Festival Agenda

Andrew Ward

Director of Hyperscale, Platform & AI Sales • nLighten

Andrew Ward leads nLighten's AI, NeoCloud, Platform and Hyperscale business across Europe, working with many of the world's leading technology companies to deliver the digital infrastructure underpinning cloud, AI and large-scale enterprise deployments.

Caelum Rosenkranz

Team Lead • Google Cloud

Caelum Rosenkranz is a Startup Lead at Google and the Europe Lead for This Week in Fintech, the world’s largest fintech community.

Dame Dawn Childs

Chief Executive Officer • nLighten

Dame Dawn Childs is Chief Executive Officer of nLighten, where she leads the company's mission to build more sustainable, resilient and distributed digital infrastructure across Europe.

Daniel Duma

Ex-Google software engineer

Ex-Google and ex-Alexa software engineer and applied researcher, multiple times founder/CTO of VC-backed startups, and a keynote speaker.

Emily Armstrong

Head of People, Culture & Operations • Aer Studios

Bringing an end-to-end People perspective with specialist expertise in strategic partnering, coaching and people commercials.

Joel Gibbard

Co-Founder and CEO • Open Bionics

Joel Gibbard MBE is the CEO and Cofounder of Open Bionics, a Bristol based company that makes bionic arms for amputees. Joel has been awarded an MBE for services to Engineering and trade, and the Princess Royal Silver Medal, one of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s most prestigious awards.

Katie Gallagher OBE

Chair • UK Tech Cluster Group

Katie Gallagher is the Managing Director of Manchester Digital and Chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group, which brings together regional technology organisations from across the country to support the growth of the UK’s startup and innovation ecosystems.

Kirstine Dale

Chief AI Officer • Met Office

Kirstine Dale is the Met Office’s Chief AI Officer (CAIO) and Principal Fellow for Data Science. Kirstine played a leading role in shaping the future of Data Science in the Met Office.

Sue Turner OBE

Founder of AI Governance

Sue Turner OBE is a leading voice on AI and data ethics, committed to ensuring innovation serves people and society. She is Founder and Director of AI Governance, where she advises boards, executives and policymakers on embedding ethical principles into strategy, product design and oversight.

Abby Salmon

UK&I People and Talent Partner • First Table

Abby leads People and Talent in the UK and Ireland for First Table, the restaurant booking app that fills early tables with big discounts for diners.

Adam Walker

Chief Innovation Officer • Rocketmakers

Bio coming soon — check back for their story.

Annie Legge

CEO • Tech4Good SW

Annie is co-founder Tech4Good South West, a rich network of organisations and individuals creating the opportunities for businesses, the public sector and civil society to have new, collective and transformative impact through technology.

Chris Blues

Accelerator Community Manager • Natwest

Bio coming soon — check back for their story.

David Sequeira

Executive Vice President • Skai

David is EVP at Skai, the AI-powered omnichannel advertising platform that global brands and agencies use to plan, run and measure retail media and search campaigns.

Jake Hewlett

Founder & CTO • Bristol AI Shed

Co-founder of MindsetOS, an AI-powered mindset assessment and coaching platform. Big tech (Google) and scale-up (Tambo) background. Based in Southville for 5 years with his wife and son.

Kian Bakhatiari

Founder • The People

Kian is the founder of The People, a Gen Z consultancy powered by a global community of young changemakers that helps brands and organisations futureproof themselves.

Laura Gemmell

Founder & Technical CEO • Taught by Humans

PhD in AI Education. Teaching qualification. A decade in tech at PwC, Worldpay, and Monzo. Laura built Taught by Humans because she'd seen what good learning looked like - and how rarely workplace training came close.

Matt Harris

Chief Information Officer • Rocketmakers

Bio coming soon — check back for their story.

Professor Shawn Sobers

Professor, Photographer & Filmmaker • UWE

A Visual Anthropologist, working in writing, photography, and filmmaking, exploring narratives of belonging.

Richard Godfrey

Founder & CEO • Rocketmakers

Founder of Rocketmakers, Richard has a wealth of technical expertise, a critical eye for usability, and blue-chip project management skills from his many years at Deloitte and Microsoft.

Stephen Honight

Founder & CEO • Lmo7

Ex-Mars, LEGO and Unilever. Guest lecturer at UWE. Based in Bradley Stoke for 13 years. Focused on helping individuals and businesses unlock the benefits of AI.