Author and Science Commentator

Karl Kruszelnicki used to be a "proper pukka scientist, engineer and doctor", but is currently an author and science commentator on radio and television.

Away from the media, he has worked as a physicist; labourer; roadie for bands (including Bo Diddley); car mechanic; filmmaker; hospital scientific officer; biomedical engineer (when he designed and built a machine to pick up electrical signals from the human retina); TV weatherman and medical doctor at The Kids Hospital in Sydney.

In addition to his degrees in Physics and Mathematics, Biomedical Engineering, and Medicine and Surgery, he has studied several non-degree years at various universities in Astrophysics, Computer Science and Philosophy.

In the media, he was a writer and presenter for the first series of Quantum, and has been a science reporter on TV ever since (The Midday Show, Good Morning Australia, and is currently a regular on Channel 7's Sunrise).

Once a week for a magic hour, Karl is Live on Air on Triple J. It's an hour devoted to the collective exploration of some of the great mysteries of life, such as "why does the water in the shower slow down just when it gets hot?" This show attracts up to 300,000 people (about 1.5% of the Australian population) and sometimes "crashes" the switchboard, when the number of incoming calls reaches 7,000 per 15-minute window.

Karl has written 25 books on the amazing world of science; delving into questions such as ‘Can fidgeting help you lose weight?’ and ‘Do your ears really grow bigger as you get older?’. His latest is entitled ‘Dis Information and other Wikkid Myths’.

Program Director, Social Software

Heidi currently runs the team that is responsible for the overall Social Software business which includes a mixture of Product Management, Offerings Management and Project Management that is part of the IBM Collaboration Solutions within IBM. Her team has provided the strategy and direction for the area of Social Networking since the first release IBM provided to the market in 2007. Her team is focused on setting the product requirements for the technologies, expanding new markets for social; such as our Social Everywhere initiative, contributing to the overall efforts in marketing the product, being an advocate for customers, maintaining the external market facing aspects of Social via Analysts, Press, Bloggers as well as setting future technology and business directions to name a few.

Heidi has held numerous positions at IBM and has a long background within the Collaboration space. For instance, she was recently involved in helping to drive the initial IBM Project Vulcan activities across the IBM Collaboration Solutions portfolio, and previous roles consisted of managing the entire messaging client portfolio for Domino (Lotus Notes, iNotes Access for Microsoft Outlook, Domino Off-Line Services, Domino Web Access) setting the strategy for the initial Workplace Messaging / Workplace Client Technology offerings as well as products such as Lotus Symphony, Lotus SmartSuite and Lotus FastSite.

She continues to present product strategies and directions to both internal and external audiences worldwide. She has also held a variety of roles in her tenure since joining the company in 1991 as a part of the Lotus Development Corporation acquisition.

Director of Marketing, Sustainability & Innovation at UXC Connect

Iggy is an accomplished and experienced business leader, executive, speaker and author of "Connection Generation" - a fascinating study of how connectedness affects our place in society and business and the challenges and opportunities this compelling development presents.

He is an internationally recognized connection technology practitioner and a dedicated observer of societal and business models and patterns.

Over 22 years, he's held professional, management and executive positions in marketing, sales, channels, operations and online management at both IBM and Telstra. From 2008-2010, he co-founded and managed an online networking consulting business based in Sydney, Australia called ConnectGen.

As a "super-connected" networker on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, he has earned his place in the Top 25 list of the most connected business networkers in Australia.

Matt English is a Partner in IBM Global Business Services based in Melbourne, Australia. He specialises in consulting with major clients in the areas of organisation change, especially around the re-shaping of business models. Over the years, he has been involved extensively in the retail industry, and more recently with clients in the consulting engineering industry and in the public sector in a number of States.

He has been with IBM since late 2002, and is the Leader for Innovation and Growth consulting in A/NZ and for Asia Pacific and Growth Markets. He is also the A/NZ leader for the IBM Smart Planet Initiative in IBM Global Business Services. Prior to 2002, he had a long career with the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers including 12 years as a Partner.

He has been involved extensively in the development, publication and presentation of innovative thought leadership covering a variety of topics of interest to senior executives across Asia Pacific. He has been directly involved in four major global CEO studies, and has travelled widely in the rollout of those studies. He was the co-author of the recent IBM paper entitled “Towards a Smarter Economy – a roadmap to making it happen”

He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, and a Master of Business Administration from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.