Tag: Apple

This is the message that Webit’s Executive Chairman and Goodwill Ambassador for Bulgaria's Digital Affairs - Plamen Russev sent to the world from Davos and shared upon his landing at Sofia Airport. He shared his impressions from the past week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. This year Dr. Russev hosted a special forum and reception - Webit.Davos 2019.

Apple's Chief Executive Officer among Webit.Davos 2019 guests

More than 300 guests from the world elite accepted Dr. Russev's personal invitation, including Apple's CEO Tim Cook, the President of Harvard University - Larry Beikou, presidents and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and many other government and NGOs representatives, as well as media, among which CNN, Forbes, and others. Such elite of global leaders are seldom brought together. The forum took place in the area with the highest level of security at the Davos Forum in Hilton Garden.

“There are dozens of events happening in Davos every minute, and the competition for the attention of the world leaders is extremely high. It was an exceptional honor for me that over 300 global leaders were with us and respected us with their presence. This is also a signal to others about Webit's influence and next year we expect even more interest.“ - said Webit’s Executive Chairman Plamen Russev.

The development of artificial intelligence, the future of work and blockchain technologies were among the main topics of the event. As a Goodwill Ambassador for the Digital Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria, Dr. Russev introduced his high-profile guests to the exceptional opportunities Bulgaria provides as a hub for new technologies. Webit affirmed Sofia as a digital capital in the global media and continues to promote the city and Bulgaria as a place for innovation and opportunities for opening development centers and creation of new high tech jobs.

"Mercedes Benz creates its entire platform for autonomous cars based on artificial intelligence in Sofia. 1300 Bulgarians will write such a platform, again based on artificial intelligence, for another world giant - Bosch. After attending two consecutive editions of Webit.Festival, the creator of the world's most used database - MySQL, chose to invest in a local company that is working on his new, extraordinary project ... I can give dozens of other examples. Bulgaria is becoming a local technology superpower and that is completely in unison with the long-standing efforts of Webit and our partners to improve people's lives by developing entrepreneurship and increasing the influence of women in business and politics. For the last 11 years, Webit builds and affirms the image of our country through our global community of over 800 000 people, who receive Webit news and are part of our global family. " Dr. Russev continued.

"Although the tone of the discussions in Davos was a bit pessimistic, I am moderately optimistic about Bulgaria and the creative role of our country in the region. The main challenges are to work together and for the common good; education is a key factor and much has to be done in this area. Webit Foundation has already gathered over 3000 young people - the color of the nation and enlighten them about the future. We have many plans and a lot of work to do together in that direction!"

Plamen Russev has also hinted at another big update, which is to be officially announced soon. From his words, 26 European cities are currently bidding to host Webit.Festival 2020. Which are the cities, what are their proposals to Webit, and whether Sofia will remain on Webit’s world map, are questions yet to be answered.

On 21-22 April, CEEDS'15 got together in Sofia more than 3,300 top executives from Central and Eastern Europe. CEOs, founders, CTOs, CIOs and top managers shared their experiences during the ‪CEEDS by ‪‎Webit lecture stream and shared part of the marketing trends that will influence the market in the next few years. “Global Webit Series became a gateway between the corporate and startup worlds helping them innovate through collaboration,” said Plamen Rusev - serial entrepreneur and investor in technology companies, founder of the largest technology forum CEEDS'15 by Webit. He opened the conference with an inspiring speech, highlighting the speed of the technology advancement and the importance of being aware of the opportunities that this digital tools offer us in order to achieve a better future. The following lines contain all the inaugural speech of Plamen Russev: “We are living in a very unique in economic history time when the very potent cocktail of globalisation combined with digitalisation is giving wings to amazing companies and endeavours. The companies who arised on the waves of it are all part of our everyday living now – Google, Apple, Facebook, Uber, AirBnB to name some of them. None of these are targeting niche markets – all of them are on a quest of taking over the world. Now we are going through a global digital transformation – it is changing our lives, societies, long lasting industries, lifestyles... in other words we are now facing a social transformation that ultimately will affect each and every person in this room, in this region and around the world. The phenomenon of this digital a.k.a social transformation is that it is taking place globally, at the same time and almost the same speed and impact and that it is driven by a quantified number of people (mostly located in the Silicon valley) with armies of developers chasing artificial intelligence and creating real life solutions which few years ago were considered science fiction and impossible. Do you remember when you first read about self driving or driverless cars a few years ago? A pure example of innovation thinking – you take the most important things in a product which you know and start removing the most important component of it. This is the way many new products are born, but in the driverless cars case you not only remove the wheel, the pedals and all connected to them controls, but the driver! So a few years ago when this hit the news – we all thought it might take decades to see it on the street – if we see it at all. Now all states in America already voted acts allowing such cars on the streets, UK is planing to become the largest adopter of the technology by 2017-2018. Something which was considered crazy a few years ago is adopted as normal today and the technology development is not linear but rather exponential and it is a fact that it started to advance faster that science fiction itself. What I believe we shall see next is the digital transformation being led by a few hundred tech illuminates and investors leading to a global revolution. Imagine what will happen to the thousands of taxi drivers in just few years when driverless cars become common on our streets. What about the artificial intelligence – it might not be news for you but the fact is that algorithms in the US control some 70 percent of all trading on the stock market these days. And it is not even close to artificial intelligence – imagine the impact over the human kind once it is achieved in the way some people think of it! Today you may sequence the human genome for a few hours and for some 1000 USD. Imagine how this can influence medicine tomorrow? Imagine how all the above is changing the world we live in. These technologies are all impacting one another but still each going its way. Imagine what will happen if a common platform may leverage on all of them and use them in synergy and simultaneously – and this platform is the AI. Imagine the speed of innovation and the horizons of it. Imagine how it will look compared to today. Now stop imagining. It is today! "The singularity is already here," says the person bearing the personal responsibility for technology taking over the science fiction. "It's not something that just happens next Tuesday at 9:40 in the morning. It's a process and it is taking place right now." says Sebastian Thrun, founder of Google X laboratory which for the past years created more new symbolic products and innovations such as driverless cars, Google glass, contact lenses that measure blood-sugar levels and many more. Thrun says "It's not the naysayers, but the optimists who will change the world, and the consequence is that such people will also amass more wealth and power." This is the reason the Webit community grows at 4 continents and brings so many amazing optimists together. "Over 120'000 people are part of our community newsletters from all around the world. Every year Global Webit series welcome over 15 000 people to our events in Europe, Middle East and Asia from over 110 countries. All of them, all of you are the optimists who are changing the world and who are part of the Digital transformation." The Global Webit Series because the largest EMEA digital economy forum to help boost the knowledge transfer, business networking and opportunities and innovation. More that this we are the most startup friendly enterprise events welcoming hundreds of selected innovative startups in technology, science, energy, commerce, fin-tech, health, edtech, digital entertainment, infrastructure, Big Data, cloud, etc. More than this – every year we are supporting them with a grant of a Millon Euros in marketing, PR, media and investors relations and investments. The Global Webit Series became a gateway between the corporate and startup worlds bringing synergy and helping them innovate through collaboration. But the humble beginning of Webit events was to change and improve the lives and chances of the people in Europe and more precisely for Central and Eastern Europe. Our team is not just making events and creating communities, we believe we bring happiness – we believe and know it by personal experience that people are happy being along with their families and friends and at the same time having opportunities for career and business development. This was the initial idea of Webit to help people from CEE embrace opportunities through the network which Webit brings, through the knowledge and knowhow transfer we empower and the business opportunities that arise from that. Recently I have heard through friends of mine about 3 young Bulgarians who proved the fact that the right time is now – not the future. 2 boy and a girl at their 17-teens won award for a robot they have build from various sources and using their pocket money and were selected among over 100 candidates at their age from all around Europe at the an international event in Vienna, Austria. Such young people are the proof that talent is equally distributed around the world – it is not only in America or Germany – it is everywhere – but we as society and individuals are responsible to invest in their education and opportunities if we want CEE and Europe to be part of the future I have shared with you in the beginning – and not only being spectators, but leaders and master minds. Тhe digital transformation leading to the global social transformation is a phenomenon that is still misunderstood, first and foremost by policymakers. If we want our home continent Europe to play a role in the future our Policymakers should master the framework creating the dreamers starting from school and the education system, legislation, healthcare, transportation and above all – to boost the entrepreneurial spirit, while following rules applicable for all. “ Annual Webit Series gather over 15,000 people worldwide and assist entrepreneurs from around the world, providing them with marketing resources, mentoring and opportunity for development by connecting them with investors, media and corporations. You can see the opening keynote of Mr Plamen Russev at CEEDS'15 by Webit in the YouTube Channel of Webit HERE.

If they ask you to name three companies from the digital industry, what would you say? Amongst the first that will come to your mind will be Facebook, Google and Apple, for sure. On 01-02 of October these three giants will be on the stage of Webit Global Congress in Istanbul, Turkey and you should not miss it. Founded 10 years ago, on February 4^th, 2004, Facebook is the youngest giant from the group. Currently, the social network has more than 6800 employees and total assets which equal to almost 18 billion dollars. Google is the bigger brother, founded on September 4^th, 1998. The 16-year-old company has more than 52 000 employees and 111 billion dollars assets for 2013. And last, but not least the eldest one, 38-year-old Apple, founded on April 1^st in 1976. Apple’s assets, 207 billion dollars, are almost twice these of Google and the employees are 80 000. No matter how different Facebook, Google and Apple are, they have something in common – the desire to dominate. When it comes to advertising, the rivalry between Facebook Ads and Google AdWords is well-known. Both Google and Facebook have a massive potential audience. Both offer paid as well as free advertising. According to their purpose, advertisers can choose which one to use. Google+ allows Google to collect personal user data and by checking Gmail and YouTube we can soon expect that Google’s user data will surmount Facebook in terms of value. On the other hand, we have Apple versus Google…again. In the last few years, especially after the passing of Steve Jobs, Google improved its brand recognition and became the world’s most valuable brand, according to MillwardBrown's 2014 BrandZ ranking. The desire to dominate provoked not only Google, but also Apple and Facebook to innovate and constantly to look for new opportunities. You see it is intriguing around the giants, so do not miss the chance to see them on one stage - 1-2 October, Istanbul, Webit Global Congress. Apply now!

1-2 October, 2014, Istanbul – remember these dates and reschedule if you have any other plans. The 6th Webit Global Congress is going to happen and for Digital, Tech and Media industry this will be the most beneficial and profitable two days of the year. Just in case you are not sure yet, here are only 10 reasons why you should join:

1. The only place with almost 60% C-level attendees who you can join to connect with the world’s Digital, Tech and Media elite! C-level managers at companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, etc. Pay attention – active managers (not ex-ones).
2. The venue – not only because of the fabulous city of Istanbul, but also because of the impressive venue which can be reached by all means of transport, including by boat.
3. Networking party on yacht – why not?
4. You will be surrounded by `giants` - Google, IBM, Apple, eBay. Good feeling, isn’t it?
5. Lectures will be divided in two flows – digital marketing and entrepreneurship. You can focus on what is really important to you and your business.
6. Speakers have only 10 minutes for their lectures – no babbling, only the essential.
7. Along the whole event, topics, devoted to new growing markets, will be discussed. Markets in Africa, Middle East, East Europe, etc. which will define the new trends and on which you want to operate, for sure. This way you can be sure you will not waste neither your time, nor your money.
8. Great opportunity for networking with worldwide known experts. Please, read again reason №4.
9. The only event where you will meet the best agencies in the world – Agency Lounge will be the place where agencies meet their clients and talk "Successful Business".
10. Founder Games, organised by Webit, are looking for the best startups and provide 1 million EUR marketing budget for startups.

Stay tuned for more reasons, news and updates. Have in mind that time is ticking away. Apply now!