As an Event Technology Consultant, Ade works with clients to assess, deploy and maximise the benefits of Digital Engagement and Event Technology to increase Revenue and NPS. His background is in Digital Product Management across Sales, Marketing and Service, joining the events industry in 2015. His Innovation role at Reed Exhibitions (RX Global) led him to take dozens of products through testing and implementation, including 1-2-1 meetings, lead capture, attendee tracking and indoor navigation. Ade now leads a team of consultancy, implementation and customer success specialists under his own Allenby Advisorybrand for a range of Organiser and Vendor clients.

Carolyn is CEO of Founders Forum Group, a global community and group of businesses supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys. Carolyn's remit includes Founders Forum's events portfolio and broader business network, which supports founders and disruptors via education, investment, philanthropy and professional services. This includes leading the relaunch of Tech Nation – the UK's leading growth platform for scaling tech companies, and co-founding the Miroma Founders Network. Carolyn also serves on the boards of 01 Founders, Grip, and Founders Makers, and RM plc. She has led London Tech Week for eight years and spearheaded the global expansion of Informa’s Tech Festivals to Africa and Asia.

Ewelina, hailing originally from Poland, uncovered her true passion when she settled in the UK in 2015. With a remarkable career spanning over 16 years, she has firmly established herself as an accomplished Event Manager, showcasing her proficiency in various facets of the industry, including hospitality, fine dining, and private parties. In 2016, she made a significant leap into the world of Tech, taking on the role of Site Event Team Lead for Meta's Community, Culture, and Engagement Team. Since February this year, Ewelina has been serving as a Global Event Manager on the Community Experience team at Meta. Her exceptional contributions were recently recognized when Meta X D&F was nominated in two categories and won the award for the Best DE&I Initiative for their GameOn hackathon, delivered across all London sites.

With over two decades of experience in the events industry, Josiah Taulbee has built a distinguished career supporting technology for some of the leading independent show organizers. His deep expertise spans multiple roles, giving him a unique perspective on the evolving needs of event technology. In 2023, Josiah founded GoLucid, LLC, a research and consulting firm dedicated to discovering event technology solutions. Through GoLucid, Josiah combines his industry knowledge with a proprietary matching system, helping clients find the right event technology tailored to their specific needs.

He founded EventMB (exited to Skift in 2019) and Showthemes, exited in 2018. 7 Million people read Julius' content in 2023, making him become a Top Voice on LinkedIn.

Julius has been named one of the most influential meeting industry individuals by many magazines and media for the past ten years. He has recently been awarded 2023 Trend Setter by Meetings Today magazine. Julius has conducted some of the most groundbreaking research for the event industry.

Over 300,000 event professionals have downloaded Julius' analysis and reports. Julius has been a keynote for events in 15 countries and for over 250,000 attendees.

Maria has over 12 years of passion and experience in events, media, and digital products. Starting at Informa as a Database Administrator, she advanced to Head of Events(B2B), mastering all aspects of event management before transitioning into Product Management, focusing on commercial growth and customer experience through event technology and new digital products. After 12 years with Informa UK working on global events, Maria relocated to Bahrain in April 2024 as the Exhibition Director for Informa’s existing luxury consumer shows and new launches in 2025. Known for her strategic thinking, passion for excellent customer experience and leadership, Maria drives commercial growth and ensures flawless delivery of market-leading events.

RJ leads the Global Event Technology and Product team at Bloomberg where he manages a team of digital event technicians, product and project managers to oversee an event tech stack responsible for the execution of 2,000+ in-person, virtual and hybrid events annually in over 60 countries and 200 cities.

He previously worked at Meredith Corporation (now Dotdash Meredith) as a Senior Product Manager, responsible for digital back end & front end product enhancements across 30+ brands, including People, Entertainment Weekly, Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens and Allrecipes.

Based in New York City, RJ began his career managing large scale, in-person corporate productions including product launches and New York Fashion Week.

Sally is Head of Digital Services at Conference Care, her specialism is the adoption of technology to enhance the event experience. She has been with the company for 9 years and her ethos is to be creative, knowledgeable, and thoughtful with insight and expertise in all areas of events, giving best practice and advice.

Holding a BA Honours degree in Information Technology with E-commerce, Thomas began his career at Dell Computers in the Global Accounts department. He then joined the Canadian startup PlateSpin, managing the Nordics and Benelux regions for their data centre virtualisation and consolidation solutions.

Following PlateSpin's acquisition by Novell, Thomas transitioned to AppDNA, where he played a key commercial role in helping enterprises discover, model, and manage applications for migration and virtualization. This startup was eventually acquired by Citrix.

Thomas continued his impactful career at Lakeside Software, where he was part of the founding team for the company's European operations, focusing on growth as the Country Manager for the UK & Ireland.

Currently, Thomas serves as the COO and co-owner of Evessio, a multi-award-winning event management software company that specializes in awards and conference solutions.

With his extensive background in technology and management, Thomas brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the judging panel of the Event Technology Awards.

With nearly 20 years of experience in the B2B digital media, communities, tech, and events sector, Vanessa holds multiple roles within the event industry. The majority of her time is dedicated to supporting the Financial Times, particularly FT Live, FT Forums, and FT Board Development Programmes, through strategic growth projects.

She also serves as a Board Advisor to Public Sector Network, assisting with their ambitious growth plans, go-to-market strategies, positioning, and customer retention initiatives.

In addition to these roles, Vanessa supports founders with personalised coaching initiatives. Recently, she launched Event Tech World, a community of event tech users who share real-life experiences of practical event tech applications, successes, and growth plans.

Renowned event producer and the founder of several pivotal projects that have significantly impacted the event industry in Russia. She initiated projects such as Eventcatalog.ru, Event.ru, Eventawardsrussia.com, and Gefforum.ru, each contributing to the development and enhancement of the event market.

Top Event Producer with experience planning more than 900 events around the world. As an Event Director, Zhanna collaborated with the international community of entrepreneurs at ClubFirst and the city center PARQ UBUD in Bali, Indonesia. Since 2022, she has been spearheading The Event Business Academy, a project designed to assist professionals from CIS countries in adapting to new countries, continuing their event careers, or starting their own event agencies.

Zhanna currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and four sons.