These are some of the speakers for Tech4Africa this year.  It’s a snapshot of what to expect, and should illustrate the quality of individuals jetting their way in from all over the world.  Take a look at the profiles below.

It’s worth saying that we’re actively engaging with new, interesting, different and individual speakers who are not part of the usual conference circuit in Africa, who can offer everyone something fresh. We’re also giving the speakers more time to speak, so we’re focussing on longer sessions with a longer Q&A time, and more interaction with everyone.

Founder, Tech4Africa

Keynote speakers

Herman Chinery-HesseAfrica’s Bill Gates. Herman co-founded one of the leading software houses in West Africa (SOFTtribe) and will be sharing his thoughts on the state of innovation and technology in Africa. He believes that if Africa misses the current global IT boat there may never again be an opportunity for rapid wealth creation on the continent.

Josh SpearThe youngest and most influential marketing strategists in the world. Josh provides an insight on how to harness the internet as he analyses what it is that makes certain things catch on, and explains how to position products and services to capitalise on fast-moving trends. This year he delves into Social media in Africa.

International speakers

Adam DuvanderExecutive Editor of ProgrammableWeb, the leading resource for open Web API news and information.Adam is an active contributor to the open source mapping library, Mapstraction and uses his vast experience to discuss Mapping for Africa.

Cennydd BowlesUser experience Guru.Cennydd, a member of the Clearleft team (Design Agency of the Year 2009) gives us a master class with James Box, on UX/IA on multi platforms.

Jonathan GosierA TED senior fellow, Jon is co-founder of metaLayer which creates apps that enable users to contextualise the mobile and social web.Jon shares his views on the most disruptive technology trends.

James BoxCreating a culture of UX from the ground up.James, co-author of Undercover User Experience Design, works alongside Cennydd at Clearleft and will share the stage with him in their UX/IA on a multi platforms master class

Robert NymanTechnical evangelist at Mozilla.Robert takes the tech track along a journey through HTML 5, the Open Web and what it means for you.

Ndubuisi EkekweNdubuisi holds a US Patent on a microchip used in minimally invasive surgical robots. With two doctoral and four master’s degrees, including a PhD in electrical and computer engineering and an MBA, Ndubuisi certainly knows his stuff. Come listen to his talk ‘From Downstream to Upstream – Mapping Africa’s Microelectronics Industry’.

Steve WattHolder of 12 US Patents (with 18 Patents Pending) and published a number of technical books and articles. If you are not familiar with Big Data then make sure you get to Steve’s talk on ‘Why Big Data is changing our world, and what to do about it’…it will change the way you think about data.

Simone BrunozziAmazon Web Services Technology Evangelist for Asia Pacific. Simone joined Amazon.com in March 2008 in the role of Amazon Web Services Technology Evangelist for Europe, to raise awareness about Cloud Computing and help developers build applications. Now he brings his experience with a view to ‘Unleashing the Cloud in Africa’.

About Tech4Africa

Tech4Africa runs from 27-28 October 2011 at The Forum in Bryanston, Johannesburg. The event is targeted at business professionals and technologists from businesses of all sizes, from entrepreneurs and start-up owners through to professionals working at large organisations.

Josh Spear, one of the youngest and most respected digital marketing strategists in the world, will be joined by Herman Chinery-Hesse who is commonly known as ‘The Bill Gates of Africa’, to present the keynote addresses at the Tech4Africa conference. Josh and Herman join a stellar line-up of international technologists including speakers from organisations such as Amazon, HP, Johns Hopkins University, Mozilla, SimpleGeo and Clearleft, and African technologists from SwiftRiver, the African Institution of Technology, Ultinet Systems, Motribe and many more. Early bird ticket price R3900 (R4446 incl. VAT).