driven development.

He is a regular meetup & conference speaker (NDC, KanDDDinsky, Serverless Days ANZ) and to support teams using Domain-Driven Design, he recently launched https://contextive.tech & co-founded the DDD Australia meetup.

He is the technical co-founder of https://www.inloop.com.au, home of Australian Fintech success stories https://www.flexischools.com.au and https://www.lanternpay.com (recently acquired by NAB).

Chris Ayers is a seasoned professional navigating the dynamic landscape of technology as a Senior Customer Engineer on Microsoft's Fast Track for Azure team. With a focus on modern applications, DevOps, and cloud technologies, Chris brings a wealth of experience to the table. He co-leads the DevOps Category within the Fast Track Team, driving initiatives forward with expertise honed from past roles leading Azure and DevOps practices.

Chris's extensive background spans various technical domains, including software development, architecture, and cloud solutions. From his early days tinkering with code in 2nd grade to assuming roles as a Consultant, Cloud Architect, and beyond, he has always been driven by a passion for learning and sharing industry best practices.

Outside of his professional endeavors, Chris is a devoted father and an unabashed nerd. Whether he's speaking at international events, delving into the latest technology trends, or immersing himself in gaming adventures, his enthusiasm for exploration knows no bounds.

Connect with Chris through his website, blog, and social media channels to follow his journey and tap into his insights on technology, agile practices, and more.

Craig is a Software Engineer from New Zealand, currently travelling the world, freelancing, teaching and consulting! He's an Angular GDE, and he loves using all kinds of technologies to build cool things that help teams build cool things!

Damian Edwards is a Principal Program Manager on the ASP.NET team, responsible for the core ASP.NET runtime and Web Forms. He's also an active open source participant, as the creator of the Web Forms MVP and SignalR open source ASP.NET projects, as well as various jQuery plugins.

Damian is part of Developer Advocacy team at GitHub and loves all things DevOps.

Formerly a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft for 4 years, and prior to that a dev at Octopus Deploy (https://octopus.com) and a Microsoft MVP, Damian has a 20+ year background in software development and consulting in a broad range of industries.
Damian regularly speak sat conferences, User Groups, and other events around the world.
 
Most of the time you'll find Damian talking to developers, IT Pros, and data scientists to help them get the most out of their DevOps and MLOps strategies.

David is the Director of Architecture for NewDay, and the founder of Electric Head Software. Focusing on iterative software delivery, developer mentoring and cultural change - mostly working with London-based organisations.

He speaks about software design, culture, and ethics in technology - rounded out by an assortment of talks about software that probably doesn't need to exist but makes the world a little more fun. David has previously served as the chief coding technical architect for JustGiving and helped market-leading organisations including JUST-EAT, Trainline and Vodafone improve their technical capabilities.

David is a Microsoft MVP, has been part of the OpenUK Honours list for open-source advocacy, and is a twice bestselling author of children's books about programming.

You can find his open-source projects on NuGet and GitHub, follow him on Twitter @david_whitney, or check out his technical blog at http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/Blog.

http://www.electricheadsoftware.com 
http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk 

David Fowler has been at Microsoft for 13 years working on developer frameworks and tools in the .NET space. He's one of the creators of several popular OSS frameworks and tools such as NuGet, SignalR and ASP.NET Core. He's an avid open source advocate and developer currently focused on helping teams at Microsoft adopt .NET 5/6 and beyond.

Dennis is a Microsoft MVP and a veteran hands-on architect in the .NET space with a special interest in writing clean code, Domain Driven Design, Event Sourcing and everything agile. He specializes in designing enterprise solutions based on the .NET technologies as well as providing coaching on all aspects of designing, building and maintaining enterprise systems. He is the author of www.fluentassertions.com, a very popular .NET assertion framework, www.liquidprojections.net, a set of libraries for building Event Sourcing architectures and he has been maintaining coding guidelines for C# on www.csharpcodingguidelines.com since 2001. He also keeps a blog on his everlasting quest for better solutions at www.continuousimprover.com. You can reach him on Twitter through @ddoomen and on Mastodon through @ddoomen@mastodon.social.

Donna has 20+ years’ experience working in the IT industry. She is the CEO of SHOUTOUT, a simple recognition program helping organisations retain their talent and a Manager at Amazon Web Services running untapped talent programs across APJ and EMEA including the global CloudUp for Her program. 

With an MBA and MHRM, Donna is an international conference speaker and regular panelist on culture, talent development, diversity, leadership topics. She is an author and a WA Business News, 40 under 40 award winner for the Professional Services category.



Duncan is a principal frontend engineer for zware.com.au. He works with enterprise and government agencies helping build awesome frontend experiences. If he is not coding he is likely climbing a cliff somewhere around the world.

Eli has been in tech since being released back into the wild from studying maths at university 7 years ago. They've spent their time working in industries ranging from telecoms to biotech to analog circuit design, continually getting nerd-sniped along the way. These days, they're a freelancer who speaks at conferences, runs  workshops, and learns whatever they want. In their spare time, they like to play video games, knit and sew, and hang out with their cat.

Espen is a developer and architect with over 25 years of experience. He has worked on everything from embedded systems, electronics and games to large scale cloud applications. He is as full-stack as they come. Espen started coding at age six on a C64, and has been cranking out software ever since. 

He served as the principal architect, tech lead and lead security 
engineer on the compensation scheme for Covid-19 suffering 
businesses released by the Norwegian government. 

Espen was the Senior VP of Technology Exploration for DNB in San Fransisco and is currently doing technology and security research in DNB NewTechLab.

George Coldham is a Cloud Security Architect - Cyber Security @ Microsoft ANZ. Curious, courageous and kind he is excited to look at the intersection of technology with humanity exploring those things that make us happy or sad, excited or hopeful.

A lifelong educator he spends his days sharing his knowledge of Microsoft Security with his customers, helping create safe and secure organisations. He mentors formally and informally helping young and disadvantaged people grow into happy and successful professionals. George speaks at industry events such as conferences and meetups, as well as in schools as sharing freely the knowledge his accumulated in his career.

George loves food, travel and music. His ideal holiday is either exploring somewhere remote, or a place with lots of yummy food to taste, live music, delicious drinks and good friends to enjoy it with.


Haritha Thilakarathne is a Microsoft MVP in Artificial Intelligence based in Melbourne. He is currently serving as a data & AI consultant. A hands-on geek when it comes to Machine Learning, Deep Learning and intelligent application development.  

Climbing the technology mountain and halfway up the side. Experience in .Net, mobile applications and more recently voice interface development. Dabbles in iOT & AR/VR. Focusing on coding for humans and choosing the right tool for the job.

Heather is a passionate coder and entrepreneur. She has experience working with Fortune 500 companies building enterprise level mobile and .Net applications. She spends her spare time at tech conferences supporting the growth of new developers of all genders, ages and backgrounds. When not coding, Heather spends her time as a competitive equestrian and learning the art of mounted archery.

Polyglot Coding Architect in London, founder of #ldnug, speaker, tabletop gamer, geek. Tattooed, pierced, and bearded. The 'guv' on @BrighterCommand

Isaac Levin is a Developer Advocate as well as a Microsoft MVP. He has over 10 years of experience working as a developer for the web, mostly in the Microsoft Ecosystem. Outside of work, he hosts a podcast called Coffee and Open Source where he interviews folks from across the tech industry as well as builds open-source projects like PresenceLight and GitHub Stat Tracker. He lives outside of Seattle Washington and likes to wind down from work with his wife Ariana and his 2 children Isaac and Avery.

Jason Taylor is a solution architect, trainer, mentor, and full-stack developer with over 20 years of experience. He specializes in developing, testing, and deploying custom solutions to the cloud using .NET, Angular, Blazor, and Azure. Jason loves a challenge and is skilled at progressing from a simple proposal into a well-defined, coded, and tested solution.

Jernej Kavka (JK) is a Microsoft AI MVP, SSW Solution Architect, and organizer of several user groups like AI Hack Days and Global AI The Podcast. JK is a full-stack .NET developer, but his passion lies in Azure Cognitive Services, AI and machine learning. He is the main architect behind SSW's virtual receptionist - SophieAI: https://sswsophie.com

He is also very active in the developer community and enjoys speaking at conferences like NDC, DDD, as well as User Groups and Hack Days.

Jess is a Senior Software Engineer at Hireup, where she works on a platform that connects thousands of Australians with a disability to local support workers. Having worked in government,  not-for-profit health, and accessibility, Jess is passionate about using technology as a force for good.

When she’s not writing, speaking or tweeting about tech, you’ll find her putting together lego or walking with her doggo.

Jia is a multifaceted individual, an endurance athlete, climate change educator, community volunteer, TEDx speaker, and multi-award winner. Jia works at Microsoft as a solution architect, bringing together Cloud Computing, Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Environmental Sustainability to accelerate technology adoption for Australian Federal Government. She possesses a curious mind fuelled by endless ideas and boundless possibilities.

Jimmy is the creator and maintainer of the popular OSS libraries AutoMapper and MediatR, and the originator of Vertical Slice Architecture. Jimmy is an independent software consultant based in Austin, TX. Jimmy has received the "Microsoft Most Valuable Professional" (MVP) award every year since 2009.

Jo is a DevRel Engineer at Deno. She is passionate about improving developer experience, teaching good use of the web and building sparkly, wearable, internet connected tech. She mentors junior developers, advocates a lot for mental health awareness and is devoted to improving the diversity and inclusivity of the tech industry.

Jonathan, or J as he's known to friends, is a husband, a father, and the owner of Trailhead Technology Partners, a custom software consulting company with employees all around the world. He is also a Microsoft MVP in .NET and frequently speaks at software meetups and conferences. He doesn't mind too much because he loves sharing what he’s learned, and it also gives him an excuse to visit any nearby National Parks, a passion of his, proven by the fact that he's currently made it to 56 of the 63 parks.

J also has a passion for building community and has served on several non-profit boards over the years as a result. Currently, J sits on the SoftwareGR board, a non-profit trade organization dedicated to building the software industry in West Michigan. He also runs Beer City Code, a software conference, and has served as president on that board for over a decade. J loves hiking, reading, photography, and trying to see all the best picture nominees before the Oscars ceremony.

Dr. Kyle Kotowick is the founder of a Canadian consulting and development firm focusing on cloud infrastructure, security, and Internet-of-Things implementations for high-growth clients. He completed his Ph.D. in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, joint with the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has served as a consultant, systems architect, and developer for global firms, startups, and universities; as a project lead for military medical and communication technology; and as a researcher for military navigation systems and for life support systems in space. He specializes in working with both startups and enterprise clients to define requirements and explore possible solutions, as well as in leading the development of project architecture, cloud services, and back-end software.

Laila Bougria is a Solutions Architect and Engineer with over 15 years of experience in the Microsoft .NET space. She's a keynote speaker, a Microsoft Azure MVP, and frequently shares her knowledge and insights at conferences worldwide. Currently, Laila is busy building NServiceBus at Particular Software and solving distributed riddles. When she's not immersed in complex problems or code, Laila enjoys indulging in her favorite pastime - knitting! She finds that tangling the yarn into beautiful patterns helps untangle her thoughts.

Lars is a Principal Magician with Arkahna in Australia, an author, trainer, Microsoft Azure MVP, community leader, aspiring YouTube host and part time classic car collector. He is heavily involved in the space of cloud computing services, especially Azure, and is a published author, solution architect and writer for numerous publications. He has been a part of the software development community for the past 20 years and co-organises the DDD Melbourne community conference, organises developer events with Microsoft, and also runs a part time car restoration business. He has spoken at numerous technical events around the world and is an expert in Australian Outback Internet.

Laura Bell Main is recognized as a global leader in developing secure software. As the CEO of SafeStack, a leading secure development education platform, she helps software development leaders worldwide engage their entire team in cyber security. She is the co-author of "Agile Application Security" (O’Reilly Media) and "Security for Everyone" (Holloway). 

Her work has been featured in many international publications, including WIRED and MIT Tech Review. She has presented at BlackHat USA, and RenderATL, as well as leading international software development and cyber security conferences.

Luke is a Software Engineer at SSW, an expert in .NET and Clean Architecture. With a passion for sharing knowledge, he loves educating the developer community with thought-provoking blogs at lukeparker.dev, covering hot topics for the modern Microsoft developer.

As a local Brisbane Full Stack User Group organizer and presenter, he's all about creating thriving tech communities. 🤝

Luke is super excited about the future of cross-platform web, desktop, and mobile development using .NET through Blazor and .NET MAUI Hybrid. 📱🖥️

With vast experience in Agile methodologies, Luke helps teams deliver high-quality software as a Certified Scrum Master. He utilizes the Scrum framework to boost team efficiency, ensuring they deliver value to customers and continuously improve their processes. 🏃‍♂️📈

Adept at cutting through the noise, Luke quickly identifies and resolves issues using his no-nonsense approach. He's a fantastic communicator with a keen eye for business value. A natural leader, Luke is constantly looking for ways to improve the team's processes and culture.

Luke loves contributing to Open Source projects, always pushing the boundaries of what's possible with .NET. 🔧💡

Hire Luke to bring innovation and expertise to your team today! 🌟🚀

Mads is the Lead Designer of C# and an Architect at Microsoft. He's worked on C# since 2005, and on programming languages for quite a bit longer. 

Mads Wilson is an entrepreneur and space enthusiast with a strong background in programming, data-driven marketing, and electronics. Over a two decades, he has supported various organizations in creating customer-oriented systems and processes and served as a board member for several startups. Mads is an active member of Copenhagen Suborbitals, a volunteer-based organization committed to human spaceflight using readily available technology.

Copenhagen Suborbitals has achieved significant recognition since its inception, receiving accolades such as The Breitling Milestone Award by FAI and the Danish "Ellehammer Award," named after modern aviation pioneer J.C. Ellehammer.

As a member of Copenhagen Suborbitals, Mads has contributed to the development of electronic components for their rockets, managed aeronautics education programs, and participated in several rocket launches as a Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO). His diverse experience places him among the few individuals with hands-on experience in both building and launching rockets.

Magnus Mårtensson is an entrepreneur, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Azure since the start of the cloud, and a Microsoft Regional Director (RD). He is a consultant, architect, product development lead, and he runs his own company Loftysoft. As an international speaker Magnus travels the world to teach, network, learn, and experience. His passions include connecting with audiences and organizing conferences such as CloudBurst and GlobalAzure. He is of course also very into good food, wine, and great company. Topping it all is mind-sharing, so when you see him at a conference, come over and say hi!

Mandy is a multiple award-winning Front End Developer, previously Engineering Manager for the news organisation Seven West Media in Western Australia, she now works as a Staff Software Engineer at Hireup. She speaks at conferences and events locally and internationally sharing her work and experiments with new and old technology. 


Mandy is an avid supporter of local communities and a strong advocate for women in technology, volunteering at events across Australia. She is the Founder and Organiser of Fenders a local Perth meetup for Front End Developers, previously Director of Mixin Conf, a Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies, a Microsoft Regional Director and in its inaugural year, in 2018, was named one of the Top 20 Women in Tech in Western Australia.


Matt is a Solution Architect, Scrum Master, public speaker, author and trainer.

Matt loves making things and uses that passion to fuel his work with .NET, EF / EF Core, Xamarin, .NET MAUI, Azure and Blazor.  Matt (author of .NET MAUI in Action) regularly presents at the .NET User Group in 3 states, has hosted SSW's Xamarin Hack Day and MAUI Hack Day, has presented at the .NET Superpowers Tour, and regularly co-hosts SSW's Clean Architecture Superpowers and Clean Architecture Workshop. Matt has also presented at NDC Sydney.

Drawing on a combination of hands-on experience and enterprise governance practices, Matt is able to make connections between business and technology to deliver user and business focused outcomes.

Matt has worked in IT for 15 years, and in addition to his development work has a background in infrastructure and management and consulting.

Michael is a developer keen on the people side of things. He loves pairing, and in particular with people new to writing software. He especially likes driving software out with tests and directing the evolution of the design. In his spare time he does a bit of running, camping and watching any one of his 4 kids excel above anything he ever managed to achieve.

Michael is a member of the GraphQL technical steering committee, a Microsoft MVP, and the author of the Hot Chocolate project (https://github.com/ChilliCream/hotchocolate), a platform for building GraphQL servers and clients in .NET. This open-source project has been his main focus for the last couple of years. 

Apart from his work in the open-source community, Michael works as a consultant to help companies move to GraphQL. You can tune into the Hot Chocolate project on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chillicream

Follow me on GitHub: https://bit.ly/michaelGitHub
Follow me on Twitter: https://bit.ly/michaelTwitter
Connect on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/michaelLinkedIn
Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtube.chillicream.com
MVP: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5003672

Michael Tjalve is Chief AI Architect on the Tech for Social Impact team in Microsoft Philanthropies where he works with nonprofits and humanitarian organizations around the world on building technology solutions that help them amplify their impact and address some of today’s biggest societal challenges. He's Assistant Professor at University of Washington where he teaches AI in the humanitarian sector and ethical innovation and he serves as tech advisor to Spreeha Foundation and World Humanitarian Forum.

Michaël Hompus is an Architect and Area Lead at Info Support.

As architect he is part of several teams, realizing new and innovative solutions, preferable using the Microsoft Cloud.
Michaël has many years of development experience with dotnet, Java, Azure, DevOps, Office and Dynamics 365.

His passion is to share knowledge, with colleagues, customers, and peers.
Microsoft has recognized his efforts for the community by awarding him a Microsoft MVP award.

I live at the heart of the coding community and help drive awareness and engagement as a developer advocate and technology evangelist. I present at around 50 Conferences and Events around the world each year on AI, Azure, GitHub, Open Source, GameDev and LinkedIn (Including NDC Oslo, London, Copenhagen, Porto, Melbourne; Techorama BE & NL; DDDPerth; GCAP; Google Dev Fest, MS TechReady, MS GeekReady, MS Ignite etc). I judge hackathons and encourage the next generation into technology careers. In 2023 I became the host of the Microsoft ANZ web show - New Breakpoint, which is a show for developers by developers. I am also a co-organiser for the Rust Perth Community Group. I was the #1 Microsoft Social Seller (highest engagement) on LinkedIn for several years and remain #1 SSI rank in team, top 1% in industry and top 1% in network. I run the Microsoft Student Accelerator Program for ANZ encouraging emerging developers to build on Azure.

I'm a multi-talented personality in the tech and gaming communities. As a developer advocate 🥑, get to create awesome experiences and engage with the vibrant GitHub developer community. I've spoken at over 250 events on topics like AI, the future of work, communication, teamwork, and have given technical demos. I'm a respected leader in the hackathon community, having won, organised, and mentored over 100 hackathons.

I have founded several tech companies—including an AI company, and an escooter business—and, as a result, sits at the forefront of Melbourne’s science, tech, esports and startup scenes. In my 'spare' time I'm a streamer, journalist, and always working on something exciting ⚡ So catch me at an event or streaming on Twitch!

A developer, business owner, consultant, cloud architect, Microsoft Azure MVP and an online instructor, Mike Benkovich is an alumni of Microsoft from 2004 to 2012 where he helped build developer communities across the US, thru work on Microsoft Across America, MSDN Events, MSDN Webcasts, DPE and Channel 9. He's helped to create and grow developer conferences and user groups in various cities across the US. While at Microsoft he helped create the Azure Boot Camp events that were run in cities across the US and at PDC and TechEd before it was transferred to the community. In 2009 he started a Toastmaster club for Geeks called TechMasters in Minneapolis where we still grow speakers for Conferences. He's a LinkedIn Learning Instructor for Azure, have developed many online courses. Mike actively works in Azure Cloud Governance, DevOps, Application Architecture and Software Delivery consulting.

What fascinates us, engages us and what engages us, helps us to learn.

Stories told with enthusiasm build connections. They build trust and help us interact with greater engagement and creativity for stronger technical solutions.

Nelly Sattari loves problem-solving and is passionate about driving minds to engage with technology. She is a software engineer and Tech Engineering Manager based in Sydney, Australia and has spent her entire career involved in the IT industry.

Her focus is building teams who create modern applications, and she is indebted to her full-stack development background and the knowledge she gained there. 
Also, she leveraged the synergistic effect of her technical skills and leadership abilities to lead the inclusive, local IT communities that are her favourite playground and where she facilitates knowledge-sharing platforms, supports user groups and nurtures beginner expertise, while steering clear of buzzwords for a more practical and tangible approach. 
That combination led her to be awarded as Microsoft Azure MVP (Most Valuable Professional) four consecutive times. 

Come and join Nelly in an armchair-like, story-focused conversation to unpack familiar, yet often undiscussed, problems that will unveil new and thought-provoking solutions.

@nelly_sattari

linkedin.com/in/nsattari

Nick works with product and technology leaders to map strategy, model domains, design architecture and build continuous delivery teams while helping to deliver successful business outcomes. He is the author of Architecture Modernization (Manning), and Principles and Practices of Domain-Driven Design (Wrox).

Nick currently runs Built to Roam which focuses on building rich mobile applications. Nick has been identified as a Microsoft MVP in recognition of his work and expertise with the Windows platform. He is still an active contributor in the device application development space via his blog at http://nicksnettravels.builttoroam.com. 

Pete Gallagher is a Full-Stack Manager at Avanade UK, a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Azure MVP, Pluralsight Author, experienced public speaker and Meetup organiser. 

He has been creating software for decades and is happy programming in just about any language. 

Pete has been involved in a wide span of tech in his many years of industry experience, including IoT Projects for; Royal Mail Stamp Vending before there was such a thing as modern IoT, Building Monitoring Systems, Internet Connected Self Service Kiosks, Wildlife Protection and Ecology in Africa and much more.

He has presented internationally on a wide variety of IoT Topics, including the Azure IoT Stack, AI, Robotics, .NET, DevOps, Amazon Alexa, Particle Photon, Arduino etc etc.

Pete helped create the Microsoft AZ220 IoT Developer certification and also has created Pluralsight content to help learners pass the exam. 

Pete also organises​ Notts IoT, co-organises Dot Net Notts, Notts Dev Workshop, sits on the Board of LATi, a Loughborough based Advanced Technology networking group, co-organises the Azureish Twitch channel, co-hosts IoTeaLive and is a co-host of the Agile Engineering Podcast. 

He is also an active STEM Ambassador and is passionate about making STEM subjects accessible to all ages.

Pete particularly likes gadgets of all kinds!

Phil is a developer relations engineer for DataStax and Google Developer Expert living in Melbourne, Australia. He loves working with JavaScript, TypeScript or Ruby to build web applications and tools to help developers. He once helped build a website that captured the world's favourite sandwich fillings. He has too many GitHub repositories.

Away from the keyboard, Phil listens to ska punk, hangs out with his miniature dachshund (also called Ruby), and is on a mission to discover the world's best beers.

Phil tweets at @philnash and you can find him elsewhere online at https://philna.sh. 

Phil Haack is a co-founder and CTO of A Serious Business, Inc. building serious products for serious people. Very serious. We are the creators of Abbot, a friendly ChatOps platform that makes it easy to automate tasks from chat.

Phil has over twenty years of experience in the software industry. Prior to A Serious Business, Inc., he was a director of engineering at GitHub and helped make GitHub friendly to developers on the Microsoft platform.

Prior to GitHub, he was a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft responsible for shipping ASP.NET MVC, NuGet, among other projects. These products had permissive open source licenses and ushered in Microsoft’s Open Source era.

Phil is a co-author of GitHub for Dummies as well as the popular Professional ASP.NET MVC series and regularly speaks at conferences around the world. He’s also made several appearances on technology podcasts such as .NET Rocks, Hanselminutes, Herding Code, and The Official jQuery Podcast.

You can find him sharing his thoughts at https://haacked.com/ or on Twitter https://twitter.com/haacked.

Richard Campbell wrote his first line of code in 1977. His career has spanned the computing industry both on the hardware and software sides, development, and operations. He was a co-founder of Strangeloop Networks, acquired by Radware in 2013, and was on the board of directors of Telerik, which was acquired by Progress Software in 2014. Today, he is a consultant and advisor to a number of successful technology firms and is the founder and chairman of Humanitarian Toolbox (www.htbox.org), a public charity that builds open-source software for disaster relief. Richard also hosts three podcasts: .NET Rocks! (www.dotnetrocks.com) for .NET developers, RunAs Radio (www.runasradio.com) for IT Professionals, and Windows Weekly (https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly).

Rob Richardson is a software craftsman building web properties in ASP.NET and Node, React and Vue. He’s a Microsoft MVP, published author, frequent speaker at conferences, user groups, and community events, and a diligent teacher and student of high quality software development. You can find this and other talks at https://robrich.org/presentations and follow him on twitter at @rob_rich.

Rowdy Rabouw is a Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies with over 25 years of experience in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. Currently, he is a Front-End Focused Senior DevOps Engineer working on Vue.js and Node.js projects with special attention to usability and accessibility. Rowdy loves watching superhero movies and Formula One races and enjoys riding his mountain bike to unwind.

Once described on Reddit as “technically challenged”, Sarah is a Senior Cloud Security Advocate working at Microsoft. She has lived all over the place but currently calls Melbourne home.

Sarah has been working in cyber security since before it was cool, has previously spoken at many security conferences including Black Hat and has co-authored a few Microsoft Press technical books. She is an active supporter of security communities across the globe and a co-host of the Microsoft Azure Security Podcast.

Sarah spends most of her spare time gaming, eating hipster brunches and high teas and spending a disproportionate amount of her income on her dogs.

Sasha has been hiring and leading specialist teams for 15 years in the areas of paramedicine, academia and tech. She is a passionate advocate for empowering individuals and leaders to amplify their unique skills and experiences for the benefit of their teams and their community. 

Scott is a software consultant and primarily does web development using ASP.NET Core and JavaScript. His second dev passion behind web development is building DevOps pipelines and automating everything automatable. He’s a Microsoft MVP, Friend of Redgate and co-organizes the Iowa .NET User Group. You can find Scott on Twitter @scottsauber or on his blog at scottsauber.com.

Scott Holden is a App Innovation Global Black Belt at Microsoft, focusing on Intelligent Application Development & AI within Azure. He spends his nights hacking away at a plethora of side projects, and has a strong passion for open-source technology, serverless stacks, physical and digital security, and going on random semi-educational rants about the state of cloud technology.

Scott is a web developer who has been blogging at 

 for over a decade. He works in Open Source on ASP.NET and the Azure Cloud for Microsoft out of his home office in Portland, Oregon. Scott has three podcasts, 

 for pop culture and tech media. He's written a number of books and spoken in person to almost a half million developers worldwide.

Selena is a full-stack lead engineer at Fresho in Melbourne Australia who is particularly passionate about TDD. As a self-taught coder with a background in management, she is well-equipped to mentor others. In her spare time, she is a nak muay ying, professional kickboxer.

Simon is an accomplished software engineer who, having worked on a wide range of internet-related projects over the past 25 years, has a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw upon.

Throughout his career, Simon has had a keen interest in developer experience, always seeking to understand how developers work and what tools and technologies they need to be successful. Simon is known for his hands-on approach, frequently tinkering with technology and experimenting with new tools to gain a practical understanding of their capabilities and limitations.

As a speaker, Simon brings an engaging style and ability to simplify complex concepts for a wide audience. He has been a frequent speaker at international community and industry event, including Microsoft Ignite. Whether discussing the latest trends in technology or sharing insights on developer experience, Simon is always passionate and insightful.

As a Principal Consultant at Arkahna and former solution Architect at Microsoft, I've championed successful cloud transformations. My passion extends beyond tech to diversity advocacy, fostering unconventional pathways into the industry. Unlock the potential of cloud transformation effortlessly. With 25+ years of IT expertise spanning cloud, DevOps, and consulting, 

🌈 Diversity Advocate:
I'm committed to inclusivity. My involvement with initiatives like the Microsoft Traineeships Program and the She Works Tech Skilling Mentor program reflects my dedication to diverse tech journeys.

📣 Join the Cloud Journey:
Let's simplify cloud adoption together. Whether you're new or experienced, this session unveils accessible cloud transformation. Let's make innovation achievable.

📧 Contact Me:
📩 BSKY: simone_au
🌐 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonebennett/
📑 Publications: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonebennett/details/publications/

Creator of Have I Been Pwned. Microsoft Regional Director. Pluralsight author. Online security, technology and “The Cloud”. Australian.

Wesley is a Coding Architect at Xebia in Belgium, where he helps organizations to build better applications, helps teams to improve their skills and organizes workshops to share his knowledge.

He's also a Microsoft MVP, crew member at Techorama, board member of the VISUG meetup in Belgium and speaker at conferences and meetups.

I'm a software engineer and cloud architect based in Melbourne, Australia. I have experience as a software engineer in the financial, health and agricultural sectors. I've also worked at Microsoft as part of their Azure CXP team.

My primary developer stack is .NET and Azure, and have enough knowledge on containers and serverless technologies to be somewhat useful. I'm also experienced with NoSQL technologies, such as MongoDB and Cosmos DB, and infrastructure-as-code, such as Bicep and Terraform.

I'm a seasoned conference speaker 🎤I've been lucky to speak at great events, such as NDC Sydney, Techorama, DDD Perth, PASS Summit and more!

William is a Solution Architect at SSW with a strong focus on building enterprise solutions on Azure and enjoys developing great software engineering practices for teams.

William is an active member of the Melbourne developer community where you can find him attending or presenting at user groups, hack days and conferences every time he has a chance!

Recently in his spare time William combined his passion for IoT and BBQing to build his own smoker that can track the temperature and doneness of his tasty treats.

My guiding principle is "AI for People & the Planet" emphasizing the positive and sustainable impact of artificial intelligence on both people and the environment.

Building data and ai community in Norway by providing an open-minded platform for genuine conversations. A place where ideas and opinions, success and failure stories are not just welcomed but celebrated, allowing for exploration and, when needed, thoughtful questioning.

Ólafur Waage is a Senior Software Developer working for Factlines in Norway. Previously he worked for many years in the gaming and air traffic control industries. His work focuses mainly on programming with C++ and TypeScript. In his spare time he unsurprisingly likes video games and puzzles but he also enjoys non-fiction audio books and it would be a very strange day if it were not filled with music in some way.

NDC { Sydney }

Speakers