Space industry game changers!

Space industry explained by experts for technicians and space enthusiasts

Meet the Speakers

No clue about space industry? Or already there and looking for a new connections?

Our speakers would cover various topics in the language understandable by everyone. For more technical discussions you can poke them during the breat.

Head of the Software and AI Team | ESA

Lionel Ferra

  • Leading the Software and AI Team at ESA-HRE, Lionel is a pioneer in AI, XR, and software development. As the AI lead for HRE, EAC XR-lab founder, and ESA ODF Manager, Lionel drives innovative projects like LUNA.

    With a background as an astronaut instructor and system engineer, he has contributed to ISS & ATV programs, Mars missions, re-entry vehicles, and Ariane launcher. Skilled in managing complex projects, Lionel fosters collaboration and implements cutting-edge solutions to advance space exploration.

  • The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space, dedicated to the peaceful exploration and use of outer space for the benefit of all humanity. Founded in 1975, ESA's mission is to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

    With 23 member states, ESA conducts a wide range of activities, including Earth observation, human spaceflight, planetary exploration, telecommunications, and technology development.

Senior Space Coordinator, Defence Investment Division, International Staff, NATO HQ | NATO

Daniel Hilgert

  • Senior Space Coordinator at NATO HQ in Brussels since September 2023, focusing on transforming NATO’s engagement with the commercial space sector and exploring investment opportunities through multinational cooperation projects.

    He leads NATO's first Commercial Space Strategy, aimed at easing the integration of commercial solutions and lowering barriers for space companies working with NATO. Daniel previously led political negotiations on NATO’s Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program. He has been with NATO since March 2016, working on investments in Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance capabilities.

  • The Defence Investment Division at NATO HQ focuses on developing military capabilities and overseeing investments in NATO common-funded assets. It ensures that forces are properly equipped and interoperable for a range of missions.

    The division provides policy, technical, financial, and procedural expertise in armaments and aerospace capabilities. It also fosters cooperation with partner countries through initiatives like the Partnership for Peace.

Thomas Parry

CEO, Spherical | Spherical

  • Thomas Parry started his career at Clyde Space designing electronics for small satellites used by missions for NASA, ESA and startups such as Spire Global, Kepler Communications.

    He moved to the microchip design world by working with SystematIC designing chips for Broadcomm, Google and innovative startups. He also emerged as a global leader in the open-source microchip design ecosystem.

    Combining these experiences he founded SPHERICAL where he serves as CEO.

  • SPHERICAL develops and delivers highly advanced electronic systems for the aerospace industry. Our strength lies in the microchips we design ourselves specifically for our products.

    Our primary focus is on space. Our chip design enables the creation of smaller, radiation-hardened and software-configurable systems, reducing satellite development risks and advancing the next generation of space technology.

Stavri Nikolov

Co-founder and CEO | LLcloud

  • Dr Stavri Nikolov is a co-founder and CEO of LLcloud - The multi-sensor cloud (https://llcloud.eu/). LLcloud is a novel cloud software platform for automated multi-sensor data gathering, analysis and visualisation. A unique tool for Earth Observation at different scales - using space, aerial, and ground multi-sensor data.

    He is also the Founding Director of Digital Spaces Living Lab (https://digitalspaces.info/) - one of the most experienced Living Labs in Europe, which develops and tests new technologies, services and apps for smart cities, smart agriculture, Earth Observation, location-based services, wearables, IoT, lifelogging, and museums.

    In the last 14 years DSLL has provided technology and business support and incubated more than 25 startups from across Europe and beyond and conducted over 45 large-scale technology trials of novel products and services.

  • LLcloud® the multi-sensor cloud, helps developers reduce the time and money they spend to bring multi-sensor data into one common data space and in compatible formats, for joint visualisation, analysis and fusion, and making better decisions based on all available information.

    It is one of the few platforms in the world that allows multi-scale multi-sensor Earth Observation, enabling seamless integration and joint analysis of Earth Observation, IoT, and wearable sensor data.

    The platform offers automated data uploaders from smartphone sensors (via the Phyphox and Strava apps), smartwatches, geo-tagged photos (via the photoSpot app, fully integrated with LLcloud), GoPro cameras, Air Quality (AQ) and other IoT sensors, drones (images, video and telemetry), Copernicus and other commercial satellites and drones, etc.

    LLcloud has been used by clients in applications ranging from monitoring city infrastructure for planning and insurance services, air quality control and predictions in cities, placemaking and city tour creation, analysing street names in cities, lifelogging, location tracking in the mountains and in GNSS denied areas, terrain mapping, smart agriculture, photo gathering for training ML models, etc. LLcloud Ltd was selected as one of the companies in Batch 2 of the prestigious CASSINI Business Accelerator.