Erik Hersman is a widely respected technologist, blogger and commentator who specialises in the impact and application of technology throughout Africa. Raised in Sudan and Kenya and a graduate of Kenya's Rift Valley Academy, he runs two popular websites - WhiteAfrican and AfriGadget, a multi-author website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. AfriGadget was named one of Time Magazine's "Top 50 Sites of 2008"

Erik is also the Co-Founder of Ushahidi ("testimony" in Swahili), a groundbreaking crowdsourcing website created to map incidents of violence during the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis.

Erik Hersman's work is widely recognized among the technology, development and humanitarian communities, and in 2008 he was named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow. In the summer of 2009 he was awarded a TED Fellowship,and the following year named a Senior TED Fellow.

Erik Hersman is the co-founder of BRCK, a 'backup generator for the internet'.

Dr Rand Hindi is an entrepreneur, bioinformatician and algorithm architect. He is the founder and CEO of Snips.

Rand started coding at the age of 10, founded his first startup at 14 and created a web development agency at 15 before starting his PhD at the age of 21.

He has been elected as a TR35 by the MIT Technology Review, is the founding ambassador of the Sandbox network in Paris, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a Kairos Society fellow. Rand is particularly interested in how data can be used to solve everyday problems while ensuring privacy and transparency.

He holds a BSc in Computer Science and a PhD in Bioinformatics from University College London (UCL), as well as two graduate degrees from Singularity University in Silicon Valley and THNK in Amsterdam.