Meet our 2025 Event Speakers

Paul Smit

Paul Smit gives interactive and humorous presentations about human behavior and the brain and talks about influence, change, innovation and collaboration. Paul Smit graduated with an essay on ’the evolution of human consciousness’. He wrote 14 books on philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. Paul works together with neuroscientist Ayca Szapora on supporting neuroscience research at Leiden University and Dresden.


John Chapman

IT Europa

John Chapman

IT Europa

John is considered one of the foremost analysts, speakers and commentators on the trends in the IT industry. After a distinguished career spanning over 47 years at the heart of the IT industry, John has advised IT companies on strategies and direction, written feature articles for major IT publications and has spoken at and chaired events around Europe.

John’s in-depth experience running IT companies, launching new technologies and helping IT organisations maximise their business potential enables him to commentate with authority on a whole range of topics as well as deliver stimulating and thought-provoking presentations.


Mart de Kruif

Mart de Kruif, born in Apeldoorn on September 1, 1958, graduated cum laude from the Royal Military Academy in 1981. He served in various leadership roles, rising from platoon commander to company commander in the Garderegiment Grenadiers. He completed advanced military training, including at the Führungsakademie in Hamburg, and led a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia in 2001.


De Kruif was promoted to brigadier general in 2007 and became ISAF Commander for South Afghanistan in 2008, expanding troop numbers to 45,000. He was promoted to Lieutenant General in 2011 and served as Commander of the Dutch Land Forces until 2016, during which he fostered strong international military cooperation, particularly with Germany and other NATO allies.


He received numerous honors, including the Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau, the Canadian Meritorious Service Medal, and the French Legion of Honour. After retiring, he chaired the Invictus Games organizing committee and contributed to research on the Dutch armed forces' role in the Dutch East Indies.

Will Garside

IT Europa

Will Garside

IT Europa

Will specialises in writing and presenting – producing a huge range of content, ranging from thought-leadership articles to white papers. He started his career as a computer engineer before becoming one of the first producers on Sky TV’s primetime technology show “The Computer Channel” – alongside also covering mainstream business and technology news. He then worked as a product reviewer and technical writer for IT Network before going to Computer Weekly to cover security, telecoms and networking. He worked for several large technology brands including Microsoft and EMC as a technical writer and media consultant and was also the editor at International Broadcast Engineer – a role that saw him deliver a huge number of detailed analysis pieces on emerging video experiences. He has also written a number of books including tech guides for Which? and several "Dummies" guides on topics including big data and storage.

Will is also a highly experienced event moderator, managing content and panels at both the IBC and NAB shows for the last 10 years.

Meet our 2025 Event Sponsors

Meet our 2024 Event Sponsors