Our Confirmed Speakers
Dean Kuchel MC (Master of ceremony)
Dean is an ambassador to the digital nomad lifestyle, and a remote work advocate. Working remotely since 2014, he has traveled to more than 100 countries since, and doesn't plan to stop. Founder of Digital Nomads Israel, a 35,000+ members community. Some call him "The King of Digital Nomads", and he is totally ok with carrying this title.
Lona Alia
Lona Alia- Founder of the venture-backed Y Combinator. @SafetyWing’s Revenue Director. Startups and the EU for Innovation Advisor Advocate for Remote Work From Zero to One, an expert at creating income channels and totally remote teams. Working and traveling in over 80 countries as a digital nomad. @Plumia is creating the first online country.
Brock Pierce
Brock Pierce is a futurist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and an impact investor with a long history of creating, advising, and investing in revolutionary companies. He is recognized with pioneering the digital currency industry and has raised more than $5 billion for the firms he started, creating opportunity for millions of people.
ANDREAS WIL GERDES
Andreas Wil Gerdes is a nomad father, and a thought leader of the DigitalNomads/ Remotework Movement. His eFireside chats are ranked as the best contributions to industry events e.g. the Bansko Nomad Fest and the Digital Nomad Week. He was selected as one of the world's most inspiring #digitalnomads as part of the TOP50 Inspiring Digital Nomads. Andreas has 30+ years of #eMobile experience aka empowering people to explore the #lifecentric path.
MARTIN EYERER
Martin Eyerer is the CEO of Factory Berlin, Co-founder of Riverside Studios, as well as an internationally known DJ with over 30 years of experience in the music scene and a music producer with more than 150 releases on electronic music labels and the owner of the imprint Kling Klong.
GIANNI BIANCHINI
Gianni Bianchini has been a digital nomad since 2013, traveling across the world full-time with only carry-on luggage, visiting 49+ countries. He founded the largest online community of Italian digital nomads and “Accademia Nomadi Digitali,” a platform that assists people in embracing the remote working lifestyle.
KUSHTRIM XHAKLI
Kushtrim Xhakli is the Director of Connected Inventions Oy, a Finnish firm that produces and develops energy-efficient Internet of Things devices and solutions based on the worldwide Sigfox IoT 0G network. Sigfox is the world’s top Internet of Things service provider (IoT). Connected Inventions have deployed over 250,000 it devices in over 50 countries across the world.
MAYA MIDDLEMISS
Maya Middlemiss is the "storyteller from the future". She is the host of the Future is Freelance podcast. Author of the 'Healthy Happy Homeworking' book series and an early pioneer of remote work, Maya is a Londoner by birth, and also an Estonian e-Resident, digital "slowmad". When she's not working, you'll probably find her hiking in the mountains or on a beach somewhere.
NICO GRAMENZ
Nico Gramenz is the CEO of Factory Berlin. Thought leader, business developer and digital network builder, ex military officer, ex Strategic Leader at industrial giant SIEMENS. Nico is community and ecosystem-builder with proven record in Berlin and Hamburg. Next stage: Albania 🙂
Stas Batururimi
I’m not your silver bullet advisor for high tech, but I have a passion for technologies, be it mobile development, the software controlling power plants, your garden hose or your Skynet nightmares. With my die or live hard approach to any technology, I have realised unique projects with banks, computer vision, security chats, language processing, heavy load data analysis, satellites and more. I succeed but also fail often. If you have a dream, let me show you how it could come to life.
Daniel Kazani
A technology enthusiast and a global citizen, Daniel Kazani is a co-founder of Softup Technologies - a boutique dev company that helps build FinTech & SaaS unicorns. After years spent in Switzerland, the UK, and the US, Daniel now resides in Germany building a bridge between a vibrant Albanian IT community and international companies. His mission is to redefine the image of “software outsourcing” to associate with an integral, risk-free approach and fairness in the workplace.
Marvin Liao
An Investor-Operator, Marvin is a Partner at Rolling Fund Diaspora.vc, Manages the angel fund Sukna Holdings Global & Partner/Board member at Game Groove Capital, an International Gaming Holding Company. He has invested in over 414 Pre-seed & Seed stage startups during the 6 years spent there. Marvin also spent 10.5 years at Yahoo! as an executive with extensive operating experience expanding businesses. Marvin presently serves on the Investment Committees/Advisory boards of several Venture Capital funds. He also mentors at numerous accelerator programs around the world.
Juliana Rabbi
Recruiter-turned-career coach. Over 15 years of experience in Human Resources in multinational companies and + 9 years working remotely. She helps professionals to make better career choices and create the lifestyle they want. Her background is in Psychology, with a Master Degree in Human Resources. She currently works as a Career Coach and helps professionals to land their dream remote job in 90 days. She is also a Digital Nomad who has been to 54 countries.
Steve Tsentserensky
"Steve is a location-independent writer who’s been featured in outlets like CNBC, World Nomads and more. In his past life as a video producer and photographer, he produced content for everyone from adventure tourism companies to contestants on The Voice. He’s been on the move for over a decade, traveling to 65+ countries and becoming a passionate advocate for the digital nomad lifestyle in the process."
Chris Archer-Brown
Chris has been involved in technology for 30 years, from mainframe tools in the 1990’s to blockchain authentication in recent years. He co-founded a data-led consumer intelligence agency in the early 2000’s and, following its acquisition conducted his PhD on influence in social media at the University of Bath. He went on to become Professor of Digital Entrepreneurship and Chair of Design Thinking at one of the UK’s leading creative Universities. During that time, he has been actively involved as board advisor to several digital companies, with a focus on their marketing activities. Recently, he returned to commercial life, aiming to contribute to creating a sustainable, ethical and equal digital economy.
Grant Van Cleve
Grant is a global entrepreneur, angel investor, and business accelerator. He is regularly listed among the 50 most influential people in Orange County, CA, USA. Grant is involved in 95 start-ups, serving as a board member or advisor in a quarter of those. He is an active leader in the Tech Coast Angels – America’s most active angel investing group. He was President of their Orange County chapter and then Chairman of the whole network.
Frank Hysa
"Frank is an Associate Director at Capgemini, part of The Applied Innovation Exchange group that enables groundbreaking innovation across all industries, leveraging the Silicon Valley innovation ecosystem. Former Principal Innovation Manager at Volvo Group. He earned a Ph.D. on open innovation strategies and has 10+ years of innovation management experience working with corporates, startups & tech ecosystems. He is also a mentor in some of the world’s largest startup communities including Founder institute & Startup Grind. Born in Albania, he spent over 20 years around Europe, and currently based in San Francisco, CA."
Asetila Köstinger
Asetila Köstinger is an Innovation Economist, Impact Entrepreneur and Business Coach. She is a catalyst and a community builder, helping first time founders and SMEs to build solutions that are technologically appropriate, environmentally sustainable, culturally acceptable, and economically viable. As an impact entrepreneur and CEO she runs her two companies Greenwell Energy and Koestinger Consulting both aligned with at least one of the SDGs. For over two decades she has worked as a consultant and expert in different SME projects, private ventures and start-up ecosystems.
Eni Shtini
Eni Shtini has been an entrepreneur, investor and expert in the field of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology since 2017. He is the CEO of T-Blocks, a new company that facilitates the onboarding of assets on blockchain infrastructure, allowing global investors to invest in the Albanian market easily and at very low costs. Eni is also Co-Founder of Albania's only crypto podcast, Crypto Friends podcast and DAG International.
Armand Brahaj
Armand Brahaj is the founder of Rubicon, an Albanian neo-banking service. Business developer, researcher, software developer and activitist he has contributed in a number of ventures such as Open Data Albania, Zana Technologies GmbH, New Ventures Shpk and also MyOffice.al, the first co-working space in Albania. Armand works and lives between Germany and Albania; you may find him in Berlin, Tirana or other seaside spots with his laptop.
Tea Uglow
Tea Uglow is a writer, LGBTQ activist, and a speaker on innovation, inclusion, and digital futures. Tea is a founder member of Google’s Creative Lab and focuses on digital experiments with cultural organisations, artists, writers, and producers at the boundaries of traditional cultural practice - across theatre, literature, history, cinema, music, science and the circus.
Rowena Hennigan
Rowena Hennigan is an expert in remote work and digital nomadism. A speaker, professor and a globally acclaimed expert in the digital nomadism area, she has recently launched a successful LinkedIn Learning course on “Becoming a Digital Nomad”.
Mita Carriman
Mita Carriman is Founder & CEO of Adventurely (backed by Backstage Capital & Google for Startups): a travel club & meetup app that connects digital nomads to each other & their new local communities with thoughtfulness around sustainability & local impact in mind. She was named 1 of 16 women inspiring international travel in 2021 by Buzzfeed & a top 10 digital nomad to follow in 2022 by the Tourism Board of Dominica. She also has grown digital nomad communities in Barbados.
Linda McCall
Linda has been in the hospitality & travel industries for over 30 years as a customer success specialist. She is a world traveller of over 70 countries, including eight years of full-time travel as a digital nomad. Born in the Australian outback, Linda is now resident in France under the French Tech Visa scheme, where she is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Nomad Stays – a leader in digital nomad travel innovation.
"It's not about the places I travel so much; it's all about the people that make my adventures really worthwhile"- Linda McCall
Mark Phillips
Australian entrepreneur Mark has travelled over 100 countries including 8 years as a digital nomad. Currently in France he travels with his CoFounder, Linda & Chief Happiness Officer, Dakar, a dingo cross dog who has explored 16 countries. Mark’s 40-year business career includes founding an award-winning adventure tour company, being an international tax agent, hotel school Director, and technology executive for companies incl. Apple and Microsoft. He qualified as one of Australia’s youngest Chartered Accountants and is former Olympic level gymnast.
Domenico Pinto
Born and raised in Germany to Italian parents. Domenico comes from humble beginnings, having worked in sales, marketing, and tourism in Dubai, a conference organization in Australia, and subsequently, culture change and strategy with an emphasis on organizational design. Domenico has worked with various top leaders and organizations from all over the world on multiple continents. He admits to being a workaholic for most of his life, but not long after the COVID pandemic began, he realized how little he valued his lifestyle choices over his profession, and that was a watershed moment in his career: the decision to create a better tomorrow not only for individuals he met in his personal life and work, but also for myself.
Hannes Trettin
Hannes Trettin is founder (digital agency SNAZZ, Project Bay-Workation), podcast host, head of a public digitization program and lecturer at HTW Berlin for BWL/VWL/Enterpreneurwesen. He has worked internationally as manager for the eMobility sector of Robert Bosch GmbH and previously for Deloitte GmbH, Continental AG and AUDI AG. Currently, he and his strong Project Bay crew are building an innovation hub for sustainable solutions including a startup accelerator program (Founders Bay), business angel club, MakerSpace, new housing concepts, and digitization programs for crafts, agriculture, and education. Its goal is to revitalize rural areas in Europe and create new opportunities.
Antoni Palazzolo
Antoni Palazzolo, is the ceo of Barter Yard Club, an NFT toolbox organization built on Flow Blockchain. Previously, he created a fully remote web development agency with a community of digital nomads. He is now 100% focusing on Barter Yard Club, a young and ambitious Blockchain organization. After selling an NFT collection of 5000 NFTs to fundraise BYC; they are currently launching an NFT Swap service for the NBA, UFC and NFL. they Deeply believe that a system's value is based on the people using, contributing and building it. Networks that define the next generation of internet tools will turn users into owners. This ownership aligns incentives; So that internet products can grow bigger, faster and drive more equitable outcomes to shareholders. Barter Yard Club's system has turned this vision into reality.
Aleksandra SMILEK
Aleksandra SMILEK is currently working as the creative director at Foresight Institute and is developping the DeSci (Decentralized Science) program. She is also working on a new Media Web 3 tool for UNIFY company, the biggest Media company in France. She is also having curatorial projects in the Middle East dedicated to develop the creative Industries in the region. Her know how is based on designing startegies and creations for brands and organizations that are eager to mix culture and technology. She was the artistic director of EP7 digital art, a monumental LEDS facade where she curated the upcoming digital art scene before the NFTs hype. In 2019 she creates the Culture & Innovation department at AUDITOIRE PARIS Agency. She is also teaching blockchain sin…
Flavio Kristo
Flavio Kristo is a co-founder of Freelancit, a concierge matchmaking platform aiming to connect reliable consultants in the Balkans and abroad with suitable projects. Currently sitting between Tirana & Munich, Flavio is experienced working as a Consultant for multiple German-based startups and scale-ups, as well as working with a fast-growing IT Consulting company based in Albania & Germany.
Aragorn Meulendijks
An explorer and early adopter with a massive passion for Technology, Psychology and the Humanities. Aragorn spends his time dreaming and talking about Blockchain, AI, XR, Transhumanism, the Metaverse and how it will change civilization as we know it. A LinkedIn Alumni, former Public Speaking Coach, and once known as the Social Selling Doctor, Aragorn has already lived many lives and built an incredible resumé. He has now dedicated his life to helping humanity find its way into a new Age, the Virtual Age, spreading Metavangelism one stage at a time.
Epi Ludvik
Epi is the Founder and CEO of Crowdsourcing Week and BOLD Awards. He works with all types and sizes of organizations, from high-profile companies to emerging startups, helping them to harness the power of the crowd and human-centered innovation. Epi’s gift and passion for crowdsourcing have allowed him to grow his companies and become a thought-leader on the transformative potential of crowdsourcing in all industries and sectors, and all areas of public life
Geri Cupi
Geri Cupi, a serial entrepreneur, founded Twig, the Bank of Things in July 2020. Since then, Twig raised >$41M and became the fastest growing fintech in Europe, getting over 1 million downloads in under 290 days. Consequently, Twig has also become the number one fintech app in Italy, one of the top apps in the US and number 2 in the app store in the UK. In 2022, Twig won Fast Company’s award as the World's Changing Idea. Geri Cupi was also listed as a Forbes 30 under 30 for Retail and eCommerce in 2020 whereby he co-founded Monochain (the world's first NFT deployment in the fashion industry), and Social DNA (which was acquired by Levi’s). In addition, Geri supports academic endeavors, and acted as a visiting lecturer at the University of Bath and Edinburgh, as well as UCL.
Mads Galsgaard
Mads Galsgaard is the CEO of Learnio, an Impact EdTech company providing digital skills education to everyone. Boardmember of TechLeaders Sweden & Inmobia. Former General Manager, Carlsberg Kenya. Launched Tuborg Beer and became the 2nd largest import beer in Kenya. Former COO of Inmobia. Mobile technology company producing solutions for mobile operators, media/advertising and financial companies. Has worked with some of the biggest technology companies (Microsoft, Google, etc.), biggest football stars (Patrick Kluivert, Ronaldinho, David Beckham, etc.) and brands (HBO, MTV, etc.). Mads has lived in Europe, US, Latin America and Africa and managed remote teams and businesses on 5 continents and has an extensive track record of successful management across cultural and geographic divides.
Kashlee Kucheran
Kashlee Kucheran is the CEO and co-editor in chief of Travel Off Path, one of North America's largest travel news websites. Her additional portfolio includes multiple niche destination travel websites that reach upwards of 4 million monthly readers, spanning from Cancun to Bali. As a serial entrepreneur and global business leader, Kashlee manages a large team of travel experts while she’s been exploring the world for the past decade.
Alyne Tamir
Dear Alyne is a personality with over 3 Million followers across all social media platforms. She has traveled to over 90+ countries, making content ranging from world travel, social issues, lesser known countries to human rights, vegetarianism and much more! She enjoys running “Dear Alyne Retreats”, week-long camps dedicated to nurturing the talents of aspiring female creators and entrepreneurs. Dear Alyne has also worked and collaborated with amazing brands like: The United Nations, Microsoft, Facebook, Etihad, and Coca-Cola!
Gerti Boshnjaku
Gerti Boshnjaku – Startup Supporter & Community Builder with a mission to support entrepreneurship Gerti is Platform Leader at AlbaniaTech, a platform aiming to unite and activate the whole Albanian ecosystem players in one place & promote Albania Innovation Landscape internationally; Ceo & Co- Founder at New Media Group / Business Magazine Albania as well as Host of AllWeb Conference in Albania. His career includes 21+ years of experience in the Marketing & Advertising industry, working in well-known companies in Albania and managing the business operations of his group of companies, which he has co-founded since 2009. Being a marketing-oriented & community builder, Gerti is always in search of connecting with people and networking opportunities. Ceo & Co-Founder at New Media Group / Business Magazine Albania as well as Host of AllWeb Conference in Albania. His career includes 21+ years of experience in the Marketing & Advertising industry, working in well-known companies in Albania and managing the business operations of his group of companies, which he has co-founded since 2009. Being a marketing-oriented & community builder, Gerti is always in search of connecting with people and networking opportunities.
Daniel Schroeder
Daniel is responsible as a CMO of Hacon at Siemens Mobility Software for the management and development of passenger experience applications that create a seamless and sustainable travel experience. The 60 apps are used by > 100 million users daily in Cities like, Berlin, Munich, Dubai or San Francisco; to shift people from cars to alternative and more sustainable modes of transport. In his previous role Daniel was responsible for Smart Building applications at the Silicon Valley based Company Building Robotics Inc. – A Siemens Company
Ruth Cremer
Ruth Cremer originally studied Mathematics, and finally sticked to the numbers: She advises startups, investors and corporates with new (digital) projects on business models, KPIs and financial planning. As a former investment manager for tech startups, she knows the demands and needs of both investors and startups very well. Her work as university lecturer for entrepreneurship inspired her to create different digital and physical learning products with her company, the Entrepreneurial Education UG. Moreover, she is the official consultant for the evaluation and preparation of the German TV Show “Die Höhle der Löwen” (German “Shark Tank”/ “Dragon’s Den”) as well as the author of the official book to the show.
Erkens Gjini
Erkens is the co-founder of Innospace Tirana and Innospace Academy and works as a consultant for various local and international organizations in areas such as entrepreneurship, innovation, diaspora engagement, and startup creation. Previously, he worked as the national advisor for the EU for Innovation program and was responsible for facilitating access to regional and international networks for local startups and innovation support organizations. Before getting into the startup ecosystem world, he spent many years working in the financial industry, particularly in wealth management and equity trading
Landa Grembi
Technical Product Owner@Deutsche Telekom/ Austria Landa Grembi is an Experienced Project Manager, ICT Product Designer, Product Manager, Team Leader, Business Analyst. She's guided each and every day by the motivation of turning ideas into business. An enthusiastic promoter of Agile methodology and cross functional teams, she's also very Customer Centric oriented and an expert for feature introductions of new generation networks (NB-IoT & LTE-M). She has more than 20 years of experience in IT, Consultancy and Telco industry working as Project Manager with a demonstrated history of Technical Project Management, Requirements Engineering & Team Lead. Leading Innovation initiatives such as: Smart City, 5G Campus Network, IoT networks, etc.
Uranik Begu
Uranik Begu is the Executive Director of the Innovation Center in Kosovo, Republic of Kosovo, in Southeast Europe. The innovation center aims to connect scientific research and development with the business sector in order to create more job opportunities. His focus is on information and communication technology, and he works with both start-ups and existing companies. Begu is also a country manager for the StartUp Europe Awards, an initiative promoted by the European Commission to recognize the work of EU-based start-ups. He is a Chapter Director for Startup Grind, an International Ambassador for the International Business Innovation Association and a Startup Mentor for the Star Venture program.
Linda Shomo
Linda Shomo is the founder and CEO of EasyPay, an inclusive e-payment platform in Albania. Linda has a proven executive track record and over 23 years of experience in IT, 17 of which in the financial sector. Prior to EasyPay, Linda held IT management roles in various global financial institutions such as the American Bank of Albania, Western Union, First Data International etc.
Katia Stathaki
Katia Stathaki is the CEO of Vodafone Albania. Ms. Katia Stathaki joined Vodafone in 2002 and since that year has held important management positions in the Commercial and Vodafone Business units. In 2016 she was appointed Business Unit Director at Vodafone Greece. Ms. Katia was born in Greece and grew up in Germany. She graduated from the National Technical University of Athens with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as an MBA from the Henley Business School in the United Kingdom.
Arbesa Kastrati
Arbesa Kastrati, co founder and COO of SparkleDAO, is currently building online ownable social spaces for communities to call home. Her passion for building and nurturing communities expands into multiple other projects in web3 and lifestyle sectors. Previously, Arbesa spent 10 years in the OTT streaming industry as VP Strategy and Implementation at DAZN. She spearheaded all market launches including Japan, US and the global product. She was nominated into Crains list of most influential women in sports 2019.
Leart Zogjani
Leart Zogjani is the Founder at Skins Agency and Symbolt company. Leart Zogjani has 2 current jobs as CEO and Co-Founder at Symbolt.io and Founder at Skins Agency. Leart is the founder of Skins Agency and co-founder of Symbolt – branding strategist, and lecturer. With Skins Agency, he has worked with over 130 companies, organizations and startups from 12 countries, helping them build: successful crowdfunding campaigns, brand infrastructure to scale in over 500 locations, and grow rapidly. He currently also teaches at Harbour.Space University (Barcelona and Bangkok), and AAB University (Prishtina).
Borys Levkovskyi
Borys Levkovskyi is a research associate at the Chair of Information Systems and Business Process Management at the Technical University of Munich and a deputy director of the SAP University Competence Center (UCC) at TUM. His research focuses on the impact of Digital Transformation on business processes. Borys believes that novel digital teaching methods such as simulation games lead to higher learning outcomes when compared to classical frontal lectures, so he actively uses them in class and develops a game for Digital Transformation as his doctoral project.
Erion Nako
Business leader with a desire to use strategic and operational skills to overcome strategic goals in a forward-looking corporate culture. Special skills in project and product management with an eye to future technological advances, trends and economic developments. - Consulting services for the IT strategy department as an Enterprise Architecture Designer (TOGAF / Zachman Framework) - IT Governance (COBIT) and InfoSec Consultant (ISO 27001: 2013). Design of the IT service management model (ITIL V.3 and agile methodology, CGEIT)
Migena Schroeder
Migena Schroeder is the owner and CEO of A.E.S.S. sh.p.k. which is the first and most advanced technology engineering company in the IT/OT sector – making thousands of Buildings in the West Balkan smart, secure and sustainable. For the past 30 years Migena lived in many different countries around the world and Specially her time in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley created the desire to shape the future of Tech in Albania. Making that real she co-founded as a CEO the Holberton School Albania to create the next generation of Silicon Valley grade software engineers in Albania. In her free time Migena is a passionate sailor and technology lover.
Kaisu Koskela, PhD
Kaisu is an anthropologist and an independent scholar who has published extensively on skilled migration and identities. More recently, her academic interest has focused on digital nomads and their constructions of ‘community’. She has been more or less nomadic (digital and otherwise) her whole adult life. She has bartendered on Greek Islands, worked as a hairdresser in London, taught English in Nepal, done fieldwork with tribes in Tanzania and studied at universities in Malta, Holland, Singapore, Australia, Denmark, Ireland and Finland... and travelled the world in between! Kaisu is a keen advocate of location independent lifestyles and the advances that digitalization is bringing in this regards.
Prof. Assoc. Dr. Anni Dasho Sharko
Prof. Assoc. Dr. Anni Dasho Sharko - Vice Rector of "Luarasi" University. Long managerial experience of about 25 years in the field of Information Technology in the Private and Public Sectors as: a. Vice Rector- Luarasi University b. Executive Director FAB Center: IResearch-Innovation-Projects c. General Director of Information Technology- CEZ Albania Electroenergetic Corporate. d. General Director of Information Technology in the Ministry of Finance Project Management experience in the field of ICT in the Public and Private sectors and ICT Senior Consultant on various projects in the country and abroad. With a long teaching experience of about 25 years, Lecturer at the Master's, Bachelor's and Doctorate level at different state and private Universities in Albania.