2022 Speakers (view 2024 speakers here)
Venkatesh Kannan
Centre Technical Manager
Charles Leadbeater
Globally Renowned Innovation and Education Guru
Prateek Desai
Practice Manager - D365 and Power Platform
Ed Gillespie
Inspirational keynote speaker, writer, poet & futurist
Nigel Baker
Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Trainer and Director
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
Author, Consultant, Public speaker, & Designer
Lorraine Morgan
Lecturer, School of Business & Economics/Lero
Clare Dillon
Exploring new ways of working
Gearoid Hynes
Head of Product
Sharon Keane
Training and Development Manager
2022 Moderators
William O’D. Johnstone
CTO & Co-Founder RugbySmarts
Sarah King
Senior Software Development Engineer
Karl Gaffney
Senior Software Engineering Manager
Karen Conway
Vice President, Technology Management
2022 Programme
Monday 16th May
Ed Gillespie, Inspirational keynote speaker, writer, poet and futurist.
The carbon impact of the online world is growing exponentially, from the energy use of data centres to the footprint of cryptocurrency mining, as the climate crisis presents us with the almost practical impossibility of 1.5 degrees, what might a truly creative, non-linear response from the tech world look like, and how do we make it happen?
Ed is a former marine biologist who is now a director of Greenpeace UK, works on responsible leadership with the Forward Institute, is a serial green entrepreneur and practices what he wryly calls ‘insultancy’ – being strategically rude to clients to raise their sustainability ambitions. He travelled around the world without ever getting on a plane and wrote a book ‘Only Planet – a flight-free adventure around the world’ about his experiences.
Ed Gillespie is an author, communications expert, multiple entrepreneur and analyst of future trends. He specialises in helping audiences understand the complex changes facing the world – from climate change to disruptive innovation – and provide them with actionable insights for their organisation. His book, Only Planet: a flight-free adventure around the world (2014), records his circumnavigation of the globe without getting on a plane. The Independent said “[The book] allow[s] the world’s flaws and beauty to seep into your soul”. Ed co-founded Futerra, a change agency that specialises in business transformation and creative communications and campaigns. Over the last eighteen years, Futerra has built a global reputation for its impactful and award-winning work on some of the biggest corporate sustainability initiatives. These include Unilever’s “Sustainable Living Plan”, Mondelez’s “Coffee Made Happy”, and SAB Miller’s “Prosper”. Ed is known for his unique brand of authentic ‘insultancy’ – being strategically rude to clients, but with judicious wit and wisdom to inspire them to greater heights and aspirations. His attitude of constructive criticism helps audiences challenge their assumptions of business as usual, allowing them to open their minds to practical solutions and new possibilities. Ed is also actively involved in several trail-blazing businesses as a director or investor, from Zero Carbon Food, a renewable energy powered, LED-lit, hydroponic farm in a disused underground tunnel in South London, to Loco2.com – a pan-European rail-ticket agency that makes it as easy to book a trans-continental train as a plane.
Ken Power, Software Engineering, AI Technical Leader, Consultant
Prateek Desai, Practice Manager – D365 and Power Platform
A digital native, Prateek is the Practice Manager for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform at Storm Technology, where he leads a team of passionate consultants and developers in the low-code space. With a degree in Electronics and Telecommunications and a Masters in Information Systems for Business Performance from the University College Cork, Prateek has more than 10 years’ experience in the technology space.
During this session, Prateek will share his unique perspectives from his experience working as an engineer, consultant, and advocate of low-code platforms.
Venkatesh Kannan, Centre Technical Manager, ICHEC
Quantum Computing (QC) is seeing rapid growth in both research and businesses and is deemed to be the next big leap ahead in High-Performance Computing (HPC). Given a small yet strong and tightly knit Quantum Computing ecosystem in Ireland, this presentation highlights key engagements of Ireland in European and international efforts, and the opportunities that position Ireland to be one of the drivers in Quantum Computing.
Dr. Edward Curry, Established Professor of Data Science and Director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics
In this talk I explore the challenges semantics present to data integration, current approaches, and why we need to look for new paradigms to unlock value from data.
Edward Curry is the Established Professor of Data Science and Director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics and Data Science Institute at NUI Galway. Edward has made substantial contributions to semantic technologies, incremental data management, event processing middleware, and distributed systems. He combines strong theoretical results with high-impact practical applications. He has beren organiser and programme co-chair of major international conferences, including CIKM, ECML, IEEE Big Data Congress, and European Big Data Value Forum. Edward is co-founder and elected Vice President of the Big Data Value Association, an industry-led European big data community.
Sharon Keane, Training and Development Manager, Zinkworks
Looking at the technology and new concepts that are driving the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication and how it will affect the everyday End Users. 5G is making the world even smaller and we are seeing the drive towards industry 4.0 (4th industrial revolution) and this will drive new business opportunities and innovation.
Sharon Keane, Training and Development Manager with Zinkworks, Athlone
Software Engineer with an ambition for DevOps, Software Testing and Continuous Integration.
Working primarily in the Telecommunication domain focused in 5G cloud native application for Network Slicing and VNF Deployment and Testing.
“Curiosity is the tool that sparks creativity. Curiosity is the technique that gets to innovation.”
― Brian Grazer, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life
Freaky Clown (FC) Ethical Hacker & Social Engineering
FC is a well-known ethical hacker and social engineer. He has been working in the information security field for over 20 years and excels at circumventing access controls. As an ethical hacker and social engineer, FC ‘breaks into’ hundreds of banks, offices and government facilities
around the world.
FC has held positions in his career such as Senior Penetration Tester as well as Head of Social Engineering and Physical Assessments for renowned security companies. Having worked as Head of Cyber Research for Raytheon Missile Systems, collaborating alongside intelligence agencies, he has cemented his skillset and knowledge whilst helping governments take correct courses of action against national threats.
Now Co-CEO and Head of Ethical Hacking at Cygenta, he continues to perform valuable research into vulnerabilities. His client list involves major high-street banks in the UK and Europe, FTSE 100 companies and multiple government agencies and security forces.
His work demonstrating weaknesses in physical, personnel and digital controls assists organisations to improve their security. He is motivated by a drive to make individuals, organisations and countries more secure and better-able to defend themselves from malicious attack.
Outside of work he co-founded the Surrey and Hampshire Hackspace as well as the Defcon 441452 (Gloucester) ethical hacker group. He has been featured in books, international media such as the BBC, popular podcasts such as Dark Net Diaries, and regularly writes articles and blog
posts. FC and his wife Dr Jessica Barker were Guest Curators of the 2018 Cheltenham Science Festival and are keen advocates of cyber security outreach, for example supporting TeenTech and the Cyber Security Challenge.
FC demystifies security with his expertise, humour and passion, delivering popular keynotes at corporate events, conferences and universities around the world. He specialises in teaching people of all ages and abilities the art of security in an engaging and impactful way.
Tuesday 17th May
Tom Coleman
Tom’s passion is empowering people to easily transform their sleep, improve their health and upgrade their lives.
Tom Coleman is a qualified Health Scientist and holds an Honours Degree in Health Promotion & Public Health. Tom has spent over a decade speaking, consulting, and working with elite teams, coaches, and business in aspects of Sleep, Health, Performance & Recovery. Tom has worked in Sleep & fatigue management for the past 8 years, he has contributed to research, sitting on an expert panel in 2018 with other scientists like Professor Russell Foster from Oxford University. Tom has worked with the most advanced wearable sleep technology in the world, developed by US special Forces to analyse fatigue and sleep. Tom is also a founder member and Director of Remote Wellbeing, designing, informing and delivering a host of blended programs and solutions in corporate wellbeing with a particular focus on Sleep. Tom continues to consult and speak for a host of global multinationals on Shift Patterns, Sleep and how we can protect and improve our health through easy actionable insights. Tom contributes to press, media, radio and TV on how to improve sleep and protect health and is a regular member of the mind yourself now team on Today FM.
Booking for this event will be available soon.
Charles Leadbeater, Globally Renowned Innovation and Education Guru
Charles Leadbeater works with entrepreneurs, governments, cities and foundations around the world on to promote innovation with purpose.
His current focus is on systems innovation to create the systems of the future – for energy, food, mobility, ageing and care – to support more sustainable, inclusive growth. His is the co-lead of the Rockwool Foundation’s Systems Innovation Initiative based in Copenhagen, where he and a team are developing new frameworks, methods and tools for deliberate, practical systemwide innovation.
As a co-founder of the systems innovation agency Alt Now he is developing practical programmes for systems innovation, involving cohorts of participants over several months, to take on big shared challenges, ranging from the future of work to mental health and ageing.
Over the past ten years he has published a string of influential reports on the changes needed in education to equip students with the agency needed for a world of rapid transitions. In Learning from the Extremes he explored how way social entrepreneurs are using technology to create new approaches to learning in the poorest parts of the developing world. The Problem Solvers examines the skills young people will need to thrive in an uncertain, creative and entrepreneurial economy in which machines with artificial intelligence may well be capable of doing many routine jobs.
Charles has written and advised cities and regions extensively on how to promote economic, cultural and civic innovation to create more inclusive
growth. As a visiting Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose he advised the British government and the European Union on how to organize innovation to meet big societal challenges through his work on a commission on Mission Oriented Innovation. He is the author of several internationally renowned books, among them Living on Thin Air, which explores the rise of the knowledge driven economy and WeThink: mass innovation not mass production, which examines how the web was enabling creative collaboration across a wide range of fields. His book, The Frugal Innovator, is an account of how lean, simple, clean and social self-help innovations are providing new solutions in health, energy, water and housing in the developing world. He was one of the first people in the world to write about social entrepreneurship in his 1997 report The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur. The New York Times anointed his idea, The Pro-Am Revolution, one of the biggest global ideas of the last decade. His TED talks on innovation have been watched by millions of people. Accenture, the management consultancy ranked him one of the top
management thinkers in the world, and the Financial Times said he the outstanding innovation expert in the UK. He is a past winner of the prestigious David Watt Prize for journalism. Charles was an adviser to the Downing Street Policy Unit and the Department of Trade and Industry on the knowledge driven economy. He drafted the UK Government’s White Paper – Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowledge Driven Economy published in 1998, one of the first policy papers in the world to argue that advanced economies would become increasingly dependent upon innovation for growth. He went on to advise a range of government departments on long term strategy. He is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts in London.
In a speaking career spanning 20 years Charles has spoken to audiences convened by many of the largest companies in the world on every continent.
Brian Jordan, Head of Innovation & Industry Solutions, Cisco Ireland
Digital Transformation in Action: Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration Program
Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration Program collaborates with government leaders and industry to build sustainable, secure, and inclusive communities powered by ethical and innovative technology solutions. This session will showcase transformational projects from around the globe More than 1000 projects have been completed in over 40 countries that has made tremendous impact harnessing innovation and digitization to propel economic growth and social inclusion.
Brian Jordan is Head of Innovation & Industry Solutions in Cisco Ireland and now leads the Irish Country Digital Acceleration Program. With over 35 years industry experience, he has worked for major multinationals such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Nixdorf, Sun Microsystems, Dell and Cisco. His role focuses on helping customers on their digitisation journey by leveraging emerging and disruptive technologies such as IOT, blockchain and AI. As part of the Cisco Ireland Management Team, he is also a board member on the Public Services Innovation Advisory Board and Technical Vice-Chair of the Irish Digital Health Leadership Steering Group
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Author, Internet of Things Thought Leader, Entrepreneur
Alexandra is an author, consultant, public speaker, entrepreneur and designer living in London.
She wrote ‘Smarter Homes: how technology will change your home life’ (Apress, 2018) and her new book ‘Creating a Culture of Innovation’ is out later this year. She is the founder of the Low Carbon Design Institute, a residency for creative people focused on climate change. She ran the internet of things meetup in London for 8 years, one of the largest in the world and helped the community create BetterIoT, a free checklist to help founders and product managers make more ethical decisions.
She was the founder of the Good Night Lamp a connected product for global families included in the permanent collection of the London Design Museum as a key example of the internet of things. She co-founded Tinker London, the first UK distributor of Arduino, the open source electronics education platform that kicked off the maker movement. Two of her projects are in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York.
She studied industrial design at the University of Montréal and interaction design at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea.
Wednesday 18th May
Future of Software Development - ILAS Building, NUI Galway Schedule
This is a in person event dedicated to the future of software development. It will take place in the ILAS Building, NUI Galway, places are limited.
This is a in person event dedicated to the future of software development. It will take place in the ILAS Building, NUI Galway, places are limited.
Networking Breakfast
This is a in person event dedicated to the future of software development. It will take place in the ILAS Building, NUI Galway, places are limited.
Networking Breakfast
This is a in person event dedicated to the future of software development. It will take place in the ILAS Building, NUI Galway, places are limited.
Peter Elger, Founder and CEO fourTheorem
This is a in person event dedicated to the future of software development. It will take place in the ILAS Building, NUI Galway, places are limited.
Dr. Lorraine Morgan & Clare Dillon ‘How Inner Source can help new Digital Platforms’
Many organizations are eager to develop a digital platform. Yet, it is not clear how to realize this ambition, especially for companies with complex existing structures. This presentation demonstrates how the growing trend of “Inner Source” (adopting internal open-source practices within organizations) can help companies become more platform-based. We describe this new management concept – where it came from, what it means – and demonstrate its value in organizations. Building on several case studies, we explain how and why business leaders can bring the principles and practices of inner source to their organization to help them establish efficient and innovative internal and external platforms. Furthermore we will elaborate on a four-stage model that explains how Inner Source helps organizations develop these platforms, as well as detailing a number of recommendations for organizations wishing to follow a strategy of Inner Source-driven platformization.
Dr. Lorraine Morgan is a Senior Lecturer and Funded Investigator with Lero, (the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software) at the National University of Ireland Galway. Her principle research interests include open innovation, open source software, inner source software, open business models and agile methods. She is also Past-President of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) Special Interest Group on Open Research and Practice (SIGOPEN), the largest founding AIS group. Lorraine was also General Chair for the Open Symposium on Open Collaboration (OpenSym 2017) and the 8th Inner Source Summit (ISS 2019). Her research has also been published in leading journals and conferences including Information Systems Research, the European Journal of Information Systems, Database for Advances in Information Systems and Information and Software Technology, the International Conference on Information Systems, International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Conference 8.6 and 8.2 and the International Conference on Open Source Systems. In 2019, she was one of the recipients for the NUI Galway President’s Award for Research Excellence.
Clare Dillon is Executive Director of InnerSource Commons. Clare has spent over 25 years working with developers and developer communities. In 2021, Clare co-founded Open Ireland Network, a community for those interested in advancing open source at a national level in Ireland. Last year, she was appointed Executive Director of InnerSource Commons, a community of practitioners with the goal of creating and sharing knowledge about InnerSource: the use of open source best practices for software development inside organizations. Clare also helps organize the OSPO++ Network to support the establishment of University and Government Open Source Program Offices globally. Previously, Clare was a member of Microsoft Ireland Leadership Team, heading up their Developer Evangelism and Experience Group. Clare frequently speaks at international conferences and corporate events on topics relating to the future of work, innovation trends and digital ethics.
Shane O’Rourke Program Director WebSphere / Liberty, Application Modernization and Java Portfolio IBM
Panel Discussion: The Future of Software Development
Panelists: Dr. Lorraine Morgan, Clare Dillon, Larry Breen
Diversity & Inclusion
Jon’a Joiner, Head of Global Inclusion & Belonging at Genesys, is a seasoned strategist who knows how to adapt to change and crisis when the stakes are high. She is deeply passionate about the employee experience and creating equitable pathways to success. Her mission is to help organizations develop a resiliency mindset, strengthen culture, and create a sense of belonging.
Prior to Genesys, Jon’a spent several years as a corporate communicator, where she led total rewards, employee engagement, and diversity & inclusion communications, was a key thought leader for diversity recruitment and retention, oversaw business resource group councils, and partnered with HR to establish inclusive awareness and employee engagement initiatives across multiple campuses.
Most recently, Jon’a led her own consultancy firm, JFJ Group Consulting, where she helped organizations (such as Amazon, Louis Vuitton, Humana, Michigan State University, and others) develop tailor-made solutions to develop, engage, and retain women and people of color. Through her experience as a communicator, Diversity & Inclusion practitioner, consultant, and speaker, Jon’a has learned that the key to sustainability, employee well-being and success is to create actionable strategies that enable professionals to do more, be more, and achieve more – and bring their full selves to work.
Jon’a is a lifelong learner. She’s a graduate of Spelman College, Bellarmine University, and Cornell University. Jon’a is an Intercultural Development Inventory certified administrator and sits on the board of several organizations in the Louisville, KY area. When she’s not working or being managed by her 5-yr old tiny boss Zoe, Jon’a is thinking about her next wellness retreat getaway.
Thursday 19th May
Prof Jane Walsh, Director mHealth Research Group, NUI Galway
Trust and Technology terrorism in Medicine
Psychology’s role in the digital transformation of healthcare
We are living in the age of a Digital Revolution, where technology is pervasive in our lives and continues to advance at breakneck speed. Four billion people globally use the internet, and this number is rising. Although Covid-19 has accelerated widespread adoption of digital technologies in healthcare settings, this sector continues to lag behind. In recent years, key trends in healthcare technologies have emerged including the use of big data; virtual/augmented reality; wearable devices; artificial intelligence and robotics. These novel technologies have the capacity to completely transform the way healthcare is delivered. However, this can only be achieved through meaningful engagement with key stakeholders and if underpinned by behavioural science.
The WHO Digital Health Strategy (2021-25) aims to ‘accelerate the development and adoption of accessible, person-centric digital health to promote health and wellbeing’, thus signalling the importance of patient and public involvement (PPI). Despite this, there has been a growing sense of public distrust around data privacy and lack of regulation.
It is evident that health psychology has a key role to play in guiding the digital transformation of healthcare. A huge gap exists between the ambitions of new technologies and their acceptability and effective use. Many have been developed without an understanding of how to achieve health behaviour change, thus failing to achieve significant long-term improvements in health. This talk will outline psychology’s pivotal role in this complex task, by providing expertise on user-centred design, to guidance on motivators and barriers to behavioural change.
Professor Jane Walsh is a Health Psychologist and Director of the Mobile Technology and Health (mHealth) Research Group where she leads a programme of research on personalised connected health. Jane leads and partners on projects worth €10 million euro, including those funded by Horizon 2020, the Health Research Board and Science Foundation Ireland. Jane is the Co-Leader of the Health and Wellbeing Cluster in the Whitaker Institute and a member of the Irish Cancer Society Research Advisory Board. She is the former Chair of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) Division of Health Psychology an Associate Editor of the Journal Psychology and Health. Jane was awarded the NUI Galway President’s Award for Research Excellence (2020) in recognition of her work.
Adrian Fleming, Vice President, ESG & Sustainability, Diligent
Adrian will focus on his journey, what Diligent is doing and the Future of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG).
Eoghan Clifford, Senior Lecturer, NUI Galway
Wastewater’s cleanest secret: how data engineering can drive the next level of efficiency in the wastewater sector.
Eoghan Clifford is a chartered engineering and currently works as a Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering, NUI Galway. He graduated with a BE and PhD degrees (both Environmental Engineering) in 2002 and 2010 respectively from NUI Galway. His key research and educational interests lie in the areas of water and wastewater engineering, process engineering, fluid dynamics, hydraulic structures, sustainability and use of data to improve the design and optimisation of engineering processes.
Dr Rory Monaghan, Sr. Lecturer of Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering
Hydrogen is widely discussed as a solution to our energy and climate crises. But what is it? Why does its colour matter? And how might it fit in a zero-carbon future?
Dr Rory Monaghan is the Associate Professor of Energy Systems Engineering at NUI Galway. He is the Lead Investigator of the Energy Research Centre in the NUI Galway Ryan Institute, and a Funded Investigator in MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine. Rory leads the Energy Systems Integration Group at NUI Galway, which focuses on the modelling and optimisation of sustainable and renewable energy value chains, including green hydrogen, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and sustainable bioenergy. He is a lead researcher in a number of green hydrogen projects, including GenComm, HyLIGHT, and GreenHysland. Rory was awarded a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from NUI Galway, and Masters and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on clean hydrogen technologies.
Gearoid Hynes, Head of Product, Cityswift
Data driven public transport: How CitySwift are using machine learning to improve bus networks for passengers, cities, operators and the environment.
Gearóid is CitySwift’s Head of Product, where he defines and drives the product strategy. At CitySwift Gearoid combines his passions for technology and sustainable transport, while building on his experience across academia, multinationals and other startups.
Conor McGann, Senior Director, Software and Data Systems, Plenty
Conor McGann, Senior Director, Software and Data Systems, Plenty Conor currently leads the development of software and data systems at Plenty, an indoor vertical farming company with a mission to improve the health of people, plants, and planet. Conor brings over 30 years of industry and academic experience in the fields of robotics and AI to bear on the challenge of sustainably growing delicious, nutritious, and pesticide free fruits and vegetables at scale. Conor received his PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Trinity College Dublin in 1995. He has been a practitioner of Artificial Intelligence in academia and business ever since. He specialized in AI for autonomous robot control in the diverse fields of planetary exploration (NASA), ocean exploration (the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute), and personal indoor service robotics (Willow Garage). In 2011 Conor co-founded Solariat, a silicon valley technology startup applying text analytics and machine learning to social customer care. Solariat was acquired in 2014 by Genesys, where Conor went on to found and led the AI Product Group. Conor is originally from Dublin, Ireland and now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Paul Delahunty, ISO, Stryve
Paul Delahunty, one of Ireland’s leading Information Security experts, is the Chief Information Security Officer at Stryve, a Carlow headquartered private cloud and cybersecurity company.
A certified CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) with more than ten years experience in information security, Paul started his career as an engineer with Ericsson, before venturing into the start-up world as Operations Director with moQom. He later co-founded ThorsNet, a cybersecurity and compliance company. More recently, he worked as Information Security and Audit Manager for Hostelworld Group, before joining the rapidly expanding team at Stryve.
Paul works closely with Stryve’s growing clientele in Ireland, the UK and Europe, managing an international team to deliver tailor-made cybersecurity services that support Government departments and SME businesses in over 20 countries with a combined turnover of over €21 billion.
Paul is a popular keynote speaker at national and international cybersecurity conferences and events, including, IDEAM ‘Smart Industrial Control Systems’, Kyte Consulting ‘The Evolution of Cloud’, and is a regular contributor to the national conversation on cybersecurity in print media, radio and television.
Paul has a simple motto – “Enjoy life. Be kind. Be inspiring.”
Paul is very involved with the GAA at both club and county levels. In addition to training several underage football and hurling teams, Paul is also part of the Kildare Hurling Development Committee and the Kildare Scór Committee. He also enjoys genealogy and gardening.
Friday 20th May
This is a in person event dedicated to the future of software development. It will take place in the ILAS Building, NUI Galway, places are limited.
AtlanTec Tag Rugby World Championship
VENUE: Corinthians RFC, Tuam Road Galway
DATE: Friday 20th May 2022
TIMES: Blitz from 18:00 till late
COST: €120 per team (min 7 players, max 10 players – mixed format min 3 ladies)
Prize Giving, Food & Beer from 20:30
Whether your company is a seasoned tag rugby campaigner or ready to take part in their first tag tournament, the AtlanTec Tech Tag Rugby World Championship is the perfect event to kick start your Tag Rugby Season.
Your team is guaranteed at least 2 x 10 minute matches (weather permitting). Most teams will also then qualify for a further knockout game, where they have a chance of winning a prize.
Après AtlanTec Tag Rugby Party
After the final join us for the prize giving, final wrap up party for this year’s AtlanTec Festival with music, burgers, beer and other entertainment especially selected for Techies!
BOOK your Team today. Email us at info@itag.ie