#MondayMotivation — A ground breaking global gathering in 2016

Need some #MondayMotivation? Well, here it is! Inspirefest 2016 is gearing up for THE International sci-tech festival of 2016 and we have some incredible inspirational speakers to introduce to you.

Some 3,000 investors, entrepreneurs, business leaders, influencers, programmers, designers, scientists, engineers, academics, students, teachers and policy makers will gather in Dublin from 30 June to 2 July this year for the second annual Inspirefest, an international sci-tech event like no other.

The core two-day conference is held in Dublin’s vibrant digital docklands district, where more than 50 world-renowned international speakers will take to the main stage for an exploration of pioneering thinking in leadership, technology, science, design, society and the arts. In the evenings you’re invited to step into the leafy surrounds of one of Dublin’s grandest Georgian parks to relax and unwind at the Inspirefest Fringe festival. Here you can meet great people and enjoy great Irish food, top music acts, spoken word debate, film screenings and more.

Themes covered this year include: The Collaborative Economy, MedTech, FinTech, Biotech, Internet of Things, Wearables and Robotics and The Games Industry, with a focus on Next Generation STEM and The Experienced Economy.

We take a look at some of the dynamic and influential speakers heading to Dublin for Inspirefest 2016.

Nilofer Merchant (@nilofer)

Nilofer Merchant has more than 20 years’ experience working with companies from Fortune 500s to Silicon Valley web start-ups. Dubbed as `the ‘Jane Bond of innovation’ for her ability to guide organisations through impossible odds, she has personally launched more than 100 products, netting $18bn in sales.

As a public speaker, Nilofer has headlined at global events, like TED2013, and TEDGlobal 2012,and has even opened for Bono. Today she resides in Paris and serves on boards for both public and private companies and also writes books about collaboration. Her latest book 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era was chosen by Fast Company as one of the Best Business Books of 2012.

CNBC has called Nilofer a visionary. Her ideas are shaping the future of many organisations. Thinkers 50 shortlisted her in 2013 as a “Future Thinker” to pay attention to and she was named the No 1 most likely person to influence the future of management.

Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee)

The San Francisco based founder of the #iLookLikeAnEngineer movementm Isis Anchalee, shot to fame when she tweeted a picture of herself with #iLookLikeAnEngineer and asked other engineers to do the same to show the true face of the tech industry.

Isis decided to create the hashtag after she featured in her company’s poster campaign and received quite controversial comments from the public. Not only did critics question if Wenger was indeed an engineer, as the ad presented, but they were also troubled by OneLogin’s decision to make a poster child of someone they believe to be a false representation of a female engineer. Isis has documented her story on Medium.

Her tweet had huge positive knock-on effects, promoting diversity and challenging stereotyping in the workplace. The campaign has three goals: to illustrate that engineers can be any gender or race and any age; to encourage women and people of colour to enter the tech field, and to show engineers who have experienced discrimination that they’re not alone. Follow the hashtag on Twitter — https://twitter.com/hashtag/iLookLikeAnEngineer?src=hash&lang=en

Jeanne M Sullivan (@gianna212)

With more than 25 years’ experience in investing, Jeanne M Sullivan will bring her passion for the ‘experienced economy’ to Dublin in 2016. She is co-founder of StarVest Partners, a venture capital firm in New York City created in 1998 which has raised $400 million to date. Jeanne is also Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer at Sullivan Adventures.

Jeanne serves on the board of the New York Venture Capital Association; is a member of the Women’s Leadership Board at the Harvard Kennedy School and is an Athena Entrepreneur Fellow for Barnard College. She also serves on the Global Board of Trustees of Astia, funding high growth women entrepreneurs.

Forbes cited Sullivan as “one of the women VCs changing the world — grooming the next generation of female entrepreneurs”. The New York Angels organization honored Jeanne as the OPEL award winner — Outstanding Professionals for Entrepreneurial Leadership. The New York Hall of Science honored Jeanne this year for her work inspiring girls and women in science, technology (STEM) sectors — opening doors for opportunities.

John Romero (@romero)

John Romero is an award-winning game designer, level designer and programmer whose work spans over 130 games, 107 of which have been published commercially, including the iconic works Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM and Quake. John has co-founded eight successful game companies, including the likes of ID Software, Gazillion Entertainment and, most recently, Loot Drop. He is considered to be among the world’s top game designers, and his products have won more than 100 awards. He is a completely self-taught programmer, designer and artist. One of the earliest indie developers, John began working in the game space in 1979 on mainframes before moving to the Apple II in 1981.

Today, John resides in Galway, Ireland with his wife Brenda Romero and they co-own Loot Drop and Romero Games. John will be speaking on a panel at Inspirefest 2016.

Brenda Romero (@br)

Brenda Romero is an award-winning game designer, artist and Fulbright scholar who entered the video game industry in 1981. As a designer, she has contributed to many seminal titles, including the Wizardry and Jagged Alliance series and titles in the Ghost Recon and Dungeons & Dragons franchises. Away from the machine, her analog series of six games, The Mechanic is the Message, has drawn national and international acclaim, particularly Train and Síochán Leat (The Irish Game), which is presently housed in the National Museum of Play.

In 2015, she won the coveted Ambassador’s Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. In 2014, she received a Fulbright award to study Ireland’s game industry, academic and government policies. In 2013, she was named one of the top 10 game developers by Gamasutra.com and Develop magazine listed her among the 25 people who changed games in 2013. Brenda will be giving a keynote at Inspirefest 2016.

Robin Chase (@rmchase)

Robin Chase is disrupting the transportation industry and positively impacting climate change. Robin is a transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest car-sharing company in the world; a co-founder of Buzzcar, a peer-to-peer car-sharing service in France (now merged with Drivy); and the co-founder of GoLoco, an online ridesharing community. She is also co-founder and executive chairpersom of Veniam, a vehicle communications company building the networking fabric for the internet of moving things. She is also author of the newly-released book Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism.

Robin has received many awards in the areas of innovation, design and environment and has headlined at TED2007 and TEDGlobal 2012. She has been named as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, in the Fast Company Fast 50 Innovators, and BusinessWeek’s Top 10 Designers.

Check out the latest speaker line-up — www.inspirefest.com

Inspirefest promises to be an incredible, must-see festival with leading-edge future thinkers, amazing networking and investment opportunities and impactful insights into the sci-tech industry.

Keep an eye on this page for some behind-the-scenes insights into Inspirefest and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram & Google

Early Bird tickets are now available, visit our website to buy tickets.