The Future of Big Data, Big Cloud and Connected Devices

We are living in a constantly changing, complex, interconnected world. We are seeing all kinds of connected devices all around us both at home and at the enterprise. All these connected devices create enormous amount of data, Big Data. The great challenge facing us is what to do with it. How to make it useful. At the blue track of the Global Webit Congress we are presenting speakers from leading companies that will discuss trending topics like Big Data, Big Cloud, Connected Devices and IoT.
Connected Devices at Home
Consumers are using more and more mobile devices in their everyday life. Smartphones and tablets are connecting us to the world around us. The new trend of "wearable "connected devices are linked to our mobile phones and tablets and can measure and transmit via sensors all kind of data. At home, we see ordinary devices like thermostats, lights, garage doors and kitchen appliances all becoming "smart". These devices are connected and can be controlled with a smartphone. They have the ability to autonomously adjust settings, alert users based on information and sensors from other devices both within the home or on our wrist. All these connected devices interact with each other and create Data. Lots of it.
Connected Devices at the Enterprise
At the enterprise level, the trend is of using smartphones and tablets for business needs. Enterprises see this as an excellent way to increase employee effectiveness. This creates a lot of data and enterprises are looking for ways to use all this accumulated data for its business needs. To add to all this many industrial devices are also being connected and this is a future trend. Again, this creates data, big data.
Big Data and Big Cloud
All data that we see accumulated has to be useful for both the consumer and the enterprise. It has to be stored, analyzed and automated. The Internet of Things (IoT) is creating a completely new ecosystem of interconnected devices both at home at the enterprise and all around us. In addition, all these connected smart devices are creating Big Data that is being stored in the cloud. The challenges ahead are how to make all this data useful. We are just in the beginning with many challenges ahead in making this data useful. It is not surprising that companies like IBM, Cisco, Qualcomm Ventures, Intel, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and many others are looking at real time solutions to store, share, analyze and automate this Big Data in the Big Cloud. At the blue track of the Webit influential Founders, CTOs, CIOs of the worlds most innovative companies; disruptive startups, top talents, over 400 investors and 300 accredited media will take part in the Leaders of the Future tech discussion. Join them and get an early bird ticket now!

Mariano A. Bosaz, The Coca Cola Company: Why is failure so...

The competition for speakers at the 6th Webit Global Congress is over and we promised to you to make some interviews with the speakers. We are always keeping our promises, as you know, so today you can read the first interview. It's with Mariano A. Bosaz. Mariano A. BosazMariano A. Bosaz is Group Digital Director Eurasia Africa of Coca-Cola Company. He is amongst the winners for speakers of Webit with 2615 votes. Let us remind you that more than 53 123 people joined Webit competition of Webit Audience Choice Speakers voted for 312 candidates to join the amazing speakers of the Global Webit Congress 2014.

Webit: Mr Bosaz, are you excited that you are among the winners at audience award to be on the stage of GWC so 10 000 visitors from EMEA and ASIA will be able to hear your thoughts and you will share your experience with them?

M.B.: I am excited as I am also keen to participate in Webit. This congress is not only one of the most important in the region but also known Worldwide. So I am looking forward to attend.

Webit: During the contest they were really big names in the digital and tech industry worldwide so what was the feeling to compete?

M.B.: I spent time going through the list of candidates and felt that I would have loved to listen to some speakers. They have a lot of experience and as you said big names in the industry. I felt it less as a competition and more as a better way to let people choose key-note speakers and make participation more social.

Webit: What was your motivation to apply for a speaker at Webit and What are your expectations from the 6th Webit Global Congress?

M.B.: Honestly, I received an email about the upcoming event in Istanbul and a link to apply as keynote speaker. Since I knew about Webit and I did not have direct contact with the organizers, I thought it was a good idea to see if people wanted to listen to me. After some time, when I checked the site again, I had more than 1,000 votes and it was shocking because I did not push any communications from my side.

Webit: We have more than 300 media from all around the world there that are very curious for news and launches so please share with us in before just a part of your topic so to keep it hot.

M.B.: My topic is around failure. In the last 5 years, some digital companies started to develop a culture of tolerance towards failure. Yahoo, Google and Facebook are probably well-known because they have failure as part of their company principles. So I would like to discuss what is failure, why it is good for some, how much can companies “pay for failure” and the ROI of failure. I will illustrate with some recent examples during Football World Cup and onwards.

Webit: Who would you advise to attend Webit Global Congress and why?

M.B.: I am inviting our Marketing, Brand and Media Directors. They are key players in our industry from a planning and budget perspective. They lived the transformation of the world in the last 15 years and they are the C-levels of the next decade. Hurry up and book your ticket for 6th Webit Global Congress today!

From PC to mobile – the game changers

In the late afternoon of October 1st, Webit speakers at the Red track, Digital Marketing and Innovation, will discuss Digital Entertainment & Media Stream. Amongst the subtopics you can find ‘Tips and tricks on how to adapt to the disrupted value chain of media production and distribution. Who are the game changers?’. Pretty appropriate for the current situation, isn’t it? The consumer’s behaviour is rapidly changing, so is the value chain of media production and distribution. Almost half of the video watched today in US is either “time-shifted” (using DVRs or video on demand) or “device-shifted” (from television sets to laptops, tablets, or mobile phones). Music is more digital than ever, with over two-thirds of usage from streaming services, MP3 files, and satellite radio. Mobile phones have overtaken landline voice, even among consumers aged 55 to 64. All of this has happened in the last half century and there is no intention to stop. Do you know another moment in the history with such glamorous changes? These changes in user behavior have and will continue to disrupt existing industry value chains, creating both opportunities and risks for stakeholders. One of the trends, that is impossible not to be noticed is the device shift - from PC to mobile. In the last six years (from 2008 till now), the usage of mobile devices doubled and accounts for about 45% of all personal computing time. Many companies are aware of what is going on, but still there is a room for improvement. Another trend easy to notice is the content shift - from general to fragmented. Thanks to all of the search tools, available today, we have access to lots of information, like never before. In order to illustrate this, think about the way mobile phones are used. The number of apps installed (usually for a specific, single purpose) has doubled to over 30 per phone from 2008 to 2012. So, it is obvious that no matter the quantity of information we have, we need more. That is why gradually, the online digital media is replacing the traditional newspapers and magazines, since on the Internet we can find much more points of view on a specific problem. While reading about the trends, how many companies recall to your mind? Not more than five maybe. Well, these are the game changers. The 6th Webit Global Congress will present to you both the big picture, and the details on the topic, so do not miss this opportunity. Book your tickets with early bird prices now!

Can Europe beat Silicon Valley?

Europe is changing. Look at the vibrant, exciting and productive startup communities in Berlin, London, Helsinki and Sofia just to name a few and you will be pleasantly surprised with what is going on there and the opportunities presented. The reasons for these bustling activities of the startup communities in Europe and huge interest of individual investors and VC’s are manifold. Europe has tech talent, great ideas, good interwoven communities that are self-replicating and growing stronger. The interest of investors and VC’s are there and money flows to the European tech community. To find out why and what are the future trends of Venture Capital at the blue track of the Global Webit Congress we bring prominent and established speakers from the entrepreneurial, investor, startup and tech world. Under the topic Capital Talks and Future Trends, Dmitry Chikhachev, co-founder and managing partner of Runa Capital will share his vision on why Europe has a bigger potential than Silicon Valley. Dmitry is one of over 400 investors and C-level executives who will take part in the topic and discuss experience and future trends. Among them are such prominent figures as the CEO of Microsoft ventures, partners of Qualcommm Ventures, Welington, Y Combinator and many others.  Do not miss the Global Webit Congress! DmitryDmitry Chikhachev is a professional venture capitalist with more than 18 years of extensive cross-functional experience. Dmitry holds an MS degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He also completed an MBA curriculum, graduating with highest honors from the American Institute of Business and Economics. His investment interests span complex software, mobile, virtualization and could computing. He led deal execution for NGINX, Jelastic, LinguaLeo, Ecwid, Cellrox, Capptain and other Runa companies. Dmitry is a ‘hands on’ investor and helps portfolio companies with fundraising, recruitment, strategy and technology. Just recently, Dmitry and partners launched the $200M Runa Capital Fund II looking to invest in the best tech-companies across the Globe. At the blue track, Dmitry will focus his talk on the power of the European educational system. The role it has in tech. He will also talk on the increasing capital flow to Europe and the opportunities investors are looking for in Europe, the emerging and fading trends. Here is what Dmitry shared with us:
" It is clear that the old school investment teams are changing. As entrepreneurs take place as VCs, especially in Europe, their deep tech expertise can influence the funding approach. We should look into the hard-tech technology and see its market potential, speak common language with entrepreneurs.
Meet Dmitry at the sixth Webit Global Congress, and book your tickets with the early bird prices!

Media trading future trends

Trends in marketing industry are changing with the speed of light and if you want to stay on the market you have to take them in consideration. As we already discussed, RTB changed the world of advertising simply because traditional online display advertising is inefficient anymoreл So let’s now take a look at a few future media trading trends.

Consolidation as a means of accumulation?

Nowadays, if you are a big publisher you would need to work with either Amazon, or Apple, or Google. They have done amazing things for the publishing sector, but at the same time they are dictators and monopolists, and you either find other ways of trading or you find ways of standing up to the dictats. Both require versatility, which smaller publishers are probably better placed to benefit from, strength of market position (not to be lost to competitors), which the mergers are aiming to achieve, and cash investment.

Everything is `APPening online!

This is a progressive trend, that you are not able to stop or take back. The only option is to adapt in order to stay on the market. Various applications, various services. A clear side-effect of this will be a move from device-based apps to web-based apps will lots of content and tools. This way the focus is on end-user satisfaction, so you will just need to invest once to monetize content for numerous platforms.

The rising importance of RTB video

Video advertising is a more than a trend nowadays and when we combine this RTB, we get the rising importance of RTB video. A key driver of brand advertiser application of RTB has been the rising availability of online video advertising via RTB ad exchanges. With this growth, we can expect that more advertisers will plan their online video investments in conjunction with TV advertising and to experiment with “programmatic” TV buying. You will learn more about the media trading future trends at the 6th Webit Global Congress. Book your tickets with early bird prices now!

Dane Glasgow – eBay and the future of eCommerce

One of the first websites (or even the first) we associate with the term eCommerce is Ebay. This is the place that customers believe in and come back. Dane Glasgow is one of the people behind the scenes, who is working hard in order to build this credibility. It is our pleasure to present one of the speakers of Webit Global Congress.

Dane Glasgow serves as Vice President, Global Product Management for eBay Marketplaces, and brings more than 15 years of experience leading product design and development, innovation in search technology, and management to the world’s largest online marketplace. In his role, Dane focuses on delivering a compelling shopping experience globally for both buyers and sellers. Dane previously served as eBay’s vice president of engineering, where his team brought an increased level of structure and depth to the eBay Global Product Catalog.

Glasgow, Dane -304Dane joined eBay in December of 2008 through the acquisition of Positronic, a company he co-founded in Seattle. Positronic developed a sophisticated machine learning and natural language processing platform in the finance sector. As Positronic’s chief technology officer, Dane set the software vision – driving the architecture and roadmap to achieve positive results. Positronic’s technology and team were integrated into eBay following the acquisition.

Before co-founding Positronic, Dane was the director of program management at Microsoft for the Live Search product, leading a talented team of program managers who were responsible for delivering fast, relevant Search to customers throughout the world. In coordination with the development and test organizations, the team created the Web Search experience for Microsoft through MSN.com, Microsoft.com, and Live.com, including offerings for searching Web pages, Images, News, Products, Videos, and Blogs.

Prior to working on Live Search, Dane served as the general manager for the Windows Live Portal & Client team. The group developed software ranging from the Live.com portal, which placed users at the center of their information experience, to the MSN Search Toolbar, which offered significant browsing and search enhancements for Internet Explorer. In this role, Dane delivered near-instant search results for files and email on users' PCs through Windows Desktop Search. Dane also drove the acquisitions of Lookout Software, a provider of fast email searching for Microsoft Outlook, and Onfolio, a company delivering tools for browser-based research and information management. The team went on to ship Windows Live Writer, a desktop blog publishing application.

Previously, he helped launch MS Ideas, an internal site dedicated to helping employees post, discuss, and collaborate on new product ideas and technologies. Dane also served as Group Manager of MSN Calendar - which provided calendaring, task management, and notifications in numerous languages through MSN Hotmail.

Dane joined Microsoft in April 1999 through the acquisition of Jump.com, a company he helped create in Ithaca, N.Y.

Dane attended Cornell University, where he studied computer science, business, and fine arts. Outside of the office, he enjoys photography, computer graphics, amateur high altitude ballooning/rocketry, robotics, helping educational and scientific-based charities, and driving fast cars. Dane serves on the board of trustees for the SETI Institute.

An expert with consistent experience, Dane is a person you must know since he can teach you a lot about e-commerce. Meet him at the 6th Webit Global Congress, but before book your tickets with the early bird prices!

New marketing mix models: S.A.V.E. replaces the 4 P’s

The wide usage of Internet inspired marketing experts to have a new look at the well-known 4P’s by MacCarthy. Product, Price, Place and Promotion are the basis and will always be considered, but now supplemented by the S.A.V.E. model by Eduardo Conrado, Senior Vice President Marketing and IT at Motorola Solutions. S. is for Solution. Think about the solution of your customers’ problems instead of the features and functions of the product.
‘Solve their problem better than anyone else and you'll end up with a product your customers can't live without.’ - Ruben Gamez
A. is for Access. It is not about the place, it is not about whether it will be online or offline, your customers need your business to be accessible and you should provide them with it. You choose how.
‘What can a brand give me at this precise moment that I want or need? That's the bar companies now have to clear, and it's not easy.’ - Jay Baer
V. is for Value. Customers care about the price, it is natural, but before the price come the concerns about the value. Are the benefits of your product relevant to the price you define?
‘When we hear customers say that our product is too expensive, before wondering if we should lower the price we are more concerned with whether we should increase our product's value.’ - Walter Chen
E. is for Education. Your audience need and want to be informed. The number of businesses with online presence grows daily as well as the importance of attraction-based marketing.
“Simply because providing someone with free, and useful information, creates a much stronger bond and connection than any banner ad or press mention ever could." Leo Widrich
The S.A.V.E. framework is the modern look at the traditional 4P’s Theory and is inspirerd by the circumstances. Lots of marketing and digital experts will be at the 6th Webit Global Congress to discuss the new trends. In order to follow them, apply now!

Tony Conrad of About.me and True Ventures will be speaker at...

Tony Conrad is Co-founder and CEO of about.me and Founder/Venture Partner at True Ventures. He will be a speaker at the Blue track at Webit Global Congress 2014. He holds a BS in Telecommunications, with a minor in Business, from Indiana University. In addition to founding about.me and blog search engine Sphere (acquired by Aol) he is also a member of the True Ventures founding team, leading investments in Automattic (WordPress.com), Blue Bottle Coffee, MakerBot, Typekit, High Fidelity and more. His interests include being a dad, travel, architecture, the Cubs, scuba and IRONMAN triathlons. Tony is originally from a small Indiana farming community, has lived in Paris, Jakarta, New Dehli, and New York and currently lives in San Francisco. Tony Conrad will be a speaker at the blue track of the Global Webit Congress. To meet Tony Conrad and hear what he has to share book your ticket at an early bird price now.

Peter Fredell, CEO of Seamless, the global mobile payments company will...

Peter Fredell has had a career in international banking and capital markets. He will be a speaker at the Blue track at Webit Global Congress 2014. Peter has a successful record of accomplishment of developing financial services businesses. Since 1992, he is founder of Fredell & Co, investing in the financial and technological space. Fredell is today the largest shareholder of Seamless. He joined the board of Seamless in 2009 and since 2011 is CEO of the company. Seamless is a global mobile payments company that provides prepaid top-up systems and mobile payment services for mobile operators, distributors, retailers and consumers. The company has two main product lines: the proprietary transaction switch ERS 360˚ for top-ups to mobile operators and distributors, and SEQR for mobile payments in stores, on-line and in-app. In its home territory of the Nordic region, Seamless has established the proof points for its business and leading retail merchants, who have adopted the system, including McDonalds Sweden. Seamless is an international company with customers in more than 30 countries, from Brazil in the west to Thailand in the east. Their ambition is to build sales, support and operations in Stockholm, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pakistan and Ghana. It boasts over 3.1 billion transactions handled annually for more than 40 operators in these countries. Peter Fredell will be a speaker at the blue track of the Global Webit Congress. To meet Peter Fredell and learn more about mobile payments and the success story of Seamless book your ticket at an early bird price now.

Devotion, determination and talent. Meet Jimmy Maymann at Webit Global Congress

Born in Denmark and graduated at London Business School, to date Jimmy Maymann is experienced entrepreneur specialising in digital advertising, digital technology and new media strategy. He is also one of the lectors of the Red track at Webit Global Congress 2014. Jimmy Maymann started his career in Denmark after graduation. In 2005 he co-founded GoViral and ‘focused on expanding the reach through a more sophisticated technology, stronger publishing platform, partners and more intelligent people and satisfied clients’. In January, 2011, GoViral was sold to AOL and just one week later, AOL announced it had acquired the biggest newspaper on the web, The Huffington Post, where Jimmy is now the CEO. Jimmy’s focus within Huffington Post is to take his entrepreneurial skill-base and media know-how to grow and scale the Huffington Post Media Group suite of brands and expand them across international markets. The Huffington Post is reaching more than 90 million Unique Visitors globally (ComScore). To date, The Huffington Post, has launched in Canada, UK, France (Le Huffington Post with Le Monde), Spain (El Huffington Post with El Pais), Italy (L'Huffington Post with La Repubblica), Japan (Huffington Post Japan with Asahi Shimbun), Germany (The Huffington Post Germany with Burda/Tomorrow Focus) and Brazil (Huffington Post with Abril) and South Korea (Huffington Post with Hankyoreh). India is going to be announced shortly. Video is a key pillar in the expansion/monetization strategy and 1-year old 'HuffPost Live' is already delivering more than 100 million video streams on a monthly basis in the US. From January, 2010, Jimmy Maymann is an angel investor. Until now he invested in 6 projects:
  • Qriously - Measures sentiment on smartphones. Investor since September 2012
  • GameAnalytics - Analytics for Gamedevelopers. Investor since October 2011
  • Movellas - YouTube for Shortstories. Investor since August 2011
  • OverWolf - Social Gaming Overlay. Investor since June 2011
  • GateWay Japan - Online Brand/Retailer of Japanese Design. Investor since January 2010
  • Business of Fashion (BOF) - The World's leading fashion blog. Investor since March 2013
In order to meet this impressive digital expert and learn more about his rich experience, book your ticket for Webit Global Congress with an early bird price now.