Dr Julia Glidden completed her D.Phil. (PhD) in International Relations at Oxford University, and has extensive experience in the design and delivery of global eParticipation initiatives. An internationally recognised expert in the field of citizen-centric eGovernment, Dr. Glidden has participated in a wide variety of global forums on the subject, and has authored numerous articles on enhancing citizen engagement in the democratic process. Recent publications include a co-edited journal on eParticipation for the Council of Europe and UK Government, a review of the evolution of the British Government’s eDemocracy policy, and a case study with Andrew Pinder, former UK e-Envoy, on the UK’s Knowledge Economy Strategy. Dr. Glidden has recently managed an award-winning proposal to transform a major region in the UK into an advanced IT zone for business and citizens, and has coordinated several eParticipation study tours to the UK for EU member states. Prior to launching 21c Communications, Julia served as Managing Director for Accenture eDemocracy Services where she oversaw major eParticipation projects for countries ranging from the United Kingdom to the Philippines. She is currently a strategic advisor for the International Centre of Excellence for Local e-Democracy.

Gwendolyn Carpenter has almost 10 years of experience as a project manager of future-oriented, evidence-based policy and strategy projects in public governance and management issues at national and international level. Her focus is on government of the future, sustainable innovation and to facilitate paradigm shifts. On her LinkedIn profile she says: "I enjoy being a clearing house for crazy and real ideas for the future and their likely impact on the everyday business of government and the social welfare model." She has worked for herself, in the private sector and in the international sector. Example projects have been strategy and roadmap projects as well as country policy reviews in the area of eGovernment and an ongoing OECD project in Value for Money for central governments. Currently she works for the Danish Technological Institute as one of their Chief European Policy Analysts. Projects include strategic work on the governance framework Europe needs in a world of cybercrime, looking at the competitive readiness of Europe’s skills base for a cloud computing based world, as well as new business development.

Christine Leitner is Head of the Center for European Public Administration (CEPA) at Danube University Krems (AT). She has been leading the European eGovernment Awards since their launch in 2003. From 1997 – 2006 she was Senior Lecturer at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), the Netherlands. From 1995- 1997 she headed the EU coordination unit in the Ministry for Economic Affairs in Vienna. In 1995 she was seconded to the European Commission. She is course director of the Executive Master of Public Administration at Danube University Krems and author of various publications in the field of eGovernment. She was a speaker in a number of international conferences on eGovernment, and acted as delegate to the EPAN eGovernment sub-group and as judge in the 2005 Speyer Public Service Quality Award. Dr. Leitner was Visiting Lecturer at Maastricht University, University of Roma III, J.F.Kennedy School at Harvard University, the University of Applied Sciences in Bern and other schools of public administration in the EU. She is a board member of the Estonian eGovernance Academy and a reviewer in EU programmes. She holds a doctor in law from the University of Innsbruck.

John Rhoton is a technology strategist. best known for providing global strategy consulting to enterprise customers with a focus on public, private and hybrid cloud computing. His tenure in the IT industry spans over twenty-five years and covers a range of activities from software engineering and enterprise architecture to business development and global infrastructure deployment.  John has been responsible for defining and driving the technical strategy for several emerging technologies including cloud computing, mobility, next-generation-networking and virtualization. His work has spanned the globe including long-term assignments in the United States, France, Italy, Ireland, Hong Kong and Malaysia, as well as his current base, Austria.  He is well-known throughout the industry as the published author of six books, including Cloud Computing Architected and Cloud Computing Explained, currently ranked as Amazon's most popular book on the topic.  He also speaks regularly on the technology and strategy at conferences, such as RSA, ISSE, Microsoft Tech Ed, Exchange Connections and the HP Technology Forum.