Speakers

"After working as a Game Designer for Candy Crush developer, King, and narrative games studio, Wooga, Allan Cudicio founded his own company, Twin Drums. He is currently working on the PC game 'The Wagadu Chronicles', the first afro-fantasy MMORPG. Allan's big passions are Dungeons & Dragons, fried plantain, dogs, cycling and justice.

Max Krupyshev has been involved with Bitcoin since 2013. He is the founder of Satoshi Square and Bitcoin Foundation Ukraine. Being a member of the Blockchain Working Group, the organisation lobbying crypto in governments of different countries, he also regularly participates in annual Europol Cryptocurrency Conference. Having a vast experience in working with Cex.io and Ghash.io now Max Krupyshev leads the world's most prosperous cryptocurrency payment service - Cryptoprocessing.com.

Dele is an acclaimed entrepreneur and visionary, passionate about data’s role in transforming society. He is CEO of metaMe, the world’s first self-sovereign AI and universal smart data marketplace, and founder of The Internet Foundation, an NGO dedicated to advancing digital human rights and the ethical use of data in commerce. Dele is also founder and Chief Imagineer of Metaiye Media, a blockchain media company introducing the world's first ""Crypto Comic"" series - Metaiye Knights heralding a new breed of collectible digital media - Crypto Media.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Marc Williams has been widely regarded as a sports marketing pioneer and worked for three of the largest sports brands in the world: Champs Sports, Footaction, Reebok and helped Champs Sports Become a $1Billion dollar brand. His insights have been featured in media outlets such as CBS Evening News, BBC World News. Recently CNN named Dr. Williams as one of the Top 20 Inspirational Speakers in the World.

Currently, Dr. Williams is the Global Scholar Practitioner at one of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s), Florida Memorial University. He is creating an innovative STEAM program that will prepare students in careers in: Technology, AR/VR, Animation, Esports, Music, Fashion, Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Communications.

He is also the Commissioner of: The Yard: HBCU Esports Alliance (HEA). The Alliance is a division of the Collegiate StarLeague (CSL) and will work collectively with CSL to bring Esports competition and academic opportunities to HBCU schools.

Over 14 years experience within the games industry across brand, publisher and distribution management working with AAA Publishers: EA, Capcom, THQ, FIFA, Need for Speed, Star Wars Battlefront, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, WWE and Disney Pixar. Annabel’s key focus is driving marketing strategies and growth across multiple Boss Bunny lines of business cultivating the gamer experience and engagement while targeting the wider hyper casual audience. We don’t target gamers. Boss Bunny target the world.

With more than 20 years' experience in IT, entertainment and esports, Désiré Koussawo is a well-known figure in the french gaming community, the political sphere and among professionals, far beyond esports.

Désiré is the Managing Director of ESL France, a subsidiary of the largest esports company in the world, and the cofounder and honorary president of Futurolan Association, organizer of Gamers Assembly, the biggest France Lan-Party. He is also heavily invested in the development and shaping of esports alongside public actors: locally, regionally, but also nationally with France Esports association.

Michael has worked in the creative and innovation industries for over 30 years. He is a hands-on strategic advisor for various businesses, investment funds and accelerators across all design and technology sectors including Activeledger (UK), Mom Incubators (UK), DECENT (CH), Generic Robotics (UK), Hubris One (EE), Fabrica do Futuro (Brazil), Films Angel (UK/ France), Comixify (USA), Privet Equity (UK), Accel Point (PL), CCeTV (UK), GCC (Senegal) and Privum (CH). He is also a Tech London Advocate and a lecturer at the INSEEC university. In addition, Michael is a supporter of the Nekton oceanology Foundation (Oxford University) and GIVENation, the children’s foundation.

Originated from Comoros with a French nationality, Nousra works for Gameloft as a Senior Sales Account Manager for Africa. She has been developing the business relations with the various players to make sure that video games are easily accessible to everyone. Passionate about the entertainment industry and its impact on consumption patterns thanks to the digital innovations, she remains convinced that this industry will be part of the economic engine in Africa.

Bianca Riley is an Account Director at Atteline, a fashion, beauty, design and consumer corporate PR agency headquartered in Dubai, UAE. With both boutique and international agency experience, Bianca brings global best practice to brands in the region to bolster communications and protect brand reputation.

A software engineer with a vision to realise the future today. Abdullah aims to make technology and education available for all those who are keen and interested.

I am specialized in interactive solutions development. I've successfully excelled and deployed multiple virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), games, simulation, graphics, and computer vision projects for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and mobile phones. I’ve found a platform of playable stories for children with the vision to create a safe play environment, support healthy active kids, and advocate the Arabic language.

One of the EFL’s youngest CEO took over at EFL League, Two Stevenage FC, in July 2018 having previously been at the helm of League Two’s Newport County AFC where he oversaw a significant transformation of the club both on and off the field, following their dramatic final day survival at the end of the 2016/17 season. Since arriving at Stevenage FC he has been responsible for several notable accomplishments including a Club Share Offering, the launch of the first Interactive Digital Match Day Programme and a global sponsorship campaign with Burger King, which turned the Club into the most played team in the world on EA Sports FIFA 20.

Alex holds a strong background in community and supporter engagement having previously established and run Stevenage FC’s Foundation, running a variety of local, national and international programmes including several based in Africa.

Dave set up Dream Reality Interactive in September 2016. Prior to this, he was the Director of Sony's London Studio where he developed titles including the billion-dollar franchise, Singstar, plus the hugely innovative, Wonderbook & VR Worlds.

More recent projects include 'Hold The World', an interactive VR experience in association with Sir David Attenborough, Orbu, a beautiful Japanese garden-themed AR game for iOS and Arca’s Path an intuitive physics platform game. Most recently, Dave has announced a partnership with Snap Inc. as part of the Bitmoji for Games launch, more to come summer 2020.

Dave has a PhD in artificial intelligence and has had a number of roles from a Research Fellow to Programmer to Recording Artist to name a few. He is also an active member of the game development industry, holding positions on the BAFTA Games Committee and the Game Developers Conference advisory board.

Yousef Shanti is a co-founder at UXBERT LABS and Head of Experience Design with the Hala Yalla Super App. Prior to that, Yousef was the co-founder for group of local portals in Jordan, a classified ads portal called Jebtak and a micro-tasks portal called Shaghlat. He was aalso a consultant with the leading newspaper agency in Jordan Alrai on their digital platforms and with Orange Telco on their digital marketing campaigns bringing a wealth of knowledge in his current role with Hala Yalla. Yousef was also a member of the Jordan Gaming Lab and has built WritersCell.com.

Yousef holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from the Hashemite University and currently pursuing an MBA from Anglia Ruskin University. He was a mentor and advisor for Matjar Panda, a startup that went from 0 SAR revenue to 6m SAR/year. in 3 years. He is also a certified UX practitioner from NN/g, Certified Scrum Master, and completed executive education in Innovation of Products and Services from MIT. In 20XX Yousef and his team won a title of Best Arab Startup for the Sawwagy app they designed and built.

Farrukh is co-founder of UXBERT Labs and the Hala Yalla Super App, leading both the product and marketing teams. Having graduated with an honors degree in Law (LLB) and a Masters in Marketing Management (MA), he started his career specialising in Market Research as a Project Supervisor focusing on quantitative research at Ipsos MORI before shifting into a qualitative research role at Field Initiatives. It was during this time that he developed a passion for User Experience and Usability, with a focus in UX Research.

After completing his Masters in Marketing Management (MA), Farrukh co-founded UXBERT Labs where he was responsible for growing, developing and managing the UX research and Marketing teams for UXBERT Labs and Hala Yalla. He led the team in delivering UX and Usability projects for Saudi corporates and government entities (e.g. STC, Saudi Aramco, and Ministry of Health), as well as specialist research for international tech companies (e.g. Amazon, Spotify and Skyscanner).

With substantial experience leading in fast-paced environments, and expert understanding and application of User-Centered Design, Agile, Usability and Lean UX practices, Farrukh currently leads the product and marketing teams for each of the products within the Hala Yalla Super App. Despite his leadership role, he adamantly refuses to get an MBA, declaring “Why study the rule book when you can play the game.

With the incredibly fast paced change that our world has been witnessing, I believe it is imperative for marketers everywhere to take bold risks and embrace new technologies and trends in order be noticed and remembered through the clutter. As a through and through marketer with a background in advertising and communications I have a strong passion for building brands and story telling. Despite this obsession, I spent the last 7 years at Mars working across various demand functions from activation, to product development and communications, allowing me to develop a holistic understanding of business operations and granting me the opportunity to work on some of the most iconic brands in the world like M&M's and Snickers. At the end of the day my true passion continues to lie with connecting people to our brands everyday, through compelling brand stories and communications.

Born in Madrid, Alfredo is an executive with more 10+ years of experience in the sports industry, always working in international companies. Alfredo joined LaLiga as Digital Strategy Director in 2017 after spending three years leading Facebook Media Partnerships Team in Spain and Portugal, where he worked closely with the main sports and news publishers in both regions to help them achieve their business objectives and build broader audiences. Before that he spent seven years as Head of International Clients within the sponsorship team of Real Madrid.

As Heads EMEA Games Partnerships at Snap Inc., Pedro Rodrigues is responsible for a growing community of game developers that build HTML5 mobile games on Snapchat or that bring the best of Snapchat directly into their experiences, via Snap's SDKs and tools for identity (ie, Bitmoji), social and sharing.

A marketer by day and gamer by night, I used to play Call of Duty professionally four years ago. However, due to lack of platforms available to further hone my skills as a female gamer, I limited my gameplay for leisure purposes. Today, I enjoy combining my industry knowledge of consumer behaviour with Esports and share first-hand experience regarding gaps in the market, the future of Esports, and ways to maintain the conversation about Esports.

From a major career shift as an award winning photographer, to the front lines of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, Salwa’s demonstrated history of working on the ground with leading start-ups enabled her to take the lead on major projects within the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Saudi Arabia. Salwa finds passion in skyrocketing entrepreneurial ideas with extra attention towards human centric experiences.

Kofi is the founder of GameCampCities, the first 360 communications agency dedicated to Africa's gaming industry, advising brands, enterprises and govs (they have produced more than 100 physical and virtual events across a network of 10 countries in Africa). Kofi has collaborated with Top 100 global brands such as Coca Cola, the Alibaba Group (WESG & Alibaba Cloud), the Global Game Jam (World Guinness Record edition Gamer 2017), UBA Bank, and the University of Dallas, Texas. In 2018, Kofi began teaching Design + Esport as a part-time professor at the Grande Ecole de Commerce Kedge in France. The KEDGE course has been named by Forbes as one of the best entrepreneurship courses in the world. The 11m Euro Bordeaux Campus, where Kofi is leading an innovative training on Esports with co-facilitators from ESL, the Alibaba group, the television channel Arte and Sony Music France.

As a computer science graduate, Mohammed worked with Microsoft. He then launched an event management company for teambuilding activities and now want to reach with my activities to the whole world using TAGitGames.

Ahmed Gamal is an experienced software engineer and games developer. He has published multiple games on different mobile platforms. Alongside founding a start-up for AR Games, Ahmed is also a games development and software architecture consultant for various educational gaming and simulation companies. Ahmed is currently a Games Development lecturer in SAE Institute with an MSc in Games Development and a BSc in Computer Science, he brings together his knowledge of and love for games development to the classroom, inspiring students to constantly learn and channel their programming skills to develop their concepts. His areas of expertise include gameplay programming, XR development, software engineering, Unity3d, and game AI.

Big Ideas are a dime a dozen, it is only when they are translated into a tangible value for the intended people that they start transforming lives and economies. As a child, I was the one who invented new games, fine-tuned rules, and created lobbies until everyone around started playing and advocating the new game. Today, with 11+ years of experience across the digital world, I scout for raw ideas, use design thinking to polish (or abort) new concepts. I lead market and user research efforts. I build, lead, and align teams on a clear vision and actionable goals with a lean mindset.

Founder of UMX Studio the leading game development company in Saudi Arabia , he have 12years wide experience in IT fields

The co-founder of Moving Dimensions, and the creator of Abo Khashem. Omar has over a decade of experience in game development, and a 5 year experience in game publishing.

An Award Winning Creative Generalist with a great love for building interactive experiences for Games (Next Gen Consoles/Mobile), Multimedia and Virtual Reality applications.

I am currently the Director of Development at Semaphore (The Games and Media division of Semanoor International), Saudi Arabia's first console development studio where we released Games and Simulation experiences on iOS, Android, Steam, PS3/4/5, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Some of our projects were selected by Sony Playstation and selected for PS Plus by SCE Asia, promoted by Ouya, Qualcomm, and nVidia on their sites and events.

Formerly CEO of DemonWare (Activision-Blizzard), Tony has developed and ran the online services behind some of the largest videogames in the world (600M+ users).

He has worked in technology for 25 years and has won 40+ national & international awards. He has delivered products & services on multiple platforms in media, fintech, cloud & infrastructure, big data, automation, elearning, ecommerce, gaming & esports.

Ahmed is the business development manager in Arabhardware, operating as the lead point of contact for any and all matters specific to our company accounts; primarily gaming publishers, and gaming hardware manufacturers.

Been apart of the gaming industry for 8 years, have conducted multiple game creators and avid for gaming development in the MENA region

A +20-year Saudi multidisciplinary business consultant & strategist, Gamification specialist with Systems Engineering background, proven track record in leading multi-million, transformative projects across 12 markets and 4 continents, business acumen spanning new venture/product development, rollout & strategic expansion, strategy development & implementation, budgeting/P&L capacities, Gamification/Game Design, entrepreneurship & mentoring, Succession planning & Capacity development & enablement. Sectors served: Telecom, FMCG, Healthcare, Services Sector, Retail, IT, Renewable Energy, Education, Edutainment, Investment and F&B.

A Startup mentor at Mowgli Foundation & Cherie Blair Foundation for women Empowerment.

Naif is a young entrepreneur holding two bachelor degrees in Marketing & Information Technology, started his career at an early age in web development until he founded and successfully managed multiple businesses in technology industry, an experience he married with his passion for e-sports, to create Playhera, with a the mission to revolutionize e-sports around the world and bring disruptive tech to the gaming ever evolving scene.