I am a Malaysian who has been a resident of Japan for the past 20 years. Career-wise, I am the founder and CEO of [LaLoka Labs](https://lalokalabs.co/en/) that runs [Kafkai](https://kafkai.com/en/). You might know me from my previous company, Xoxzo, which was acquired in Sept 2021.

In the past, I have worked in engineering positions within Yahoo! Japan and business roles within Amazon. The experiences working within these organizations have tremendously influenced me on my ideas and philosophies concerning engineering and business.

My Python journey started in 2002 with ver. 1.5.2 when I started working at Yahoo! Japan. The language has led me to the community behind it. My first PyCon APAC was in 2010 in Singapore.

Within the Python community, I am a Python Software Foundation (PSF) Fellow and I co-founded PyCon JP and PyCon MY. I help manage PyCon APAC, and I am also involved with the Trademarks Working Group (WG) and the Diversity and Inclusion WG of the Python Software Foundation (PSF). I have nominated 8 people from my community for the PSF Fellowship and also nominated once a group for the PSF Community Service Award.

I also ran for a seat on the PSF board, and after failing to be elected for the second time, wrote [an essay on my thoughts on what needs to be done for the need to increase diversity and inclusion within the PSF](https://iqbalabdullah.net/en/posts/2020/06/diversification-is-the-future-for-the-psf/). I would like to believe that this directly had at least a small impact on the [PSF's decision to start the D&I Workgroup in Dec 2020](https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2020/12/announcing-psf-diversity-and-inclusion.html).

The experiences working with the community have tremendously shaped my views on how and why we need to be present and actively participate within the community with ideas, effort and money. It also has shown me how the rest of us are lacking the opportunities that some of us have. Opening those opportunities to more people has been and still is a constant personal mission that I have.

After all, we are living off the goodwill which the people before us have left us with, and replacing that goodwill is the least we can do.

Feel free to connect with me or learn more about myself on:

• [Python Asia Mastodon](https://mtd.pythonasia.org/@iqbalabd)
• [X (@iqbalabd)](https://x.com/iqbalabd)
• [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iqbalabd/
• My company's [blog](https://kafkai.com/en/blog/)

Thu Ya Kyaw is a Developer Advocate for Google Cloud. At Google, he helps to make learning, developing, deploying, and scaling applications on Google Cloud a delightful experience for everyone. Before joining Google, Thu Ya had taken on numerous engineering roles in the tech consulting, retail, supply chain, and payment sectors.

Whenever he is not coding, he loves to give back to the community by organizing hackathons, conducting workshops, and mentoring the next generation of developers. He also participates in various tech conferences and events around the region to learn and network with like minded people.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiaweilin/

Anushka Narula is a software engineer, entrepreneur, and community leader passionate about using technology to solve real-world problems. With expertise in AI-driven software development, web accessibility, and product growth, she combines technical depth with a problem-solving mindset to create impactful solutions. She is an experienced public speaker and an advocate for diversity and inclusion, actively empowering others through leadership and community engagement.