This year, at the 2014 Topcoder Open we will be hosting a two day Developer Conference Unplugged, where local topcoder members and engineers working at the top tech companies can come to learn, network, and just have a grand old time. The entire event including the Developer Conference will take place November 16 – 19, 2014 at Pier 48 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California and we’d like to invite you to attend.

The first-ever TCO14 Developer Conference Unplugged will be enlightening, fun, and educational. With the innovative speaker line up we’re preparing for you, it will be an event you won’t want to miss!

Our Developer Conference Unplugged will include a intimate Key Notes, a TCO Fun Zone demo area, and so much more.

The best part? The entire TCO14 event is all under one roof – so if you want to hit up a Developer Conference talk but are worried you won’t be able to make the Algorithm Semifinal round, have no fear, we’re all in one spot!

Speakers

Jim Goetz

Venture Capitalist at Sequoia Capital

Jim’s current areas of interest include mobile and enterprise companies. He has helped create and grow a number of technology companies and product lines to market leading positions both as an entrepreneur and as an investor.

Anthony Stevens

Solution Architect for the Watson Ecosystem

Anthony Stevens is a Solution Architect for the Watson Ecosystem where he works with partners to create solutions built on Watson’s cognitive computing services. Anthony is an expert in transforming complex problems and datasets into elegant mobile and web solutions. He has done this for life science, health, consumer, and multimedia companies by bringing deep expertise in both software development and product management. He has led the process to design, architect, build, and launch products for startups and Fortune 500 corporations. As a top 20 winner of the first Android Developer Challenge, Google awarded him $125,000 for building an innovative product that showcased Android. In short, you can consider him a Master Builder.

Gayle Laakman McDowell

Programmer, Founder, Author, Consultant, Speaker

Gayle Laakmann McDowell is the founder/CEO of CareerCup.com and the author of the Cracking the * interview books (Cracking the Coding Interview, Cracking the PM Interview, and Cracking the Tech Career).

Her background is in software development, with a BSE/MSE in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and prior experience as a software engineer at Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

In addition to running the CareerCup website/forum and writing books, she consults with startups to help them through acquisition interviews and with other tech companies on their engineering hiring process.

She can be found online at twitter.com/gayle, facebook.com/gayle and gayle.com.

Cathy Lewis

SMO at 3D Systems

In the role of Chief Marketing Officer Ms. Lewis is responsible for all marketing strategies and functions including global branding, multi-channel marketing and the positioning and marketing of the company’s leadership product and services.

Cathy has participated in a time of unprecedented growth as 3D Systems has made numerous acquisitions, expanded global sales and margins in line with its strategic direction and extended its already robust line of 3D printers into a full portfolio of products and services that encompass the entire ideation to production phases of product development and delivery. As the unchallenged leader in 3D content-to-print, Cathy is placing special emphasis on creating awareness and generating demand as 3D Systems expands well beyond its current customer set and commercial offerings into lower cost 3D printing, 3D scanning and authoring tools, direct end user parts production and most recently into the consumer category.

Prior to joining 3D Systems, Cathy was based within the prolific Idealab incubator with a mission to develop robust and affordable desktop 3D printers. Desktop Factory was an industry first in 3D printing or additive fabrication. Cathy joined Desktop Factory as Chief Executive Officer in August of 2006. The Desktop Factory 3D printers were targeted to small and mid-size businesses and the education market, constituencies normally precluded from owning additive fabrication technology due to high costs. Desktop Factory was acquired by 3D Systems Corporation on August 31, 2009.

Prior to her arrival at Desktop Factory, Cathy spent five years at IKON Office Solutions, Inc. as senior vice president of marketing. Cathy was responsible for the ongoing development of IKON’s integrated marketing strategies and global branding campaign, as well as product portfolio development and management and channel marketing programs. Cathy, who reported to IKON’s chairman and chief executive officer, also oversaw the development of IKON’s long-term strategy and key growth initiatives.

Cathy previously spent more than ten years at Xerox in a number of executive marketing and sales management positions. In her last role she served as vice president of worldwide marketing for Xerox Color Solutions business unit, responsible for the development and implementation of marketing strategies for color printing and multi-function products, primarily for the production and graphic arts market. Cathy also has sales and operations experience from her positions as VP/GM of the New Jersey Customer Business Unit and Vice President of Xerox Production Systems in the Western US.

Prior to joining Xerox, Lewis was a district manager for Siemens Information Systems, and the owner of a service bureau and microcomputer sales firm in California.

Adrian Druzgalski

CTO and Co-Founder of Radius Intelligence

CTO and co-founder of Radius. Prior to Radius, Adrian was pursing a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the UC Irvine. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from the UC Berkeley.

Scott Jelinsky

Principal Research Scientist at Pfizer

Scott Jelinsky is a Senior Principle Scientist at Pfizer. He has a background in genomics and genetics and has worked the pharmaceutical industry for the past 15 years. He is interested in using big data and genetics to developed personalized medicine approaches.

Samantha Ready

Developer Evangelist at Salesforce.com

Samantha Ready is a Senior Developer Evangelist at salesforce.com. She has a background in computer engineering with a concentration in robotics, but as of late has focused more on front end web and mobile development. As an Evangelist, Sam has worked on fun projects like coauthoring the Salesforce1 Mobile App Developer Guide and teaching the Intro to Salesforce course on Udacity. When she’s not sharing her love for Salesforce, you can find Sam scuba diving, scaling mountains, or searching for the world’s best hot sauce while listening to good music.

Matt Thompson

General Manager of Microsoft’s Developer Evangelism and Startup Efforts

Matt Thompson, as General Manager of Microsoft’s developer evangelism and startup efforts, Matt has the first hand opportunity to both observe and work with a number of Silicon Valley’s most unique technology startups as well as top tier universities across the US. His time is split between working with this influential community of technologists as they adopt Microsoft technologies (including cloud, mobile, machine learning and our emerging IoT technologies); advising a number of early stage startups; and working with customers, partners, and students as they explore the breadth of the Microsoft platform offerings. Previously, as Sr. Director of Sun Microsystems’ Cloud engineering organization Matt was responsible for the development of Sun’s platform as a service offering and related cloud developer tools. When not working you’ll likely find Matt off an island somewhere following his passion, underwater photography.

Mike Hines

Mike Hines comes to Amazon after two startups and 13 years at Microsoft, where he helped launch several v1 products. As part of his work in Education software at Microsoft, Mike addressed audiences at the British Education Technology Tradeshow (BETT), Blackboard World, and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE, formerly NECC). At Amazon, Mike helped launch the Kindle eInk app development project before joining the Amazon Appstore for Android team as an Evangelist.

In his role at Amazon, Mike has written mobile app test criteria, judged at hackathons, and is a prolific blogger for Amazon Appstore. Mike has spoken at AnDevCon, SXSW, GDC and GDC Europe, as well as many other international conferences. Moving forward, Mike hopes to connect with mobile app developers to help them be successful with their apps and bring their feedback back to Amazon to continuously improve the developer experience.

Robert Severn

Head of Development at HP Aurasma

As Head of Development at HP Aurasma, Rob heads up a team that provides tools and applications to create advanced augmented reality experiences. Prior to that, Rob was an integral part of a team producing eDiscovery software for handling large scale litigation cases. Rob holds a degree in Mathematics from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In non-augmented reality, Rob can be found improving his table tennis game and integrating seamlessly into West Coast life by learning to surf (slowly.)

Kait Sheridan

Director of Partnerships & Programs for the Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92Y

As Director of Partnerships & Programs for the Center for Innovation & Social Impact at 92Y, Kait helps to develop and scale innovative programming across all of 92Y¹s multi-disciplinary areas. One such initiative is #GivingTuesday, a new global day of giving on the heels of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In its second year, the #GivingTuesday movement united more than 10,000 corporate and nonprofit partners in the U.S. and around the world. Kait manages operations and partner outreach for #GivingTuesday, and helps curate the educational program. Before joining the Center for Innovation, Kait worked in Development at 92Y, The New York Botanical Garden, and Oxford University, and specialized in corporate sponsorship.