Keynote

Margot Bloomstein is a speaker, strategic adviser, and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy. For two decades, she’s helped organizations improve communication through brand-driven content strategy.

Michelle Y. Bess serves as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director at Sprout Social, focusing on efforts to ensure all people feel a sense of belonging and that their voices are heard.

Stephen P. Anderson is a speaker and author who spends too much time thinking about visual collaboration, how people learn, and board games; not necessarily in that order. Oh, and he’s on a mission: To make learning the hard stuff fun, by creating ‘things to think with’ and ‘spaces’ for generative play.

Danielle is CIO and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation and Technology. Most recently Danielle was the City’s Chief Technology Officer, leading efforts to leverage data and technology to make government more effective, efficient, and innovative.

Natalie D Hanson is a Principal and partner at ZS, where she built and now leads the User Experience team. Prior to ZS, she worked at SAP, where she also built a User Experience team supporting Board-level projects.

As an executive coach, Todd Zaki Warfel works with individuals and companies who are interested in personal growth, leadership development, and organisational transformation.

Scott Berkun is a bestselling author and popular speaker on creativity, philosophy, culture, business and many other subjects. He’s the author of seven books, including The Myths of Innovation, Confessions of a Public Speaker, and The Year Without Pants.

Jamila is very active in Chicago’s Tech Community as a STEM Advocate and Diversity and Inclusion champion. You will find her speaking on panels, working with teachers and students and uplifting her community.

Farai Madzima is a UX Manager at Shopify in Ottawa, Canada. He’s an interaction designer and organiser of Pixel Up! meetups and conferences.

Gail Swanson helps people solve product and service problems without blowing themselves up. Throughout her design career across many industries, she’s been dedicated to helping talented folks be effective at their jobs. Gail built the strategy practice at 18F, and has returned to public service improving the experience of disaster survivors as they recover and rebuild. Gail speaks and writes about all manners of design, strategy, and digital innovation.