About Hans:

Hans is chair of Visual 1st, a global conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem, and founder of Suite 48 Analytics, a market research firm for the photo and video industry. He also publishes the bi-weekly Visual 1st Perspectives newsletter, which includes analyses of trending imaging topics as well as a roundup of photo and video industry news.

Prior to founding Suite 48 Analytics, Hans was sr. director of market research at multimedia software company, Nero, and director of product strategy at desktop publishing software company, Quark.

Hans co-founded Piczo, a teen photo sharing site that in its heydays counted over 25 million registered users.

Hans was also director of professional solutions at imaging software company, Live Picture.  

Hans holds a Masters degree in Industrial Economics from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

About Alexis:

Alexis is strategic advisor for Suite 48 Analytics and the co-host of Visual 1st.

Previously he was founder and president of imaging think-tank Future Image Inc. In 2003 he launched the Mobile Imaging Executive Summit, a by-invitation executive conference held twice yearly (Americas, Europe) which evolved into the 6Sight® Future of Imaging executive conference. 

From 1997 to 1998, he was President and Executive Director of the Digital Imaging Group (DIG), an industry consortium founded by Adobe, Canon, Eastman Kodak, Fuji, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Live Picture and Microsoft to promote the growth of digital imaging into mainstream markets.

Alexis is the co-author of Going Visual – Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision Making and Profits, published in 2005 by John Wiley and Sons. 

He's been quoted at various times in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Financial Times, Newsweek, Business Week, and other leading business and technology publications. He has also been of service as an expert witness in cases representing prominent  companies in the imaging industry.

He’s been a passionate photographer since his twenties. In 2018 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography.

About Elodie:

Elodie Mailliet Storm is the CEO of Catchlight. She is a recognized creative and business leader in the visual storytelling space. In 2016, Mailliet Storm was named a JSK fellow in media innovation at Stanford University where she researched the monetization of photography in the age of social and search. During her 11 years at Getty Images, she oversaw and helped build Getty Images’ content offering and helped lead its strategic development.

Most recently she was Getty Images’ Senior Director of Strategic Development based in the Bay Area focusing on Getty Images’ relationships with platforms such as Google, Instagram, Pinterest and Airbnb.

About Rich:
Rich is a practiced expert in photography, motion graphic design, and digital video. He has also grown into key roles designing creative software and working with artificial intelligence. Starting his career out in the world of broadcast journalism, Rich has always had a great interest in visual communications.

Rich is a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals Instructor Dream Team, and a popular speaker on the digital video circuit. He has chaired conferences since 2003 for the National Association of Broadcasters.

Rich is an internationally published author. His book, Photoshop for Video, was the first of its kind to focus on Photoshop’s application in the world of video. He is also a contributing author for Apple’s Aperture, iLife, and iWork official books. He's also co-written the first books on DSLR filmmaking and professional web video.

A Master's Degree in Project Management fills out Rich’s broad spectrum of experience.

About Javier:

Multidisciplinary engineer, researcher, creative director, and artist, Javier is the author of internationally recognized AI projects, such as  losslandscape.com. He is a member of the AI Research group Landskape and a speaker at reference AI Events, including the Executive AI Masters at iia.es.

Winner of numerous awards with creations showcased at galleries, festivals & institutions worldwide, Javier participated in 2021 for the second consecutive time at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the most prestigious event of its kind.

Creator of the Torch Innovation Methodology and associated ecosystem, Javier has (co)-founded multiple ventures from Silicon Valley to Europe. He provides a unique blend of leadership, communication, and presentation skills, combined with vast expertise that encompasses science, technology, and creative media, from AR to interactive media, filmmaking & beyond (ideami.com).

In 2021 Javier co-founded The Geniverse, one of the first platforms in the world that facilitates access to the latest Generative AI technology.

About Dan:

Dan is Director, Digital Experience within the Technology and Digital group of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. In this role he’s responsible for the strategy and development of imaging platforms, products and services of Disney PhotoPass Service at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. He leads high-performing teams delivering immersive, innovative imaging products and experiences serving theme park guests in a rapidly changing consumer environment.

Prior to joining Disney, Dan consulted at a variety of digital marketing and technology firms in the US, UK and Australia, designing products for clients including Sony, British Telecom, Unilever, Citrix and the UK and Australian governments. He has published research on auditory user interface design and began his career in filmmaking, working on several documentary films including the 1997 International EMMY award-winner Nuremberg.

Dan has an MSc in Human Computer Interaction with Ergonomics from University College London and a BA in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Manchester, UK.

About Rudy:

Rudy is a leading expert on M&A transactions within the technology sector. As the founder of Woodside Capital, he focuses on computer vision and imaging companies across multiple industry sectors.

Prior to Woodside Capital Partners, Rudy was the founding CEO of the MIT Media Lab Europe, a joint venture between MIT and the Irish government. Over the past 25 years, he founded five technology companies in the U.S., ran a European public company, and served as a senior executive for two global 500 companies. He is an effective, results-oriented professional with a proven track record in strategic planning, change management, and corporate development.

Rudy has a BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Computer Vision from Cambridge University, UK.

About Andy:

Andy Kelm is a Managing Director at Palmarés Advisors with over 20 years of product, corporate development and general management experience in wireless, mobility, and cloud services. As a General Manager at Amazon Web Services, Andy built and ran several businesses in the Mobile and IoT cloud services segment and helped to identify and acquire several companies.

Prior to Amazon, Andy worked at Nokia as a corporate development and operations executive leading the acquisition of Avvenu, Oz Communications, and Novarra. Andy led the Novarra team and launched the Nokia Xpress mobile web service growing the team to 250 people while growing the user base to more than 100 million active users.

Prior to Nokia, Andy worked in product management and engineering roles in software and semiconductor companies including Nokia Networks/RoofTop Communications, S3, Exponential Technology, and Intel.

Andy holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the University of California-Berkeley. Andy is a registered Series 79 and Series 63 investment-banking representative.

About Anna:

Anna Dickson is a Product Manager at Google.  Anna's work brings visual media content to many of Google's product teams, including Search, Discover, Google Maps and many others.  See some of the work from her team by asking your Nest Hub Smart Display "What's the Animal of the Day"!  Anna also works with product teams to streamline visual media workflows and manage media inventory.

Anna formerly was deputy director of photography at the Wall Street Journal, photo director at the Huffington Post and photo editor at iHeartRadio and Rolling Stone.

About Jeff:

Jeff Herbst is Co-Founding Managing Partner of GFT Ventures. He brings three decades of venture capital, operational, business development and M&A experience.

Prior to launching GFT, he spent 20 years as NVIDIA's Vice President of Business Development where he built an ecosystem of accelerated computing applications spanning the domains of AI, Data Science, Autonomous Machines, and Graphics and Visualization. During his tenure at Nvidia, Jeff created the Nvidia GPU Ventures program, overseeing more than 40 global investments and 20 acquisitions valued over $8B. He also led the Nvidia Inception global startup accelerator comprised of more than 8,000 AI, Data Science and High Performance computing companies.

Prior to joining Nvidia, Jeff ran the Business Development function at the Altavista search engine, and was a Partner at the Wilson Sonsini law firm in Palo Alto.

He holds a JD from Stanford University and a BS with Honors in Computer Science and Economics from Brown University.

About Sami:

Sami Niemi is a general partner at Spintop Ventures, a Nordic early stage tech venture capital firm. Sami has his roots in mobile imaging technologies as co-founder of Scalado, which grew to become a leading mobile imaging software company in the world with more than 1 Billion licenses sold worldwide to essentially all the OEM’s and many of the sensor/chipset makers.

The company was acquired by Nokia in 2012, and later integrated into Microsoft where Sami served as Director of Photography reporting to Seattle HQ's.