Dr Marco Alfano

Dr. Marco Alfano is a Senior Researcher at IVI and lead of the IVI Digital Health & Wellbeing research cluster. He is also a visiting scientist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and is affiliated with Lero, the Research Ireland Centre for Software. He is currently working on responsible use of AI in health and wellbeing by facilitating person/patient empowerment and seamless communication within the digital health ecosystem (http://cohealth.ivi.ie/). His research interests include Responsible AI, Digital Health Transformation, Patient Empowerment, Human-machine communication, Data analytics, Semantic Web, Smart cities, Cybersecurity, and Open Data/Big Data. He has authored more than sixty peer reviewed articles for journals, books, and conferences. He has participated in several European projects and has received grants from international bodies, such as the European Union (under the FP7 and H2020 framework programs), and national bodies, such as Research Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and the National Research Council of Italy.

Professor Markus Helfert

Markus Helfert is the Director of IVI and Director of Empower – the SFI funded Programme on Data Governance. He is also Professor of Digital Service Innovation and Director of the Business Informatics Group at Maynooth University. He is a Principle Investigator at Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre and at the Adapt Research Centre. His research is centred on Digital Service Innovation, Smart Cities and IoT based Smart Environments and includes research areas such as Service Innovation, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Smart Services, Building Information Management, FinTech, Data Value, Enterprise Architecture, Technology Adoption, Analytics, Business Process Managem ent. Prof. Helfert is an expert in Data Governance Standards and is involved in European Standardisation initiatives. Markus Helfert has authored more than 200+ academic articles, journal and book contributions and has presented his work at international conferences. Helfert has received national and international grants from agencies such as European Union (FP7; H2020), Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, was project coordinator on EU projects, and is the Project coordinator of the H2020 Projects: PERFORM on Digital Retail.

Dr Tadhg E. MacIntyre

Tadhg E. Maclntyre PhD is an Associate Professor in Environmental Psychology at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University where he has a leading role in three EU funded Horizon projects. Tadhg is also a funded investigator with Research Ireland Insight Centre for Data Analytics and has been a Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Munich (2019-2020) and Inland University of Applied Sciences (Norway) from 2022-2025. Tadhg graduated from UCD with a  PhD in psychology in 2007 focused on cognitive aspects of human movement. More recently his research has been focused on nature-based solutions and interventions for urban health. Tadhg currently coordinates the Horizon Europe GoGreen Next project (2024-2028)focused on urban health and climate change (€6 million). He recently led the Horizon 2020 project GoGreen Routes (2020-2024) which received €10.5 million  (2020-2024) directly from the EU. Since June 2025, he is a work package lead of Horizon Europe project Green Talent (2025-2029) where his work is concerned with developing a learning ecosystem for innovators in climate change and sustainability. He also is a reviewer for EU funding calls (e.g. ERC, EU Horizon proposals, and MSCA), in addition to national funding in the US, Norway, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Canada and the UK (e.g. Leverhulme Awards).

Dr Zohreh Pourzolfaghar

Zohreh Pourzolfaghar is Assistant Professor for the School of Business in Maynooth University. She is a members of Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software. Zohreh formerly has been Research Fellow at Innovation Value Institute (IVI), Maynooth University’s digital transformation research centre. She is a senior research member of the Business Informatics Group. She is the theme lead in a project investigating the application of Enterprise Architecture in Smart Cities, funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). She has been Principle Investigator for an Industry Fellowship Programme, funded by SFI. Zohreh presented her work at international conferences and has published research in Journals and Conference Proceedings. Zohreh is also leading research within the Cost Action CA16222 (WISE-ACT), a European-wide network.  She has been thematic lead in a successful European Marie Curie PERFORM project. She is a member of the supervisory board of the EU project PERFORM, that focuses on Digital Retail. She has been awarded the SFI industry fellowship (2018) working with industry on topics related to Smart Cities and Building Information Management. She is the Co-PI for submitted H202 Techland proposal. Zohreh received her Ph.D. in Project Management in design process of building projects. Zohreh has years of experience working with project-oriented construction companies to improve organisatioanal productivity and their work processes.

Kevin Gildea

‘Highly original and explosively funny’ –  The Sunday Times
He’s one of the most daring and committed comedians at work right now. Brave, unafraid and compelling…..and very, very funny.’  – Tommy Tiernan
‘Comedy on another level.’  – The Irish Times

Kevin has gigged all over Britain and Ireland and the rest of the known world – from Singapore to Sligo. He’s headlined gigs in Johannesburg and Cape Town and regularly plays all the major comedy festivals in Ireland – The Electric Picnic, ATN, The Paddy Power Comedy Festival in the Iveagh Gardens, The Galway Comedy Festival, Kilkenomics and more. He is a regular at The Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Festival.

Kevin has written and performed for film and television, including Father Ted and Irish Pictoral Weekly; written plays and short fiction, as well as reviewing for the Irish Times; and regularly interviews authors, actors and comedians (and once, Kermit the Frog). He also occasionally runs Kevin Gildea’s Brilliant Pop Up Bookshop in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin.

Expert speaker to be confirmed

Further details will be confirmed soon

Expert speaker to be confirmed