He was once one of the FBI's 'most wanted': Now the man who made a name hacking into 40 major corporations, Kevin Mitnick is on the speaking circuit with a date in Sydney in May.
These days Mitnik is chief executive and chief 'white hat' hacker at a boutique security firm and mentors leaders, executives, and staff on both the theory and practice of social engineering. At CeBIT Australia (May 5-7) delegates will hear his insights and adventures.
He joins a line up which includes a chief evangelist, a digital prophet, the former chief technical officer of NASA and the founder of the Google Brain Project at the Asia Pacific event at Sydney Olympic Park.
Managing director of Hannover Fairs Australia Harvey Stockbridge says "the biggest and the best" are being brought in: "Our commitment to the technology business industry is to bring topical, international thought leaders to Australia and we believe we have delivered."
With his key intention to democratise design, Guy Kawasaki will empower attendees with his vision for the global creative field. Chief evangelist of Canva, an online, graphic design service, and an executive fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, he has written 13 books including his latest, The Art of Start 2.0 which shares practical advice about social media, crowdfunding and cloud computing.
When your job title is Digital Prophet for AOL (US), and you've spent most of your life observing the digital landscape, you know your stuff and David Shing certainly does. Having spent most of his life in the digital world, working for both large and small creative companies, he is renowned as a media and marketing genius.
Also slated is an entrepreneurial executive with a passion for igniting innovation in high tech organisations - Chris Kemp, chief strategy officer of Nebula, former CTO of NASA and a pioneering force in cloud computing, open source and open government.
A local high-flyer is Naomi Simson - yes, we remember her days as PR flack for Xerox - who founded Red Balloon and is currently circling on Shark Tank Australia, She will tell her own story of entrepreneurship and making connections with her clients.
In addition to speakers, the three-day CeBIT Australia will also present more than 400 exhibitors and nearly 100 disruptive startup innovators.
On our homepage: Kevin Mitnick
Right: Guy Kawasaki