Poppy Crum works to bridge the gap between technology and insightful, effective human interaction. As a multi-dimensional advocate of empathetic technology, she builds technologies that best leverage human physiology to enhance our experiences and how we interact with the world. Poppy serves as the Chief Technology Officer at NextSense and is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, as well as its Symbolic Systems Program. She is formerly the Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories. She is dedicated to the development of immersive technologies that leverage human physiology and perceptual realities to enhance our experiences and interactions in the world. She is a frequent speaker on topics related to the intersection of human experience, artificial intelligence, sensory data-science, and immersive technologies.

Michael (Mike) Steep is the founder and former executive director of Stanford Engineering School's Center for Disruptive Technology and Digital Cities and the former senior vice president of global business operations at innovation mega-hub, PARC Xerox. He draws on first-hand experience and anecdotes from time spent with the biggest names in Silicon Valley to instruct audiences on how to get ahead of disruptive innovation. Viewing new technology as opportunity, Mike highlights the importance of allowing innovation to trump company culture and legacies—and not the other way around.

Maurice Conti is among the architects of the cutting-edge emerging technologies that are evolving humanity and the world around us: Artificial Intelligence, immersive reality (AR/VR/XR), advanced robotics and manufacturing, and technology for sustainability. He is a rare blend of hands–on practitioner and big thinker. Conti is a sought-after and trusted advisor to the leadership teams of global companies, including Amazon Web Services, Lululemon, Mercedes AMG, NielsenIQ, Ralph Lauren, and Blackline Systems, on how to think about and deploy AI for the benefit of people and business. Working at the intersection of disruptive innovation, emerging technologies, and the future of work, cities, mobility, and climate, Conti is a vocal champion for the creation of technologies whose foundations are rooted in positive, human-centered purpose. More than 12 million people have watched his popular TED talks, and his engaging speaking style, deep subject-matter expertise, and relatable insights are based on decades of work “in the trenches” with leading brands, including Nike, Tesla, Disney, Amazon, Airbus, and Ford.

Mick Ebeling is an American film, television and commercial executive producer as well as an author, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was named as on one of the Top 50 Most Creative People of 2014, won the SXSW Innovation Award twice in a row (2014 and 2015), and was awarded the 2014 Muhammed Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award. He is the CEO of Not Impossible, an organization that develops creative technology solutions to address real-world problems.

Alex Stamos is a cybersecurity expert, business leader, and entrepreneur who has dedicated his career to improving the security and safety of the Internet. He serves as the chief trust officer for SentinelOne (NYSE: S), whose mission is to defeat every attack every second of every day with AI-powered threat prevention, detection, response, and hunting. At the same time, he is an adjunct professor at Stanford University, where his teaching and research focuses on international security and cooperation. Formerly Facebook’s chief security officer and Yahoo’s chief information security officer, Stamos is regarded among the most authoritative experts and problem-solvers in his field. The New York Times called Stamos “a celebrated figure in privacy and security circles,” and Tech Crunch said he is “widely regarded as one of the smartest people working in the security space.”

Peter Diamandis, the chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation and the author of best-selling Abundance, is a dynamic inspirational speaker who shows his audience how to drive and incentivize breakthrough thinking in order to achieve clear, measurable results. He is considered a key figure in the development of the personal spaceflight industry, as the first private-sector manned spaceflight was a result of an X PRIZE competition. He has also founded many other leading, commercial space-flight organizations and won myriad awards for his incredible work.

Chris Barton is an entrepreneur speaker, co-founder and Board Director of Shazam, and expert in mobile applications. At Shazam, he helped guide the music discovery company from idea to profit as co-founder and Board Director. He has also worked eight years at Google focused on mobile and at Dropbox as head of mobile operators development. Now he follows his dream of advising passionate entrepreneurs who want to make the world a better place, by speaking on entrepreneurship and advising a handful of startups. In addition, he is embarking on his next startup venture. Barton co-founded Shazam in 1999 with the original idea to identify songs with a mobile phone. Before smartphones, people would call a number, put their phone up to the radio and receive a text identifying the song. When the company launched in 2002, Shazam had 2 million songs in its database and took 15 seconds to process a user’s request. Today Shazam’s app has been downloaded by over 1 billion people globally. Now the app takes only a few seconds to identify songs from its database of over 30 million songs. Shazam’s journey was one of faith and endurance for Barton and his co-founders. The company survived the dot.com bust but the company struggled for many years. Barton left in 2004 to join Google and later Dropbox but continued to serve on the Board throughout. Only in 2008 did Shazam begin its “hockey stick” growth curve once iPhone and Android app stores were introduced to the world. Today, Shazam is among the most popular apps on both iPhone and Android with over 120 million monthly active users. Shazam’s highly advanced technology and superior customer ratings helped convince Apple to purchase the company for a reported $400 million in December 2017. Barton holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, a Master’s degree in Finance from Cambridge University, and a BA from UC Berkeley.

What does the future look like? Alex Salkever has been thinking and writing about this for two decades, covering AI and ChatGPT, green energy, genetic engineering, cloud computing, self-driving cars, and more. A former BusinessWeek editor, he is the author of four award-winning books examining the impact of technology on society and our personal well-being, including “The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future” and a book he co-author with Vivek Wadhwa, “Your Happiness Was Hacked”. Alex writes about and consults leading technology companies on innovation, the attention economy, blockchain and exponentially advancing technologies such as robotics, genomics, renewable energy, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and driverless cars. He is a columnist for Fortune and the former Technology Editor at BusinessWeek.com.