Wessel Badenhorst

Founder & Director, Urban Mode Ltd.

Wessel founded Urban Mode in 2015 to support strategies, plans and projects that enable place-oriented development. He is a lead expert in the URBACT Programme of the European Union that supports cities to work together on integrated urban development themes including the new URBACT network of ten small cities in Europe, the iPlace Project, that will examine their local economic development strategies and place experiences.

Josepha Madigan

Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills

Opening Address

Fine Gael TD for the Dublin Rathdown constituency and Minister of State with responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion, Josepha Madigan previously served as Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Before her appointment as Minister, Ms Madigan served on the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, the Future of Healthcare Committee, and was the Chairperson of the Budgetary Oversight Committee. Prior to her involvement in politics, Josepha was a practicing solicitor.

Philomena Poole

Chief Executive, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

Building it Back Better

A public servant with thirty-five years’ experience, Philomena Poole worked with Dublin County Council and South Dublin County Council before leaving to manage Blanchardstown Area Partnership. She returned as Director of Service to work across a broad range of service departments as well as being Deputy and Temporary County Manager for South Dublin. She was the County Manager for Louth before being appointed as Chief Executive to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Tara Buckley

Director General, RGDATA

Town Centre Revival

Director General of RGDATA, the Retail Grocery Dairy & Allied Trades Association, Tara Buckley is a former journalist and political correspondent. She is a member of the Government’s Retail Consultation Forum and was a member of the Advisory Group on Ireland 2040 – National Planning Framework, and recently completed a second term as a member of the National Oversight & Audit Commission (NOAC).

Cynthia Nikitin

Resilient Places Strategist, New York

Revitalising Urban Spaces

Cynthia Nikitin has led numerous large-scale multi-sectoral place-based community projects and over one hundred placemaking training workshops and seminars around the world during her twenty eight years with Project for Public Spaces (www.pps.org). Cynthia’s technical expertise stretches from the development of downtown master plans and transit facility and station area enhancement projects, to the creation of corridor-wide transportation and land use strategies, to the development of creative placemaking initiatives, the coalescing of government buildings, libraries and cultural institutions into civic centres, using placemaking to create safer and healthier cities and upgrade informal settlements in the developing world.

Conor Battigan

District Executive, Sandyford Business District

Conor has qualifications in Project Management and Property combined with a wealth of experience setting up and running successful businesses. Conor Battigan is District Executive of Sandyford Business District, the largest business improvement district on the island of Ireland with 1,000 businesses, 26,000 employees and 5,000 residents. The business representative body is responsible for developing the area into a world-class destination in which to work and live.

Punitha Sinnapan

VP of Automotive Design and Innovation, Cubic Telecom

Convergence of Connected Car and Smart Infrastructure

A leader and experienced solution architect with great influencing & negotiation skills, Punitha Sinnapan has more than 16 years of software & system design experience in various industry segments including 10 years of automotive experience in software define cockpit, ADAS, autonomous driving, HPC architecture, graphics core technology, computer vision, project management, marketing, business development and customer service excellence. She is an optimistic thinker and visionary who can quickly grasp - and easily explain - the “big picture”.

Susanna Murphy

Operations Director, Zero Latency

Susanna honed her appreciation and eye for innovation across a range of industries from construction to tech to entertainment. The same drive that drove her to become an international triathlete propelled her to complete her MBA at Smurfit and take on the role of Operations Director at Zero Latency Dublin.

Ruth Whelan

Academy Manager, Beacon Hospital Research Institute

Innovations in Healthcare

Ruth is the manager of the UCD Beacon Hospital Academy and Beacon Hospital Research Institute. A Physiotherapist by profession, Ruth was instrumental in the establishment of the Lean Healthcare Academy – driving lean six sigma management throughout the organization and also established with her colleagues, the Beacon Hospital Research Institute. The Institute provides staff, consultants and patients a platform to translate research outputs into clinical practice and drive innovation throughout the hospital. In addition Ruth has represented the hospital on many national and state boards.

Ailish Daly

Allied Health, Beacon Hospital Research Institute

Partnership and Innovation made with Patients

Ailish is Allied Therapy Manager in Beacon Hospital. With a professional background in physiotherapy she is responsible for delivery of therapy services in the hospital. Ailish has lead various patient centred innovations including early rehabilitation for patients recovering from cancer treatment, to help patients achieve their exercise targets. She has supervised Horizon 2020 funded research studies investigating the role of sensor based technology in patients recovery following orthopaedic and oncology surgery.

Owen Laverty

Head of Enterprise & Economics, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

With significant experience at senior level in corporate, startup, university and public sector environments, Owen Laverty currently leads a team that provides support to the Startup, Enterprise and Economic Development activities in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. As an Engineer with over 25 years’ experience in product development working for Philips Electronics, Magna Donnelly and Design Partners he previously ran his own technology company specialising in bringing products to the marketplace.

Jamie Cudden

Smart City Program Manager, Dublin City Council

Smart City & Mastercard Global Case/Luas Data

As leader of Dublin City Council’s Smart City program, Jamie Cudden established the ‘Smart Dublin’ regional initiative in 2015, successfully implementing a large scale challenge-based innovation program working with over 40 companies tackling areas such as last mile delivery, smart mobility hubs and flood monitoring. He represents Dublin on Smart City alliances including the Harvard TECH Innovators Forum, Wireless Broadband Alliance, Cities Today Institute and Mastercard’s City Possible initiative.

Sarah Cunningham

Vice President, Mastercard Dublin Tech Hub

The Case for Location in One South County

As Vice President at Mastercard’s Dublin Technology Hub, Sarah Cunningham is focused on optimising the strategy for the company’s only Europe-based Technology Hub which has over 700 employees - primarily technologists dedicated to global projects shaping the future of payments. Sarah is a passionate diversity & inclusion champion and advocate, and has over 20 years’ experience across strategy, marketing and innovation at Google, Barclays, BT Retail UK, CapGemini and Accenture.

Conor Mark Dowling

Programme Manager, Smart Sandyford

SBD Vision, Mission & Achievements

Conor Mark Dowling PhD is a Post Doc researcher working on smart cities research. As the Smart Sandyford Programme Manager, Conor’s primary focus is on researching alternative sustainable mobility options with the aim of promoting economic growth and improving the quality of life in the district. The Smart Sandyford Programme is a partnership between Enable Trinity College Dublin, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Sandyford Business District under the Smart Dublin Programme.

Conor Battigan

District Executive, Sandyford Business District

Conor has qualifications in Project Management and Property combined with a wealth of experience setting up and running successful businesses. Conor Battigan is District Executive of Sandyford Business District, the largest business improvement district on the island of Ireland with 1,000 businesses, 26,000 employees and 5,000 residents. The business representative body is responsible for developing the area into a world-class destination in which to work and live.

Prof. Martin Curley

Director Digital Transformation, HSE

Innovation 2.0

Recognised as a Global thought leader in Open Innovation, European CTO of the year 2015 Professor Martin Curley’s strong experience in advanced IT delivery innovation in multiple domains makes him a much sought after speaker on technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. Recent accomplishments include the successful digital transformation of the Irish Healthcare system to drive better health outcomes and stimulate significant economic growth.

Dudley Stewart

Managing Director, Micro Electricity Generation Association

Sustainable Power

Managing Director and founding member of the Micro Electricity Generation Association (MEGA), Dudley Stewart has a demonstrated history of working in the renewables and environment industry. In the mid-seventies he founded one of the first ever dedicated Renewable Energy Companies in Ireland and drove the development of modern wind turbine blade design and governing systems.

Oisin Kim

CEO & Co-Founder, Webdoctor

Digital First Health

Oisin Kim is dad to Rian and Colan, husband to Amanda. Oisin is a self-confessed geek and CEO and Co-Founder of Webdoctor, Ireland’s leading telemedicine service and Hashealth.com, one of Europe’s leading telemedicine platforms.

Lorraine Higgins

Chief Executive, Digital Business Ireland

Former Senator Lorraine Higgins is a highly experienced public policy professional, media commentator and strategist. She previously worked as a Barrister and during her time as a Senator was a regular contributor on matters including business, entrepreneurship and EU issues. In December 2015, she was named by the Irish Times as one of the Top 5 People in Politics to Watch and one of the Top 50 People in Ireland to Watch.

Eleanor ‘Nell’ Watson

Machine Intelligence, Singularity University

Technology & Cultural Meta-Trends, AI

Senior Scientific Advisor to The Future Society at Harvard, Eleanor ‘Nell’ Watson holds Fellowships from the British Computing Society, and Royal Statistical Society, among others. As AI Faculty at Singularity University and author of Machine Intelligence courseware for O’Reilly Media, she realised the importance of protecting human rights and putting ethics, safety, and the values of human spirit into AI and her public speaking has inspired audiences worldwide to work towards a brighter future.

James Arbib

Founder, RethinkX

Rethinking Humanity

James Arbib is a London-based investor in technology. He is the founder of Tellus Mater, an independent philanthropic foundation dedicated to exploring the impacts of disruptive technology and its potential for solving some of the world’s most challenging problems. In addition, Jamie oversees a London-based family office with a diversified portfolio, across all asset classes and a focus on the risks and opportunities of technology disruption. A graduate in History from Trinity College, Cambridge, he has a Masters in Sustainability Leadership also from Cambridge. He is a qualified chartered accountant and worked as an investment analyst covering utilities.

Gerard Corcoran

Director, Sandyford Business District

With over 40 years’ experience in the Information Technology, Communications and Media industries including nearly 20 years with EDS and A.T. Kearney and 10 years with Huawei, Gerard Corcoran has travelled extensively and completed projects for leading operators in Europe, US and Asia Pacific. He has been responsible for developing industry specific service offerings and value propositions in the communications, entertainment and media industry sector with recent focus on Smart, Sustainable Cities and Mobile Operating Systems.

Garry Lyons

CEO, Shipyard Technology Ventures

How To Optimise Innovation

Chief Executive of Shipyard Technology Ventures, a venture builder, that partners with large global businesses to help them optimise and accelerate their product development and innovation activities. Garry was previously Chief Innovation Officer, (Head of Digital and Innovation) in Mastercard; prior to that he was CEO of Orbiscom, the inventor of Virtual Card Numbers, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2009. Garry is a technologist by training with significant experience in the financial services industry and in driving innovation and product development both in startups and in global corporations.

Gerard Corcoran

Director, Sandyford Business District

With over 40 years’ experience in the Information Technology, Communications and Media industries including nearly 20 years with EDS and A.T. Kearney and 10 years with Huawei, Gerard Corcoran has travelled extensively and completed projects for leading operators in Europe, US and Asia Pacific. He has been responsible for developing industry specific service offerings and value propositions in the communications, entertainment and media industry sector with recent focus on Smart, Sustainable Cities and Mobile Operating Systems.

John Shaw

Founder, Quantum Computing

Digital Wellness

An Executive Technology Leader in Digital Transformation, John Shaw has 20 years’ experience delivering Technology Solutions in HealthCare, FinTech, Logistics, Manufacturing, Energy and Utilities. Expert at building successful relationships, capabilities and culture he excels at bringing out the best in people by listening and sharing the big picture. Operating with an agile decision-making style he will rapidly catalyse change by turning ideas into actions.

Ken Finnegan

CEO, Trinity Tangent

Innovation Hubs

Partnering with businesses to create innovations and provide investment in technology, Ken Finnegan also contributes to national government policy with regards to emerging trend identification, priority areas for investment and investment allocation. He has global experience in research, development and innovation in high-value technology organisations and regularly contributes to a variety of business and industry journals, including Silicon Republic, Irish Tech News, as well as making presentations on technology innovation around the world.

Niall Moran

Director of Technology Centre, Microsoft Ireland

The Future from an Alternative Perspective

With over 20 years of experience in the tech industry Niall currently runs the Dublin Technology Centre for Microsoft where he helps customers envision how technology can drive business agility. Prior to Microsoft, Niall worked as a technology consultant and a CTO. Niall is a frequent speaker at technology and business conferences on topics such as: like culture, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

Adrian Weckler

Tech Editor, Independent Newspapers

Digital Futurology

Technology Editor of both the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent in addition to being host of Ireland’s most listened-to technology podcast, The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler describes himself simply as a journalist who writes about technology. A journalist who is the winner of multiple honours including the Irish Internet Association’s Net Visionary award and the David Manley Media Award and - on more than one occasion - the Smurfit Business Journalism Award, Ireland’s most prestigious business media accolade.

Eoin Costello

Project Director, DigitalHQ clg

Passionate about digital innovation and currently working to apply his experience to putting digital at the heart of the regeneration of his local town, Eoin Costello has worked on all sides of the business of digital growth and innovation. He has served as a director of the IIA, ISPAI and DLR Enterprise Board and a personal high point was leading Ireland’s first national startup week, the Startup Gathering 2015.

David Campbell

Head of e-Commerce, humm by flexifi

How to maximise your Online Sales

David Campbell is the Head of e-Commerce at humm by flexifi, the market leader in the Irish Buy Now, Pay Later sector. David has a strong background in retail and e-Commerce having worked with leading brands across multiple sectors. He has represented Ireland at the Global e-Commerce Roundtable and has presented to both Ecommerce Europe and the United Nations on the Irish e-Commerce landscape. David also holds a role as Director in Digital Business Ireland.

Lorraine Higgins

Chief Executive, Digital Business Ireland

Former Senator Lorraine Higgins is a highly experienced public policy professional, media commentator and strategist. She previously worked as a Barrister and during her time as a Senator was a regular contributor on matters including business, entrepreneurship and EU issues. In December 2015, she was named by the Irish Times as one of the Top 5 People in Politics to Watch and one of the Top 50 People in Ireland to Watch.

John Roddy

Commercial Director, Codec

Using Microsoft Cloud to Innovate and Deliver Better Business Outcomes

A motivated IT Professional with over 25 years’ experience in various roles, John Roddy is a proven leader with the ability to “turn the dial” to positively impact revenue & profit growth, strategy and direction. A firm believer that technology can change the way we live, work and play for the better, his specialities include Strategy, Enterprise Performance Management, Business Intelligence, Support and Consulting Services, Cloud Services and Application Modernisation.

Conor Battigan

District Executive, Sandyford Business District

Conor has qualifications in Project Management and Property combined with a wealth of experience setting up and running successful businesses. Conor Battigan is District Executive of Sandyford Business District, the largest business improvement district on the island of Ireland with 1,000 businesses, 26,000 employees and 5,000 residents. The business representative body is responsible for developing the area into a world-class destination in which to work and live.

Jim Power

Lecturer, Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, UCD

Economic Forecast

As owner of an Economic & Financial Research/Consultancy, Jim Power provides a range of services including public speaking, lecturing, media interviews and commentary. During a career within the financial services industry, he has worked as Treasury Economist at AIB Group, and Chief Economist at Bank of Ireland Group Treasury. He is currently Chief Economist with Friends First Group and Chairman of both Three Rock Capital Management and Love Irish Food

Owen Laverty

Head of Enterprise & Economics, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

With significant experience at senior level in corporate, startup, university and public sector environments, Owen Laverty currently leads a team that provides support to the Startup, Enterprise and Economic Development activities in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. As an Engineer with over 25 years’ experience in product development working for Philips Electronics, Magna Donnelly and Design Partners he previously ran his own technology company specialising in bringing products to the marketplace.

Eoghan Hanrahan

Regional Director, Dublin Region and Regional Development, Enterprise Ireland

Agile Innovation

As Regional Director, Dublin Region and Regional Development, Eoghan has over 20 years’ experience working in Enterprise Ireland, in a number of Divisions, and is currently responsible for the Dublin Region and Regional Development, as part of the Regional Division.

Joanne Hession

Founder, LIFT Ireland

Leading Ireland’s Future Together

Executive Director of The Entrepreneurs Academy which has trained over 30,000 people towards success, Joanne Hession is passionate and effective in helping individuals and organisations to achieve their potential through expert leadership training. In 2018 she stepped aside from her business to found LIFT Ireland, a national leadership initiative that builds authentic leadership across the country, at the kitchen table, in the classroom, clubhouse and boardroom.

Una Power

An Cathaoirleach, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

Closing Address

Cllr. Una Power was elected Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council on 8th June 2020. She is the youngest ever Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown. Councillor Power is a representative of the Green Party and was elected as a first time Councillor in June 2019 to represent Killiney-Shankill.

The new Cathaoirleach, who holds a BA in Politics and German and is undertaking a Masters in Public Policy at UCD, has worked as a political activist and in the NGO sector and has been a member of the Green Party for many years.