Plamen Russev

His speech was not purely theoretical. It was about life lessons, and he’s full of them. He came to share some stories and talk about some myths. He promised to knock the audience’s socks off and he did!

“I always wanted to be a rock star!”

This is how one of the coolest and most prominent people in the space industry started his speech @Webit.Festival Europe 2018. His name is Rick Tumlinson and what he does is more than fascinating - mining into space to harvest resources for people into space can be using. Note, they are not bringing anything to the Earth. His dream is to democratize space investment. Rick is Co-founder and Chair of the Board of Star Century Partners . He is the person who makes flying into space so easy, as if it’s a mobile platform.

We’ve been in space for over 2 decades.

Imagine it’s the year 1550 when so many things seem impossible - like traveling with more than 50 m/h or landing on the Moon. But the landing did happen, despite what critics say, and it was astonishing. One major thing happened that night Rick says - those kids watching the TV were watching the future but in the same time they were seeing terrible things - Vietnam war, Cold war, nuclear weapons…

It all started with a rocket in the 90s. It failed. But it started.

Elon and Jeff didn’t just come one day and said “I’m gonna build a rocket that goes in space”. The route is difficult and there are many more people behind a project. Rick was one of them.

The 3 keys to a frontier are:

• You can’t turn a place into a frontier unless you can get there cheaply and easily and reliably
• You have to be able to use the resources in space - wherever you go, you have to be able to stand on your own based on the resources available
• Governments that support the idea of an open human frontier in space

We have private companies building space stations - like Bob Bigelow, the multi billionaire, who is sending modules in space so people like Rick can use them. And it’s not empty words, US, Luxembourg, UAE have passed laws to legalize mining in space. Next are coming Japan, China… until everyone really encourages people in space. There’s this myth that you have to be China, Russia or the USA to go into space. Due to improvement of technology, the costs are dropping and everyone, all those nerds and bookworms who have only ever dreamt and seen the landing on the moon, being kids then, can now achieve it. Everybody can go, it really doesn’t matter who you are. The name Elon comes in several times throughout Rick’s speech and everyone says he’s doing something revolutionary. In terms of space, he’s really about to destroy the status quo. Right now, the whole human race is represented by 3 - 6 government officials that are in the space and are working on the science, the commercial development, discoveries inside the spaceship. This is about to change. There are new spaceships being developed - the BFR by Elon Musk, being able to carry 100+ people in space. You could be one of those people! You have the chance to change the future today.

"The future is very important, because we will kind of spend the rest of our lives there. So we better make it really good. :)"

Martin Wezowski is the Chief Designer & Futurist at SAP. He joined Webit to put some perspective on “what is work and what is human in a superhuman future”.

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Martin, being a fan of the Beatles, started with playing a tune that resembles the style of the iconic band. But later he revealed that the song was created by AI that mimics the Beatles.

"It listens to everything that The Beatles have ever done and makes new songs. It does it so successfully that it has over 2M views on Youtube. That should really raise deep and profound questions."

The main question is WTF - What’s the future?

One example of that is the healthcare.

"It takes 7-10 years to make a doctor, which gives us a severe shortage of doctors."

With the soon-future-AI, medical help will be in infinite amount everywhere, all the time for everyone. That should also change our minds about what is human work. Nowadays AI can diagnose heart diseases or lung diseases more accurately than humans. Funny enough, humans and AI combined are almost 100% correct. In the 90s we decoded the human genome. It took billions of dollars. Now there is a DNA sequencer for 1000$. What does this mean for research? What does it mean for animal testing?

The NOW has never been so temporary as it is today.

Maybe we should start imagining the futures that we want and start creating them, rather than react to what we where we are today because thus we are too late. That might be a little scary because we see jobs disappearing. A hundred years ago almost everybody worked at farming, fishing, forestry. Now it's only about 2%. What did they do? What would they think if you'd tell them: "Most of you will not be in agriculture." What would hey imagine that they will do, accounting? Web development? We are in the same situation today. And it doesn't matter because we will imagine new jobs as they emerge. We can't plan for it. And the real question is this:

What to teach kids to become relevant in 30 years from now?

How can we adapt to the change? What new values do we need? The stability of planning is a little bit of fake. The opposite to stability is not instability, it's emergence. It's risk, it's rock'n'roll. To transform, to challenge and take risks. Innovation is sort of rock'n'roll in business and we need more of that.

One thing we rely on is the thinking of the 3 horizons.

1. Continuous innovation - Ready to consume: Traditional KPIs (key performance indicators) of predictable outcomes and repeatable results and scalable efficiency.
2. Adjacent innovation - Ready to Co-innovate: Forecasting your intelligence and resources to the near future, the next, the adjacent innovation where you co-innovate with your partners and/or customers.
3. Transformative Innovation - Ready to Inspire: Thinking away from what you can do today and the tools you have. Your vision and thought leadership leads to ideas that you must articulate very clearly so you can have a decent discussion on executive and board level about these ideas.

 

Help the world run better and improve people's lives.

These two things go to the two sides of the spectrum with 4 dimensions:

1. The self running company

For example: Counting logotypes in commercials for example is not a human work anymore. Machines do that now. And it changes the whole business model for the industry. Now they pay for what they get.

2. Self organizing Business Ecosystems

They are built on the philosophy that the current power is a like money - the more you hold, the more powerful you are. The more relevant you make yourself in the distribution of that power - the more powerful you will be.

3. Augmented humans

The Super Human - that we all carry inside. By removing the constraints of the human bias and knowledge we can be beyond that and be super human or human at last. That answers the question: What is the smartest app? Well that's the one that makes YOU smarter.

4. Purpose Led New Market & Business Models

Why are you relevant 10 years from now? It doesn't have to be to save the planet, you have dreams and focus and markets, you would like to create. Something that excites you to the moon. Articulate that very well - why are you relevant 10 years from now - because if you don't, you might not be.

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“Everything from the beginning is an open end and it's up yo us to actually sit down and actually use this methods and look across all the 3 horizons, articulate futures that are desirable where we can play a significant positive role. That's our purpose. And if we do that I actually think we can design futures that we all want to live in. And we should remember to have some fun as well. :)”

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Missed the 2018 edition of Webit.Festival Europe? Don’t miss the 2019! Get your super early bird 2in1 tickets – 2 for the price of 1 here!  

Robert C. Wolcott is a long time friend of Webit.Festival. He is a Clinical professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and Managing Partner at Clareo.

The human experience will change more in the next century than it has in the last ten millennia: Where is the discussion to accompany that change?

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Mr. Wolcott returned to Sofia once again for the 10th anniversary edition of the Festival and wowed the audience with his keynote with special topic "Innovating your life". He started with a quote from the one and only Steve Jobs:

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"Innovation distinguishes the leaders from the followers."

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If your aspiration is to be a leader, to make mark, to create a legacy in some way than it's going to require doing something different. If you don't you're doing the same thing that everybody else already did. And how would that distinguish you? In Robert's opinion over the next 100 years the human experience will change more than it has in the past 10 000! We will be able to solve challenges that have been intractable for centuries but we will also create threads, some of which humanity has never seen before. But unfortunately our public dialog just isn't up to the task. On the one hand we hear ''The robots will steal our jobs and then kill us all in some kind of impending robot apocalypse". But on the other some people are espousing a coming technology infused nirvana. Clearly the truth is somewhere in the vast between and it's our responsibility to explore it for ourselves. The professor broke down the immense and complicated process of "innovating our life" in 5 simple steps:

1. Always keep the mission in mind. What are you doing and how are you doing it?

When we stay focused on our dreams and give them new names like GOALS of MISSIONS they automatically become more realistic and more achievable.

2. Ask better questions. We only see the things which we are looking for.

We start asking questions, we start looking for new things, for new clues. Clues that will help us get to the next step, but some of them will inevitably mislead us and we will make mistakes. Then comes the next lesson.

3. Seek wisdom in mistakes. The very first reaction when something goes wrong is that we are trying to hide it.

The problem is when something doesn't go the way you expect it perhaps there's a problem with the way you see the world. Back in the late 19th century two researchers named Michelson and Morley did one of the most famous failed experiment in history. They were attempting to prove the existence of the "luminiferous aether". It was the dominant hypothesis of physics in the 19th century to explain the following phenomenon.

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Sound cannot travel through a vacuum because there's nothing for sound to travel through. Light however, can travel through a vacuum thus there must be something in the vacuum we cannot see.

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The scientists did their experiment and when it failed, they couldn't figure out why. They changed the method, tried again, then other scientists tried again but it kept failing and nobody could figure out why. Then came Einstein who said: "Perhaps there's no problem with the experiment, perhaps there's a problem with the way we see the Universe." So when something doesn't go the way you expect it, you should step back and do an after action review: Why that did not work? What can we learn from it?

4. Create option paths. Yes, options come at a cost, but create some.

"As we each create our own paths, we together create the future." - says Mr. Wolcott - and he also adds the question to the public - "On which paths are you … and why?"

5. Above all seek meaning. Human beings grow through challenges.

The question for each of us is, as lifespans increase up to even beyond a 100 years, as we encounter the remainder of 21st century, we will all be faced with the question: how should we use this time?"

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Missed the 2018 edition of Webit.Festival Europe? Don’t miss the 2019! Get your super early bird 2in1 tickets – 2 for the price of 1 here!

The Startup company Bioo won the big prize of € 200,000 seed investment in this year's edition of Founders Games. The event was part of the program of Webit.Festival Europe 2018 - the most influential forum for digital economy and technology in the region. An international jury of investors evaluated presentations of 150 finalists from 3000+ candidates in the specially-designed start-up zone of the largest event for digital economy and technology. Among the advisors to the members of the jury were people like Nigel Ackland - the pioneer of World's most advanced Prosthetic Arm, Professor Shafi Ahmed (Consultant Surgeon & Co-founder, Virtual Medics & Medical Realities), Sony Wu (Founder, Misfit Wearables), Michael O'Connor (CEO of CorkBIC), Hila Cohen (International Business Development Lead, Innovation Accelerator at World Food Programme), Mark Raben (Chief Technology Officer Middle & Eastern Europe, SAP), Sabine VanderLinden (CEO for the InsurTech Business, Startupbootcamp) and a number of representatives of the largest companies in the world.

The Finalists

The top five companies "fought" for the big prize in the competition on stage at Arena Armeec Training Hall, where during the two days of the festival part of the conferences, the Plenary Session and Webit.Awards Ceremony were held. The finalists in the race were DataSine - which offers a client segmentation tool combining big data and psychometrics to help financial institutions understand their clients; ISCLEANAIR - a Clean-Tech innovative company that rethinks and redesigns the space we live, work and breathe in for a healthier, safer, sustainable future; Bioo - a clean-tech company that brings nature and technology together – as they provide technology which allows the production of electricity from plant’s photosynthesis in a sustainable way for daily use gadgets and Online.io – a platform that aims at revolutionizing the browsing experience by making it faster, ad free, more reliable, secure and non-trackable, thus marking a groundbreaking change of the Internet.” The final decision for the winner was taken by the investors providing the seed investment - Vassil Terziev - Co-founder of Telerik (260 M exit); Ivaylo Penchev - Founder of Walltopia - the largest climbing wall manufacturer in the world; Stefan Gugushev - Managing Partner and founder of Gugushev & Partners Law Office; Peter Mitev - CEO and co-founder of Chaos Group, Academy Award Oscar Trophy Winner; Plamen Russev - Investor, Executive Chairman - Webit.Foundation They all committed 40000 EUR each to the 200'000 EUR award. Their assessments were based on five key factors - team capacity, project development capability, business approach, marketing approach and uniqueness of the idea, as well as the answers to a series of questions asked on Webit's stage. Missed the 2018 edition of Webit.Festival Europe? Don’t miss the 2019! Get your super early bird 2in1 tickets - 2 for the price of 1 here!

The European Tech, Digital Economy and Policy event for 2018 - Webit.Festival awarded the best digital innovators and integrators of technological solution on a glamorous ceremony, part of the program of the tenth anniversary of the event. The ceremony went simultaneously with the Chairman's gala dinner by Dr. Russev. The top guests of the event filled the hall in “Arena Armeec”, which hosted the main stage of the festival earlier the same day. Winners of Webit Awards are local and global leaders who change the world and make our lives better.

The awards were presented in 13 categories. The winners are:

See also: Official Winners page on our site Best use of Digital Innovations in Health Award Professor Shafi Ahmed made world headline news in 2014 by streaming a live operation using Google Glass to 14,000 students and trainees across 132 countries. He performed the world’s first virtual reality operation which was watched by 55,000 people in 140 countries, and reached 4.5 million on Twitter.and reached 4.5 million on Twitter. He is a Consultant Surgeon and Co-founder of Virtual Medics & Medical Realities. Security and Anti-Fraud Innovation Award Michele Mosca is founder of the Institute for Quantum Computing and a Mathematics Professor at the University of Waterloo. His early work in cryptography led him to study quantum algorithms at Oxford, after which he returned to Canada to start several research, training and outreach initiatives in cryptography and quantum computing, as well as two companies. He has made major contributions to the phase estimation approach to quantum algorithms, including the hidden subgroup problems, and quantum searching and counting. In the area of quantum security, he helped define the notion of private quantum channels and develop optimal methods for encrypting quantum information using classical keys. Best Innovation for Education Award Jelena Djokovic is the National Director of the Novak Djokovic Foundation, whose mission is to change the world and status quo by investing in children, educators, parents, and youth through education. She believes in the lifelong learning concept and the strength that lies in empowering children, youth, and adults to be proactive, agile and positive about themselves which is what fuels her passion to do more. Under her guidance the organization has built 37 schools, supported 683 families, trained 1322 teachers and helped 20708 children. Digital Entertainment & Media Special Award ESL, formerly known as Electronic Sports League, is an eSports organizer and production company that produced video game competitions worldwide. ESL is the world’s largest eSports company. It has eleven offices worldwide and multiple international TV studios globally. ESL is also the largest eSports company to broadcast on Twich.tv. Best Implementation of AI Patrick van der Smagt is well-versed in the field of robotics, machine learning and neural networks. He is focussed on probabilistic deep learning for time series modelling, as well as deep learning for robotics. He provides Volkswagen Group with innovative tech solutions on common base as is the Director of the AI Research Lab. Best Use of Technology for Accessibility & Inclusion Nigel Ackland is an ordinary man with an extraordinary arm. He is the first person to trial RSL Steeper's groundbreaking, myoelectric prosthetic hand, the bebionic3. Before he could not imagine his future, now he is introducing the future to the others. Ackland is on a mission to disrupt how people think about prostheses and to challenge perceptions of people who wear prostheses. Best Interactive Municipality In becoming smarter, Lisbon’s main objectives include attracting more people to the city by promoting energy efficient housing, e-mobility, smart living and smart ageing solutions.  All of the city's activities aim to contribute to a better quality of life in the city, through greater energy efficiency, mobility and improved social cohesion, along with localised regeneration efforts and citizen participation drives. Special Smart Mobility Award Yordanka Fandakova is the first woman to hold the position of Mayor of Sofia. She is known for initiating many municipal projects among which are the programs “Culture” and “Europe”, in which to date in more than 700 projects over 6 million Bulgarian Lev (3 million Euros) have been invested. In addition she implemented reforms covering municipal theaters and participated in the development of the long-term strategy for cultural development “Sofia-creative capital” (2013-2023). Sofia’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2019 was initiated by Fandakova as well. Innovation in Payments The innovation lies in the core of Mastercard vision. Ever since the beginning, they have been reinventing the definition of Fintech connecting and linking commerce with people and companies. Their projects never cease to amaze and intrigue their clients. As an example we could simply look at fitbit pay and garmin pay, allowing clients to pay using their electronic watches. A technology, that only 2-3 years ago would sounded futuristic. Mastercard find always modern challenges and create solutions. Women in Tech - Digital Industry Diana Stefanova possesses a well-structured set of skills and abilities, that have taken her to the top as she is now the Managing Director of VMware for EMEA R&D. She fuses her skills and abilities to bring out a significant industry experience with a deep focus in high-tech, from start-ups all the way to well-established corporations, like VMware, both in the Silicon Valley, USA and in EMEA. She is a true inspiration for women across the globe and a good example of the great benefit we take from gender equality. Special Recognition Award for empowering and giving voice to women The Award goes to Mr Shah Rukh Khan - the King of Bollywood for his inspiring work through the Meer Foundation and his advocacy and efforts in standing up for women’s and children’s rights and equality in India. His work is a great example for other leaders, celebrities and society how to use the impact for creating a better future, how to support female victims of abuse and attacks, as well as children who are battling one of world’s worst illnesses. Long Term Partner The award for long term partners was given to Nova and Netinfo - two companies that help with the media broadcasting of Webit.Festival for years and take the biggest event for digital economy and innovation to the Webit community. Special Award - Outstanding Contribution to the Digital Industry With a vast experience not only in politics but also in numerous initiatives related to society, she is the first Commissioner in the European Parliament responsible for the Digital Economy and Society. Mrs. Mariya Gabriel is the Patron of the EU Digital and Innovation Week and the initiator of "No woman - no panel". Missed the 2018 edition of Webit.Festival Europe? Don’t miss the 2019! Get your super early bird 2in1 tickets - 2 for the price of 1 here!

 

10'000 people from 111 countries visited the Webit City

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Don't miss the 2019 edition. Book your ticket now

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Webit.Festival Europe 2018 in numbers:

- 10'000+ ATTENDEES (7200 Webit.Festival participants and 3000 Webit.X visitors) - 231 EXHIBITORS - 422 SPEAKERS - 110 HOURS of conference agenda & amazing content - 75% C-level (executive) ATTENDANCE - 111 VISITING COUNTRIES - 150 of THE BEST EUROPEAN STARTUPS AND SCALEUPS - 1000+ POLICY MAKERS The European Tech, Digital Economy and Policy event for 2018 was a huge success! The Innovate! Summit and the Plenary Session, chaired by the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda and Society Mariya Gabriel, hosted some of the worlds digital, tech and policy leaders gathered to re:Invent Europe's Future.        

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The Webit City has welcomed 10'000 global leaders and they all requested a residency :)

Here are just 5 quotes out of over 1000 interviews with the Webit City residents: "Unparalleled global business and policy networking at its highest level!" "The most amazing business event with a festival experience" "We basically do business here" "This is the only event where top EU policy makers and global business leaders exchange thoughts and share valuable discussions" “We got more investors visiting our expo booth compared to any other event we have been to”                            

 

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200+ exhibitors at over 20'000 sq.m Webit City expo & business networking area

From global tech, health, fintech, cybersecurity, mobility, blockchain, entertainment, AI, cloud leaders to smart jet fighters - they all were at Webit.Festival Europe 2018 represented by their global or EMEA HQs. Also hosted national pavilions.                                    

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12 independent summits and over 50 meetups

421 speakers have created over 110 hours  of conference agenda & amazing content within 12 independent summits.                                               Founders Games winner of 200'000 EUR cheque is BIOO from Portugal.                   Cities 4.0 Summit, Digital Entertainment and Media Summit, Money Summit and Blockchain Summit

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Webit Night Urban Summit

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                  The Global Webit Awards Ceremony and The Chairman' Dinner by Dr. Russev

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                  The World Famous Webit Party, powered by Playboy, Fashion TV and Dorcel

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                Webit.X - gathering and inspiring 3000 young future leaders

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Missed the 2018 edition? Don’t miss the 2019! Book your ticket now at super earlybird rate

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Greetings, The Webit.Festival tickets prices are to increase by 30% in less than a day! See who else has already booked and joined among the 6000 attendees from 110 countries.

Join Webit.Festival and connect with global tech and digital founders, CEOs, Presidents, innovators, inventors and regulators!

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1 Ticket for

- 10 independent summits on 5 stages - 110 visiting countries - 200 exhibitors and sponsors - 420 speakers - 6000 attendees (75% senior level attendance)

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Go Platinum to have access to the who is who of the tech and digital world!

For the first time we are opening the Chairman's Black Tie Dinner and the Webit.Awards Ceremony to non-platinum-pass holders. As this is our 10th anniversary we decided to provide opportunity to non-platinum pass holders to book a seat at this special dinner and to get a feeling of what is to be Platinum at Webit! This is the ultimate opportunity to network and connect with the crème de la crème of the tech, digital and policy worlds @ Webit.

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Book your seat at the Chairman's Black Tie Dinner and the Webit Awards Ceremony

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  See you @ Webit.Festival! The Webit.Team  

More global leaders join Webit.Festival Europe 2018!

With over 75% senior attendance among the 6000 people audience from 110 countries - the speakers can only be global leaders and shapers! Join Webit.Festival Europe to meet with them, including Mr. Liang Hua, the newly elected Chairman of Huawei - the world-leading telecommunications provider, just over $90 billion in global annual sales in 2017, Huawei is also the world’s third largest smartphone seller.

STILL NOT TOO LATE!

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Join the Festival and explore unparalleled business networking

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A warm welcome to Thibaut Gregoire, General Counsel, Europe, MasterCard, who joins along with his colleagues - both Vice-Presidents - Mikael Svensson and Louise Holden after the President of Mastercard Europe Javier Perez already joined Webit. Presenting you some of the newly announced speakers of the upcoming Europe's tech, digital economy and policy event for 2018 - Webit.Festival! The Blockchain world joins Webit to challenge the future of the decentralized economy! Webit.Festival is the place to involve policy makers, all major tech companies and the blockchain ecosystem to innovate through collaboration! With over 200 exhibitors and sponsors the 10th Webit.Festival is the largest ever European edition, double in size compared to last year. A warm welcome to Huawei, Red Bull, Google, Amatas, Cogni, Jelurida among the newly joined sponsors and exhibitors of Webit.Fetsival 2018.

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Interested in exhibiting / sponsoring? Contact us asap!

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See you on 26-27 June in Sofia! The Webit Team

Edna Conway currently serves as Cisco’s Chief Security Officer, Global Value Chain, creating clear strategies to deliver secure operating models for the digital economy. She has built new organizations delivering cyber security, compliance, risk management, sustainability and value chain transformation. She drives a comprehensive security architecture across Cisco’s third-party ecosystem.

Digitization is driving each of us across all industries to make dramatic changes to how we approach customers, products, services, and the always-on, real-time information rich marketplace. This digital economy is gender agnostic. And, it is highly dependent on a connected global ecosystem. The message is clear—no one person, enterprise, industry, government or region can stand alone any longer.

Here you can see a full list of the confirmed speakers at Webit.Festival Europe 2018, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event. Managing supply chain risk requires a comprehensive approach over the complete product or process life cycle, and Cisco is looking at the potential impact of new technologies such as blockchain and the “internet of things” as part of its solution.

“We define the value chain as the end-to-end life cycle for any solution. In order to build trust, you need to understand the risks you are taking, and those risks need to be measured in the language of business.” says Conway

Prior to Cisco, Conway was a partner in an international private legal practice and served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of New Hampshire.

My path to security was built on a foundation of protecting intellectual property; enhanced by a legal background and rich engineering and operational leadership roles afforded to me by Cisco. Each of these opportunities, including leaving a successful legal practice to join Cisco, required faith. Faith in my own ability to learn an entirely new discipline and trust that my colleagues would support me in that effort.

She is recognized domestically (US Presidential Commissions) and globally (NATO) as the developer of architectures delivering value chain security, sustainability and resiliency. Her insight is featured in a range of publications, analyst reports, and case studies, including Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, CIO Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Conway is constantly using her expertise to leverage new tools in an ever-expanding digital arsenal. She has turned her attention to the security potential in blockchain. With the ability to track data through networks, blockchain becomes a highly effective digital ledger, or “passport for the data” according to her.

“A chain of custody of your data and your actions across the full spectrum of a life cycle adds a degree of integrity we’ve never had the ability to do easily before”

Recognition of her industry leadership includes membership in the Fortune Most Powerful Women community, and awards including: a Fed 100 Award, Stevie “Maverick of the Year Award,” a Connected World Magazine “Machine to Machine and IOT Trailblazer” Award, an SC Media Reboot Leadership Award, a New Hampshire Tech Professional of the Year 2018 Award, and CSO of the Year Award at RSA.