Expanding Education 

Laura loves building solutions that improve the education space. She has overseen the development of a range of EdTech products, both as a founding team member at Digedu and as the head of product at Modern Teacher. Most recently, she has joined the team at D2L, a top learning management system serving millions of users globally. Laura is an active member of communities for women in technology, a regular conference speaker, and a passionate believer in technology’s ability to improve lives in the education space and beyond.

Having received advanced degrees in secondary education, Joe began a ten-year career as a high school teacher providing instruction in economics, Spanish, Bible, and computers. While in his teaching career, he furthered his graduate education, earning a doctorate in education with a double-minor in computers and theology. His career focus changed to IT in the early 1990’s when he started as a Computer Consultant at NC State University. Three promotions later, Dr. Perez ended his successful 25-year career at NC State as Business Intelligence Specialist when he took another promotion to become Senior Business Analyst at the NC Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) in the fall of 2017 and has since been promoted to Senior Systems Analyst and Team Lead. In addition to his full-time analytics/BI leadership role at DHHS, Joe was named Chief Technology Officer at a North Carolina corporation in October 2020. With more than 11,000 followers on LinkedIn and several professional certifications, Perez has stayed active in the IT, HHS, and higher education communities as a much sought-after resource, highly-recommended international keynote speaker, data analytics & visualization expert, and specialist in efficiency and process improvement. In 2020 alone, Perez spoke at more than two dozen conferences hosted by nine different countries on five continents. The high demand for his expertise has not diminished, as he has more than 30 speaking engagements for 2021.

Through the years, Dr. Perez has never lost his love for teaching, having been a guest speaker for many organizations and internationally-recognized podcasts. When he takes a break from work and speaking, he enjoys spending time with his wife of more than 30 years and their children, whom he says are the "best things that ever happened to me." He also sings, plays the piano, composes songs, and has performed PSA's and voice-overs for schools and other organizations. He also serves as music director to his church’s Hispanic ministry, teaches one of their Bible study classes, and interprets sermons to Spanish or English, depending upon the audience. If there's any spare time left, he enjoys publishing a monthly military newsletter (as Editor-in-Chief of The Patriot News), working out in the gym, and catching up on Star Trek reruns. "It’s a busy life indeed, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I’m a firm believer that if I’m not innovating, then I’m stagnating," says Joe.

Founder and CEO of Zoë Camper LLC, and Co
Founder of The Augmented Society Network, a
Thematic Network of the Royal Society of Arts
(The RSA).

Zoe has a long career in digital transformation,
with extensive teaching experience and hold a
Post Graduate Cert of Education.

Abdul Basit Saboowala, popularly known as Holo Abdul for building science fiction hologram technology as watched in movies like 'Star Trek' & 'Iron Man' bringing it to reality with his invention of world's first patent-protected 'Holographic Interactive Technology' and 'Virtual 3D Toolbox' and is currently leading his global multi-award-winning hi-tech venture Holo Shiksha & Holo Abdul with a vision to revolutionize the educational experience.

He began his journey as one of the Youngest Physics Professor and have been taking lectures at Schools & Colleges across the country. He is also an active International Speaker and has advised 100+ institutions and corporates internationally on Immersive Technology, Education, Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Furthermore, Abdul is a Forbes India Great CEOs Nominee and have received multiple National & International Awards such as by India Google Techstar, Nehru Science Centre, IIT Bombay, EO GSEA, Asia Top 500, etc.

My life and career are built around two fundamental beliefs: adults are highly capable language learners, and we as educators should be innovating on how to teach and empower them.

At my school, ExcelMandarin, we are building a revolutionary community of support, encouragement, and positivity around adult language learning. We are not just a language school; we are a community of educators, service workers, social workers, doctors, tech workers, language enthusiasts, and everything in between. We are a community of passionate learners who believe the world will be a better place if we can connect with people from other cultures and backgrounds. We are paving the future for what it means to be a language enthusiast and adult learner, especially in the realm of Mandarin language learning. Our online classes are fun, interactive, interest-focused. We show students how to cultivate passion and use that passion as the driving force for learning. We teach students how to teach themselves, and empower them to grow in ways they didn't know they could.

Tiffani Neilson has extensive marketing, branding, and PR experience, as well as deep knowledge about IoT, LPWA, and many other technologies. Tiffani’s passion for delivering excellence is second to none and evident in her skillful ability to transition projects from strategy to seamless execution. Highly skilled in forming partnerships and developing strategic relationships, Tiffani aligns marketing initiatives with business goals to generate interest, demand, and recognition for businesses and their products. Her C-level experience in business, along with her background in product development, event management, and communications help Tiffani position brands as industry leaders and drive ROI.