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One of the main pillars of Webit.Festival, the Tech Summit and its Digital Transformation track, are once again bringing together the top CIOs, CTOs and other executives from the enterprise along with the hottest founders of startups, innovators and government key figures.  During the 25th and the 26th of April, Webit.Festival 2017 is the place to be in Europe if you want to hear about the latest innovations in the world, the many ways you can digitally transform your business to remain competitive or just to learn more from the leading execs of Fortune Top 500 companies.

We have 3 new top-flight speakers in our lineup for the Tech Summit! They include a real flying man and innovator, the founder of an unicorn company, who recently sold his business for over 1 billion dollars and serial investor with huge experience, so read our guide to taking part or find out more about our latest speaker additions below.

• Jonas Jacobi, Vice President, Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy IBM.

Mr. Jacobi is responsible for IBM’s enduring strategy according to everyday tech innovations, startups and enterprise policies. Prior to working at IBM, he has been part of Oracle’s and Brane Corporation’s teams; he still advises IoT Expo International Conference Series; has founded and co-founded several tech companies as well as his own consulting company. With his co-founded company Kaazing Corporation he has participated in rewriting the way Web and and Mobile applications are being designed. He is also the author of the book “Pro JSF and Ajax : Building Rich Internet Components” and writes articles for top rank tech magazines such as Wired, Bob’s Guide, JavaPro, Java Developer's Journal, AjaxWorld, and Oracle Magazine on a regular basis. Speeches at international tech events or TV interviews are also an essential part of his professional life. Mr. Jacobi has been awarded with “Business Excellence Award - Commitment to Innovation” in 2013. Outside of the IBM office,  his  deep interest in IoT, tech, Web and Mobile visualizes in advising entrepreneurs and startups.

• David Mayman, CEO, JetPack Aviation.

Mr. Mayman is a professional pilot and creator of “The World’s First True Jetpack”.He is one of those people who inspire not only with their professional path, but also with their not-afraid-to-live-elsewhere braveness too. During his years of professional development he had combined commerce, aviation, mineral exploration, digital media and technologies and have lived in 5 of all the 7 continents on Earth: Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Australia. But his true passion has always been aviation. Mr. Mayman is a passionate pilot since his teenage years. He earned Australian private aeroplane pilots licence, commercial licence valid in America and private European licence for both helicopters and aeroplanes. Now, after 25 years dedication in total, he has discovered the ultimate freedom feeling by flying only armed with jetpack on back. “No wings, minimal airframe and very compact” by his own words, so far flights have been executed in Monaco, New York  and London. Mr. Mayman is currently interested in disruptive technology companies, startups, early stage investments, and, of course, future development of JetPack so that it becomes affordable to everyone some future day.  

• Gareth Williams, CEO and Co-Founder, Skyscanner.

Mr. Williams’ business aim of “Making travel search as easy as possible” appears to be one of the turnkeys in today’s flight booking world. He co-founded the widely known website Skyscanner 15 years ago and helps thus 50 million users on average to find the best travelling deals. Former software trainer and developer, his Curriculum Vitae includes work at Pygmalion, Nations Bank, Marks & Spencer. In December 2014, he won the Travolution Achievement Award, which is awarded by a small jury, according to the professional’s achievements and impact on the travel landscape. Apart from travelling and coding, Mr. Williams is a passionate ski and chess player, as well as a keen fan of sculpting and drawing. Going back to travelling, Mr. Williams prefers to land on different places each time.     The main topics of the summit are the digital transformation of all industries, the emerging Internet of things, which includes connected cars, smart homes, wearables and many more, cyber security and privacy, fintech, money and payments. Previous speakers at the Tech Summit and the Digital Transformation track are top level executives and innovators like Jessica Federer, Chief Digital Officer of Bayer, John Dillon, VP Marketing of Akamai Technologies, Dr Torsten Wingerten, Head of Digital Innovations, Lufthansa, Damien Blackden, WW Chief Strategy Officer, Maxus, Rohit Tripathi, GM and Head of Products, SAP Mobile Services, Andrew NG, Chief Scientist of Baidu. The Tech Summit is also great for networking – the next business opportunity could be waiting for you right there. Listening to the great presentators, you can also learn a lot about the way you’re a running your business how you can digitally transform it. So, don’t waste your time, these are all the important links you need: To buy your tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2017 (EarlyBird expires soon), click here. To apply for speaking, click here. To apply for partnership, click here. To apply for exhibiting, click here. StartUP? Apply for the Founders Games Challenge by Webit.Foundation and get an opportunity for free festival tickets (500), free exhibition table (100) and opportunity to win 200 000 EUR (only 1), click here. To see the video gallery from Webit.Festival 2016, click here. To learn more about the events that are part of the festival, click here. To see pictures from our previous events, click here. For more information on the Global Webit Series and our events in Dubai, Singapore, New Delhi and Istanbul: www.Webit.Org.

One of the most recognised brands of Webit.Festival, the Marketing and Innovation Summit, is once again bringing together the top CMOs, CTOs and CIOs from the advertising world, broadcasters, publishers, and ad/media/digital agencies. During the 25th and the 26th of April, Webit.Festival 2017 is the place to be in Europe if you want to hear about the latest trends in marketing, media and how the digital transformation is continuingly changing the whole business world.

We have 3 new top-flight speakers in our lineup for the Marketing and Innovation Summit! They include top executives from huge marketing agencies, so read our guide to taking part or find out more about our latest speaker additions below.

• Jason Jercinovic, Global Brand Director & President of Havas Worldwide.

Jason is a digital marketing guru with more than twenty years experience in technology and advertising. He had been working for the campaigns of sports giants like Nike, celebrities like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift and so on. His previous experience includes heading up the Havas Worldwide in Australia, working on Global accounts at Intel and Dell and for clients like Sony Australia. Jason believes that the future is cognitive and the way we can use cognitive technology and virtual reality for brand development. "No one knows what will happen next. Success will come to those who are more adaptable. Respond to change and opportunity by knowing your user's pain and needs. Cognitive is the competitive advantage enabling partnership between people and computers”, he concludes.  

• Fara Warner, Global Editorial Director at Wall Street Journal Custom Studios.

This is the in-house content marketing agency of the media giant, exploring variety of topics. For example, Farah and her team were hired by Netflix to hype the huge successful TV series 'Narcos' with native-ad showpiece. Fara is also a professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan and is the author of the business book "The Power of the Purse: How Smart Companies Are Adapting to the World's Most Important Consumers--Women." As editorial director, she oversees all the aspects of the agency’s editorial from editing freelance work, thinking of new ways for distribution and taking and reporting for the project. In the past she has written pieces for the New York Times, Brandweek, Fast Company and other national publications. She has more than 20 years of experience and is the reciepient of the 2006 diamond Award from Women in Communications for her work illuminating women’s issues in media.

• Chris Clarke, Chief Creative Officer of Digitas Lbi.

He is responsible for the agency’s creative production worldwide. He is famous for his bold views on number of topics published in worldwide media. Chris is an award-winnig creative with more than 20 years of experience in the digital industry. He has worked with major clients like Sony, Samsung and Coke. Chris is often in list of the most influential creative directors of the year. He has received accolades from Cannes in the Cyber Lions, D&AD, LIAA, Campaign Digital, Campaign Direct, Campaign Big Awards, Revolution, BIMA, Webby and Lovie awards. Chis is regularly asked to speak about digital culture and advertising at events as diverse as Cannes Lions and Bestival. He came to Lbi from Publicis owned Digitas, where he was President and Executive Creative Director of the UK agency following a stint as European Executive Creative Director for Modem Media. Prior to that Chris was Executive Creative Director at Wheel, a company he joined with its acquisition of Swedish hotshop Abel & Baker which he had helped to set up in the UK.   Main topics on the agenda of the summit will be the rising use of virtual and augmented reality, especially in the digital entertainment, how consumer empowerment is driving new brand opportunity, brand social strategies, digital and programmatic advertising, metrix and data, video and mobile video marketing, the future of artificial intelligence in marketing, creating relationships with audience, benefits of storytelling in marketing and many more. Previous speakers at the Marketing and Innovation Summit are top level executives like Ward Van Duffel, VP and General Manager Direct to Consumer Lego, Benjamin Faes, Managing Director PBS Google, Anosh Thakkar, CTO Philips, Jim Rosenberg, Chief Digital Officer UNICEF, David Moore, Chairman of Xaxis and President of WPP Digital, Jay Altschuler, Director Global Media Unilever, Pete Blackshaw, Global Head of Digital Marketing and Social Media Nestlé, Norm Johnston, Chief Digital Officer Mindshare Worldwide, Dr. Torsten Wingenter, Head of Digital Innovations Lufthansa, Tom Bowman, VP, Strategy&Operations, Global Advertising Sales BBC World. The Marketing and Innovation Summit is also great for networking – the next business opportunity could be waiting for you right there. Listening to the great presentators, you can also learn a lot about the way you’re a running your business and its marketing. So, don’t waste your time, these are all the important links you need: To buy your tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2017 (EarlyBird expires soon), click here. To apply for speaking, click here. To apply for partnership, click here. To apply for exhibiting, click here. StartUP? Apply for the Founders Games Challenge by Webit.Foundation and get an opportunity for free festival tickets (500), free exhibition table (100) and opportunity to win 200 000 EUR (only 1), click here. To see the video gallery from Webit.Festival 2016, click here. To learn more about the events that are part of the festival, click here. To see pictures from our previous events, click here. For more information on the Global Webit Series and our events in Dubai, Singapore, New Delhi and Istanbul: www.Webit.Org.

What’s the common between diabetes, fitness, medical researches and style? Well, actually, there’s a lot linking them. But maybe we will surprise with something you still don’t know. What all those have in common, is the name of one of our WEBIT.FESTIVAL’2017 lectors, Sridhar Iyengar. He is founder of three different companies, harnessing power of biotechnologies in an unique stylish way or in other words, a serial entrepreneur, definitely loving style, paired with high functionality. Starting with the AgaMatrix company, whose blood glucose monitoring products are the first medical device connected to iOS; continuing with Misfit, whose beautiful tracking fitness bracelets partnered with Coca-Cola, Victoria’s Secret and Swarovski; and ending up (for now) with Elemental Machines, a network of innovative sensory devices connected to a software so that environmental parameters in laboratories can be controlled from a distant location - this is what Mr. Sridhar Iyengar have left a part of himself in. Have you heard about the Misfit bracelets? Maybe you have even used or still use them too?  The company producing them, founded by Iyengar, has been acquired by Fossil Group (creating original accessories for brands like Adidas, Emporio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Burberry, DKNY, Diesel) for $250M in 2015. But have you been wondering what do successful people do once they get (a) baby company sold? Of course they’re not likely to settle and cry, but easy find another great idea to develop. This is exactly what Sridhar Iyengar does - very soon after Missfit have been sold, he launches Elemental Machines. Partnering with former Apple  and Pepsi CEO John Sculley, the new company of Sridhar raises $2.25 million in initial funding and maybe the tagline of Elemental Machines has a lot to do with this fact: “Helping scientists accelerate discovery using sensors and machine learning,” The idea of the sensors and the devices is to improve the complex biology and chemistry-based processes and making the results clear, transparent and consistent. Mr. Iyengar holds more than 30 US and international patents and is also Ph..D. from Cambridge University, keen runner and drummer. What’s the common between those above and his three innovative companies, and is there a fourth baby company on the way? Maybe he will tell us straight from the WEBIT.FESTIVAL’17 stage. Or who knows, maybe we all will help him to get a new idea born. Because inspiring, is one of the things WEBIT does best! To buy your tickets for Webit.Festival 2017, click here. To apply for speaking, click here. To apply for partnership, click here. To apply for exhibiting, click here. To apply for our Founders Games, click here. To see the video gallery from Webit.Festival 2016, click here. To learn more about the events that are part of the festival, click here. To see pictures from our previous events, click here. For all this information and even more, visit our website www.webit.bg. Contact: Aniela Russeva

aniela@webitcongress.com

An app that can make it possible for you to live stream for a living just raised $25 million Series A funding! We are talking about Next Entertainment, Taiwanese startup, founded by Andy Zhong. Mr Zhong is very popular in the region, he already sold his previous startup FunPlus to Zhongji fo nearly 1 billion dollars. And now FunPlus is one of the investors in Next. Learn more about it here.

Meanwhile, there is information that Amazon is secretly building an app that matches truck drivers with shippers. It's a $800 billion industry, according to Business Insider. More on the matter, here.

Airfare prediction app Hopper has grown from 1 million downloads to over 10 million in the course of a year – a trajectory that’s allowed it to pull in $82 million CAD (~$61.2 million US) in additional funding to continue to grow its business. The Series C round was led by North American pension fund manager, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and includes participation from existing investors, Brightspark Ventures, Accomplice, OMERS, Investissement Québec and BDC Capital IT Venture Fund.

NextView Ventures, one of few seed-stage venture firms in Boston, is looking to raise at least $50 million for a third fund, shows an SEC filing that was processed yesterday. The firm closed its second fund with $40 million in 2014 and its debut fund with $21 million in 2012.

IBM announced that it would be working with BMW on R&D where Watson sensors and computing will be integrated into BMW cars to pick up car data and help with new systems aimed at vehicles running more efficiently and with more personalisation for specific drivers and passengers.

Will you trust a tech pro with 25 years of experience if he tells you IoT should actually be IoH? Yes, it’s not a random mistake, but one on purpose, and maybe one of the factors shaping this guy’s opinion is his long professional path. Jonas Jacobi, Vice President, Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy at IBM is another great speaker of ours at WEBIT.FESTIVAL 2017, and he finds the importance of the Human in today’s IoT era extremely important. He is one of those men who have seen technologies dying, rebuilt and born, uses tech every day and knows how important nowadays it is. But he says innovations are not the main ingredient to success for startups, nor for big companies. Instead of proving how far technologies can go by themselves, “Focus your effort, innovation, and company on how to best help your fellow man, and you might win the grand prize”, Mr. Jacobi advices. Maybe everyone have made the same conclusion in a certain moment without being a professional in the area of technologies. But what makes us trust Jonas’s words are his long-lasting work experience and proved strong interest in the area. Mr. Jacobi’s professional life includes key positions as owner, adviser, co-founder at corporations like Oracle, IoT Expo, and, of course, IBM. With his co-founded company, Kaazing Corporation, and the established W3C's WebSocket standard, he have participated in rewriting the way Web and and Mobile applications are being designed today. Jonas is globally known as a Web, mobile and IoT expert, frequent speaker on tech events, writer and author. Since American Airlines have recently chosen to rely on IBM’s cloud platform, we’re impatient to see and hear how Mr. Jacobi contributes in an even more tangible way to developing the current and future (Cloud) technologies market. Even if America is at (a Cloud) distance from Europe - Jonas Jacobi is coming to WEBIT.FESTIVAL Europe 2017, Sofia. To buy your tickets for Webit.Festival 2017, click here. To apply for speaking, click here. To apply for partnership, click here. To apply for exhibiting, click here. To apply for our Founders Games, click here. To see the video gallery from Webit.Festival 2016, click here. To learn more about the events that are part of the festival, click here. To see pictures from our previous events, click here. For all this information and even more, visit our website www.webit.bg. Contact: Aniela Russeva

aniela@webitcongress.com

  Facebook is deeply appreciated by its employees. It ranked as the best tech company to work for in 2017 and came in second among U.S. companies overall behnd Bain , according to a new report from Glassdoor. The ninth annual list is based on employee reviews posted on the job site from Nov. 2, 2015 to Oct. 30, 2016. More about this here. Meanwhile, the anti-aging pill of the future is here. Elysium Health markets a pill formulated with ingredients it says will keep you feeling young . According to Techcrunch, the startup has closed on $20 million in Series B financing and it has $157 million valuation led by General Catalyst and participation from an ARCH Venture Partners investor.  French VC firm Partech Ventures announced that they closed their seed fund of $107 million (€100 million) for early stage startups. Partech Entrepreneur II is focusing on seed rounds, and the firm plans to invest in 80 different startups. Hosting giant GoDaddy has just announced a big deal. GoDaddy has acquired European rival Host Europe Group (HEG) for $1.8 billion — including €605 million paid to existing Host Europe shareholders, and €1.08 billion in assumed debt.  

Amazon plans to totally change the way we go to supermarkets. The company presented a concept for a physical store in a video. The store, called Amazon Go, doesn't work like a typical Walmart or supermarket — instead, it's designed so that shoppers will use an app, also called Amazon Go, to automatically add the products they plan to buy to a digital shopping cart; they can then walk out of the building without waiting in a checkout line. Learn more for this from Business Insider here. German hotel booking site Trivago updated its plans for a U.S. IPO in a filing that came out on Monday. The company expects to price its shares between $13 to $15, a $428 million offering at the top end of the range. For more on this, click here. Uber has acquired Geometric Intelligence, a startup co-founded by academic researchers with AI experience, and its team will provide the core for a new central AI lab being established at Uber’s SF HQ. You can read more about it here. According to a report from Recode, the GV (nee Google Ventures) founder/former-CEO Bill Maris is raising $230 million for the project Section 32 -  new healthcare-focused venture fund. Learn more about it here.  

Electric cars are one of the hottest topics right now in the business world. But there are also hydrogen cars.  A Utah-based startup is trying to revolutionize the trucking industry with hydrogen power.  Nikola Motor Company unveiled its hydrogen-powered truck, the Nikola One. The truck primarily relies on hydrogen fuel cells, but also comes with a 320 kWh battery, to achieve a range of 1,200 miles. Of course, there is a long way to go until hydrogen cars eliminate all the hurdles in front. See more here. A startup that wants to transform insurance 'beyond recognition' has added $33 million to its war chest, according to Business Insider. In December 2015, the insurance startup Lemonade raised $13 million in seed funding — the largest ever seed investment by legendary Silicon Valley firm Sequoia capital. Learn more about it here. Stefan Stokic, a 15-year old high school sophomore from Jackson, Mississippi, is working 130 hour per week for his dream. Stokic already has a startup called Slik, cofounded by fellow 14-year old student Soroush Ghondsi, and is connected with a bunch of high-profile Silicon Valley investors who are closely following their budding careers. Read more about the wonderboy here.

Early-stage venture firm Network Society Ventures has snagged TechShop’s former CEO and co-founder Mark Hatch as general partner. Hatch is recognized as a pioneer of the maker movement, is a current entrepreneur in residence at UC Berkeley, and is a former Green Beret.

 

Sean Parker, the charismatic billionaire and former President of Facebook, hase a new mission. Cancerous tumors carry certain markers called neoantigens and Parker wants to use algorithms to find them in the search for a vaccine.  To do so, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will work with more than 30 public and private pharmaceutical, biotech, cancer research nonprofits and academic institutions through a partnership with the Cancer Research Institute to use predictive algorithms to help uncover new cancer neoantigens found coded in DNA. In other news, A Redwood City, Calif. startup called Neurotrack Technologies Inc. has created a brain health app that is helping scientists unravel the mysteries of memory, and work to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. It can detect signs of deteriorating brain health years before the first symptoms. Read more about it here. Meanwhile, Twitter has a new VP of Product, named Keith Coleman, who was until now CEO of Yes, Inc., startup acquired today by the big company.  Bullpen Capital, a venture firm that specializes in post-seed stage deals, has closed its third fund at $75 million. The company invests in startups that previously closed a seed round of investment and showed solid signs of traction, but have been dubbed too early for traditional VCs. Seismologists at UC Berkeley released MyShake, an app that passively monitors for seismic activity, both watching for earthquakes and warning users if one is underway. In the months since its introduction, the app has outperformed its creators’ expectations, detecting over 200 earthquakes in more than ten countries. Read more about the important app here.