Arthur Goldstuck brings you up to date and beyond on the technology trends that are shaping business strategy, consumer use of technology, and the social landscape of the future.

Arthur is an award-winning writer, analyst and commentator on Internet, mobile and business and consumer technologies. He heads the World Wide Worx research organisation, leading ground-breaking research into how change is affecting businesses large and small. Clients of the research include South Africa’s major corporations, Government departments and international organisations.

Arthur is author of 17 books, including South Africa’s best-selling IT book yet, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Internet”, and the new guide to mobilising the workplace, “The Mobile Office”. Through Penguin Books, he has also published five books on urban legends, with the next due to appear in mid-2009. He is a regular speaker at conferences, universities and corporate events and has presented his insights to audiences across the world.

Herman is founder and CEO of mobile IM giant MXit – a free instant messaging service with a community of 11+ million registered users and growth rate of between 15,000 and 20,000 per day globally.

He has 25+ years experience in the ICT industry, starting his career in 1980 as a software developer after graduating from Stellenbosch University with a B.Comm degree and acquiring a Datametrics diploma from UNISA. In 1990 he established his own ICT consultancy business, specializing in software development and operational support in the telco space, which ultimately led to the formation of the Swist Technologies Group in 1998. MXit was later born in 2002/2003 as a result of one of Swist’s R&D department’s innovations.

Herman believes that creativity, tenacity, hard work and some good old fashioned luck helped make MXit the success story it is today.

Van Rensburg is a founding member of Fundamo.Prior to the formation of Fundamo, he was the CIO of the Sanlam Group, a past board member of a number of IT-related companies, and has also performed the role of IT consultant to many major South African corporations. He has BSc degrees in Physics & Chemistry as well as in Information Systems, and a MSc in Reactor Physics.

Van Rensburg is an active member of the South African Council of Natural Sciences, the Computer Society of South Africa and The South African Institute of Computer Scientists. He is also one of the founders of the Cape IT Initiative (CITI).

Mike Stopforth is an entrepreneur, writer and speaker who helps companies extract value from Web 2.0* trends and technologies to create smarter, more profitable businesses.

He heads up Cerebra, South Africa’s leading social media company (the sister company of Brandsh Media), which enjoys relationships with local and global brands – Toyota, Standard Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Samsung Mobile, ABSA, Converse, ASCO (Calvin Klein), Zurich and more. These companies have used Cerebra to connect more meaningfully with their consumers outside the corporate firewall, and harness the full potential of employees behind it.

Mike is a technology commentator for popular business and marketing websites, lectures at the Vega School of Branding and features as a guest lecturer on executive programs at the Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, and the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg. He is a popular feature on the local and international business-to-business speaking circuit.

Mike also co-founded Web startup Afrigator, Africa’s social media aggregator, and the 27dinner social networking movement.

Dave Duarte is a internet and mobile marketing specialist, and holds several senior positions in the academic, commercial, and non-profit sectors.

He is a partner at the highly respected training and consultancy company Huddlemind Labs.

He is founder and programme director of two Executive Education courses: Nomadic Marketing and Mobile Marketing at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business. He also lectures on the Executive MBA programme at UCT GSB.

He is Public Lead for Creative Commons (CC) South Africa; Dean of the Digital Dream Faculty at The Maharishi Institute of Management; co-owns Muti.co.za (Africa’s most popular social-bookmarking site); and co-founder of the 27dinners.

You can read his Marketing Geek blog at www.daveduarte.co.za.

Peter Flynn is a successful web entrepreneur, co-founder and currently Managing Director of award winning Web Application Development company White Wall Web.

Peter has successfully taken White Wall Web from its position as a start-up venture to an established business with 3 offices in 2 countries, servicing large multi-national and international clients (such as RE/MAX, Louis Group & Schwartzkopf) across various industries.

Peter is a thought leader on the subject of Software as a Service and is the author of the blog/e-book SaaSPert (www.saaspert.com). Peter is also a non-executive director of several other tech companies.

Henk is a computer scientist and Internet junkie turned social entrepreneur. He founded Skyrove, which enables anyone to set up a WiFi Hotspot and earn an income by sharing their internet access with their neighbours. Through its community, Skyrove is today Africa’s largest and fastest-growing WiFi hotspot network!

In 2006 Skyrove received the prestigious Technology Top 100 award for ‘Most Promising Emerging Enterprise’. He’s managed to successfully raise Venture Capital for his ventures and most recently been named by the Mail & Guardian as one of ’200 Young South Africans you Must Take To Lunch’.

Andrew is the operations and technical whizz-kid at Live Alchemy, a cutting edge e-commerce development company that specializes in aiding businesses make the transition towards transacting online. Live Alchemy’s flagship project is Yuppiechef, an award-winning online premium kitchen tools store.

Andrew is also co-founder and a contributing author of www.ideate.co.za, a popular resource of information and inspiration for South African entrepreneurs.

Charl Norman is a 24yr old internet entrepreneur and blogger currently holding the position as Operations Manager (Co-Founder) for Blueworld Communities. BWCOM owns leading social networks in South Africa and was acquired by Naspers in a land mark internet deal early in 2008. Charl has been instrumental in creating four niche social networks based in South Africa such as Blueworld.co.za, Zoopedup.com and Speakerbox.co.za

He also blogs on his personal online presence and owns a blog network including titles such as Carblog.co.za which is consistently ranked in the top 10 blogs in South African and a tech blog, BandwidthBlog.com, which was nominated in the best tech blog category for the 2007 SA blog awards.

Charl has 8 years of online publishing experience and started his first website while still in high school. Charl was also runner up for ICT Young Entrepreneur of Africa 2008 and nominated for Top 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in Africa.

He also lectures at the UCT Graduate school of business, has done public speaking at 27 Dinner and Heavy Chef events and writes technology articles for Leadership Magazine, Intelligence magazine and TechLeader.co.za.