Gil Sperling is Co-founder and CTO of social media ad tech company, Popimedia, Gil Sperling is not your typical ad guy. With a background in engineering, his approach has focused on solving business problems with technology. This lead to the development of Popimedia’s ad tech platform, meedee8 and the reason why they are Africa’s only Facebook Marketing Partner.

“Advertising these days is more about where science meets creativity,” says Sperling. For this reason, he believes that the new frontier for digital advertising is in ad tech and the brands that leverage the technology will have a competitive edge.

There are other reasons why Sperling is uniquely qualified to make controversial distinctions between the traditional approach to digital and social media, and a technology-enabled, functional approach. His love for simplifying data allows him to see opportunities where others may not. Gil’s deep understanding of these opportunities coupled with his entrepreneurial savvy makes him able to take your audience on an entirely new journey into the largely uncharted territory of the new wave of ad tech.

Joshin Raghubar is an entrepreneur in the media, marketing, and technology sectors. He is the founder of iKineo, a Pan-African customer engagement agency; Sprout, South Africa’s leading digital media performance firm; and Explore Sideways, a leading online purveyor of wine tourism experiences.

Joshin serves as the chairperson of the Bandwidth Barn, Africa’s largest non-profit incubator and accelerator for technology businesses; non-executive director of the Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CITi), the public/private sector agency tasked with development of the region as a technology and innovation cluster; and non-executive director of Enke, a non-profit organization that works to empower youth to develop social innovations in their communities.

Joshin also serves as a non-executive director of both the Africa Leadership Initiative (Southern Africa) and the African Leadership Network. He is a fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative and the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Network, a fellow of the United States-Southern African Centre for Leadership and Public Values, and a member of the Bertelsmann Foundation’s global Transformation Thinkers program. Joshin is also a 2016 Yale World Fellow.

Patrick Conroy is currently the Managing Director of Platco Digital the company behind South Africa’s fastest growing satellite TV service Openview HD. Previously he was the Managing Director all news operations within the e.tv stable, including the 24 hour news channel eNCA, eNCA.com, eNews Prime Time and eNuus on kykNET.

Conroy was central to the editorial and marketing strategies of the businesses. He previously worked in radio (Talk Radio 702), print (London, Evening Standard) and advertising (The Jupiter Drawing Room, Cape Town).

In 1996 he was the only South African journalist to cover the tragedies on Mount Everest whilst reporting live from the mountain for 702. His book recounting his experiences on the mountain will be published later this year. In 2005 Conroy was awarded the Clive Menell Media Fellowship to Duke University in North Carolina, USA.

Previously the General Manager of Memeburn.com and subsequently the COO and CEO of two digital development agencies respectively, as well as a die hard tech geek, Hendri has a unique understanding of the technology and digital industries and how to bring cutting edge technological innovation into an online marketing business.

Currently the founder and CEO of Barbarossa Media, a digital Content Marketing agency that specialises in using the web to tell engaging and impactful brand stories, Hendri has worked with some of the biggest publishers and brands in Africa. He is passionate about the future of technology and strives to grow the digital landscape in South Africa.

Kelly Jackson is the General Manager for Contiki in South Africa, and has been with the brand for just over eight years. Kelly is passionate about travel and marketing, and working for leading youth tour operator Contiki, she gets to combine the two.

I am a digital entrepreneur who has a strong passion for using digital channels to connect consumers to brands and products. I have founded two start-ups in the mobile coupons and retail space. I currently head up SnapScan’s activation’s team where I spend most of my time turning key user behavior insights into actionable customer acquisition campaigns.

Craig Page-Lee is the former Group MD of Posterscope South Africa and former Deputy MD of FCB Johannesburg. He is now an independent consultant servicing the broader brand, marketing and communications industry.

With over 24 years experience across the fields of advertising, architecture, branding, marketing and media, Craig brings a diverse set of specialist skills and a truly integrated delivery capability to the communications industry. He has worked across 9 Pan-European and 9 Pan-African/MEA regions and has worked on some of the worlds leading brands, including managing the Vodafone and Cannon global brand accounts while living in London.

Marc du Plessis has been working in the local and location based media space for 10 years. A more recent focus has been developing innovative location based digital marketing solutions for South Africa’s multi-location businesses. Through this, location targeted media (print & digital) are areas he understands well. As of 1 July 2016, Marc has taken up the role of Joint-CEO of Spark Media, a division of Caxton & CTP Publishers & Printers

David is unquestionably one of the sponsorship industry’s most influential thought leaders. As part of the BMi Group, David has access to over 25 years of data, tools and services across media channels including analytics, digital, social and broadcast to provide a fully integrated research & consulting offering to clients.

Recogonised as a leader in their field both locally and abroad, BMi have consistently developed inspirational evaluation and performance tools to help measure & maximise returns for the top brands, rights holders, broadcasters and agencies involved in sport, entertainment and other sponsored causes.

Prior to that Doug held the position of Marketing Executive of Ster-Kinekor Theatres, a position he has held since 2011 overseeing all marketing activities across South African and African cinemas. Before joining Ster-Kinekor, Doug worked at Cadbury South Africa and Snackworks (AVI) from 2006 to 2011 stewarding many of South Africa’s favourite consumer brands to record market share highs under his leadership. Doug has received more than 30 international and national marketing and advertising awards most recently a Silver Apex Awardtm in 2015 and Gold Apex Awardtm in 2014 and two Gold Loerietm award for the Ster-Kinekor “Great Moments” campaign.

She is a global keynote speaker, trainer, blogger and specialist Management Consultant in Digital Marketing and Social Media for both South African and global organisations. She is the Founder and MD of Black Box Theory, an SA-based consultancy, specialising in ‘Digital strategies for a digital world’.

Yavi has over 21 years Marketing and Communications experience, across Traditional, Digital, and Social Marketing. She is probably known best as ‘the Media’s’ Social Media expert, by being a regular contributor for eNCA, SABC Africa, and PowerFM, to name a few.

Theresa Lotter – After obtaining her MA in Research Psychology from the University of Pretoria, Theresa worked as a Researcher at Synovate and was an Assistant Lecturer at her Alma Mater. Theresa joined Media Tenor’s Research Team in 2007, and was appointed Research and Quality Assurance Manager in 2009. During her tenure at Media Tenor, Theresa was Key Account Manager for a range of financial Services clients, including Old Mutual and Absa.

In 2011, Theresa left Media Tenor and joined the Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA) as a Research Specialist in the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, and oversaw a large-scale project into the welfare needs of government pensioners. In November 2012, Theresa re-joined Media Tenor as Managing Director. Since her tenure as MD, Media Tenor SA has won such prestigious clients as Brand SA and Sasol.

Glenn is a sought-after speaker and panellist who regularly speaks at innovation conferences and business forums. His passion and experience lie in the creative industries; in serious gaming, and animation; and in the building of international knowledge-intensive businesses.

He has featured at TEDx and The Digital Edge Live 2015, where he addressed thought leaders on the role that technology plays in storytelling, creating a sense of agency or control of the world around us, and how these can be used to drive business and social outcomes.

In his role as founder and managing director of Sea Monster Entertainment, one of South Africa’s pre-eminent animation, gaming, and augmented reality companies, he leads a team of passionate programmers, designers, and animators whose mission is to design interactive experiences that drive social and company change. This rapidly growing business has delivered animated explainers, TV series, games, and apps to many leading agencies, corporations, and broadcasters in South Africa and around the world.

Glenn is also the co-founder of The Relate Trust, a social enterprise that provides employment opportunities and connects organisations to good causes by making beaded bracelets. Relate has sold over one-and-a-half million bracelets and has generated over R35 million in donations and skills- and enterprise-development funding.

Glenn has held a number of senior marketing director positions and has extensive international business experience in 15 countries. He was the general manager of Clockwork Zoo, one of the largest 2D and live TV production companies in South Africa, and before that he was the general manager at Moonlighting Film Services, which is South Africa’s leading film and commercials company.