The technology environment is changing at a very fast pace, and it requires more than just keeping up with the latest frameworks or the current programming languages. It also requires networking, picking the brains of the leaders, and knowing where the sector is going. TekForce Connect 2025, which was hosted on September 4-5, offered just that experience.
With over 5,000 participants spanning four continents (North America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region), the event brought together an unprecedented network of technology visionaries, industry leaders, and innovation pioneers. The international scope reflected the truly global nature of today’s digital transformation challenges, where solutions require cross-border collaboration and diverse perspectives.
Over two intensive days, participants engaged with a broad range of topics shaping the future of technology and society: artificial intelligence, fintech, agile leadership, cybersecurity, blockchain, product design, digital marketing and digital transformation. The invited keynote speakers and thought leaders did more than present their own projects – they connected their insights to wider global trends such as scaling innovation across borders, strengthening the resilience of digital ecosystems, redefining the future of fintech, and embedding AI responsibly into everyday life.
Speakers Who Shaped the Conversation
This year’s lineup brought together internationally recognised experts and opinion leaders whose work already influences industries and communities worldwide. They were invited not only as presenters but as drivers of dialogue and inspiration.
Africa’s leading life and change strategist, Dr. Lanre Olusola, invited attendees to rethink their strategy for advancing their careers. Having inspired attendees as Wendy Amexo, founder of TechJumpstart Hub, with her entrepreneurial vision for the digital economy, leadership lessons came from Mona Mariam, Senior Director with the National Bank of Canada, amongst many other global experts.
Some of the most engaging sessions came from recognised speakers who brought a mix of practical expertise and forward-looking ideas:
- Dmitry Bobolev (Founder, Froxy Labs) led a compelling session on The AI Disruption: How Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping Work, Business, and Society, framing how automation, generative AI, and adaptive systems are already redefining industries. His participation in the informal panel on Emerging Tech Skills to Learn in 2025 highlighted the most impactful technical skills from AI engineering to prompt design that newcomers can learn from scratch to stay ahead of the curve.
- Dr Saeed Khazaee (CEO, NexaDeeds & MLDeeds) unveiled cutting-edge applications of AI and machine learning, showcasing real-world deployments that bridge research with industry impact, particularly in scalable automation and decision intelligence.
- Andrey Chubin (Lead Data Scientist, Quantum One)impressed audiences with a visionary talk on Human Machine Learning, where he explored practical strategies for embedding AI into daily workflows while pushing the boundaries of human-AI collaboration.
- Dr Zina Arinze (UN Women UK Delegate CSW69, Leadership Reinvention Coach and Technology PM Consultant) provided career transformation strategies.
- Nikita Poloznikov (Head of Design, Jazari) demonstrated how design thinking accelerates adoption of advanced technologies, translating complex innovation into user-friendly, impactful solutions.
- Ameyaw Debrah (Founder, Ameyaw Debrah Media) contributed media and digital marketing expertise.
- Oleg Skliarenko (Co-founder & CPO, DRCT LTD) and Oleksandr Potapenko (Co-founder & CEO, Audax Solutions AG)shared powerful strategies for scaling product innovation and designing resilient solutions that thrive under rapidly changing market and technological conditions.
- Vitali Shchur (QA Engineer, Check Point Software) spotlighted the evolving role of cybersecurity and quality assurance in safeguarding innovation pipelines against threats, showing why resilience must be embedded from the start.
- Dr Tubo Warekuromor (SSA Data Governance and Solutions to the DG/CE NASRDA) provided government tech insights.
- Anastasia Glavatchi (Head of Marketing, LUNAS Inc), shared expertise on personal branding and marketing in the tech sector, emphasizing strategies for visibility and impact in an increasingly crowded digital space.
- Indranila Tsybikova (Principal Enterprise Architect)mapped the intersection of enterprise strategy and innovation, illustrating how organisations can integrate emerging technologies without losing agility.
- Althea Blake (The Corporate Doctor, Shekinah Roots) contributed organisational development expertise.
- Alexandr Dergunov (Software Engineer, Meta) provided a rare behind-the-scenes look at engineering at global scale, shedding light on the technical challenges of building resilient, high-performance systems used worldwide.
- Eli Bowman (Author & Master NLP Coach) provided personal development and communication skills insights.
- Aleksandr Vorobev (Smart Contracts Engineer, Bebop) unpacked the potential of blockchain and decentralised applications.
- Amal Mammadov (Information Security Manager, Moon Active), reinforced the strategic importance of cybersecurity and assurance, particularly in consumer-facing digital ecosystems.
- Huseyn Gorbani (AI Developer, Rider Levett Bucknall) explored how AI is transforming expectations and realities across industries, from predictive modelling to adaptive automation.
- Alexandra Tsoy (Head of Product, Paysend) shared a global fintech perspective, showcasing how product leadership shapes financial innovation and opens access to new markets.
- Mona Mariam (Senior Director, National Bank of Canada) added to the fintech discourse with insights into enterprise banking transformation, demonstrating how established institutions can innovate at scale.
Global Impact and Industry-Wide Insights
The collective expertise of these world-renowned speakers generated insights that extended far beyond their individual companies and sectors, revealing critical trends that are shaping the global technology landscape:
Global Innovation Scaling: Sessions revealed how successful technology solutions must be designed from the ground up for international markets, with speakers demonstrating strategies for navigating diverse regulatory environments, cultural preferences, and infrastructure capabilities across continents.
Digital Ecosystem Resilience: The convergence of cybersecurity expertise, enterprise architecture insights, and government technology strategies illuminated the critical importance of building resilient digital ecosystems that can withstand both cyber threats and economic disruptions on a global scale.
The Future of Fintech: Financial technology discussions revealed how the sector is evolving beyond traditional payment processing to become the backbone of the global digital economy, enabling everything from cross-border e-commerce to decentralized finance applications.
AI Implementation and Society: The artificial intelligence sessions provided a comprehensive view of how AI adoption is reshaping not just business processes but fundamental aspects of work, education, and social interaction across different cultures and economic systems.
Cross-Industry Digital Transformation: The diverse backgrounds of speakers, spanning traditional finance, Digital marketing, cutting-edge startups, academic research, government agencies, and media organisations, demonstrated how digital transformation principles apply universally while requiring sector-specific adaptations.
Looking Ahead
One of the most useful aspects of the event was the manner in which panel sessions picked up on the kinds of problems that tech professionals actually face on a day-to-day basis. Sessions delved deep into topics such as how to overcome imposter syndrome—a subject that actually resonated with so many attendees by the look of chat activity. The panels on what HR departments truly want to see from CVs provided genuine eye-openers that you don’t really hear from the recruiting side. There were also forward-looking discussions about what technology skills will be of greatest value in this new age of AI and automation and how-to workshops on marketing yourself as an IT professional who typically has trouble selling their own work.
The event also featured incredible contributions from speakers like Dr. Fin Dittimi and Dr. Sarah Glova, whose keynote “Building Careers for the Digital Economy Across Continents” introduced insights on building successful global careers from anywhere and turning your location into a superpower rather than a limitation. Plus, experts from Amazon, University of Sydney, and Portsmouth.
For anyone who missed it, keep an eye out for next year’s event. Based on what we saw this September, it’s definitely worth blocking the time on your calendar.
