Tag: ceeds’15 speakers

Beat Schwegler is part of Microsoft’s technical evangelism and development team (ted), where he architects, design and codes leading edge apps and services to showcase the Microsoft platform – with a special focus on cloud. He started to focus on cloud computing in 2008 and just loves the opportunities it provides to businesses of all sizes. Before joining Microsoft, he was an independent architect and developer and was involved in a wide variety of projects, ranging from real-time building control systems, best-selling shrink-wrapped products to large scale CRM and ERP systems.

CEEDS: How will you explain cloud evangelism with one sentence?

B.S. Helping companies of all sizes to understand how to benefit from cloud computing – both form a technology and business perspective.

CEEDS: What qualities needs the successful cloud evangelist?

B.S. A technology evangelist must have a strong technology background combined with the passion for public speaking and writing. It is a cycle of doing innovative projects with customer and partners, turn the outcome into reusable assets and then talk and write about it.

CEEDS: What is the opportunity of cloud computing in the CEE region?

B.S. Cloud democratizes access to computing and is a key enabler for applications of global reach. I see a big opportunity in CEE to take advantage of the strong technology skills to create innovative applications and services which gain adoption not just in CEE but worldwide.  The opportunity is global!

CEEDS: What are your expectations from CEEDS’15? What is your motivation to be a speaker at CEEDS’15 by Webit?

B.S. I’m looking forward to learn about great solutions from participating startups and to help them to explore areas where new technology can help them to deliver even more innovation. I hope my session will help attendees to better understand the power of machine learning and predictive analytics.

CEEDS: Whom you will recommend to attend CEEDS’15 by Webit?

B.S. Everyone who wants to learn about what’s hot in technology!

Nell Watson is an engineer, entrepreneur, and futurist thinker. She is Founder & CEO of Poikos, the smartphone 3D body measurement company. Nell's patented technology ‘dematerialises’ the 3D body scanner, by providing accurate 3D scans of the body with only 2D camera hardware, such as that found within smartphones, or laptops. This may then be applied to a range of markets, such as fashion, mass customisation, and health. In 2013 Nell was awarded a full scholarship to join 80 other students for Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Programme. She has since become noted as a speaker and visiting lecturer on technology, and how it relates to the psychology and philosophy of life in our society.

CEEDS:How does technology relate to the psychology and philosophy of life in our society?

N.W.I've long been fascinated by how technology can change how we choose to live our lives. Machines have the capacity to view humans in ways that are perfectly objective. A machine will not typically not lie to us (it would take a wise one to do that)! This makes it harder for machines to understand human values, but it also makes it easier for them able to guide us, flawed and imperfect as we are, towards the goal of realising an idealised version of ourselves. Captology is a word coined by Stanford Experimental Psychologist BJ Fogg to describe such mechanisms (the CAPT part stands for 'Computers As Persuasion Technology'). We can create intelligent agents that act like a digital coach, helping us to choose behaviours and habits that are likely to increase our health and wellbeing. This has important implications in any area that requires willpower - such as fitness, productivity, and even good morals. I believe that the most important question of the coming age will not be 'how can we cope with being replaced by machines', but rather 'how can machines help me be a better person?'

CEEDS: You have patented technology that ‘dematerialises’ the 3D body scanner by providing accurate 3D scans of the body with only 2D camera hardware. This is the app Poikos. How did you come up with the idea?

N.W.I originally wanted to help people working in sweatshop clothing factories in Asia. I reasoned that a good way to help them to empower their wealth and independence would be if there was a trend towards custom-fit goods. That way, they could use the same general skills, but create more value for that single customer, and earn a lot more for their work, as independent contractors. The problem was that there was no mass market for customised goods (sometimes called mass-customisation). Companies like Dell, for example, had pioneered the ability to customise a laptop with the exact specifications desired. However, to do this for clothing was very difficult and expensive, because of the problem of getting the right measurements. So, I set out to solve that problem. In doing so, I discovered how the same technology created by my team can be applied to a range of further areas, including shopping online, and many areas of healthcare (including physiotherapy, and prosthetic limbs).

CEEDS:Could you tell us an example of it being implemented in everyday life?

N.W.Yes, in fact, Poikos itself can act as a persuasion technology. We can easily track how the body changes in size and shape over time. Furthermore, we can enable one to simulate an idealised future version of oneself - the same in every respect except bodymass - and then set that as a target to work towards. I discovered this myself by accident, and found it to be be extremely motivating! We're now working on a way to bring this capability to easily to everyone on Earth.

CEEDS: What is your motivation to be a speaker at CEEDS’15 by Webit?What are your expectations from CEEDS’15?

N.W.CEEDS '15 will showcase the best of the Balkans. I have long been excited by the number and quality of startups that I've seen coming from this part of Europe, and have many entrepreneur friends in the area. Now is a chance to come and visit the cultural core where all of this ingenuity comes from, to learn from it, and to share ideas.

CEEDS:Whom you will recommend to attend CEEDS’15 by Webit?

N.W.From my perspective, to get your finger on the pulse of this important wellspring of innovation, CEEDS is the place you need to be.

Sotiris Makrygiannis is the founder and the CEO of Eliademy. He got his first personal computer when was 11 and started his career in ICT business at 17. Sotiris launched one of the very first electronic schools in Greece in 1997 and later moved to Finland to help Nokia build mobile devices for mass market. His last project was award winning N9, the last Nokia phone build using open source technologies. Sotiris is open minded and his personal credo is "learn fast and adapt". He believes world can be changed by democratising education with technology. Sotiris is a father of two wonderful girls, and is always passionate about his work, family and open source.

CEEDS: How will you evaluate the current condition of digital education in Eastern Europe? What needs to be improved and can you propose any action steps about that?

S.M. There 3 dimensions in the current situation:

1. Access to internet and the situation is improving but maybe not as fast as it should. Some of the recent EU initiatives around broadbands, mobile operators will improve the situation and hopefully within the next 2-3 years EE will be on the same level as the nordics.
2. Second dimension is around teachers education and the demographics around the volume of teachers. Is known that older generations are not willing to adapt or introduce new technologies in the classroom. A massive retraining needs to occur because the issue here is more related of being afraid of the new and not because they dislike technology.
3. Is the dimension of giving incentives to students on learing online , beyond Facebook, in order to build a carrer and I think that we are overemphasising in the media the power of silly apps rather redirecting the youth into educational content and service such as Eliademy.com

CEEDS: You believe world can be changed by democratizing education with technology. Do you have action steps about how this is going to happen?

S.M. In summary there 3 steps for this:

1. Making education accessible to all, meaning that digitalisation of education has the potential to reach and continuously train the 7 billion people on this planet.  We never before had such power to connect 1 teacher to 10.000 students and get them trained en mass.
2. Social contract, during the process we must keep Educational services clean. I observe a lot of interest from some publishers to get access to the user data from educational platforms. Im worried that their motive is to maintain , in the long run, their power by distributing data to affiliate networks (digital ad agencies) and impose an influence to bloggers. Educational services should remain clean and maintain their independence from marketing agencies.
3. High quality adapted content in forms of services or applications. One service will not fit all, we will need diversity of applications and educational services and Im happy that this is happening as we speak.

CEEDS: You started your career in ICT business when you were barely 17 years old. How has your motivation and values changed since then?

S.M. I'm now 40 years old and I'm always eager to learn something new. I love what I do and I still have the energy of a young fellow. However now as a father I care more about what Im going leave behind to the future generations, when I was younger I was more selfish.

CEEDS: What is your motivation to be a speaker at CEEDS’15 by Webit? What are your expectations from CEEDS’15?

S.M. I'm really excited to be part of CEEDS, I like the sound of it and Im also impressed with the organisation and execution of your events. I would like the world to hear a different point of view, beyond the ordinary messages, something that hopefully will stimulate their mind and place a seed of change. My expectations are around networking, visiting the beautiful Bulgaria and spreading a message.

CEEDS: Whom you will recommend to attend CEEDS’15 by Webit?

S.M. I will recommend and I already have, to all C level executives and dreamers but also the young curious souls looking to hear what the global start up CEOs and executives dream about the future.

Rogier Croes is active in the world of digital for over 15 years and has a background at creative agencies, performance agencies and media agencies. He is a visionary online marketer and passionate about his work. In the past years he has build a successful track record in progressive online and e-commerce roles working with leading market brands in all categories.

Currently Rogier is Chief Digital Officer in the CEE region, Russia, Ukraine and the CIS region. His role is to accelerate digital across the region and make full use of technological developments. He plays a key part in creating and maintaining a collaborative environment for MEC and manages the regional Interaction community, providing leadership and management.

CEEDS: As a marketer with over 18 years experience in digital how do you see the digital market in CEE region in 5 years?

Р.C. I think in the next 5 years, there will be a big shift from focussing on media pricing to quality of work and short term campaigns to long term impact for your brand. Consumers do not get connected to brands by only throwing more advertising to them, you need to win their trust to get their attention. This means brands do need to reinvent themselves and define why they exist and why they deserve the attention from consumers. The other shift is in the personalised message. With mobile still growing fast and wearables entering the markets soon on a big scale, new opportunities for brands will arise, but who thinks these ‘new’ screens are another place for more adds, will probably not be here anymore in 5 years.

CEEDS: What is your evaluation of the startup ecosystem in CEE region?

R.C. There are many very bright people in the markets and western Europe reaches out more and more to the CEE region to build great things together. I would like to see more initiatives to connect the East with the West and do great things together.

CEEDS: What is your motivation to be a speaker at CEEDS’15 by Webit? What are your expectations from CEEDS’15?

R.C. I love the energy of the event and meeting old and new faces. I hope there are many technology companies and new initiatives to be inspired by. Personally I always hope to run into interesting startups, who are passionate about what they are doing and find ways to work together.

CEEDS: Please share with us a part of your topic so to keep it hot.

R.C. I will speak about the impact of technology and innovation for brands and will try to inspire the people. I will talk about the impact of wearables, the effect of exponential growth, how retail will change forever, and how marketeers need to start thinking different.

CEEDS: Whom you will recommend to attend CEEDS’15 by Webit?

R.C. Anybody working in this region.