Since its inception, ScotSoft has hosted an enormous variety of local and international speakers from organisations such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco, CGI and more.
The Young Software Engineer Awards have featured After Dinner speakers from comedians like Kevin Bridges, to athletes like Sir Chris Hoy, to motivational speakers like SAS: Who Dares Wins’ Colin Maclachlan, to “People Hacker” Jenny Radcliffe.
Check out our speakers below as the 2024 lineup starts to take shape.
Keynote Speakers
Professor Joe Little
Joe Little is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of Stirling and Senior Advisor to the Chief futurist at Deloitte.
He has 37 years of industry experience at BP, BAe (Space and Comms) and beyond. His primary focus in the last decade and half has been researching emerging technology, educating executives and business leaders on their likely impact and disruption.
He a certified Futurist with the Institute For The Future, accepted into the Association of Professional Futurists in 2020, and recently helped author a report on the Future of Space for Deloitte NExT Futures team.
Speakers
Eyad Elyan
Professor of Machine Learning and Computer Vision, Robert Gordon University
Eyad is a renowned researcher in Machine Learning and AI and leads Robert Gordon University’s Interactive Machine Vision research Group.
He has pioneered the development of AI-driven solutions across different domains and helped businesses to intelligently transform existing practices. Following his completion of a PhD in 3D modeling and human face recognition at the University of Bradford, he joined Robert Gordon University School of Computing as a lecturer in 2009. He then progressed to be a Senior Lecturer in 2015 and a Reader in 2018.
In 2020, he was promoted to the rank of full Professor in Machine Learning and Computer Vision. His research is focused on applied computer vision, deep learning, and machine learning. He collaborates extensively with various industries across Scotland, actively contributing to the creation of state-of-the-art AI solutions to optimise and digitally transform their operations. With a track record encompassing over 100 publications in AI and Machine Learning, supervision of 12 successful PhD completions, and leadership on more than 30 innovative industry projects, he was recognised with the Knowledge Transfer Partnership Academic of the Year award in 2023 and as a finalist for the 2024 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Award.
James Allman Talbot
Head of Incident Response and Threat Intelligence, Quorum Cyber
James Allman-Talbot is Head of Incident Response and Threat Intelligence at Quorum Cyber.
James has over 14 years of experience working in cyber security, and has worked in a variety of industries including aerospace and defence, law enforcement, and professional services. Over the years he has built and developed incident response and threat intelligence capabilities for government bodies and multi-national organisations, and has worked closely with board level executives during incidents to advise on recovery and cyber risk management.
Sheryl Newman
Chief Executive Officer, Appetite for Business
Sheryl Newman is the founder and CEO of B-Corp certified Appetite for Business, launched in 2016, which offers scalability solutions for businesses through accessible technology.
With a background of project management and consulting, Sheryl is a passionate advocate for women in business and women in technology, holding previous roles such as President of Women Connect and Co-Founder of Girl Geek Scotland.
Gemma Jones
Director – Enterprises Sustainability, PwC
A Director at PwC, Gemma Jones ensures sustainability strategy is focused on areas of material concern to stakeholders and driving activity to make this happen.
In her role, Gemma is accountable for sustainability disclosures and communications through public reporting and other channels, driving down corporate emissions with innovative approaches and colleague driven engagement and action, supporting communities and colleagues through employee volunteering and engagement approaches, and developing third-sector and charitable partnerships to create positive social and environmental impact.
Steve Higgon
Chief Executive Officer, TAAP
With Steve’s 40-year career in Space & Defence, Retail, and the Commercial sector, he has been able to build and deploy applications at scale in almost every industry and vertical for the world’s largest brands. His early experiences provided a unique understanding of the failings of how people and organisations approach software development and digital transformation.
These experiences lead to the creation of TAAP as a platform for creating applications faster, with smaller teams, with fewer errors, with as much flexibility and functionality as conventional software applications.
Irene Coyle
Chief Operating Officer, OSP Cyber Academy
Irene Coyle is both COO of OSP Cyber Academy, providing organisations with NCSC-assured cybersecurity, data protection and GDPR training, and COO of Cyber News Global, an industry-led cyber news publication.
Irene formerly spent 30 years in the police, rising to the role of Chief Inspector, and is now a regular conference speaker on topics concerning GDPR, cybersecurity, data protection, human error, training, diversity, and empowering women. Irene is also an Advisory Board Member for the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE).
