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The world's biggest challenge for innovation and scaleups - the Founders Games has just announced the legendary Tim Draper as new member of the all-star finals jury selecting the winners of the $6M investment award. He is joining over 250 international investors from America, Europe, Asia and rest of the world as members of the collective intelligence jury of the World's INNOVATION Olympics. Over 3'000 scaleups have already applied for the Founders Games and compete for the world's biggest ever award of $6'000'000.

• Should you want to join the sponsoring partners of the Founders Games and have access to world's leading innovators and ideas shaping the future - please fill-in this form https://www.foundersgames.org/2022/partners.php and we shall contact you shortly.
• Should you want to join the investors jury and have access to unparalleled deal flow and talents from around the world - let us know by filling-up this form: https://www.foundersgames.org/2022/jury.php
• Startup? The deadline for application has been extended till May 30th, 2022.

Apply Now

  All companies of up to 10 year of age, with an MVP and a solid team are welcome to join the challenge aiming at creating a more sustainable and resilient future. The verticals of the Founders Games challenge include:

• Mobility and Urban Tech (including urban solutions, renewable powered mobility, underground, ground and above ground transportation, etc)
• Financial technologies, DeFi (future of money, payments, banking, crypto)
• Health / Pharma Innovation
• Biotech
• Energy (new / future energy sources, energy management / preservation / distribution, smart infrastructure)
• Robotics (robots, drones, self sustained machines)
• Food and agriculture (new types of food, food security, food systems)
• Defence (cybersecurity, defence innovation, resilient and secured infrastructure)
• Media and Entertainment (gaming and virtual reality/metaverse, esports, future of entertainment, VR/AR, new platforms, virtual real estate, virtual lives, NFTs)
• Marketing and advertising (future of branding and advertising, brand communication)
• Space (space exploration, asteroid mining, space transportation, space communication)
• Fashion (sustainable materials and production)
• Planet and climate tech
• New Materials
• Enterprise
• e-Commerce/Logistics

Visit www.foundersgames.org for a full list of verticals.

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HUNDREDS OF INVESTORS, GLOBAL MEDIA & CORPORATE PARTNERS SHAPE THE GLOBAL COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE JURY

Over 250 investors - VCs, business angels, family offices and tens of corporate partners from major companies around the world participate in the jury and the COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE selection process which identify the global winners of the Founders Games.

Award Ceremony and the Winners of the Webit's "Founders Games"

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The finalists shall be supported by Webit's global network with access to capital, Webit's network of enterprise partners and media relations. Webit shall allocate from $500K to $1,5M of funding in a bridge round or in an upcoming investment round in the finalists. Webit shall also support the investment round by introducing and inviting VCs which may add maximum value for the growth of the finalists.

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FACTS AND FIGURES The previous two Founders Games editions finalists have grown exponentially with an average increase of the raised capital by 4.5 times! (based on the results from the 2019 and 2020 editions). Many have oversubscribed their investment rounds almost immediately after their participation in the Founders Games. Check the rules online and apply

STARTUP? APPLY NOW

 

Do you want to find out: - What’s been the biggest pivot for Mars since March, 2020? - What is Sir Martin's vision on the future of the advertising and marketing industry in the following 3-5 years? - How to measure success when it comes to Brand Purpose? - What are the greatest examples of creativity seen in recent months? - What innovations or trends will have the greatest impact on the future of the industry? Register and if you ask a question during the registration you may get invited to Webit's virtual BACKSTAGE today and meet Sir Martin and Jane Wakely in person and hear the answers to the above and many more questions from these two marketing and advertising legends! Today we shall welcome over 20,000 virtual attendees from all around the world with global marketing and advertising leaders. Take advantage of your complimentary access to this virtual event starting in:

REGISTER FOR LIVE PROGRAM ACCESS & ASK YOUR QUESTIONS

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The Fintech Week on Webit Virtual has met us yesterday with the CEO of Revolut Banking, Richard Davies and the founder of 30 countries in 4 continents, lending over $8 million USD daily - Channel VAS, Bassim Haidar. If you have missed this live, virtual Webit event you may still WATCH it in our time capsule here.

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Coming up next in:

REGISTER FOR LIVE PROGRAM ACCESS

STARTUP? APPLY TO PITCH

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On Thursday, in

Stay tuned for challenging discussions on the trends in the fintech industry, are banknotes obsolete, who are the winners and who are the losers in the industry, which are the new players coming on next?

REGISTER FOR LIVE PROGRAM ACCESS & ASK YOUR QUESTIONS

Ping me over Twitter or LinkedIn and use #webit so I can ask the question on your behalf during the live program now on Webit Virtual | The Thought Leadership Network.

Webit Virtual is powered by TheVirtual.Show

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Watch the previous events of Webit Virtual here

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Check the upcoming Themed Weeks until August 2020 and join as speaker or Webit Virtual partner.

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BECOME A PARTNER OF WEBIT VIRTUAL

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Warm regards, Dr. Plamen Russev Executive Chairman, Webit Foundation

Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria Serial Entrepreneur / Investor www.russev.com | www.webit.org

Webit: web site | Linkedin | Facebook | Twitter Personal: about me | LinkedIn | Twitter

The future of Digital Entertainment and Media is the focus of this week at the "world's leading virtual thought leadership events and platform" as Forbes calls - Webit Virtual. The CEO of Forbes, Executive Producer of Digital Domain, the CTO of Microsoft's Azure Media and Entertainmenr and the founder of Vionlabs AB in today's virtual event:

starting in

ASK YOUR QUESTION

Add to Calendar Gmail | iCal | Outlook | Yahoo

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JOIN WEBIT BACKSTAGE! Some of you - those who fill in their questions in the form (click the button above) - will be invited to ask them in-person to the speakers today in our virtual studio.

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Coming up next in

in

Watch the Demo Day with 3 of the worlds top digital entertainment and media startups pitching in front of leading investor's jury.

REGISTER TO WATCH STARTUP DEMOS AND INVESTORS

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in

REGISTER TO WATCH and ASK QUESTIONS

Next week  is Money & Fintech Week: Jun, 30 - Jul, 02 COVID-19 impact on Fintech Industry - major trends and opportunities with the CEO Revolut, Founder and CEO Channel VAS + executive editors, editors and journalists from  Business Insider, CoinTelegraph, Forbes, Mashable. Next is Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Week: Jul, 07 - Jul, 09 Business response to Covid-19: Corporate Responsibility and Innovation with Chief of Staff and Head of Responsibility, Philips, Group Chief Marketing Officer Agility + executive editors, editors and journalists from NY Post, BuzzFeed, Inc. Magazine, BBC. Followed by Geopolitics Week (July 14-16),  Planet Earth Week (July 21-23), Brand Innovation Week (July 28-30), Venture Week (August 4-6), Future of Food Week (August 11-13)

Check the upcoming Themed Weeks until August 2020 and join as speaker or Webit Virtual partner

BECOME A PARTNER OF WEBIT VIRTUAL

Join as speaker

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Webit Virtual is powered by TheVirtual.Show Ping me on @PlamenRussev or LinkedIn so I can ask the question on your behalf during the live program now on Webit Virtual | The Thought Leadership Network. Warm regards, Dr. Plamen Russev Executive Chairman, Webit Foundation

Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria Serial Entrepreneur / Investor www.russev.com | www.webit.org

Webit: web site | Linkedin | Facebook | Twitter Personal: about me | LinkedIn | Twitter

This is a special invitation to join, ask questions and be part of the dialogue. The today's program of Webit Virtual Geopolitics Week is focused on the future of Europe's Innovation, Research, Education, investments, building a resilient and sustainable development solutions.

The live discussion starts in:

Ping Dr. Plamen Russev over Twitter or LinkedIn and use #webit so he can ask the question on your behalf during the live program now on Webit Virtual | The Thought Leadership Network.

REGISTER FOR LIVE PROGRAM ACCESS

Webit Virtual is powered by TheVirtual.Show

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Have you missed the other 2 events, part of Webit Virtual Geopolitics Week? Check this video with detailed analysis and global geopolitics trends on Covid-19, economics crisis, the protests and back to normal as part of the Leading Media Forum on Geopolitics with BBC' Dearbhla Gavin, The Telegraph & The Independent' Hugo Lowell, Washington Post' Helaine Olen and  Business Insider'  Executive Editor, Spriha Srivastava.

WATCH HERE

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The Open Demo Day of Webit's growing COVID-19 Health Security Global Challenge took place yesterday. The winner of yesterdays pitch competition is Cardiomo (Netherlands). See video (1 h) from the full event, 3 startup pitches in front of investors from NEA, Iron Wolf Capital, Nowa Capital, OneRagtime.

WATCH HERE

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Missed the Founder of Khan Academy, Sal Khan, the legendary investor, Tim Draper,  the Father of Internet, Vint Cerf,  CIOs and top executives from Samsung, AT&T, Verizon, Mastercard, SoftBank, the Godmother of Silicon Valley Esther Wojcicki and highly curates group of visionary, forward thinkers, journalists from CNN, Inc., CNBC, BBC, Washington Post, Guardian, Forbes, ...? Watch them all and hear what they say on the future of work and education,  health innovation, brand innovation, geopolitics,... here: https://virtual.webit.org/index.php#previous

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Check the upcoming Themed Weeks until August 2020 and join as speaker or Webit Virtual partner.

BECOME A PARTNER OF WEBIT VIRTUAL

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Best, Dr. Plamen Russev Executive Chairman, Webit Foundation

Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria Serial Entrepreneur / Investor www.russev.com | www.webit.org

Webit: web site | Linkedin | Facebook | Twitter Personal: about me | LinkedIn | Twitter

Webit Virtual Leading Media Forum hosted a wide range of eye-opening, informative, useful and inspiring discussions during The  Future of Work and Education Week which was under the theme: “The future of skills and learning in a post-Covid-19 world”  We all know that education is the future. And that the future belongs to the educated people. But what kind of education and skills do we need in this quickly changing environment and disrupted world in order to be successful, to fulfill ourselves and to use the whole potential that every single human being holds within? Over 8 thousand simultaneous virtual attendees from the Global Webit Community at the live event on Thursday, June 4th, wanted to learn the answer of this question, important for all mankind and the future generations.During The Leading Media Forum we made a deep observation and analysis and of both - the discussion on Tuesday, June 2nd and the most important changes happening lately on the whole Global scene concerning the future of work and education with the help of the special guests including some of world’s  leading journalists, writers and forward thinkers: 🌟 Alex Kantrowitz- Senior Technology Reporter at BuzzFeed;Christina Zdanowicz - Senior Producer at CNN; Connie Lee - Reporter/Producer at CGTN; Jared Lindzon -Journalist at Fast Company. During the panel some important and impactful topics were outlined, including how the education system has been disrupted, how 1.5 billion students are not physically at school right now and the chance that this gives us to reinvent education worldwide, to find new ways to teach things and some new opportunities to work and achieve our own goals and to develop as a society. The host of Webit Virtual and the Executive chairman of Webit, Dr. Plamen Russev emphasized on the importance of looking at every change positively and not putting a lot of negative expectations out there as this might  become a self fulfilling prophecy. Jared went even further claiming that such moments of disruption actually provide a perfect opportunity to make some very badly needed changes that have been needed for a long time. That is where the key is, that's where the opportunity is. The pandemic is shaping the future of work and it is bringing it here much faster than it was scheduled Connie foreseen a lot of  blending between physical and virtual work in the future providing some statistics, numbers proving that tendency: 

• •  Last year more than 60% of companies allowed remote work.
  •  20% of companies were already completely remote.
  •  After the pandemic these numbers spiked and a recent survey had said nearly 75% of CFOs said they want to shift at least 5% of their employees to a remote working model.

Companies and schools are going to have to innovate in order to survive and to thrive during this time. It is really important to adjust every sector of our life to the quickly changing world , to adapt and to find new ways of doing things. Alex highlighted the need to separate work into two categories. The first is ideal work. That's anything involved with creating a new product and bringing it to life. The second part of it is execution work, anything that's involved in supporting an existing product.Kantrowitz said that what makes difference about the Tech giants and what makes them so successful and much more successful than the average companies is that they're using technology to minimize the amount of execution work inside their companies and maximize the amount of time they have for ideal work. Their employees, compared to traditional companies, are spending much more time developing new things and existing products, because they've used automation, artificial intelligence and collaboration software to be able to work more on ideas. 

•  We need to develop an education system that's focused on getting people to think innovatively, getting people to think in a way that makes them take chances and to think more abstractly, not just how to get from point A to point B. -said Alex.
• There's a need for constant innovation, for constant learning. Because what you've learned in school is probably going to be obsolete by the time you graduate.- added Jared, concluding that the hard skills are becoming less significant than the soft skills.- The soft skills that will allow you to adapt, to evolve, and grow over time are much more valuable to employers than just a lot of expertise in one narrow field.

And where to develop those soft skills? We ended the discussion with an open question and an answer opened to life itself and the lifelong learning, interdisciplinary education, diversity of work experience and other various personal experiences like voluntary activities, etc. that makes you more flexible and that create new neuron connection in you brain so that you are more capable of inventing and exploring new, exciting ways of creating the desirable future. So go and live your life,“keep doing the work you love, because it will be noticed” as Christina said. WATCH a recording of the live show and the whole discussion, available at                                   Webit Virtual’ Time Capsule Written by Teodora Hadjibojeva, Press Officer and Media Coordinator Webit Foundation

The Thought Leadership Summit during the Cybertech Week of Webit Virtual The Thought Leadership Summit on 27 May during the Cybertech Week of Webit Virtual, hosted by Dr. Plamen Russev and Natalia Oropeza, Chief Cybersecurity Officer Siemens brought together more than 10 K simultaneous virtual attendees from the Global Webit Community.  A wide range of impactful and practical discussions were held during the broadcast, which was titled: "Cybersecurity during Covid-19: Challenges and Opportunities". Undoubtedly, a topic that concerns many and plays a crucial role in today's society as well as in shaping the future generations. As special guests in the discussion were invited  Bruce Schneider- Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt and Tom Corn- Senior Vice President / GM , Security Products at VMware. Tens of organizations, including WHO  and others have been warning that we see five to ten fold increase in the cyber security threats. It is reported that 70%  of the companies plan to increase their infrastructure and investment in cybersecurity solutions. Having that in mind, we have been involving leading experts to join us and to share with our audience their vision on how to get prepared for all cyber threats, because  they can make the digital world kind of unsecure for people who are not ready and responsible enough. Together with them we were discussing how Cybersecurity can be improved and how we can make sure that we, the humans, live a better, more secure and protected and how we can create together the “ new normal”,  a better “normal”,  based on resilient lifestyle and resilience in general, based on inclusion and collective responsibility.  The person, who is called by Economist the “cybertech guru”and оne of the invited guests during the panel - Bruce Schneider, said that we are all being tricked anyway. Why would we expect that one more app, that is about contact tracing, will be such a big issue if we already have 100 more tracing us every single place we'd go, every single thing we do? Going for the real threads,  we can conclude that Covid-19 is  escalating a lot of them that we see in the cyber world. But what are the lessons that we all need to learn from this crisis and always keep in mind afterwards?  - I think there are two main lessons, we are teaching everybody. - said Bruce- The easy one is to understand exponential growth. If people knew a little bit more math, we'd have a much better time with this crisis. The second is the value of redundancy. We live in an economic system where pretty much all redundancy is leached out in the name of profit. And that only works when things are going perfectly. If we want to have a system that is robust, that is resilient against all sorts of threats, redundancy is essential. And that costs money. And it doesn't pay in normal times. It is your insurance for crisis times.I think something we can learn in IT, that the whole world is learning about everything, about our food supply, about our cities, about our government, is the value of redundancy. Redundancy isn't inefficient. Redundancy is security. That’s probably the most important lesson. During the panel other topics were discussed as well, including  strategies for dealing with the Covid pandemic and the Post-Covid adaption of the companies, that were represented by the guests and the co-host of Webit Virtual Thought Leadership Summit - Siemens, Inrupt and VMware.

WATCH a recording of the live show and the whole discussion, available at Webit Virtual’ Time Capsule

  Written by Teodora Hadjibojeva, Press Officer and Media Coordinator Webit Foundation

Global organisations including WHO report a five to tenfold increase in cyber attacks. 70 percent of organisations are seeing the value of increasing their investments in cybersecurity solutions. Webit as always is on the top of this challenge and providing possible solutions. Join Webit Virtual Thought Leadership Summit on CYBERSECURITY today! Over 9,000 attendees have registered already for this Summit making it the world's biggest industry virtual summit! Ask your questions to the amazing speakers with #webit over twitter. Book your virtual, seat below! It is complimentary for all Webit community members.

Starts in:

REGISTER FOR LIVE PROGRAM ACCESS

Add to Calendar Google | iCal | Outlook | Yahoo

We shall discuss: - How to prepare for the new reality - How  do you make sure that the way your employees working from home do so in a secure manner - What major changes are possible in the architecture of the internet in the coming years - Spam and Phishing and malicious websites / targeted attacks - how to prepare your company and your teams

Startup? Apply to Pitch Live

 

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  Tomorrow, Webit Virtual SyberTech Week continues with the Leading Media Forum on CyberSecurity. You will hear the voice of leading journalists and their researches and findings. Be aware of what is really going on in the cyber world and in your computer and phone!

UNTIL

REGISTER FOR LIVE PROGRAM ACCESS

Add to Calendar Google | iCal | Outlook | Yahoo

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  Have you missed the previous Webit Virtual events? The time capsule of Webit Virtual is still open and free to access. 👉 You may watch the past 16 events and programs here. Speakers include: - Legendary investor, Tim Draper - the Father of Internet, Dr. Vint Cerf - The Bitcoin Jesus, Roger Ver - Guy Kawasaki - the founder of Siri, Adam Cheyer; - CEOs, CTOs, CMOs, CxOs of Mastercard, Samsung, SoftBank, McCann WorldGroup, Verizon, AT&T, ... - Ministers, government institutions and senators; - Scientists and representatives from UN, the Atlantic Council, UNESCO, the World Federation of Advertisers and NGOs; - Media, including Business Insider, Washington Post, The Guardian, Fast Company, BBC, Forbes, Al Jazeera, CoinTelegraph; Startup founders who make online pitches and investors who value and vet them live.

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Check the upcoming Themed Weeks until August 2020 and join as speaker or Webit Virtual partner.

REGISTER FOR LIVE PROGRAM ACCESS

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  Next Week  is the Future of Work and Education week with 3 events as part of it. Speakers include: - the founder of Khan Academy - Sal Khan - the Godmother of the Silicon Valley, Esther Wojcicki - journalists from Fast Company, CNN, BuzzFeed.

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The Week After  is the Policy Innovation week with 3 events as part of it. Guest of Honour is the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research,  Education, Culture and Youth of the European Commission, Ms. Mariya Gabriel. Special Guests are: - the European Investment Bank' Vice President and Member of the Managing Committee Ms. Lilyana Pavlova - the Executive Editor of Business Insider, Spriha Srivastava - the The Telegraph & The Independent reporter, Hugo Lowell. Ping me on @PlamenRussev or LinkedIn so I can ask the question on your behalf during the live program now on Webit Virtual | The Thought Leadership Network. Webit Virtual is powered by TheVirtual.Show

Best, Dr. Plamen Russev Executive Chairman, Webit Foundation

Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria Serial Entrepreneur / Investor www.russev.com | www.webit.org

Webit: web site | Linkedin | Facebook | Twitter Personal: about me | LinkedIn | Twitter

The Leading Media Forum at Webit Virtual Brand Innovation week  hosted by Dr. Plamen Russev on 21 May with over 9 thousand simultaneous live virtual attendees and hundred of thousands views afterwards. During the Leading media forum on 21.05 at Webit Virtual’ Brand Innovation Week we met with four of our special guests, invited not only as writers at leading editions such as Forbes, Inc. Magazine and USA Today, but also as experts with more colourful experience and business background, as well as bestselling authors, influencers and thought leaders to speak about the latest tendences in the business world and the “Brand evolution in times of a global crisis”. The discussion was opened by Karen, who presented an overview of the dramatically shifting landscape of media, caused by COVID-19. The scene is now much more focused on substance, rather than flash.This is what Webit and particularly the Virtual Webit events are actually providing and this is what our whole team believes in. Collective intelligence, as called by Rhett Power referring to the organizations and companies who are open to listen to their employees when they are looking for new solutions and decisions, is what we are actually doing at Webit: not only within our own team but we do it as a Global Network and Platform where we invite global  thought  leaders in particular sectors to share their knowledge and we provide that valuable content to our audience. What we learned from the invited guests during the Leading Media Forum on 21 May? We all know that everything is changing now and Covid is changing society in different levels and this is going to happen no matter what. The question is how you as a business, as a manager will respond to that change? Anglela made a deep dive into the Italian Ecosystem with the luxury brands like Gucci, Armani, Prada who had the facilities and they made a strategic move and  decided to manufacture medical overalls, face masks instead of staying and not doing anything for months, Ferrari who started making ventilators. 

• We all know that disruption is a term that’s usually used in the marketing and business world, but we live now in a world that is already totally disrupted so what we need now is to adapt.- said Angela-  Evolution is key now.

In a period  when nothing is stable and that we need to face with so much uncertainty we go back more than ever to our basic needs. And safety is one of them. Steve emphasized exactly on this saying: “What you can do as a brand at a minimum is to look responsive. Be responsive.  What people are looking for is safety.“ Rhett added to that point that companies should care not only about their customers’ safety  but also about giving the feeling of safety to their employees as well. Starting from here, companies need to figure out, using the collective intelligence of their team, if the product is still relevant and if they need to make changes: but if they are moving fast right now, and if they are taking action on all these new changes, they will be ok. One of the signs for this is the quick digital transformation.

• Right now your reputation online is your reputation. - said Karen - No one has the luxury  not to look good online any more. Everyone needs to have their personal brand, their CEO brand and their business brand really in top shape. The messaging  has to be clear, the visuals have to be clear, it has to be clearly represented online so people can see who you are, what you stand for and what you offer.  Pre-COVID we lived in an "or" world. There was live, or virtual. We had live events, virtual events, live businesses, virtual businesses. And virtual was kind of considered the step-child of life. One of the huge changes out of COVID is, we're going to live in an "and" world. End evey live event will have a virtual equivalent. That digital transformation will open up a whole world of possibilities for people personally and for people in business. And it is not just the technology and to learn how to use it but also it is about how we communicate with other people and perform better online, if  experts learn how to look online, that will exemplify their credibility and their influence. 

• The change you are going to make, when you pivot online, when you add the digital to your brand is a pivot that has to be authentic to your brand. - advised Steven - It is not easy to pivot your business in 5 weeks and still be authentic but you have to do it. Otherwise you will lose your audience. You have to become a digital leader and to be a trim tab - an example of that small thing can make a big difference and change the direction of all. 

We ended from where we started:

• Go back to day 1, think about your business as it was in the beginning and as it was in the first stage of that business  and you have to figure out how to  make it work all over again.- said Rhett in the end of the discussion concluding the strong message that all participants gave to the audience: if you  restart and reinvent yourself, if you don’t stop learning, adapting and evolving the changes and the challenges will become new doors and opportunities both for your business and for you personally.

WATCH a recording of the live show and the whole discussion, available at Webit Virtual’ Time Capsule

Written by Teodora Hadjibojeva, Press Officer and Media Coordinator Webit Foundation