He worked on television, radio, online publications, non-governmental organizations and
the commercial sector. He has about 20 years of experience in journalism. One of the
founders and head of the online magazine Vlast - an analytical publication, which
implemented a paywall system - online subscriptions for the first time in Kazakhstan.

It's hard not to smile at the work of L.A.-based performance artist and music maker Fresh Big
Mouf. He makes "fun" professionally, and with serious results; over 1 billion views of his work to
date.
Best-known for his series, BEAT SCOUT, Fresh Big Mouf can make music out of anything!
From sailboats to taco trucks from Los Angeles to Shanghai, Fresh Big Mouf takes the sounds
he finds and creates beautiful songs that are adored around the world. Fresh Big Mouf has
received accolades from Apple to the Music Recording Academy, as his BEAT SCOUT version
of Lorde's "Royal" was featured on the Grammys!
Fresh Big Mouf has also caught the attention of some of the world’s biggest advertisers, working
with such brands as Toyota, Kia, Intel and Lipton. Most recently Fresh Big Mouf produced a
campaign for FedEx which included a series of BEAT SCOUT videos as well as an online
interactive experience called SoundTrack, a site where a customer's tracking number generates
a musical journey that can be shared. Most recently, Fresh Big Mouf has been hard at work in
the studio, releasing his debut album Taco Boom Box.

Aigerim Khafizova is a co-founder of LinchPin Effect, education startup with a mission to
empower the youth of Eurasia with skills and prepare for successful career. She is an e-learning
designer and a Fulbright Fellow from Kazakhstan passionate about education technology and
youth empowerment.

Aigerim has more than five years of experience in higher education, youth employment, and
professional development. She has worked designing youth employment and professional
development programs in Kazakhstan, conducted international learning research at the leading
e-learning platform Udemy in the U.S., was an entrepreneur in residence at Pathbrite in San
Francisco, and volunteered for a social entrepreneurial organization in Peru.

Aigerim is a Global Shaper, initiative of World Economic Forum, co-organizer of Global
Entrepreneurship Week in Kazakhstan, as well as the co-founder of Cafe Scientifique and One
Salon in Kazakhstan. She holds MS in Education Administration and Policy Studies from State
University of New York at Albany and BSS in International Relations from KIMEP University.

Albert Tsukrenko is a Ukrainian journalist, musician, radio personality. He started his career in
media after 10 years of working as a physician. He was the journalist and editor in various
online and printed magazines & newspapers - FHM Ukraine, Time Out Kiev, Kapital etc., and
the editor-in-chief of the most popular Kiev online city guide Nash Kiev. At the moment he is the
chief editor of the largest Ukrainian Internet online magazine about culture - Cultprostir.ua. In
2016 Cultprostir.ua created an encyclopedia of the modern Ukrainian culture "The Best", which
is issued in Ukrainian and English. In 2017 Cultprostir.ua held a large-scale modern art plener
Kyiv Art Fort at the Kiev Fortress, where the celebration of the Day of Europe with the
participation of the Ambassador of the E.U. In Ukraine and the ambassadors of the European
countries took place. In 2017, Albert launched https://ofr.fm/zemlya/ - the first online radio,
which only broadcasts new Ukrainian music, he conducts radio programs and is the editor of
this radio. Also, Albert Tsukrenko is a member of the Ukrainian duo Hamerman Znyschuye
Virusy (HZV), which works at the junction of music, actionism and contemporary art.

Alex Eaton from Winston-Salem, North Carolina (USA) has been living in Almaty since
October 2013. He is a professional teacher at Almaty International School and teaches
Secondary English. He enjoys living in Central Asia and love Kazakh people and their
holiday traditions. Before coming here, he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine for 3
years in the TEFL program. He is consumed by wanderlust and wants to discover the
world and it’s beauty. He have traveled to 46 countries to date, but plans to visit all
before he expires. He loves learning about people and their cultures; and he loves to
cook. In addition, he loves taking road trips with friends and going off-the-beaten path.

His current project is named Limitless Adventure: Mongolia Nonstop. It is an adventure
that will be 10.000 kilometers and will follow proper highways and dirt tracks through
Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia from July 8 till August 6, 2017 (30 days). His team is
fundraising money to support children who are born and raised in prisons in Kazakhstan
because their imprisoned parents are their legal guardians. They are raising money to
provide a gift bag of items needed by the 70 adolescent teens in the boy's prison. In
addition, they want to buy sports equipment (soccer balls, basketballs) and the team will
deliver them on June 01, 2017, which is Children's Day.

Alexander Plyushchev well known under the nickname ‘plushev’ is a Russian journalist, editor
and columnist.

He studied at Russian Chemical-Technological University (not graduated) where he was an
editor and youth editor-in-chief at the university newspaper Mendeleevets. Soon after that he
has worked at Echo Moskva radio as a news editor, news presenter and talk show host. He has
an experience working as news editor, columnist, show host at various news media, such as
NTV TV-channel, Vedomosti newspaper, Lenta.ru, Russia-24 TV-channel, ITV online-TV-
channel, RIA NOVOSTI - online edition and GeekTV online-TV channel. In 2002 - 2003 he was
a project editor at Axel Springer Russia. Since 2017 Alexander has worked as a columnist at
Deutsche Welle (Russian edition). He is an author of the book The Whole Plushev (2007).
Alexander was a jury member of the Best Of Blogs by Deutsche Welle (2007, 2011 and 2012).

Alexey Li, internet entrepreneur. Co-founder of the largest Online Travel Agency in Kazakhstan,
Aviata.kz. Earlier founded first kazakhstani movie ticketing service, Ticketon.kz. Speaker of
TEDxAlmaty.

Speaker with experience of speeches
at major conferences, such as “NGO Sustainability Forum”, “Collisium international musik
convention”, “Laboratory of media and social innovations #inLab2017” and many others. She is
convinced that in Kazakhstan, as in the whole world, there is a large number of smart, talented
people who have their own interesting, unique ideas and projects that could and should be
implemented. One of the main problems in the implementation of any project is funding.

CEO and founder, Zero To One Labs & Factorial Incubator.

Education: Computer Science,
Princeton University. Past: founding team, Collections (YC S12), Mountain View, CA. ACM
ICPC World Finalist ’09 (Stockholm), ’11 (Orlando, FL).

Artur Gurau - digital communication strategist. From 2011 CEO of Granat. After launching
Rockit Conference in 2014 co-founded Rockit Academy, Planable, KOMETA and most recently
X42 - an app for short and meaningful video comments. Interested in startups, social
entrepreneurship, tech, media, political communication and football.

Asya Tulesova - community and environmental activist. She runs a foundation to help develop
urban communities and promote youth civic and environmental engagement. She has been
working on number of projects from building community gardens in outskirts of the city, bike-
powered events to air quality monitoring project AUA.

Attia Nasar is a Digital Media Advisor in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs as the
U.S. Department of State. She is responsible for supporting U.S. foreign policy objectives with
public diplomacy products and services, including online and in-person interactive engagement
with international publics in South and Central Asia. She provides social media strategy,
consultative services, strategic guidance and hands-on assistance to staff working at U.S.
Missions overseas.

Attia graduated from the Public Diplomacy program at Syracuse University where she received
a M.S. in Public Relations and a M.A. in International Relations. She is a 2008 graduate of Utica
College in NY, where she earned her B.S. in Public Relations and Journalism Studies.