Obaid Ahmed is Founder and CEO of Botmock, a leading chatbot design collaboration platform. Obaid concentrates on building Botmock’s success to make it a real driver in building the next generation of conversational apps. Previously, Obaid co-founded a design consultancy firm, OAK, where he led the technology and design teams to deliver over 400 projects.

Mo Asgari is responsible for Monkey Group’s day-to-day operations, including technology, sales and operations teams, growth initiatives, and investment in strategic alliances. A technologist with 30 years’ experience, Mo is expert at aligning technology with corporate strategy, enabling the organization to anticipate, shape, and lead major off-premise trends within the foodservice industry. As part of his duties, he directs technology and operational innovation within MonkeyMedia Software.

Emily Binder is an entrepreneur, marketing strategist, and principal consultant at Beetle Moment Marketing. Past: Quarterback for a variety of successful marketing initiatives from startups to global brands. Present: Emily helps businesses grow with thoughtful strategies focusing on voice technology and social media. She speaks and writes about marketing, technology, and career. She likes rollerblading, podcasts, and credit card points.

Milkana Brace is CEO and Founder of Jargon, a voice-first dynamic content platform which enables voice publishers to intelligently tailor conversations for their users. Milkana has led global product and engineering teams (Senior Director at Expedia and at Groupon). She has extensive experience with v1 products, high growth e-/m-commerce, and a successful track record of building high-performing teams.

Melissa Campbell is the Communications Manager at Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, where she works to help parents, educators, and other stakeholders understand how ad-supported commercial media impacts kids’ wellbeing. She’s particularly interested in how always-on, data-gathering devices shape children’s social identities, experiences, and development. Previously, Melissa trained teenage girls in digital feminist activism and organizing. She holds a BA in Cultural & Media Studies from The New School, where she focused on identity and online communities. 

Stuart Crane is a software entrepreneur of 30+ years. In 1993 he co-founded CPR+, which became the leading enterprise software to the Specialty Pharmacy industry. After the company was acquired in 2013, Stuart started Voice Metrics, a business focused on delivering business information via voice assistants.

Matt Cybulsky, Ph.D., is chief consultant and founder of IONIA, offering organizations immersive support addressing strategic, operational, and innovative projects supported by lean management strategies and behavioral science methods. His expertise focuses on efforts impacting technology and healthcare delivery. Also deeply involved in the VoiceFirst technology industry, Dr. Cybulsky co-hosts The Voice Of Healthcare podcast and Voice of Healthcare Summit. He is adjunct faculty at Regis University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Chatham University.

Joyce Even is a healthcare executive with 30+ years of in-depth understanding of healthcare, financial, and data/systems management. She has a background working as an RN and a CPA. Almost 20 years ago, Joyce began her career at Mayo Clinic in a financial analyst role, progressing into leadership positions and responsibilities. She is currently vice chair of Mayo Clinic Global Business Solutions, extending Mayo Clinic’s knowledge and capabilities by delivering integrated, market-leading health and healthy living solutions.

Ben Fisher is Founder and CEO of Magic + Co., a consumer-centric voice consultancy whose client roster includes Warner Bros., Cuisinart, Purell, Bic, and Chobani, as well as many energy utilities and hospitals. The Magic + Co. team: guides brands onto voice platforms (Alexa, Google Home, etc.); designs interactive conversations; and performs the necessary software engineering and analytical work for companies to grow revenue on these devices. Ben had previously served as CTO of Waywire.

Patrick Givens takes a "user-led, technology-powered" approach to building products, brands, and businesses for clients ranging from Fortune 500s to new-to-world startups. Currently VP and head of VaynerSmart, VaynerMedia's innovations & IoT marketing practice, Patrick leads the extension of VaynerMedia’s pioneering social media and digital marketing into emerging channels including voice-first A.I., connected retail, and interactive packaging/collateral. Prior, Patrick worked at some of the world’s leading creative agencies including Anomaly, Droga5, and Havas Worldwide. 

Anup Gosavi is the Founder and CEO of Spext - a voice processing startup that has developed technology where you can change the spoken words in a voiceover simply by typing new words in the transcript. This "AI generated synthetic audio" preserves the uniqueness of a person's voice. The technology promises to reduce voice media production costs, enable personalized audio marketing for brands, and makes it possible to create context-aware, personalized audio ads.

Neha Javalagi is a UX Research and Design Lead at Witlingo. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering from Maharashtra Institute of Technology, where she graduated with Distinction. In addition to being an active builder of Alexa skills, Neha is also passionate about using user-centric design thinking for creative problem-solving with the context of voice experiences. She believes that conversational interaction design lies at the intersection of her passion and purpose.

Patrick Kelly currently serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Privakey, where he is charged with leading the commercialization of the company’s authentication and authorization solutions. Before joining Privakey, Pat was Vice President of Sales and Success for WorkZone project management software. He also launched and operated Encelium lighting controls in the United States until the company was successfully acquired in 2008. Pat earned an MBA from St. Joseph’s University in addition to his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University.

Shanthan Kesharaju is Founder of Sermo Labs and a Director of Product Management at Fidelity Investments. Sermo was founded in 2018 to make education fun and engaging for kids through voice experiences like Alexa and Google Voice. Alexa Skills to date include 1-2-3 Math, World Mathematics League, Hungry Birds, and Wizard of Math. Shanthan has won multiple Amazon Alexa Hackathons and continues to explore innovative ideas in the voice arena. Passionate about championing for “Technology for a Cause,” he enables kids with special needs to learn with Alexa using Computer Vision. At Fidelity, he leads the Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning product portfolios. Shanthan holds an MBA from Duke.

Gal Klein is Co-Founder of Audioburst and serves as its Chief Technology Officer. He is an expert in turning dreams into robust, cutting-edge technologies. Before founding Audioburst, Gal was CTO of PLYmedia. Among other previous roles: a project manager for the Israeli Air Force, responsible for developing automated technical publications for the F-16 and Galaxy aircraft; CEO of Goash, a software company specializing in solutions for the entertainment industry; and CTO of mBox, a leading Israeli music aggregator. Gal holds a B.Sc. degree in MOT, specializing in information technology.

Cal Lai is a serial entrepreneur with 30 years’ experience in founding and growing tech companies. Cal believes that every tech revolution is driven by an idea for building value through consumer engagement. Vet24seven launched in 2015, bringing voice solutions to the pet health sector.

Marisniulkis Lescaille is the co-founder of VoiceFirst Labs, a voice technology applications consultancy and parent company of VoiceFirst Weekly. Mari is the founder and Editor in Chief of VoiceFirst Weekly newsletter. She is also the creator, host, and producer of VoiceFirst Weekly flash briefing podcast, a daily briefing on voice technology available in every major podcast platform. 

Carrie Liken is the Head of Industry for Healthcare at Yext, leading all initiatives related to healthcare, including strategy, product and partnership development, marketing and sales. For almost 20 years, Carrie has built an expertise in healthcare and technology and most recently joined Yext from Google, having founded their healthcare team to help organizations better understand the patient journey, digital’s impact on patient acquisition, and how to drive increased revenue and sales through digital channels.

Katie McMahon is a tech industry veteran with entrepreneurial successes that include building and launching one of the most downloaded mobile apps of all time, Shazam. She currently serves as Vice President and General Manager at SoundHound Inc., which spent ten years developing the ground-breaking Speech-to-Meaning(TM) technology and the Houndify voice and natural language interface platform. Known for her ability to bring to market and scale new technologies and globalize brands, in 2002 Katie was recognized as the first foreign woman to launch a tech company in Japan.

Bradley Metrock is CEO of Score Publishing (home of VoiceFirst Events), executive producer of The Alexa Conference, and host of top technology podcast This Week In Voice.

Jonathon Myers is an entrepreneur, interactive digital storyteller, and a leader in the emerging voice space. He began his career in interactive entertainment as a creative writer (MFA, Boston University) and Boston-based independent game designer. In early 2013 Jon applied his leadership skills to a brand-new venture and co-founded Earplay to work on a platform for the creation and distribution of voice-operated interactive story experiences.

Kari Olson is the chief innovation and technology officer of Front Porch. She also serves as the president of the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing. In her role as CIO, Kari leads the business innovation strategy for Front Porch and its partners, while also leading business and resident technology initiatives. As president of the award-winning Front Porch Center, she explores innovative uses of technology to empower individuals to live well, especially in their later years.

Zai Ortiz is a Hollywood creative director, 3D visionary, and now President and Chief Creative Officer of X2 Games. His partnership with Nolan Bushnell follows his success with DarkMatter. Perhaps Zai’s most famous and recognizable work is his creation of the J.A.R.V.I.S. system holograms in Marvel’s Iron Man. He has supervised teams of 50+ artists to deliver stunning visuals for films including TRON: Legacy and Mission: Impossible. Zai’s creative virtuosity coupled with Nolan’s game mastery promises to give gamers around the world a cinematic experience unlike anything they’ve seen before.

Davis Park develops and directs FPCIW's technology initiatives and programs. FPCIW is a center of excellence in Front Porch, one of Southern California’s largest not-for-profit providers of retirement living communities and affordable housing. Davis has 20 years of program development experience in technology implementation in senior, low-income, and other underserved communities to explore and deploy innovations to help people live well. He directed Community Technology Programs at the Little Tokyo Service Center, including several focused on bridging the digital divide. Davis is an inaugural member of the Zero Divide Fellows, facilitating technology adoption and social justice to underserved communities.

James Poulter is CEO and Co-Founder of Vixen Labs, a Voice first consultancy; and Founder of the UK’s leading Voice & AI community, Voice2. James is an innovation and marketing consultant with over 10 years’ experience in Voice, Conversational AI Technologies, and emerging platforms such as Immersive AR/VR, 5G, and Blockchain. Previously Head of The LEGO Group’s Emerging Platforms & Partnerships team as part of the Digital Consumer Engagement division, James is pursuing new technologies, platforms, and partners to build digital consumer engagement with LEGO customers, shoppers, and consumers on a global basis.

Sandhya Pruthi is a Consultant in the Department of General Internal Medicine and a Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, having received her M.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1990. Dr. Pruthi completed a Family Medicine residency at Mayo Clinic in 1994, and was Director of Mayo’s Breast Diagnostic Clinic at Mayo from 2002 to 2010. Dr. Pruthi’s clinical expertise is the management of women at increased risk for breast cancer and providing pre-operative counseling to women newly diagnosed with breast cancer.

Doug Robinson is CEO of Fresh Digital Group, a leading architect in Voice assistants which has deployed over 700 Alexa and Google Home applications for companies, clients, and brands in various verticals. Since its inception in 2011, FRSH has created groundbreaking innovations for the connected consumer from voice applications, to mobile apps, to social, to award-winning creative. With over 15 years of experience in mobile, voice, and digital executions, Doug brings a wealth of expertise and knowledge, helping marketers develop optimized digital campaigns to boost meaningful connections with their consumers.

Brian Ross has 20 years’ experience spearheading the articulation, development, and management of innovative technology solutions. As Vice President of Product and Services of Privakey, Brian ensures that the promise of simple and secure authentication becomes a reality for businesses and consumers alike. He has served in a similar role at Probaris since 2010. Prior, Brian worked as a consultant at Groundswell and Enterpulse, developing and managing solutions for a diverse range of companies that included Coca-Cola, J. P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Standard and Poor’s, BMW NA, and T-Mobile.

Amanda Scherker is Head of Voice-User Interface at advertising and marketing firm Magic + Co., where she executes voice design for Alexa skills. She has written skills for Fortune 500 companies and brands such as BIC, Warner Brothers and Purell. Previously, she was an editor at Huffington Post and a documentary writer/producer. Amanda graduated from Northwestern University, where she majored in Creative Writing for the Media.

Emerson Sklar is a Tech Evangelist and Solution Architect for Applause. Since joining Applause in 2015, he has helped countless companies improve quality across every phase of the SDLC through a human-centric, community-driven approach to testing. Prior, Emerson worked for Borland, the Army Intelligence and Securities Command, and the Army Research Lab. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking overly elaborate meals through science, adventure cycling, and volunteering with the Boy Scouts of America.

Amy Stapleton is Founder of Tellables, a publisher of voice first conversational stories. Apart from designing voice apps, Amy is a writer and editor of content for the Tellables Amazon Alexa story experiences "Tricky Genie" and "My Box of Chocolates." Amy retired from a career at NASA to pursue her vision of transforming talking devices into a platform for engaging new story experiences.

Abhishek Suthan has led Pulse Labs from its inception, and today runs the company’s business development, personnel, and company strategy. He previously served as a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, leading product strategy for their award-winning electronic trading platform (Marquee Trader) for Commodities. During this time, Marquee Trader was ranked as the top Commodities Trading Platform from an investment bank. Abhishek holds a double bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from Georgia Tech, and an MBA in Finance from Emory University, where he graduated first in his class.

Valerie Vacante is the Founder of Collabsco, an Austin-based product strategy and innovation firm. For over 14 years, Valerie has led cross-functional teams to create meaningful, consumer-centric experiences that connect brands, people, and emerging technologies. Valerie launched Collabsco’s Connected Cool Kids: Connected Play Landscape, mapping over 115+ connected play products, companies, and technologies across IoT, Voice, AI, Robots, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Edtech, Makers, Wearables, NFC/RFID and Social.

Kesha Williams is an award-winning software engineer with over 20 years’ experience specializing in full-stack web development. She has trained and mentored thousands of software developers in the US, Europe, and Asia while teaching at the university level. She routinely leads innovation teams in proving out emerging technologies and shares her learnings across the globe. Kesha has developed several popular Alexa skills and was featured during Amazon's “Alexa Women of Voice” campaign. She leads the Georgia chapter of Technovation, mentors women in tech, and conducts free "Hour of Code" workshops for children at her local library.

Lucas Wonderley has helped develop SAP’s mobile and cloud products since 2012. He believes voice and other emerging technologies can simplify and augment how we work, even as they introduce new challenges and complexities. He studied Psychology and Computer Science at Vanderbilt. Lucas recently married his college sweetheart and moved to Atlanta.

Tahsim Ahmed is an award-winning innovator intersecting voice, tech, product, and brands, and also a TEDx Speaker. In the early days of voice technology, Tahsim built a voice company in TribalScale's Venture Studios, as well as scaling that arm of the business. He previously executed product and go-to-market strategies at IBM, Microsoft, and HP. His new company, Fanspoke, bridges the gap between musicians and producers to take their content onto voice platforms. 

Andy Berke was born and raised in Chattanooga; he served as State Senator for Tennessee’s 10th District from 2007 to 2012 before becoming Chattanooga’s 65th Mayor in 2013. He is focused on growing the local economy, ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed, and making Chattanooga’s streets safer and neighborhoods stronger. Chattanooga is known as the Gig City, and Mayor Berke has worked to maximize its high-speed fiber optic infrastructure. American City and County named him Municipal Leader of the Year for such innovative initiatives as Baby U and Tech Goes Home, the City's efforts in ending Veteran Homelessness, and his leadership during a 2015 domestic terror attack.

David Box is an internationally experienced executive. He has demonstrated success in the ideation, development, and commercialization of healthcare technologies and creative agency services, in Europe, Asia, and the US. Prior to joining Macadamian, David spent 10 years working with customers in the healthcare industry to develop market-leading products and services that improve patient outcomes and experience and increase engagement. He currently teaches a graduate level class on product innovation at Boston University.

Nolan Bushnell founded Atari in 1972 – and thereby created an industry. And with it, the first blockbuster video game: Pong. Today, his design credo – games should be easy to learn and hard to master – inspires a new generation of developers. A prolific entrepreneur, Nolan has started more than 20 companies, including Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre. He pioneered many of the workplace innovations that have made Silicon Valley a magnet for creative talent and world-changing phenomena. The British Academy of Film and Television awarded Nolan their Academy Fellowship. He was named one of Newsweek’s “50 People Who Changed America,” and was one of the first inductees to the Video Game Hall of Fame.

Dustin Coates is a developer, and is Voice Search Go-to-Market Lead for Algolia, a search-as-a-service company. Dustin is also the author of Voice Applications for Alexa and Google Assistant (Manning Publications), co-host of VUX World, and writer at TalkingToComputers.com, a blog about the tech behind voice-first.

Paul Cutsinger runs the Alexa Voice Design Education team at Amazon and works with developers, designers, brands, and storytellers around the world to create new voice user experiences. Prior to working on Alexa at Amazon, he worked at Disney on games such as Club Penguin and Pixie Hollow.

Michael Eakins is the Creative Lead of the Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab (METIL) at the  University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation & Training. Mike has 9+ years of experience in the field of 3D modeling and animation for simulation and gaming. Since joining the Lab, Mike and his team at the Lab have made numerous contributions to projects in voice technologies for intelligent homes, connected health care, mobile, and innovative platforms, including Lake Nona’s Wellness Home built on Innovation and Technology (WHIT).

Jason Fields is Chief Strategy Officer for Voicify. He acts as a collaborator and leader with Voicify’s partners and customers, enabling them to leverage the power of the Voicify platform to engage with their customers and prospects. Jason is an evangelist, speaker, thought leader, and strategist for the company. He is passionate about personalizing the relationships between brands and customers, for the betterment of both. Jason believes in finding the “Youtility” of what brands can do to better the experiences of those they serve.

Teri Fisher, a Physician and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, is an experienced keynote speaker, educator, and podcaster. He is the host of the “Alexa in Canada” Podcast and "Voice in Canada," the #1 rated Flash Briefing in Canada. Dr. Fisher has a passion for e-health innovation and is the host of “Voice First Health,” a podcast that highlights the intersection of healthcare and voice technology. Dr. Fisher is also the founder of Briefcast.FM, the premier Flash Briefing network. 

Steven Goldstein is CEO of audio innovation firm Amplifi Media, advising on digital content strategy, activation, and development for on-demand audio including podcasting and smart speakers. Steve has created and developed successful radio brands around the country, as well as nurtured and advanced local and national broadcast talent. His experience includes executive positions at The NBC Radio Network and ABC Radio. He was a founding partner of Saga Communications, serving as XVP and Group Program Director from the company's formation in 1986 until 2015 when he started Amplifi Media.

Matt Hammersley is co-founder and CEO of Novel Effect. A lifelong entrepreneur, Matt began his first startup as a child selling tomatoes at a roadside stand. He went on to spend more than a decade as an engineer and patent attorney in South Carolina, Delaware, and Texas before co-founding Novel Effect with his wife. He loves traveling, golf, and Clemson football. He's passionate about telling great stories and has two children who serve as his nightly audience at their home in Seattle.

Radhika Kanaskar is a December 2018 graduate from the University of Connecticut. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Degree in Management Information Systems and a minor in Digital Arts. At The Alexa Conference, Radhika is presenting her honors thesis findings on Net Neutrality and its future implications on Internet of Things devices such as the Amazon Alexa.

Dave Kemp is the Manager of Business Development and Marketing at Oaktree Products. Prior to joining Oaktree in 2016, Dave sold Business Intelligence and Software-as-a-Service to Fortune 100 companies in Chicago. He travels the country giving talks to Hearing Healthcare Professionals about emerging technologies, such as biometrics, hearables, and the Voice eco-system, in an effort to educate the professional on how these technologies will ultimately impact their profession.

Bret Kinsella is Editor and Founder of Voicebot.ai, the leading publication for research, news, and analysis of the voice and AI industries. He also hosts the weekly Voicebot Podcast, interviewing the entrepreneurs, engineers, and executives shaping the voice technology landscape. Bret is also a practitioner in voice app development, where he has contributed to the design of several popular voice apps on Amazon Alexa and Google Home. A past executive of Sapient, Accenture, and Harris Corporation and an officer in several startups, he has served Fortune 500 clients in the U.S., Europe and Latin America throughout his career.

Noelle LaCharite is an evangelist at heart. She is passionate about Mindful Leadership, work-life harmony and empowering people to achieve their potential through emerging technology. She also specializes in helping brands develop skills for Amazon Alexa. Noelle is co-founder of a skill development company, Voice Skills Inc. She has spent many years as a trainer, architect, and evangelist for IBM, RedHat, EMC, Amazon, and now Microsoft. She has taught thousands of people the value and importance of voice technology, democratizing AI, and mindful leadership.

Nick Laidlaw is part of a rare breed of technical executives who still knows how to work in the trenches while inspiring team members around him. He brings 20+ years of hands-on development and leadership experience in the marketing and advertising industry. Earlier, Nick was co-founder and CTO of Agency Oasis, a national digital advertising agency focused on web solutions. Nick has particular expertise in Content Management Systems (CMS) architecture and implementations, which propelled him to provide intuitive solutions within the voice assistant space.

Drew Levanway is Director of Operations and Marketing for Mississippi Interactive, LLC (MSI), a subsidiary of NIC. With more than seven years of eGovernment experience, Drew is currently responsible for the creation of strategies and programs to drive MSI's marketing efforts, and introducing cost-saving opportunities for Mississippi agencies, departments, and local government through efficient online citizen engagement. Drew also oversees an eGovernment portfolio of 250 online, mobile, and IoT solutions, and the award-winning State portal ms.gov.

Hodgen Mainda is a Vice President at Chattanooga’s Electric Power Board (EPB) – one of the nation’s largest publicly owned power providers and the first public provider of Gigabit Internet in the country. Hodgen serves on several boards, including the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce; he is chair of the Memorial Hospital Foundation, president-elect of UTC Chancellor’s Roundtable, and also serves on several statewide boards. Chatter magazine recognized him as one of the 20 Under 40 individuals making a mark in our community. Hodgen is a native of Nairobi, Kenya, having moved to Tennessee to pursue his higher education.

David Metcalf has more than 20 years' experience in the design and research of web-based and mobile technologies converging to enable learning and healthcare. Dr. Metcalf is Director of the Mixed Emerging Technology Integration Lab (METIL) at UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training. The team has built mHealth solutions, simulations, games, eLearning, mobile and enterprise IT systems for clients including Google, the U.S. military, and several more.Recent projects include Lake Nona’s Intelligent Home and transmedia, adaptive learning projects using mobile, AR and sims.

Judy Mod works with C-level executives to tackle the challenges and opportunities to lead by “disrupting the status quo” within their organizations and their markets. Judy has dedicated her career to helping organizations fix critical business problems through the Acceleration + Application + Adoption of Innovation - by supporting the Buyers + Sellers + Investors in this equation. As a serial entrepreneur, she has launched a group of companies - under Problem Quad, LLC - focused on "The Power + The Voice + The Speed + The Leadership" of the Problem. She also serves as Co-Founder of the Social Executive Council, a non-profit for senior executives.

Brielle Nickoloff is a Lead of Voice UX Design at Witlingo, which builds products and solutions for Voice First devices and platforms, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana. Brielle earned dual Bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Much of her research in the space began with a closer look at the ways one’s emotional reaction to a voice interface is notably more inflated than reactions to other types of user interfaces.

Laurie M. Orlov, a tech industry veteran, writer, speaker, and elder care advocate, is the founder of Aging in Place Technology Watch – providing thought leadership, analysis, and guidance about technologies and services that enable boomers and seniors to remain longer in their home of choice. Prior, Laurie spent many years in the technology industry, including nine years at analyst firm Forrester Research. She has provided testimony about technology at a 2015 Senate Aging Committee hearing, consulted frequently to AARP, and served on the Think Tank for The Philips Center for Health and Well-Being.

Harry P. Pappas is a successful serial entrepreneur in many industries. Constantly ahead of the technology curve, he was developing data-driven, e-commerce websites in 1993. Harry has deployed new technology projects across several industries: healthcare, smart homes, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, telecommunications, manufacturing, smart highway systems, retail, and mass transit. He is Co-Founder and CEO of the RFID in Healthcare Consortium, and Founder and CEO of the Intelligent Health Association.

Stuart Patterson is Cofounder and CEO of LifePod Solutions. He has successfully led high-tech ventures in a variety of markets: virtual assistants, mobile/online/telephony services & speech recognition/synthesis. Stu managed, supported the growth, restructuring, IPO or sale of: Sidekicks, Ramp (acq. Cxense), Xtone, Gemvara, Nexamp, eQuilibrium (acq. EnerNOC), AgION (now Sciessent), Courion, Scansoft (now Nuance), SpeechWorks (IPO), Voxware (IPO) and Vicorp Interactive Systems (acq. Precision Systems).

Rodrigo Prudencio is a member of the Alexa Fund, Amazon’s corporate venture capital fund dedicated to backing high-quality startups that are innovating their products and services with voice technology. Previously, Rodrigo founded Shuddle, a family-focused transportation service, and was CEO of Hara Software. He was also partner at Nth Power, a venture capital firm dedicated to energy technology, and spent several years in Washington, D.C. working on international energy and environmental policy. He received his MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Dave Robinett spent 18+ years in Marketing Research with Sprint, where he learned this fundamental insight: “you cannot make consumers jump through hoops to do business with you” – i.e., make connecting easy! A continuing issue for the AI assistant industry is “fragmentation,” or the difficulty of presenting a consistent user interface to consumers. These insights coalesced into the vision for “mobile direct response” using the universal mobile speed dial #250, and in 2014 Dave joined forces with MarketSphere to further build out the underlying technology platform, business infrastructure, and sales channels to support this rapidly growing technology business.

Brian Roemmele is thought of as the consummate Renaissance man; he is a scientist, researcher, analyst, connector, thinker, and doer. Brian has built and run payments and tech businesses; worked in media, including the promotion of top musicians; and explored a variety of other subjects. He actively shares his observations across such media as Forbes, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Slate, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Medium, Quora, Twitter, Around the Coin, and This Week In Voice on VoiceFirst.fm. Brian created the Multiplex app and Multiplex Magazine, a way to stay on top of everything important in technology, payments, and more.

Ken Sakal is the Founder and CEO of Vohesu. As a 20+ year cancer survivor, Ken walked in the shoes of a patient, desperate for medically accurate information, and answers to questions about diagnoses. He turned this experience into the foundation of his startup Vohesu, whose Virtual Physician Assistant is focused on providing patients with information about their disease, drugs, their side effects – all available where and when patients need it, 24/7, all at the sound of their voice. Ken also hosts a local Alexa Skill Developers Meetup in Orlando, Florida.

Click photo to view speaker's LinkedIn profile and bio.

Wilson Standish uses his 11 years of media innovation and trend forecasting to combine technology and consumer insights. He focuses on helping brands reach consumers through smart voice technologies in ways that will impact their immediate businesses goals, and prepare them for the future. Since his joining Gimlet, the company has won the first Cannes Lion awarded to an Alexa skill, and won Adweek's Media Plan of the Year for "Best Use of Voice." Prior, Wilson helped Procter & Gamble plan, develop, and launch first-to-market media executions and innovation roadmaps. Wilson has produced award-winning programs in AR, VR, Amazon Alexa, iBeacons, and beyond.

Amy Starnes, Director of Digital Engagement at Best Friends Animal Society, oversees programs that incorporate email, social media, website, apps, and emerging channels to drive meaningful engagement for one of the top animal welfare organizations in the country. Amy has worked in technology for nearly 20 years, driving change in animal welfare, healthcare, and the private sector for organizations including MSPCA-Angell, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Nathan Treloar has served in executive leadership roles in several successful high-growth software companies. At Orbita, he's helped create and bring to market the gold-standard enterprise platform for healthcare organizations to securely build, manage, and optimize AI-driven voice and chatbot applications across omnichannel environments. Prior, Nathan held key executive positions at FAST Search, Microsoft, RAMP, and, Ektron. He is a respected expert and speaker on voice and chatbot technologies, IOT, search, text and data mining, content management, and knowledge management.

Cami Williams works as a Senior Evangelist on Alexa for Amazon based in Seattle, focused on Alexa Games and Multimodal. Since starting at Amazon in September 2017, Cami has spoken on behalf of Alexa at various conferences and workshops, including the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, reInvent, Consumer Electronics Show, and Game Developers Conference. Cami is proud to be an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. As a representative from the community she has spoken at over 40 different hackathons and events, most notably the GHC, the White House Tech Inclusion Summit, SXSWedu, ATECH Conference, and Google Women Engineers Conference.

Dana Wilson is General Manager for Mississippi Interactive, LLC (MSI) a subsidiary of NIC Inc. With more than ten years of eGovernment experience, Dana leads the team that has helped the State of Mississippi deliver over 250 online, mobile, and IoT solutions, providing citizens an efficient and secure way to engage agencies, departments, local, and state government. Under Dana’s leadership, Mississippi’s self-funded eGovernment program has resulted in an over $9 million cost avoidance for the state since its 2010 inception.

Dylan Zwick has led product from the start of Pulse Labs, and he’s overseen testing on every voice application upon which Pulse Labs has worked. Prior, he was Director of Data Science for Overstock.com, where he built and ran the data science team. He loves figuring out and understanding how customers behave, so he can help make their lives better. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Utah, and M.S. and B.S. degrees in statistics, physics, and mathematics from Stanford University, where he was a President’s Scholar.