Gene Kim  |  Why We Need DevOps Now: A Fourteen Year Study Of High Performing IT Organizations
Gene is a multiple award winning CTO, researcher and author.  He was founder and CTO of Tripwire for 13 years. He has written two books, including The Visible Ops Handbook, and The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win.

Gene is a huge fan of IT operations, and how it can enable developers to maximize throughput of features from code complete to in production, without causing chaos and disruption to the IT environment. He has worked with some of the top Internet companies on improving deployment flow and increasing the rigor around IT operational processes. In 2007, ComputerWorld added Gene to the 40 Innovative IT People Under The Age Of 40 list, and was given the Outstanding Alumnus Award by the Department of Computer Sciences at Purdue University for achievement and leadership in the profession.

Sam Guckenheimer  |  Reimagining the Application Lifecycle
Sam Guckenheimer is the Group Product Planner for Visual Studio. Sam is also the author of Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System. He has 25 years experience as architect, developer, tester, product manager, project manager and general manager in the software industry in the US and Europe. Currently, Sam is the Group Product Planner for Microsoft Visual Studio Team System. In this capacity, he acts as chief customer advocate, responsible for the end-to-end external design of the next releases of these products. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2003, Sam was Director of Product Line Strategy at Rational Software Corporation, now the Rational Division of IBM. He holds five patents on software lifecycle tools. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Sam is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University.

Chad Albrecht  |  Beyond Scrum
Chad is currently a Managing Partner and the Vice President of Centare's Agile Practice. Over the last 20 years of his career, Chad has been an executive, consultant, developer, coach and trainer. Having worked with dynamic organizations around the world in diverse industries, Chad is a strong believer in Agile ALM techniques and the Kaizen corporate culture. Chad is also an avid speaker at user groups, a published author and active member of the software development community. As a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org, Chad and his practice help organizations make the transition to Agile. You can read more about Chad Albrecht at blog.chadalbrecht.com or centare.com.

Jeff Gothelf  |  Better product definition with Lean UX and Design Thinking
Jeff Gothelf has spent a 14 year career as an interaction designer, Agile practitioner, user experience team leader and blogger. He is one of the leading voices on the topic of Agile UX and Lean UX. In addition, Jeff is the author of the upcoming O'Reilly book (2013), Lean UX: Applying lean principles to improve user experience (www.leanuxbook.com). Currently Jeff is a Managing Director in the New York City office of Neo.

Gary Pedretti  |  Holistic Product Development
Gary Pedretti is an application architect, software developer, Scrum practitioner, and a Scrum trainer for Ken Schwaber’s Scrum.org. With over fifteen years of experience in technology, he helps companies achieve their goals of delivering business value through software. Industries he works in include building automation, print and finishing, logistics, health care, pharmaceutical, beverage, health insurance, building remodeling, and office equipment – ranging in size from small volunteer organizations to Fortune 100 corporations. He is a strong believer in the “see one, do one, teach one” road to craft and mastery, which led him to the roles of trainer, coach, and public speaker.

Benjamin Day  |  Scrum Under a Waterfall
Benjamin Day is a consultant and trainer specializing in software best practices using Microsoft’s tools. Ben’s main areas of emphasis include Team Foundation Server, Scrum, software testing, and software architecture. He is a Microsoft Visual Studio ALM MVP, a certified Scrum trainer via Scrum.org, and a speaker at conferences such as TechEd and VSLive. When not developing software, Ben’s been known to go running and sea kayaking in order to balance out his love of cheese, cured meats, and champagne. He can be contacted via http://www.benday.com.

Bill Driegert  |  Transitioning to Agile in the Middle of Extreme Growth
Bill Driegert is the Chief Innovation Officer for Coyote Logistics, the fastest growing logistics company in North America. Driegert has a serious crush on big ideas. He has the freedom to continually improve and re-imagine Coyote’s technology platform and set his team of developers loose on insanely challenging problems. When he’s not plotting data points and Coyote’s next move, he can be found playing monster with his four-year-old daughter and young son. Or racing mountain bikes. Or playing drums. Or rebuilding motorcycles. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business form SMU, a Masters in Logistics from MIT, and an MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business.

Elizabeth Keogh |  Behavior-Driven Development and Agile Testing
Liz Keogh is an independent Lean and Agile consultant based in London. She is a well-known blogger and international speaker, a core member of the BDD community and a contributor to a number of open-source projects including JBehave. 

She enjoys subjects as diverse as haiku poetry, complexity thinking, effective personal feedback and OO development, and has a strong technical background with almost 15 years’ experience in delivering and coaching others to deliver large-scale enterprise applications, which she now combines with a focus on psychology, NLP and adult learning. She has pioneered the application of learning models in measuring Agile maturity and coaching progress, and is currently interested in modelling risk and change with complexity thinking and the Cynefin framework. 

Liz was awarded the Gordon Pask award in 2010 for deepening existing ideas in the Agile space and "coming up with some pretty crazy ones of her own". She is also a science fiction writer and haiku poet. 

Venkatesh Rao  |  Systems Thinking: A Foxy Approach
Venkatesh Rao is a consultant, independent researcher and the author of Tempo, a book on narrative-driven decision-making. He blogs at ribbonfarm.com and writes regularly for Forbes and Information Week. His consulting practice is focused on helping businesses solve problems at the intersection of technology, marketing and strategy. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan and has worked in startup, academic and large enterprise environments for nearly a decade. Prior to starting his independent consulting practice in early 2011, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Senior Researcher with the Xerox Innovation Group.

Erik Weber  |  Metrics that Matter
Erik is a Professional Scrum Trainer, Product Owner practitioner, and Senior Agile Consultant with Centare’s Agile Practice. Over the past 10 years Erik has been a developer, tester, project manager, in both waterfall and agile environments of varying success. As a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org, Erik enjoys helping organizations become agile. You can find out more and contact Erik Weber at www.linkedin.com/in/erikjweber