Agenda

Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen is an EGOV Adviser at the United Nations University -  EGOV, an international think tank working with the digital transformation of the public sector.

He is currently responsible for multiple digital transformation projects on performance management, strategy, and capacity development in Georgia, Uganda, and Saudi Arabia. He leads projects with the International Social Security Association on digital inclusion in relation to service production and delivery, and with UNICEF and the Digital Future Society on the impact of the digital transformation of service delivery on both marginalized communities, children, and women.

Morten regularly runs executive training on the digital transformation of the public sector and is a guest lecturer at several European universities.

Past employment includes the Danish Agency for Digitisation, Danish Technological Institute, European Institute of Public Administration, Centre for the Development of Enterprise; European Commission, and University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Morten has bachelor's degrees in political science and economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), a masters from the University of Birmingham (UK) in international economic management, and a Phd in technology governance from Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). He is an author and co-author of various publications, a reviewer for various journals, on multiple conference committees, and a juror on several awards committees.

Sebastian Mhatre is a Senior Digital Development Adviser at the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). He is responsible for developing digital development strategy and capability at the FCDO and has experience in delivering digital, data and innovation projects for international development. Sebastian has a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and masters in both Artificial Intelligence and Economics from the University of Edinburgh.

Vidhya completed her Masters in Digital society from IIIT, Bangalore in 2017. She was the topper and Gold medalist in her class. She was the winner of Reebok India FitToFight Awards 2017. Earlier, she was the recipient of the Dhirubhai Ambani Scholarship and was felicitated by Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank, and other institutions for her brilliant academic records in secondary and higher secondary education. She was the first blind student to study Maths in Bachelor’s degree in Computer Applications from Christ University Bangalore and was the topper of her batch.

Brad Folkens is Co-Founder and CEO of CloudSight, where he leads the effort to build the world’s first visual cognition platform to make AI see.  He is the co-creator of TapTapSee, the leading accessibility tool for the blind and visually impaired, which subsequently won the American Foundation for the Blind Access Award in 2015.  Brad earned his Bachelor of Science in Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematics from Northern Illinois University.  Prior to creating CloudSight, he co-founded CityTech USA, most notable for the award-winning collaborative website PublicSalary.com.

She is a motivational speaker, a special educator, a social activist, ever ready to raise her voice for her community and for other disabilities as well.

Tiffany Brar, a born fighter, did not let her disability stand as a hindrance in her moving forward. She became blind due to the sheer negligence of a doctor, soon after birth. Though her parents tried to rectify her condition, it was to no avail and she strongly believes that it is for purpose that she is visually challenged and her disability is a way to bring possibility for others like her.

She studied for her prime years in Great Britain, after which she returned to India and pursued her schooling. It was the discrimination and segregation she met on account of her disability, that instilled in her a drive and a determination to change the plight of her fellow blind brothers and sisters. She being forcefully made to sit at the back of the class and not being allowed to participate in sports, only made her more determined to make a change.

She completed her Degree in English Literature from Kerala University and then her Bachelor’s in Education in special education from RamaKrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Coimbatore after which she began her career as a receptionist. She then went on to visit many blind people and found out that they were all back benchers and even tied up. She immediately wanted to put her skill to action and started a mobile blind school, which follows them motto that “if blind can’t go to school, let the school l go to them”.She went to many homes far and wide throughout the state of Kerala In public transport training the blind that were confined within the four walls in mobility, confidence, communication, daily living skills, Braille, access technology and so on.

Her organization has played an integral role in empowering the blind and blind women empowerment. The President himself addresses her as “THE COURAGEOUS DAUGHTEROFINDIA”, at his address t other country at the United Nations International Day for Persons with Disabilities in December, 2017 where he also presented her with the “National Award for the Best Role Model”.

She is one of the only blind women In India who has delivered five Ted talks on a variety of thought provoking subjects!

She has delivered an insightful talk at the European parliament in Brussels, and has participated in the panel discussion on accessibility. She is the only blind woman in India, to reach such heights.

She has been trained by the “Mobility International USA”in leadership and women’s empowerment.

She has also been trained in echo location, a unique aspect of mobility and navigation by “World Access for the Blind”. She has been trained in web accessibility by UNICEF and by Web keys it an Australian based organization specializing on digital accessibility. She has been trained in social entrepreneurship by kanthari Braille without borders. 

She has conducted many sensitization sessions in India as well as in Nepal, Poland, Germany and Belgium. As a lover of adventure, she has done skydiving, tandem cycling, paragliding, wall climbing, rope riding and much more! She attempts to break the barriers that  blind people, especially girls, can’t enjoy sports, and can’t live for themselves! 

As an activist, she has raised her voice for her community, in trying to make the currency notes accessible for the blind. She sensitizes companies to make web content accessible according to the web content accessibility guidelines. She has also participated in the “National Consultation for Inclusive Elections” and always advocates inclusion. She favors inclusive travel and tourism and has given her valuable inputs to the tourism department to make tourism accessible and barrier free.

Tiffany was selected to be an INK FELLOW in 2019, and Jyothirgamaya has just been conferred with special consultative status by the UN Eco Soc. Furthermore, she has many awards to her credit, among which the most recent ones are:

In 2019, she received Iconic women for making the world a better place Award from Women Economic Forum

In 2019, she received World of Difference International Award from the International Alliance for Women, Australia

In 2019, she received the Spindle Award for Project Jyothirgamaya from Voice, Netherlands

In 2020, she received the Spirit Awards from World Pulse

 In 2020, she received the Holman prize from light house for the blind Sanfransisco.

Rene Espinoza, Co-founder, and CEO of Lazarillo (http://lazarillo.app/), the platform to help companies improve accessibility and empower people with disabilities, with over 240,000 users and 1709 institutional places mapped by its platform, was awarded by the Zeroproject Foundation at the 2018 annual conference in Vienna. Rene was selected as MIT Innovator under 35 and Young leader of Americas initiative by the US Department of State. Rene has over 9 years of experience working in assistive technology, mixing electronics, and computer science. 

Idan Meir is the Co-founder and CEO of RightHear, an innovative startup that turns public spaces into accessible environments for people with spatial orientation challenges, including people who are blind or visually impaired. Previously to RightHear, Idan founded Hubanana is one of Israel's leading tech hubs for startups and entrepreneurs. Idan holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Business from The Open University of Israel.

I love building companies, running, and eating hummus. Not necessarily in that order :)