When: September 17th 2014 Where: The Glasshouse Building - 2 Trematon Walk (Off Wharfdale Road) - Regent's Quarter - N1 9SR London - United Kingdom

Programme

Admission & Welcome (2:30pm - 3pm)

• Matthias Ick, Macmillan Digital Education

Session 1: Policy (3pm - 4:15 pm)

• Keynote: Nicolas de Santis, BRAND EU
• Presentation: Nicholas Niggli, Embassy of Switzerland in the UK
• Presentation: Niss Jonas Carlsson, Brainglass
• Panel Discussion, Q&A

Coffee Break (4:15pm 4:30pm)

Session 2: Business (4:30pm - 5:45pm)

• Keynote: Armin Hopp, Speexx
• Presentation: Florence Mele, ESCP Europe
• Presentation: Prashant Raizada, EnglishUp
• Panel Discussion, Q&A

Coffee Break (5:45pm - 6:00pm)

Session 3: Innovation (6:00pm - 7:00pm)

• Presentation: Kirsten Winkler, EDUKWEST
• Presentation: Mait Müntel, Lingvist
• Open Mic / Pitch Session

Networking (7:00pm - 8:30pm)

Speakers

Niss Jonas Carlsson

Founder Brainglass

Niss Jonas Carlsson is the founder of Brainglass, helping second and foreign language learners to bridge the gap between educational material and native language media since 2002. +1M downloads of apps like Lingoal, Read4English and others. 

Armin Hopp

Founder & President Speexx 

Armin Hopp is the Founder and President of Speexx, a leading global provider of corporate online language training solutions. His academic background is in linguistics and English literature.

A regular speaker at international talent management conferences and seminars, Armin has won the National German Award for Further Education and the WorldDidac Award. He is a member of the steering committee to the HR Expo Professional Learning Europe Conference, LEARNTEC, ELIG (European Learning Interest Group) and ambassador for Towards Maturity in the UK.

Matthias Ick

Managing Director Macmillan Digital Education 

Matthias Ick serves as Managing Director of Digital Education at MacMillan Science and Education. Ick has built up extensive experience across digital markets and education, from making venture capital investments to founding tutoria.de - Digital Education’s online service for private tutoring for parents and students.

He started his career in consulting and previously worked with the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, investing in online businesses and advising on mergers and acquisitions. He is using his entrepreneurial know-how to lead Digital Education’s portfolio of companies and identify new ideas and businesses. 

Nicholas Niggli

Head of the Economic, Trade and Finance Section at the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK 

Nicholas C. Niggli is currently the Head, Economic, Trade & Finance Section at the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK, a posting for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, he leads a diplomatic team that represents, promotes and defends Switzerland's economic, trade, finance, science and business interests in the United Kingdom. 

Previously, Niggli was part of Switzerland’s trade diplomacy and was based at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the WTO & EFTA. There he covered the Doha Development Round, the International Services Agreement plurilateral negotiations (TISA), Accessions to the WTO as well as budget, administration and institutional issues. 

Florence Mele

Director of Studies at ESCP Europe London campus 

Florence Mele is Director of Studies at ESCP Europe London campus, in charge of degree programmes. Established in 1819, ESCP Europe is the world's oldest business school and has educated generations of leaders and entrepreneurs.With its five campuses in Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, and Torino, ESCP Europe's true European Identity enables the provision of a unique style of cross-cultural business education and a Global Perspective on international management issues. 

Florence holds an MSc Computing Science from Birkbeck College University of London. 

Mait Müntel

Co-Founder & CEO Lingvist 

Mait Müntel is co-founder and CEO of language learning startup Lingvist. Mait is a particle physicist and an entrepreneur. He received a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2008 and has extensive expertise in mathematical modeling and programming research software. Müntel contributed to the development of BalticGrid.org, a distributed computing network for the Baltic Sea region and was part of the Higgs boson research team at CERN, Switzerland. 

Prashant Raizada

Founder & CEO EnglishUp 

Prashant is the Founder and CEO of EnglishUp, a personal Online English Learning business currently operating in Brazil. A seasoned entrepreneur, Prashant's previous ventures include founding Lifestep, an employability skills venture focused on 16-20 year olds in UK and India and being a member of the founding team of Infosys BPO, an Global outsourcing business, which grew to $250m in 4 years. 

In a career spanning ~15 years, Prashant has also worked for McKinsey & Co, HSBC and Citibank in London. He is an MBA from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta) and the Indian Institute of Technology but believes he only ever learnt anything. 

Nicolas de Santis

President & Secretary General Gold Mercury International

Nicolas de Santis is President & Secretary General of Gold Mercury International, the global foresight think tank and global governance award organisation founded in 1961. De Santis is a global vision strategist and internet entrepreneur, advising companies and governments on sustainably driven corporate and brand visions, business model innovation and cultural transformation. 

Prior to joining Gold Mercury, Nicolas was an internet entrepreneur, who started influential and high profile internet companies, such as opodo.com. He is currently working on building a strong brand of the European Union: The BRAND EU Centre.