The IT industry now generates more than 2% of Bulgaria’s GDP
BASSCOM, the industry association of leading Bulgarian software development companies, presented today its annual report on the IT industry in the country. Among the guests during the press conference was Mrs Aniela Russeva, Senior Vice President of the Webit Global Series.

BASSCOM is a long term partner of the Global Webit Series of events and they both as communities support the growth of the market and industry and help the establishment of Bulgaria as a hub for the region of CEE, which already was proven by the title given to Sofia as The Digital Capital of the New Markets by Forbes after last edition of Webit in Sofia. BASSCOM also stated that in all industries there is already a need of IT specialists since all businesses are now transforming or started to adapt to the digital economy. Thus BASSCOM also announced a launch of special pilot of educational programme for IT specialists that will start not in the Universities but in the secondary school. First results will be visible on the market in the near future, when more young people will be ready to be part of the continuing growth of the industry in the country. We expect more companies to relocate their operations for the CEE region in Bulgaria as we have all the ingredients needed.
About Webit.Festival 2017: Webit.Festival is the European edition of the Webit Series of events, which will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from the 25th to the 27th of April, 2017. The festival consists of several parallel conferences and events, workshops, roundtables and exhibitions. The event is under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. The agenda includes Tech Summit, Marketing and Innovation Summit, Developers Summit and Smart Cities Summit. Separate area of the festival will be dedicated to startups from Bulgaria and other countries in the world. The agenda for the founders includes conference, meetings with investors, academy for startups and special stage for them to pitch their companies in front of a jury of investors, journalists and leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Webit.Festival is the most influential event on the tech and digital industry in the region. 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.It’s A Bird… It’s A Plane… It’s Superman!
aniela@webitcongress.com
Webit Festival again will give 200 000 euro seed investment for...
Use of VR during surgeries? It is reality already!
Digital health is among the topics at Webit Festival - it starts with the champion of new technology in medicine Dr Shafi Ahmed who will show how virtual and augmented reality can revolutionize surgical education and training.
One of the first confirmed speakers for Webit.Festival 2017 in Sofia is Dr Shafi Ahmed - pioneer in the use of virtual reality during surgeries. In fact, he is the first person in the world to live-stream an operation using Google Glass. If you want to hear more from him about this, you will see him on stage during Webit.Festival 2017 from 25-27 April in Sofia. Next year’s edition of the festival promises to bring more than 5000 attendees along with the top executives from world’s most renowned companies, investors, hottest startups and policy makers. Going back to Dr Ahmed, he is world known as one of the best general and colorectal surgeons, operating at The Royal London Hospital. In 2007, he was appointed as a Consultant General, Colorectal and Laparoscopic Surgeon at Barts and the London NHS trust. But the thing he is most popular for is the world’s first live-stream of an operation using Google Glass, which was watched live by 13000 students around the world. Dr Ahmed is also the founder of Medical Realities - an innovative group offering medical training products, specializing in virtual reality, augmented reality and serious games. By using consumer-level virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift, Medical Realities can reduce the cost of training, reach a wider audience and provide a completely safe learning environment for medical students. This is a whole new way of education for students, who can take the role of a surgeon and see through his eyes how is the surgery performed. This approach could make healthcare more equitable, making the training of surgeons worldwide a lot better. All you need is a virtual reality headset and you don’t have to travel abroad to train yourself, which is in fact a huge expense. “Surgery has always been learned through apprenticeship. Students must spend time in an operating theatre to get quality training from a mentor. While hospitals have got bigger and surgery has improved, the theatre space around the patient is still limited and it is difficult to provide everyone with a good view. VR lets every student learn from the best seat at the operating table”, says the doctor in one of his interviews. The next step is the development of devices which imitate the physical contact between the user and computer. There are companies developing various gloves or bodysuits which can replicate touch and feel. Dr Ahmed thinks that this devices could be ready for use in 3 to 5 years and they will be the next addition in this new way of education for surgeons. Of course, to know more about his thoughts on the subject, we will have to wait till April and his speech during Webit.Festival. About Webit.Festival 2017: Webit.Festival is the European edition of the Webit Series of events, which will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from the 25th to the 27th of April, 2017. The festival consists of several parallel conferences and events, workshops, roundtables and exhibitions. The event is under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. The agenda includes Tech Summit, Marketing and Innovation Summit, Developers Summit and Smart Cities Summit. Separate area of the festival will be dedicated to startups from Bulgaria and other countries in the world. The agenda for the founders includes conference, meetings with investors, academy for startups and special stage for them to pitch their companies in front of a jury of investors, journalists and leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Webit.Festival is the most influential event on the tech and digital industry in the region. 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 Russevaaniela@webitcongress.com
DIGITAL INDIA – A market in the size of Billions
Webit.INDIA took place in New Delhi on 29 September and was hosted by the Government of India. The Summit attracted some of the top market players and the drivers of the digital innovation, tech pioneers and investors.
Webit.APAC was opened by Gen V K Singh, Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs in the Government of India.
Along with the global enterprise leaders, founders and , India was represented by its top tier digital innovators and tech shapers. The Marketing Innovation stage of Webit hosted global and regional leaders including Ward Van Duffel, LEGO; Rohit Tripathi, SAP Mobile Services; Chris Steedman, M&C Saatchi Mobile; Norihisa Wada, EdulLab and Kyoto University; Vikas Gulati, Opera Mediaworks;H.E. Gen. V. K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs; H.E. Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Telecom and Railways; Shri. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of State for Human Resource Development;
Kawaljit Singh Bedi, NDTV Group Convergence; Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi, Member of Parliament and National Spokesperson; Dr. Lovi Raj Gupta, Lovely Professional University; Col. Devinder Sehrawat, Member of Legislative Assembly, Delhi Government; Pankaj Khushani, Google; Graham McDonnell, The New York Times; Nikhil Rastogi, Citibank; Avinash Jhangiani, Omnicom Media Group India; Virginia Sharma, LinkedIn India; Karthik Nagarajan, GroupM; Neeraj Bhalla, Whirlpool of India; Aashish Chopra, ixigo.com; Meagen Eisenberg, MongoDB; Scot Keith, 123west; Sruthijith KK, Huffington Post India; Rajiv Verma, AppLift India; Ashok Madaravally, NASSCOM 10,000 Startups.
Artificial Intelligence empowering Brand/consumer relationship, Virtual Reality, the future of media, investing in startups and growing the startup ecosystem in the region were among the topics discussed at Webit.INDIA 2016 in New Delhi.
A special edition of Founders Games awarded 100 000 USD.
For more info and upcoming Webit events – please visit GlobalWebitSeries.com
SouthEast Asia’s digital future
Who are the drivers of the digital innovation in Southeast Asia? Webit.APAC took place in Singapore on 20 September.
The event was hosted by the Government of Singapore and attracted some of the top market players and the drivers of the digital innovation, tech pioneers and investors.
Webit.APAC was part of SWITCH (5000 + attendees), opened by the Deputy Prime Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for National Security of Singapore Teo Chee Hean.
Southeast Asia was represented by some of its top founders, largest enterprises and investors. The Marketing Innovation stage of Webit hosted global and regional leaders including Jason Jercinovic, Havas Worldwide; Maya Hari, Twitter; Ward Van Duffel, LEGO; Rohit Tripathi, SAP Mobile Services; Caspar Schlickum, Wunderman APAC; Joe Nguyent, Asia Pacific comScore, Inc.; Justin Lee, HubSpot in SEA; Roger Graham, Hootsuite; Chris Steedman, M&C Saatchi Mobile; Christer Eriksson and Mark Tipper, R/GA; Norihisa Wada, EdulLab and Kyoto University; Rahul Asthana, Kimberly-Clark; Arshan Saha, Xaxis; Guillaume Sachet, MediaCorp; James Rothwell, Netflix; Mark Val, PlayFab; Nicolas Chaussin, Aviva Asia; Justin Peyton, DigitasLBi; Jon Hook, Phunware; Ganesh Kashyap, Mondelez International; Celina Chew, Chairman of Bayer (China); David Nicol, Retail & Mobile Payments, IBM; Zoe Lawrencel, TNS; Vikas Gulati, Opera Mediaworks; Arnaud Bonzom, 500 Startups and many more.
Artificial Intelligence empowering Brand/consumer relationship, Virtual Reality, the future of media, investing in startups and growing the startup ecosystem in the region were among the topics discussed at Webit.APAC 2016 in Singapore.
For more info and upcoming Webit events – please visit GlobalWebitSeries.com
Webit.India welcomes some of the brightest digital innovators
- Webit enables business opportunities at global scale and ignites further the growth of the local ecosystems, inspires and empowers them and creates a platform for dialogue between policy makers, enterprise and entrepreneurs.
- Webit is hosting global and regional enterprise Fortune 500 leaders, world renown scientists, hottest startups, founders and top policy makers.
- See more from the latest Webit.Festival event for Europe here: www.webit.bg
- Webit is hosting global and regional enterprise Fortune 500 leaders, world renown scientists, hottest startups, founders and top policy makers.
- See more from the latest Webit.Festival event for Europe here: www.webit.bg
- See more from the latest Webit.Festival event for Europe here: www.webit.bg
Adguard from Russia wins the Founders Games Challenge and € 200...
About Webit.Festival Europe
Webit.Festival Europe welcomed over 4300 attendees from 74 countries. Among the speakers were the President of Bulgaria, Mr. Rossen Plevneliev, the President of the European Committee of the Regions Marku Markulla, the founders of BlockChain, Hyperloop, Presidents and top executives from MasterCard, Google, IBM Cloud, Cisco, innovators, entrepreneurs, top European policy makers and investors. Among the speakers were also scientists including Prof. Moran Cerf, a business and neuroscience professor recently names among the the top 40 professors in the world under 40.
Cars producing water as an exhaust product, ceiling cover products from the Carbon in the air, a crystal memory which is practically forever and can record up to 360 TB information were only part of the future tech presented at the festival.
"Europe is becoming second tier player not only to America, but to China and India" said Plamen Russev, investor and Chairman of Webit.Foundation. "Central and Eastern Europe has the potential to help the continent make a jump. We have to prove that Digital Europe can jump" said also the Chairman.
See the official opening keynotes here.
More information:
Elina Georgieva
pr@webitcongress.com
more pictures:
The 4 Bulgarian investors and the winner
The Founders Games host - Evan Luthra (a self made tech millionare and an Instagram star), and the 4 Bulgarians who raised the 200000 EUR award (left to right) Plamen Russev, Bulgarian investor and Chairman of Webit.Foundation, Vassil Terziev, founder of Telerik, Ivo Evgeniev, Bulgarian Investor, Rosslyn Capital, Angel Kelchev, Endeavor Org.
The President of Bulgaria, Mr. Rossen Plevneliev and Plamen Russev, investor and Chairman of Webit.Foundation
The Mayor of Sofia, Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova
Over 4300 attendees from 74 countries attended Webit.Festival Europe. This is the Blue Hall of the Festival
Evan Luthra, the Host of the Founders Games Starup Challenge and the Webit's Pitch Stage
Webit's Jazz Networking Area
Part of Webit's venue - Tech Park Sofia
URBAN SUMMIT: Meetups List #webit April 18-19-20
€200 000 seed investment for the winner of Founders Games’16 @WEBIT.FEST
The startup friendly Enterprise event* Webit.Festival Europe just got friendlier!
Here is another BIG € 200'000 reason for the startups to apply for Webit's Founders Games, get a free expo stand, 2 free festival tickets and win € 200'000 seed investment!
Not a startup? Great! Webit is the only enterprise event to join and to explore great business opportunities with 75% C-level executives among the attendees as well as to have a walk among the exhibiting top European startups, get inspired, take advantage from collaborating with innovators or explore talent acquisition opportunities! If you still do not have your ticket - book today! Already registered - see you in Sofia! More about the € 200'000 A group of prominent successful entrepreneurs, investors and business angels have just joined me and together we announce a € 200'000 seed investment for the winner of Webit's Founders Games Challenge. Please share with your network of entrepreneurs that If they are not among the 930+ startups who have already applied - they have 5 days to do it! For all who have applied and were selected for exhibitors and to pitch in front of the jury - good luck! Their Founders Games just got € 200'000 more challenging and exciting! :) See you in Sofia on 19-20 April @ Webit.Festival Europe! Warm regards!Plamen Russev Chairman, Webit Foundation | Global Webit Series













