Workshop session exploring open source AI approaches
Hosts: 1 Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK, OpenHQ
2 Karan MV, Developer Relations, GitHub
Workshop Leaders:
1 Simon Hansford, Chief Commercial Officer, Civo
2 Saiyam Pathak, Founder, Kubesimplify
3 Rohit Ghumare, Ambassador, OpenUK; Founding Developer Relations, motia.dev
4 James Lovegrove, Head of Policy, RedHat
5 Naresh Vyas, Founder and CTO, TwoCents.ai
6 Anil Madhavapeddy, Professor, Cambridge University
7 Shivay Lamba, Docker Captain
17 Feb 2026, 10:30 – 11:25
Room Number 16, Bharat Mandapam
Hosts:
1 Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK
2 Karan MV, Developer Relations, GitHub
Workshop Leaders:
1 Simon Hansford, COO, Civo
2 Saiyam Pathak, Founder, Kubesimplify
3 Rohit Ghumare, Ambassador, OpenUK
4 James Lovegrove, Head of Policy, RedHat
5 Naresh Vyas, Founder and CTO, TwoCents.ai
6 Anil Madhavapeddy, Cambridge University
7 Shivay Lamba, Program committee, JSNation
17 Feb 2026, 10:30 – 11:25
Room number 16, Bharat Mandapam
About
1 Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK
OpenUK CEO and Executive Producer State of Open Con, Amanda’s 25 years’ legal experience includes being instrumental in shaping open source’s legal frameworks and internet law in 2000’s. Sought-after international keynote speaker, tech press contributor and editor “Open Source: Law, Policy and Practice” (2022).
Recognition: Raconteur 50 CEOs (2025); Computer Weekly 50 Most Influential Women (2023-2025); Computing IT Leaders 100 (2023 – 2025); Lifetime Achievement WIPL (2022); Women Who Will (2023); INvolve Heroes (2022, 2023); Novi Awards (2024).
Advisory: Public Boards UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure; KDE. Commercial Boards: Mimoto; Scarf; FerretDB and Space Aye. Fellow, Open Forum Academy; Distinguished Fellow, Rust Foundation; European Representative, OIN; Ambassador, Open Charge Alliance; Board Member Mojaloop Foundation; and Expert Network, Digital Innovation Board of ITU.
2 Karan MV, Developer Relations Leader, GitHub
Karan is the Director, International Developer Relations at GitHub, where he works closely with developers across enterprises, startups, nonprofits, academia, and the open source community. He operates at the intersection of AI and open source, helping organizations and individuals accelerate software development with GitHub at the center of their workflows. Karan represents GitHub’s developer and ecosystem strategy in India, playing a leading role in shaping how the company engages with one of the world’s fastest-growing developer communities. He has featured in major developer keynotes alongside Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, where he showcased GitHub’s products and shared the story of how AI and open source are transforming software development. A hands-on developer himself, Karan writes code daily and brings a unique blend of technical depth, ecosystem experience, and business insight. He is deeply passionate about the convergence of AI and open source, and how this intersection is shaping the next generation of developers and software.
Workshop Leaders:
1 Simon Hansford, COO, Civo
Simon Hansford is a veteran technology entrepreneur and the Chief Commercial Officer at Civo, a global challenger hyperscaler and pioneer in cloud-native infrastructure. A specialist in scaling high-growth technology businesses, Simon previously co-founded and led UKCloud as CEO, establishing it as the premier cloud provider for the UK Public Sector.
Civo is at the forefront of the “neocloud” movement, spearheading the development of relaxAI—a sovereign, privacy-first AI assistant designed to challenge traditional black-box models. At the AI Impact Summit, Simon shares insights on how open standards and Model Context Protocol (MCP) are essential for building secure, transparent, and truly agentic AI ecosystems.
2 Saiyam Pathak, Founder, Kubesimplify
Saiyam Pathak is the Founder of Kubesimplify and Head of Developer Relations at Loft Labs, where he works at the intersection of Kubernetes, AI infrastructure, and platform engineering. He is the author of AI for Enterprises, Co-Chair of KubeCon India, and Chair of the CNCF TAG Operational Resilience. With over a decade of experience, Saiyam has worked across multiple facets of Kubernetes in production, including platform design, multi-tenancy, security, observability, and large-scale AI workloads. He is passionate about helping organizations adopt cloud-native and AI technologies through practical education, hands-on workshops, and community-driven initiatives.
3 Rohit Ghumare, Ambassador, OpenUK
Rohit Ghumare is a recognized Open Source champion, serving as a CNCF Ambassador (Marketing Chair 2025), Google Developer Expert Cloud/AI and Docker Captain. He is a passionate AI & DevOps Advocate and true Community Evangelist, leading multiple communities and fostering AI, DevOps, and Developer Relations awareness. Rohit’s contributions to the open-source ecosystem include projects serving millions, delivering presentations, crafting documentation and blogs, and contributing code. Currently leading Developer Relations at Motia.dev and Founder of DevRelAsService, his focus includes innovating within the AI Agentic Infrastructure technology stacks, drawing on his expertise in LLMs, Kubernetes, and cloud-native solutions. Creator of CreateMVPs.app, and AgenstSkills.com
4 James Lovegrove, Head of Policy, RedHat
James Lovegrove is Public Policy Director for EMEA and APAC at Red Hat, the world’s leader of open source solutions. James works at the public policy intersection of open source, AI, cybersecurity and digital sovereignty. With over 25 years of experience spanning technology, law, and government, James advises policymakers and industry leaders on how regulation impacts open source and the broader open innovation ecosystem. James co-leads Red Hat’s legal/policy activity on global sovereignty work and co-chairs the EMEA pubsec sales team.
5 Naresh Vyas, Founder and CTO, TwoCents.ai
Technology leader in Financial Services delivering AI‑driven, digital banking platforms across major institutions, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Standard Chartered Bank. Currently based in Silicon Valley, he is the Co-founder and CTO of Twocents.ai, making advanced financial strategies of the top 1% available to everyone. Naresh serves on advisory boards focused on AI ethics and robust controls for Gen AI in highly regulated environments. He has led open collaboration with big tech, startups, and universities, helping form joint ventures to address climate change, legal accessibility, and universal health care.
6 Professor Anil Madhavapeddy, Cambridge University
Anil Madhavapeddy is the Professor of Planetary Computing at the Department of Computer Science and Technology in the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and a J M Keynes Fellow.
7 Shivay Lamba, Program committee, JSNation
Shivay Lamba is a Machine Learning Engineer and open source maintainer passionate about AI and edge computing. With experience across startups and enterprise tech, he focuses on simplifying complex technologies for developers. Shivay actively speaks at global conferences, organizes community events, and contributes to projects in cloud-native ecosystems, WebAssembly, and machine learning. He has also built and mentored educational programs like Google Summer of Code to bridge gaps in emerging tech adoption. When not coding, he enjoys writing, traveling, and mentoring young technologists.