In marketing you always have to be one step ahead of the pack and if you don’t have a crystal ball in your office, the best way to be switched on the trends of the future is to build a better understanding about the technological advancements of today. In fact new tech is more than just an engine of the digital age marketing. It is a generator for new types of customer demand and market shifts. According to Entrepreneur Magazine’s poll, 51.9% of the marketers worldwide named video as the content type that gives the best return of investment. Meanwhile Cisco predicts that by 2020 video will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic. This hot trend is visible even in the media coverage as more and more outlets prefer to share a viral short and texted clip on their timeline instead of writing an long analytical piece on the topic. The reason for the new strategy is the new life dynamics and the inability of users to hold their attention on something for more than minute and a half. Social media already promotes the video content in their algorithms, while Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg forecasted that within five years the social network will be mostly filled with video. About 43% of people online want to see more video content from marketers, but social media gives even more effective ways to communicate directly with the customer. One example of that is the the Snapchat geofilter that gives businesses the capability to customize ads and to target them to the users in specific location and time, for example the attendees on a concert, sports event or Webit.Festival 2017. Apps like Snapchat are becoming a prefered advertising option because of the limited lifespan posts they are providing. That way companies can run ad campaigns that disappear after a set period of time. Instagram already launched their own feature for this type of marketing activity. Five9’s CMO Kevin Garvin thinks that in 2017 video customer service will finally go mainstream and will be a powerful tool to ease communication problems in an easy and efficient manner. Part of the reason is the advance in marketing tech, that gives small and midsized marketers sophisticated tools with small budget. Many companies that never considered advertising on TV can now add an online video strategy to their program for B2C communication. Last year was big for live streaming as every major social network has incorporated this in its platform. But before they start streaming the marketers first have to carefully think about ideas for authentic instant content. 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.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation are the two biggest threats to the job security in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. According to a report, released by the Obama administration in the end of the last year, nearly 47% of the jobs in USA are at risk in the next 20 years.

Signs for what is coming are all over the news and even the notorious astrophysicist Stephen Hawking predicted that the increasing automation is going to decimate middle class jobs and worsen the already big inequality and political instability worldwide.

This process has already destroyed some jobs in traditional manufacturing and the development of AI is going to extend this trend to the service sector, when only management and supervisory roles remain safe, at least for now. Of course, the US administration report notes that the new technology will open new career opportunities for those with higher-level skills. But even they will need government-supported re-training programs to help mitigate the negative impact of automation by preparing displaced workers for their new jobs. Last week Japanese insurance company Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance laid off more than 30 employees and replaced them with artificial intelligence system that calculates payouts to policyholders. The firm management believes that this will boost its productivity by about 30% and will return the investment in less that two years. The annual cost savings will amount to about £1m and the cost of the system installation is £1.4m. It is based on the IBM’s Watson Explorer. Late last year the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates announced that it is building software that will automate the daily management of the company and will deal with the hiring and firing of employees and other strategic decisions. The company’s founder Ray Dalio assigned to his software engineers the task to ensure that the firm is managed according to his vision when he is not at work. They have built a tool that incorporate different rating into personal profiles of employees that show their strengths and weaknesses. Another app set goals for them and monitor their implementation. Although there is no unanimous opinion about the exact impact of AI on the labour market and the industry in the coming years we can certainly say that it will be more than great. To understand more about the application of artificial intelligence techniques in products and business you can listen to the leader of IBM Watson Partner Innovations Europe Christoph Auer-Welsbach. He is one of the confirmed speakers in the Tech Summit of Webit.Festival 2017 in Sofia. The expert will also talk about the best practices of high-growth startups on going from tested ide to scalable company. The main topics of his lecture will focus on Machine Intelligence, Cognitive Computing, FinTech, IoT and Smart City. During the Tech Summit you can learn the latest trends in Digital Transformation, IoE, BigData & Cloud, Security & Privacy, FinTech, Money & Payments. So, don’t waste 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.

By the end of the decade the market for digital health products and services will be at least $233 billion. Big part of this growth is due to the development of technologies for virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Digital health is already helping us to manage, track and improve our health and is improving our living standard. This innovative sector in medicine is only a part of the healthcare revolution in the last century, that has led to an increase in life expectancy worldwide with more than 25 years. Now that we are close to the limits of our lifespan limits the industry is more concerned with the topic of making our life not just longer, but more productive, especially during the years after 55. The healthcare of the new generation will soon increase efficiency in the delivery of services, reduce costs and personalize the whole process of treating the ill. Last year the 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab at the University of New South Wales managed to develop an actual model of cancer cell using the data from a high-resolution electron microscope and a CGI. This can totally transform the cancer treatment after decades of peering into a microscope to examine cells. Meanwhile the Australian VR company Liminal is trying to provide better life experience for people, who aren’t able to leave their hospital bed. The reason for that is not just comfort, but the fact that loneliness is often linked to higher risk of disease and slower recovery time. The VR and AR are already revolutionizing the surgical education and training. If you find this interesting you can meet in person the pioneer in this new branch of medicine Dr Shafi Ahmed. He is one of the first confirmed speakers for the Digital Health Summit during Webit.Festival 2017 in Sofia. Dr Ahmed is the first person in the world who live-streamed an operation using Google Glass. In 2014 he showed the world the removing of cancerous tissue from the liver and bowel of a 78-year old man. You can watch a link here. But beware, there are graphic images. In an online poll, nearly 90% of the students who watched the live video said that they want this type of learning process to be part of their curriculum. During the Digital Health Summit you can also learn the latest trends in EHRs, Telehealth Systems & Telemedicine Developments, Mobile Health Applications & Devices, Medication monitoring & Wellness Devices, Chronic Care Management, Genetic Science and Pharma Technologies.

One of the most popular stages 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 continuously changing the whole business world.

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.

We have 3 new top-flight speakers in our lineup for the Marketing and Innovation Summit! They include top executive from one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world, the CMO of one of the biggest business media worldwide and the chief digital officer of Wi-Fi security and privacy providing company, so read our guide to taking part or find out more about our latest speaker additions below.

•  Victor Milligan, CMO, Forrester Research.

As the CMO of Forrester, the American advisory company, executing technology and market research, Victor Milligan aims to drive clients’ growth by combining all kind of marketing operations, analytics and customer experience. Previously, Victor was responsible, again as the CMO, for the marketing development of two other companies: Nexage, a marketplace in mobile advertising relying on the forces of mobile revolution and programmatic technologies; and Lavastorm Analytics, a company combining enterprises-grade business applications with the potential of analytics. His professional approach lies on analytics as a key to early discovery of risks and delivery of transparency and liquidity to both buyers and sellers. Previously a Senior Managing Partner and Vertical Industry Leader at Gartner Consulting, another information technology research company, Victor developed and led $125M global vertical industry team. Before Gartner, Mr. Milligan led the architecture and planning team as Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton for 9 years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Vermont and have started his career in the US Air Force Space Command, contributing to the launch of the Global Positioning System, which is the base of so many location-based services today.   Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer and Head of the CMO Practice, Forbes Media. Currently responsible for Forbes Media's Insights division, Mr. Rogers works on the company’s leadership practice engaged by blue-chip companies like IBM, KPMG, Google, EY, Deloitte and Cisco. He also deals with content and events for senior marketers. His career at Forbes started as a VP Marketing at Forbes Magazine in 1991, continued as Chief Brand Officer at Forbes Media in 2008 and led to his current role of Chief Insights Officer and Head of the CMO Practice at Forbes Media. Mr. Rogers is the author of a regular column on thought leaders changing the business landscape, several articles and reports. He is also the co-author of three books: “Profitable Brilliance,” “In the Line of Money” and “I Win You Whatever”. His business thoughts may be read under intriguing titles like “Publish or Perish”, “Using Thought Leadership to Grow“, “Why Companies Need a Chief Reason Officer” and so on. Bruce Rodgers is a member of several organizations such as Adtech, Business Marketing Association, SBV Solutions. Another proof of his effective marketing ideas is receiving the Gold Effie Award from the American Marketing Association. Baglan Rhymes, Chief Digital Officer & SVP Global Revenue, AnchorFree Inc. Ms. Rhymes’ CV is rich not only in job titles and successful work projects, but in continuous volunteering experience too. Ms. Rhymes has played a key role in the history of her current company - the Wi-Fi security and privacy providing company AnchorFree. She actively contributed in raising $53M in Series C funding and in launching four new products, currently representing 98% of the company’s revenues. Besides her main job title of Chief Digital Officer & SVP Global Revenue, she is an experienced speaker, lecturer and panelist in the field of entrepreneurship, innovation in technology and digital media. She contributes to the development and branding of some of the hottest tech startups in Silicon Valley. An active member of Forbes Agency Council, Ms. Rhymes is named as one of the most Influential Turkish Women in the USA. She is the author of several white papers like “Customs Union & Turkey”, “Customs Union & the Aegean Region”, “The Expectations of Turkish Newspaper Readers”, “The Role of the Universities in Establishing and Maintaining the Democratic Foundations in a Society: The Turkish Case". She has recently published her first, co-authored book - “Of Love, Autonomy & Wealth: Work and Play in the Virtual World”, named as one of the best in self-help and business. 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.

One of Webit.Festival Europe's most important summits, the New Economy Leadership Summit, is invitation only highest level event, gathering political leaders (e.g. Presidents, Vice Presidents and top European political leaders), top entrepreneurs and founders, Nobel Laureates, scientists and innovators along with top enterprise executives from Europe and rest of the world. 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 views of political leaders on some of the major challenges the humankind faces in today's Digital age, well being, ageing, innovations, cyber security, digital transformation, disruptive legislation and many other topics.

We have 3 new top-flight speakers in our lineup for the NELS! They include one of the top executives of World Economic Forum, the mayor of Tirana and a highly respected professor of Economics.

 

• Martina Larkin, Head of Europe and Eurasia, World Economic Forum.

Member of the Executive Committee of World Economic Forum (WEF), Martina Larkin is definitely one of the professionals who fit on the New economy leadership summit scene. Her career starts as a marketing manager at Nestlé, continues with world of banking and consulting and ends up so far with the Swiss nonprofit foundation officially recognized as the international institution for cooperation between the public and the private sectors. Martina’s WEF professional story starts in 2004 as a Senior Project Manager of The Forum of Young Global Leaders - a gathering of 800 selected enterpreneurs. Since then, she has been heading different departments in the international institution for cooperation between public and private sectors, till the moment she became Head of Europe and Eurasia of the WEF two years ago. What connects her professional roles is the work with thousands of experts and leaders representing all the stakeholders involved in creating projects for public goods. In 2011, Martina becomes part of Yale University’s signature leadership development program as a Yale World Fellow helping creative minds to work on world’s contemporary problems. Besides WEF, she is part of several non-profit boards.  

• Prof. Fátima Barros, BEREC Chair 2015, President of the Board, ANACOM Portugal.

Barros is Chair of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) for 2015 and Vice-Chair for 2014. Since May 2012, she is the Head of the Portuguese National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANACON). Prior to that, she was a Board Member of several international academic and business institutions. Currently professor of Economics and former Dean of Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics (2004-2012), Prof. Barros holds Ph.D. in Economics from Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and a BA in Economics from the Catholic University (Portugal). Her numerous publications in the area of regulation, competition and contract theory can be read in leading international scientific journals.    

• Erion Veliaj, Mayor of Tirana.

Erion Veliaj is the current, 42nd elected mayor of Albania’s capital Tirana. Prior to that, he was Member of the Parliament for the district of Gjirokastra and Minister of Social Welfare and Youth. During his minister’s mandate, he has worked on much needed reforms, concerning pensions, employment, social welfare payments and professional education. In the period of 2015’s elections, his team created a crowd-sourced multi purpose smartphone application, giving easier access to information for Tirana’s citizens and visitors and a platform for real-time signals and feedback straight to the government on problems or issues in their neighborhoods. This same smartphone app brought to the city of Tirana the 2016 Award from the Ljubljana Forum Future of Cities. It also won the reputation of a tool that "offers an instant access from the mobile phone to all real-time information related to road traffic, urban transport, tourism and many more things of interest".  Mr. Veliaj believes in leading by example - and as the current mayor of Tirana, he works for a notable change in the city. His political career starts in 2003 by founding a civic organization which gained popularity as a youth movement.   The main topics of the summit are the urgent need of the best cyber security solutions, the well being of the whole human kind, digital transformation and the ways for boosting the EU entrepreneurial system. So far speakers at the NELS have been top level executives and innovators like Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank, Rossen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria, Markku Markkula, President, European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Andrus Ansip, Vice President European Commission, Binali Yildirim, Prime Minister Turkey. So, don’t waste 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 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