Our inspirational line up of speakers includes representatives from all continents including:

• Dr Chris Yapp: Head of Public Sector Innovation at Microsoft
• Prof. Loyiso Nongxa: Vice-Chancellor of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg
• Prof. Françoys Gagné: Founding President of Giftedness Quebec and Professor at University of Quebec
• Prof. Jiannong Shi: Director of the Center for Supernormal Children and the Director of Center of Human Development and Education at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Prof. Joan Freeman: Middlesex University, Founding President European Council for High Ability (ECHA)
• Prof. John Geake: Professor of Education at the Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University
• Nancy Green: Executive Director, National Association for Gifted Children
• Prof. Deborah Eyre: Director, National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, The University of Warwick
• Dr Elena Grigorenko: Department of Psychology, Yale University
• Dr Ken McCluskey: Dean of Faculty of Education, The University of Winnipeg
• Prof. Kirsi Tirri: Professor of Religious Education, University of Helsinki
• Dr Donald Treffinger: President of the Center for Creative Learning, Florida

Dr Chris Yapp

Chris Yapp has been in the IT Industry since 1980. Most recently he was Head of Public Sector Innovation at Microsoft. Prior to that he held a number of roles at Honeywell, ICL and Hewlett Packard. He has been involved in Public Sector IT for the majority of that period and has been involved in many policy and advisory groups on strategic and management aspects of IT.

Chris is a Patron of NACE, and a Trustee of world e-citizens. He is also an Associate of the think tank DEMOS, and a former Director of the Internet Society of England. He is a past Trustee of the School for Social Entrepreneurs and the British Committee of the UK-Canada colloquia. Chris is a frequent (and inspirational) public speaker and writer on the e-agenda. His most recent publication is “Personalization of education in the 21st century”

Prof. Loyiso Nongxa

1978, Loyiso Nongxa became South Africa’s first African Rhodes Scholar and went on to obtain his doctorate degree from Oxford in 1982. He is a mathematician who has lectured at the University of Fort Hare, the National University of Lesotho, University of Natal and the University of the Western Cape - where he held the post of Professor in Mathematics and later, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

In October 2000 he took up the position as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of the Witwatersrand. In May 2003 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor and Principal.

Prof. Françoys Gagné

In 1978, Françoys Gagné joined the department of psychology, at the Université du Québec à Montréal, as a full professor, and oriented his research interests towards the education of the gifted. He is better known for his Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT), which has been endorsed by educational authorities in a few states in the US, and in Australia.

Dr. Gagné has won major awards in the field of gifted education. In November 1996, he was given the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Gifted Children "for significant contributions to the field of knowledge regarding the education of gifted individuals."

Prof. Jiannong Shi

Professor Jiannong Shi is a senior psychologist specialising in developmental psychology. He is also the Director of the Centre for Supernormal Children of China. In 2002 he was elected Vice-President of the Asia-Pacific Federation of WCGTC and in 2004 became President.

He focuses his research in the field of giftedness and creativity theoretically and practically. Based on his natural perspective on giftedness he developed a bio-socio-psycho- model to guide gifted education and creativity cultivation in kindergarten, primary, and secondary schools in China. In 2006, he was rewarded as distingushed contribution scholar in the field of gifted research in China by the Chinese Association for Supernormal Talents.

Prof. Joan Freeman

Joan Freeman has researched the development of human abilities to their highest levels for several decades. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Chartered practising psychologist. Joan is Founding President of the European Council for High Ability (ECHA), was Editor in Chief of 'High Ability Studies', and is Visiting Professor at Middlesex University, London.

Joan has published 16 books for scholars and parents translated into many languages. She has been the chair of an arts journal, a director of a large theatre, an instigator and the judge of a National Children's Poetry Exhibition.

Prof. John Geake

John Geake is Professor of Education at the Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University, and Academic Researcher with the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, University of Oxford. His post at Oxford Brookes includes leading the Institute’s research developments in gifted education through the Research Centre for Able Pupils.

John has conducted research into the neuropsychology of giftedness and talent, especially musical and mathematical, over many years. His current functional imaging research focuses on the neural foundations of high creative intelligence.

Nancy Green

Nancy Green joined the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) staff in 2004 with more than 20 years of non-profit leadership and management experience. Currently she represents NAGC externally to a wide variety of national organizations, corporations and policy makers on positions relevant to gifted education.

She has been instrumental in created collaborative partnerships with other education foundations and entities important to NAGC's mission and future success. She also works with staff and members to enhance the association's effectiveness in advocating for and addressing the needs of gifted children.

Prof. Deborah Eyre

Professor Deborah Eyre is a government advisor, a leading academic researcher, and Director of the UK government’s National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth. She has played a leading role in gifted education in England for over 25 years and has a particular interest in curriculum provision and classroom practice.

She established the first research centre for gifted education in the UK at Oxford Brookes University, served as a specialist adviser to the House of Commons Education Select Committee inquiry into the education of highly able children and designed the government’s national training programme for co-ordinators of gifted and talented pupils in schools. Professor Eyre sits on the Board of the Training and Development Agency and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr Elena Grigorenko

Dr Grigorenko is Associate Professor of Child Studies and Psychology at Yale and of Psychology at Moscow State University. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books. She has received multiple awards for her work from the American Psychological Association, including the APA Distinguished Award for an Early Career Contribution to Developmental Psychology.

Dr Grigorenko’s research with children around the world (in Africa, Asia, and the Americas) has been funded by NIH, NSF, DOE, Cure Autism Now, the Foundation for Child Development, the American Psychological Foundation, and other federal and private sponsoring organizations.

Dr Ken McCluskey

Dr Ken McCluskey, Dean and Professor of Education at the University of Winnipeg, has had 25 years experience as a school psychologist, special educator, and administrator in the public school system.

A recipient of the Canadian Council of Exceptional Children's "Joan Kershaw Publications Award" and his institution's Teaching, Research, and Community Service Awards, he has written over 100 professional articles and chapters, and is the author, co-author, or editor of a dozen books, including 'The Doubtful Gift: Strategies for Educating Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom' and 'Lost Prizes: Talent Development and Problem Solving with At-Risk Populations'.

Prof. Kirsi Tirri

After taking her Ph.D. and M.Th. Dr. Tirri was a secondary school teacher of religious education and psychology, a researcher and she now is Full Professor of Religious Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is also Visiting Professor at King’s College, London.

Her special interests with regard to giftedness are moral development and reasoning, mathematical giftedness, gifted girls and women, as well as cross-cultural studies. She has published several books and journal articles related to these fields.

Dr Donald Treffinger

Donald Treffinger has authored or co-authored more than 60 books and monographs, including 'Creative Problem Solving: An Introduction' and 'Creative Approaches to Problem Solving', and more than 300 articles.

He received the National Association for Gifted Children's Distinguished Service Award and the E. Paul Torrance Creativity Award. In 2005, Dr. Treffinger received the Risorgimento Award from Destination ImagiNation, Inc., and the International Creativity Award from the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of 'Parenting for High Potential', NAGC’s quarterly magazine for parents.