Amid the political turmoil in Europe, caused by the unprecedented influx of refugees from the MENA region and the election victory of Donald Trump in the United States, the issue of immigration quickly established itself as a major in today’s political life. And although most people in the developed world have their reasons to be worried about the migration and its effect on their country’s social system, on the political scene we see a clear conflict between the stated policies of governments and the interests of the industry, and especially the tech sector. Last week we saw that the tech companies in USA continued to rally against the new president’s immigration ban for the citizens of 7 countries with Muslim majority population. More than 100 firms in the sector voiced their opposition to Trump’s executive order, and among them were Apple, Facebook, Tesla, SpaceX, Airbnb, Twitter and Microsoft. Meanwhile Starbucks even announced that it will hire 10 000 refugees in 75 countries over the next 5 years. But what caused the strange connection between large technology corporations and the issue of migration? Quite simply, it’s the fact that vast majority of the directors of successful businesses in the US and around the world are either immigrants or descendants of those and feel committed to this issue. Among them we can mention the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk, who grew up in South Africa and studied in Canada, the Co-Founder of Google Sergey Brin, who was born in Moscow, the Аrmenian refugee descendant and founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian, the Cuban immigrant descendant and Founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos and many others. In fact, the connection between being an immigrant and becoming an entrepreneur is well studied, even by Harvard. Last year the famous university published a report on the extensive cross-cultural experiences of top level business leaders and how it helps them take over the industry with out of the box decisions. According to the Harvard’s experts immigrants in USA are almost twice as likely to become entrepreneurs as native-born citizens of the country. Right now they represent 27.5% of the US entrepreneurs, but only around 13% of the population. This pattern extends beyond the United States. The data from 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor showed that the vast majority of the 69 countries surveyed reported higher entrepreneurial activity among immigrants, than among natives, especially in growth-oriented ventures. This year Webit continues its mission of hosting top level policy discussion about dealing with Europe’s most pressing issues and forming the digital future of the continent. The Digital Economy Leadership Summit of this years Webit.Festival will again become a platform for presenting the best ideas for the future development of European industry. The event will gather some of the most influential policy makers and top level experts, that shape the global agenda of the World Economic Forum, like the Global Leadership Fellow at WEF Thomas Philibeck, the Head of Europe and Eurasia at WEF Martina Larkin,the President & Global Brand Director of Havas Worldwide Jason Jerinovic and the Director General of Digital Europe John Higgins.

The tech industry, social media, marketing and entertainment in the next few years will all be shaped by the development of virtual and augmented reality and the emergence of artificial intelligence. This industry will finally rid us of two-dimensional monitors, which for several decades played the role of a window into the virtual reality. Experts predict that by 2020 the VR hardware market size will reach $5.2 billion, while the VR software market will be around $24.5 billion. In 2016 the worldwide sales of VR head-mounted displays were for just $1.43 million. Polls show that 44% of the people with access to internet are very interested in virtual reality. The AR market can grow from nearly zero today to $90 billion by 2020. And half of that revenue is going to come from sales of AR hardware devices. By the end of this year worldwide AR headset sales could hit $1.2 billion. This will be perfect for Microsoft, which started selling the developer version of the mixed reality device HoloLens last year. In 2017 we expect a huge splash by the wireless virtual reality tech. This whole process started with Apple’s adoption of new Bluetooth standard in the iPhone 7 and 7S and now we are going to see products in different categories. The Taiwanese manufacturer of Android and Windows smartphones HTC is already taking pre-orders for a $220 add-on that cuts the cables of the headset Vive and transform it into a wireless device. Today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed to the world a new prototype for VR gloves, that he tested during his tour inside Oculus Research facility. “We’re working on new ways to bring your hands in virtual and augmented reality. Wearing these gloves, you can draw, type on a virtual keyboard, and even shoot webs like Spider-Man. That’s what I’m doing here”, he wrote on his profile in the social network. Earlier this week Google revealed its plan to bring virtual reality into the web with the new mobile browser support for WebVR in Chrome. Now the browser allows users to navigate through webpages using their fingers or mouse on desktop PC. If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of virtual and augmented reality Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During our summits, you can listen to top level speakers such as the Partner in IBM Ventures Christoph Auer-Welsbach, the VP & CTO of VMware for EMEA region Joe Baguley and the General Manager of PlayFab for Europe Mark Val.

The debate about self-driving cars is already over. They are coming and the important question is who is going to build them first and how they will be regulated. Nowadays there are more than 20 companies, from traditional giants in the automotive industry to new startups, who are trying to build autonomous car by the beginning of the new decade. And hundreds of others, who work on creative solutions for the new opportunities, that the self-driving cars present. The dedication of Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk to developing autonomous vehicles is not new. But as the company is now testing its self-driving cars on public roads in California the idea is looking more like reality, than just a project. But before we get to the implementation of this fascinating technology, we must look at changing need of car ownership. According to KPMG’s study 59% of industry bosses believe that more than half of all car owners today will no longer want to own a car by 2025. The automation systems of the future will empower us to make the choice whether to drive on our own, or enjoy our automobile journeys as passengers. And instead of today’s car ownership model, we will most probably rely on the idea of mobility as a service by the end of the next decade. And while most of us imagine that the future of automotive industry is fully committed to the electricity, the senior director of NVIDIA Danny Shapiro does not agree with this statement. “We have a projection that by 2025, globally 15% of vehicles are going to have an electric component, whether that’s a pure electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid or full hybrid. For western Europe, that percentage would obviously be higher”, Shapiro said in an interview for The Guardian. He thinks that the huge oil infrastructure worldwide and the pro-oil administration in the United States in the next four years will slow down this process, or at least divert it to development of hybrid engines. Meanwhile Japanese government is subsidising automakers, that create cars with hydrogen fuel cells, but the lack of infrastructure to support this new kind of fuel consumption will delay their implementation. The common thing between all this technologies is the aim to transform the transportation into a more eco-friendly industry and lower its harmful emissions in line with the commitments in the Paris climate agreement, reached in the end of 2015. If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of mobility Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During our summits, you can listen to top level speakers such as the Director for International Transportation and Government in Xerox Richard Harris and the Managing Partner at New Mobility World Alexander Renz.

The Blockchain technology has the potential to lower the bank infrastructure expenses by nearly 30% if it is implemented in the right way. This will help the banks worldwide to save between $8 and $12 billion per year. But there are still many questions to be answered before Blockchain becomes the go to tech in the world of big banking, and not only. The Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc. Eric Schmidt described it as an incredible achievement of cryptography and said that in the modern era the ability to create something that no one can copy has a great value. One of the main reasons for success of the internet is the constant changing of the way we transfer data, audio and video. But until now, the global network never had a method for transfer of assets. Blockchain is the technological solution, that made this thing a reality. But still most people remain skeptical about the libertarian utopia of Bitcoin and the radical philosophy it presents. Of course Blockchain is much bigger than its most recognized cryptocurrency and has the power to be the main tool of the Big Data global infrastructure of the future. The main concern about Blockchain remains its safety. In December, Forbes reported that hackers have stolen millions of dollars in Bitcoin, using only phone numbers. Unfortunately, unlike the credit card transactions, the transfers of cryptocurrency is irreversible. Recently even the big industry players, like venture capitalists and entrepreneurs were hit by a wave of Bitcoin scams. Most of them are done by a phone number highjacking and changing the passwords of email accounts and bank profiles. This type of security weakness can be used against anyone who is using their phone for services as Google, PayPal, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter and iCloud. In the period between 2017 and 2021 the expenses for cybersecurity worldwide will surpass $1 trillion, compared to only $81.6 billion for 2016. Meanwhile experts predict that in 2021 the total cost of cybercrime damages is gonna be around $6 trillion - double than the $3 trillion in 2013. With the expanding of IoE we can expect around 50 billion connected devices by the end of the decade, and all of them will need to be secured. By 2020 the volume of data in internet will be around 50 times bigger than it is today. The connected future of the world present many opportunities, but along with them will come the serious risk for our privacy and personal and financial safety. To learn more on the topic of cyber security and privacy, visit the Security & Privacy Summit within Webit.Festival Europe. Top level speakers from all over the world will share their experience during the event, which is held on 25 and 26 of April in Sofia. You can listen to the CEO of LSEC-Leaders in Security Ulrich Seldeslachts, the CEO of Intel Security for EMEA region Raj Samani and the Co-Founder of Distil Network Rami Essaid. During the Webit’s FinTech & Blockchain Summit speakers like the Executive VP for Global product strategy of Wirecard Christian Von Hammel-Boten and the venture capital investor and CEO of Novus Ordo Capital Liliana Reasor will share their views on topics, such as the future of payments and the ventures, driven by digitalization.

Any expert in the world will tell l you that in the era of Internet, videos are the best way to advertise your products and services. And hardly the world has a bigger sport for TV commercials than the several hours during the NFL’s Super Bowl. More than a half of the marketers worldwide name video as the content with best return of investment, while experts forecast that by 2020 it will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic. The biggest single event in American sports pulled in 111.3 million viewers in the USA on Sunday night, down slightly from last year’s game numbers. Despite the epic comeback in the 34-28 overtime win of New England Patriots over Atlanta Falcons, marketers around the world were more interested in the annual Super Bowl commercials, than Tom Brady’s bid for greatest quarterback in the history of the league. The average spending for a 30-second commercial slot this year was around $5 million. But this is something that most of the biggest companies, that are seeking brand visibility, are willing to pay. This year the top level marketers in USA tried to reach their audience with a mix of emotional and political messages, that reflects the recent months of turbulence in the American society. Here are the 5 best ads, aired during Super Bowl 2017: Airbnb’s “We Accept” message Audi’s “Daughter” Budweiser’s tribute to its immigrant co-founder Adolphus Busch Coca Cola’s “America, the Beautiful” The Skittles romantic rainbow If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of marketing Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During the Marketing & Innovations Summit, you can listen to top level speakers such as the Chief Creative Officer at DigitasLBi Chris Clarke, who was recently placed at 53th place in The Drum’s Adverati list of the most influential people in advertising.

The global economy becomes increasingly digital and decentralized and only those, who adapt best, will be able to survive in the new world economic order. Over the next decade the world will have to deal with problems, such as manufacturing automation and changing labour market, rising cyber crime, overpopulation of the planet and the aging population in developed economies. For the last 12 years European Union’s percentage of the global GDP has fallen from nearly 32% to only about 23%. The main reasons for that are the outsourcing of production and the better position of countries like China and India had for managing the effects of the global economic crisis. But EU still has the tools to remain a leader of the civilized world and to be the engine of the new digital economy. As long as it starts using the full potential of its member states and expand their economic capabilities in the best way possible, while maximizing their human capital. This can happen through smart specialization and shared goals and vision. Two years ago the commissioner for digital economy Andrus Ansip forecasted that Europe can achieve a 10% rise in its e-commerce with a digital single market. The former Estonian prime minister was one of the top guests during Webit’s CEEDS event, which was focused on the digital perspectives for the Central end Eastern Europe region. The idea for a digital single market has become one of the top missions of the European Commission for the years to come and can boost the block’s economy with an annual growth of €165 billion and 1.3% of continent’s GDP. This year Webit continues its mission of hosting top level policy discussion about the digital future of the continent. The Digital Economy Leadership Summit of this years Webit.Festival will again become a platform for presenting the best ideas for the future development of European industry with a focus on the most disadvantaged regions. The event will gather some of the most influential policy makers and top level experts, that shape the global agenda of the World Economic Forum, like the Global Leadership Fellow at WEF Thomas Philibeck, the Head of Europe and Eurasia at WEF Martina Larkin,the President & Global Brand Director of Havas Worldwide Jason Jerinovic and the Director General of Digital Europe John Higgins. They will share their vision and experience in topics, such as automation technologies and the changing balance of the social contract between governments, employers and individuals, how AI is shaping up the profile of the voters and what are the things Europe must do to defend its leadership position under the growing pressures from internal and external events.

A survey from 2016 shows that 75% of employees have a hard time accessing information in their enterprise systems and applications. Today’s workers often don’t use the multibillion dollar software that their employers invest in, because instead of making their life easier, sometimes enterprise software does the contrary. The omnipresent appliance of big data, clouds and complex tasks creates the perfect conditions for the rise of enterprise software with the aim to improve employee productivity. A simplified approach to enterprise applications will directly result in improved business decision-making. Enterprise software – namely business intelligence (BI), CRM, ERP and marketing automation – has greatly evolved over the last years. This kind of solutions are robust and secure, offer hybrid solutions, cloud storage, social media incorporation, mobile experience and much more you can think about, in order to lead companies in their transformation towards modern, global enterprises. Here are some trends that are going to modernize enterprise software from 2017 on, so that its usage is as efficient as intended. Smart Bots can easily learn, organize and provide everything needed, and from now on, they’ll be adopted by significant number of companies. Their flexibility, huge appliance and assistance give employees and companies fast, precise and effective communication they need. Using embedded predictive, AI technologies and marketing automation will become  engagement database for the enterprise with the usage of self-driving cars of the enterprise, voice recognition and predictive analytics. (Work) information comes in bigger volumes over the days, and finding it easy is the key for eased workflow. Customized micro and mobile apps are with such simple and intuitive design, so that all the information is accessible, mobile and well-organized. To learn more on the topic of Enterprise software and DevOps, join the Dev Summit within Webit.Festival. On the scene you’ll see and hear top level speakers, such as the Founder and CTU of Maria DB Foundation Michael "Monty" Widenius, the Founder and CTO of Hired Allan Grant, and the Developer Evangelist in Amazon Peter Heinrich.

Today the state of multitrillion dollar healthcare worldwide is inefficient, bureaucratic and too expensive. But all this could change thanks to the implementation of exciting new technologies for digitalization of health. The time has come for the healthcare industry to follow transport’s suit and to embrace disruptive innovators like Uber and Lyft, who used the full potential of mobile technology to revolutionize the taxi industry. Thousands of startups, along with giants like Google, IBM, Apple, Samsung and many others are entering the new market for Digital Health and will totally transform the way people are treated today. All this will lead to healthcare, which is much cheaper and effective, experts believe that in the next 10 years this will be the most transformed industry in the world. Part of the reason is the rise of IoE devices, which will give medics accurate and live information about our health status. Wearables now monitor everything from blood sugar to blood pressure, medication, weight and levels of activity. According to recent research the medical device industry market, which totaled about $5.1 billion in 2015 will almost triple by the end of decade. Better monitoring, including devices and home visits, can lower the need of hospitalization and lead to huge cost savings. The CVS Health Research Institute calculated that deployment of remote devices and using their data could save as much as $63 million per 100 000 patients with high cholesterol and diabetes. Digital healthcare investment already has gone through several different waves. In 2013 the market was all about consumer wearables, in 2014 we saw the rise of healthcare big data. 2015 was the year of virtual care delivery and in 2016 we saw some development in payer disruption. But this year we can expect a return to developing technology that enables providers of health services to extend their reach and take greater risks. Recently the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the forming of an expert committee, that will create guidelines for countries and implementers on how to use digital health strategies to improve reproductive health outcomes. Disruption of the healthcare industry will require continued movement towards a more value-based model, which will help for improving of preventive medicine, patient-centered and patient-powered care and reduced costs. If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of digital health Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During the Health & Wellbeing Summit, you can listen to top level speakers such as the Consultant surgeon & Co-founder of Virtual Medics and Medical Realities prof. Shafi Ahmed. He is the first doctor who streamed a live operation using Google Glass to 14 000 students in 2014.

History of the human race is full of stories of amazing leaps, from migrating out of Africa to landing our spacecrafts on other planets and even asteroids. Nearly 50 years after first human steps on the Moon the space industry is completely different, than it was in the 20th century. Contrary to perceptions, space industry is extremely traditional because of the high costs and need of minimal risk. But now private companies are beginning to take the initiative and to change our ideas about space as a place, reserved for government agencies. There was a time when NASA and Roskosmos were the two main engines of our dreams for space exploration. But over the last 15 years that has changed with tens of space companies entering the market with serious plans for building rockets and colonizing new world. Today almost everyone is aware of Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin, mostly due to the popularity of their celebrity entrepreneur owners. If their efforts for creating a reusable booster succeeds, this can lower the costs for space launch with as much as 60%. And this is not even the whole picture. Hundreds of small startups have popped up for the new space race. Companies like Astrobotics are charging $1.2 million per kilo to take your stuff to the moon, while experts in Saber Aeronautics are using video game tech to help you create missions and operate satellites with minimum training. During last year’s Webit.Festival in Sofia the project coordinator and engineer at European Space Agency (ESA) Lluc Diaz explained that because of the numerous private initiatives mankind is starting to look for the exploration of deep space. In Europe, all this is happening not only with private capital, but through programs for public-private partnerships. Right now ESA is working with more than 400 startups, helping them with expert knowledge about implementation of space tech in our everyday life. Great example of this kind of partnership is the success of companies like Planet Labs, that creates smaller and cheaper satellites that are easier to launch in space. This year on Webit.Festival you can find out more about the future of space industry and exploration of the Universe from top level speakers, likе the Chairman of Breakthrough Prize Foundation Simon P. Worden. The author of more than 150 scientific papers in astrophysics space sciences and strategic studies will talk about the search of life beyond the Earth and deep space traveling.

After a landmark year, in which companies worldwide began to analyze databases of all forms and sizes we can expect systems supporting large volumes of structured and unstructured information to continue rising. We know well that there is huge amount of valuable information in the corporate world, but there are few companies that are using its full potential. The data that your company already owns can show you a lot about the way your customers are thinking, what do they want and what they are thinking about your brand. Market already demands platforms and services for data management and security. In the same time we are going to see a lot of tools, that empowers users to analyze that data. Today Big Data is not something, that only enterprise use. In fact it is a game changer for every industry and is even messing in the political life. As Vice’s Motherboard reported, data analysis from social media is among the key factors for the victory of Donald Trump in the USA presidential elections. Psychologist Michal Kosinski developed a method to analyze people based on their Facebook activity. Five years ago he proved that it is possible to predict user’s skin colour, sexual orientation, political affiliation, intelligence, religion and even alcohol use on the basis of just 68 “likes” in the social media. This type of analytics can bring enormous benefits for the business because it can be used not only for creation of psychological profiles, but also for searching them around the web. Expert believe that in 2017 many small and midsize companies will form strategies for taking more of their applications to the cloud and out of the data centers. This will save them costs of investment in equipment and will lead them towards subscribing to services. Moving data analytics to the cloud will accelerate the process of turning your data into action. Big Data will help businesses to precisely predict future behaviors and events and improve their profits. This will be a key factor for minimizing revenue risk exposure and improving of operational effectiveness. If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of data usage and analytics Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During the Big Data & Cloud Summit, you can listen to top level speakers such as the VP for Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy at IBM Jonas Jacobi and the CTO of Intel Security for EMEA region Raj Samani.