Deesha Dyer is a speaker, writer, Creative Event and Strategy consultant, and most notably known as the former Obama Administration Social Secretary. The Philadelphia native became a White House intern at the age of 30 and completed a seven-year tenure there that honed her expertise in event coordination, logistics, protocol, and statecraft. Her storied career is unconventional at best, with themes of reinvention, drive, and a commitment to community service integrated throughout.

An award-winning event producer, Deesha has been featured in national media outlets including TIME, The New York Times, Marie Claire, Essence, Vogue, Refinery29, Forbes, The Root andWashington Post. A charismatic speaker with unbridled optimism, she now shares her message of hope, hard work and living life on your own terms with audiences across the country, while running her private consulting firm.

Wilhem is a self-described "well-rounded computer geek." Wilhem got their start in robotics as a young teen and continued to grow and excel in many areas of computer science and software development. While their main interests is in back end web technology, Wilhem revels in taking on challenges in any environment and continues to learn new technologies and stacks for the simple joy of programming and creating. Wilhem has been programming for the last 9 years of their life.

Ricardo Rivera is Creative Director and Co-founder of Klip Collective, an experiential art shop which integrates projection lighting and storytelling to create compelling experiences. Ricardo is a visual artist, filmmaker and a true pioneer of video projection mapping, having earned a United States patent for his technological breakthroughs in the medium. His work has been featured multiple times at the Sundance Film Festival, including the commissioned festival bumper in 2014. Rivera directed Nightscape: A Light and Sound Experience at Longwood Gardens which attracted over 175,000 visitors in 2015. In the advertising world, brands including Nike, Target, NBC Sports and Adult Swim have sought his unique ability to use video projection art as a bridge between architecture, technology and storytelling. The common element in all of Ricardo’s work is groundbreaking creativity and technological innovation.

Damian D. “Skipper” Pitts, PhD is a U.S. Marine turned business owner and the Founder/CEO at FlexRight Solutions™, a consulting, technology integration and manufacturing firm with several patents serving business, public safety, law enforcement and the federal government. Skipper’s expertise has allowed him to provide training and consulting as an SME on strategic execution and the integration of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) to business, local law enforcement and government agencies since 2014. Skipper is the author of 19 books with his upcoming title, Disruptive Innovation-THINK that focuses on adaptability to future-proof your projects, businesses and organizations, scheduled for release in the fall 2018.

Margaret is the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Yet Analytics, a Baltimore based company that provides tools and solutions used to improve learning and talent development.

Margaret is interested in the development and design of connected learning environments that leverage xAPI and blended learning. Her background is in experiential education, curriculum design, teaching and team development. She is the VP of Community Impact for the Junior League of Baltimore, a member of the SXSWedu Advisory Board and co-founder of EdTechWomen.

Margaret received her BA in English and Environmental Earth Science and her MA in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University. She is a die-hard Blue Jay Lacrosse fan, spends a lot of time cooking, writing, organizing, and exploring and her favorite science-fiction novel is Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Ryan Riess is currently a marketing director at The Hershey Company working on the company’s social and earned media content strategy. Previous to this role, he served as senior manager on the Reese’s brand where he played an integral role in the brand’s $200M of growth since joining the team in October of 2015. With successful campaigns including #AllTreesAreBeautiful, #Cupfusion, and

Cupspiracy, Ryan and the Reese’s team took the brand to new heights with an innovative marketing

model which harnessed the over-the- top brand love of the Reese’s brand’s loyal fan base. Ryan has also worked on developing Reese’s global equity, launched Hershey’s entrance into the Spreads category and developed shopper marketing capabilities within the Convenience class of trade. Ryan holds a BA from Harvard College and both an M.Ed. and M.B.A from University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He resides in Palmyra, PA with his wife Gina and his two children, Zoe and Max.

Abhi Nemani is a writer, speaker, organizer, and technologist.

He currently runs a GovTech startup called EthosLabs, designed to accelerate good government through great technology, where he has consulted with dozens of cities and startups on growth, product, and innovation.

Previously, Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento appointed him as interim Chief Innovation Officer to build out the city's budding startup sector, through venture investments, grants, and partnerships. Before that, he served as the first Chief Data Officer for the City of Los Angeles, where he led the city's efforts to build an open and data-driven LA. As CDO, Abhi led Los Angeles to #1 ranking for US open data cities, by publishing over 400 datasets and earned the city the Platinum Open Data Certification; to help put that data to work, he mobilized LA's growing developer community by hosting hackathons and by building independent civic tech non-profits. To drive innovation within city hall, Abhi built a nationally-recognized Mayoral Dashboard, led data and analytics trainings for city staff, and piloted data science projects to address key policy issues.

Prior to joining LA's Mayors Office, he helped build, launch, and run the national non-profit, Code for America, a technology organization dedicated to reinventing government for the 21st century. Abhi led CfA’s product strategy as its teams tackled local government challenges ranging from transparency and business licensing to food stamps and public safety. He also led the organization's efforts to scale through building multiple new programs: a first-of-its-kind civic startup accelerator, an international volunteer corps, and a collaborative network for hundreds of government innovators. Additionally, Abhi developed the organization’s policy portfolio — working hand-in-hand with area experts and local leaders — to enact over 30 municipal policy reforms on topics including open data, healthcare, and procurement.

Abhi has served as a Member of the Board of Directors for the OpenGov Foundation, a member of the Board of Directors of Data4America, and has served as Innovator-in-Residence at GovDelivery. He is also an investor in CityGrows, a leading public sector service delivery startup.

Previously, Abhi worked for Google, developing social engagement strategies, the Rose Institute, managing multiple local government transparency research teams, and the Center for American Progress, focusing on connecting a national network of public-minded youth advocates. He graduated magna cum laude from Claremont McKenna College with a honors degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), and studied political philosophy and rhetoric at the University of Oxford.

Abhi's work has been featured in the New York Times, Government Technology, Government Executive, and Forbes, and he has been featured as a speaker at SxSW, the World Bank, and various universities and conferences around the world.