Erik is the co-founder of Ushahidi (which means “testimony” in Swahili), a web application created to map the reported incidents of violence happening during the post-election crisis in Kenya. Currently, he is working with a team of mostly-African programmers to continue development of this new free and open source platform that makes it easier to crowdsource crisis information and visualize data. Ushahidi has been used for disasters in Haiti and Chile, by media organizations such as Al Jazeera and the Washington Post, for election monitoring in India, Afghanistan, Namibia and Mexico, and for multiple other uses around the world.

Erik Hersman is also the founder of AfriGadget, a multi-author website that showcases stories of Africans solving everyday problems with little more than their creativity and ingenuity. Fascinated by micro-entrepreneurs, gadgets and improvisation, he is proving that technology is changing Africa – daily.

In early 2010, Erik helped launch the new iHub (innovation hub) in Nairobi. It’s an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in Nairobi. This space is a tech community facility with a focus on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers and designers. It is part open community workspace (co-working), part vector for investors and VCs and part incubator.

Raised in Sudan and Kenya, Erik brings unique energy and insight to the world of technology and innovation – bridging the gap between Africa and Silicon Valley. An avid blogger Erik writes two different technology blogs including: AfriGadget and WhiteAfrican. One dedicated to low-tech African ingenuity, and the other to high-tech mobile and web changes happening throughout Africa.

Sarah Lacy is an award-winning reporter who has spent more than a decade writing about nearly everything in Silicon Valley, from the largest publicly traded companies to the tiniest start-ups. She is currently editor-at-large for TechCrunch.com, the largest blog on tech entrepreneurship in the world and is the author of “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0″ (Gotham Books, May 2008) Before that, she was a staff writer for BusinessWeek and the co-host of Yahoo! Finance’s daily show “TechTicker.”

Sarah Lacy is a frequent guest on national TV and radio and is currently working on her second book, which is about entrepreneurship in the emerging world. She lives in San Francisco.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Yola

Vinny is a seasoned, globally acclaimed entrepreneur who has founded a number of businesses, including the award-winning search engine marketing company, Clicks2Customers. He was recently chosen as a Young Global Leader Honoree 2009 by the World Economic Forum. He has been recognized as a high-impact entrepreneur by Endeavor Global and awarded the 2006 Top Young IT Entrepreneur.

He serves on numerous international advisory boards for search engine and affiliate marketing, including Commission Junction and Yahoo!, speaks at conferences around the world and is frequently cited on Web 2.0 trends. He studied Information Systems at the University of Cape Town and graduated with an honors degree in Electronic Commerce from the University of South Africa.

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 groundbreaking research into how change is affecting businesses large and small. Clients of the research include South Africa’s major financial institutions and corporations, Government departments and agencies, 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 current guide to mobilising the workplace, “The Mobile Office”. Through Penguin Books, he has also published five books on urban legends.

For his work in uncovering technology trends, Arthur was a finalist in the science and technology category of the Men’s Health Man of the Year awards in 2009.

He is a regular speaker at conferences, universities and corporate events and has presented his insights to audiences across the world.

Stephen Newton is an accomplished business leader who has spent close to a decade working in the online space, where he has been responsible for successfully and profitably growing and leading top on-line companies including: Hitwise UK, DoubleClick (Europe, Middle East and Africa – later acquired by Google) and Google Analytics.

It is his ability to effectively manage sales, marketing, operational and account management teams and to motivate them to deliver in a way that meets board expectations that has led Stephen to his current position as Head of South Africa Google.

A native of Philadelphia, Stephen received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and his JD from Loyola School of Law in Los Angeles. He speaks conversational Spanish, functional French and is currently learning Portuguese.

Stephan Ekbergh is a former professional DJ and seasoned travel industry veteran. A solid entrepreneur and visionary by heart, he has worked and invested in a number of travel companies and digital media businesses.

In 1997 he founded Mr Jet, Scandinavia’s first transactional online travel company, before launching the TravelStart portfolio in 1999 – a business he later successfully expanded internationally. In 2006 Travelstart South Africa was launched, as the country’s first online travel agency and current market leaders.

In early 2010 Ekbergh sold the entire European arm of his business and in the nearest future will focus on emerging markets. Ekbergh’s passion is to contribute to establishing e-commerce in Africa and the Middle East, a continent he feels in many ways has been neglected by other major players.

Ekbergh is a regular speaker on the travel industry circuit and writes his own blog, Epic Business Life and Love Stories. He lives in Cape Town with his wife and four children since 2005.

Stefan Magdalinski is the CEO of Mocality.com, a new mobile business directory (and a lot more to come) providing services to thousands of entrepreneurs across Africa. Mocality’s first city is Nairobi, Kenya.

Previously, he was CTO of MOO.com, the innovative digital printing company, but has been building web applications and online civic hacks since 1994, mostly in startups, including:

• UpMyStreet, the ground-breaking web1.0 location-based information source and community.
• WriteToThem.com (formerly faxyourmp.com).
• TheyWorkForYou.com, an activist created re-implementation of Hansard, the UK’s parliamentary record.
• The Open Rights Group (www.openrightsgroup.org).

In his spare time, he wonders why he doesn’t have any.

AdiiRockstar (born Adriaan Pienaar) is an entrepreneur, the co-founder of the very successful online startup WooThemes and a general creator of Rockstar Awesomeness. Along with being a serial entrepreneur, he is also a designer & developer (CSS, PHP &WordPress), which has spawned his other company – a boutique design & development agency – Radiiate.

At the young age of 25, Adii has revolutionized both his business and personal life. Back in 2007 somewhere, he decided to call himself a “rockstar”; so the rockstar-tag is very much a result of some subjective marketing on his side… Generally though he’s just Adii to all those who know him and it’s only online where the AdiiRockstar brand seems larger than life itself.

Adii designs because he loves the creative freedom it affords him, whilst development appeals to his more logical side. But it’s for business that he’s got a real passion for and it’s within that space, where he is trying to “design” & craft his own future.

Richard Mulholland is the founder of Missing Link (www.missinglink.co.za), a specialist conference and presentation strategy company, and co-owner of Thunk! (www.thunklab.com) SA’s first perspective lab.

Rich’s dynamic way of thinking took him from rigging lights at rock concerts to telling CEOs what and how they should present. A renowned speaker, strategist, creative thinker and capitalist punk, Rich is the guy you hire to make your presentation or conference rock. He also has a deep hatred for pretentious biogs, of which his is a fine example.

Stuart Ntlathi(23) heads up the Stuart Ntlathi Science, Engineering and Technology Institute (SNSET INSTITUTE). Established in 2000, the SNSET INSTITUTE believes in the promotion and development of education, specifically in the field of Science, Engineering and Technology amongst the youth.

Stuart grew up in a township outside the rural farming town of Klerksdorp in the North-West Province, and since the age of 13 has been determined to change the perception of South Africans, especially that of school children, towards Science and Technology. As a scholar, Stuart faced many adversaries and discouragement from his community, however he pursued his passion for science, and initiated the Science Club at his former High School, Arefadimeheng Secondary School.

SNSET INSTITUTE’s annual event, the Global Science, Engineering and Technology Summit, affords a specially selected number of scholars with the opportunity to attend a week-long Science and Technology Fair in Klerksdorp, where they are tasked with team projects, attend workshops and participate in discussions.

Stuart’s objective for SNSET INSTITUTE is to further expand the infrastructure and develop “Infinite Park”, where young people may congregate, share ideas and work together on Science and Technology projects. “Infinite Park” is envisioned as a launching pad for Science-based businesses and academic development, which has attracted donations from both Government and corporates.

Patrick Kayton has spent the better part of ten years putting ideas into people’s heads.

As a content architect, Patrick has been responsible for the conceptualisation, design, development and delivery of creative, full colour and highly interactive educational materials, courses and comics principally in the areas of entrepreneurship and innovation.

In partnership with his brother Barry, he has developed a unique instructional approach which weaves analytical and creative threads into a powerful tapestry for learning and thinking. Their efforts have addressed audiences and learners ranging from impoverished youth in rural Africa, school learners of all ages in schools around the world, disadvantaged adult illiterates to sophisticated MBA students.

Since 2006 the brothers have collaborated on the creation of Cognician, a powerful thought processing software application for the web. (www.cognician.com)