Tag: digital transformation

No matter if we like it or not, we are going to spend the rest of our lives in the future. So we better sit down and talk about the best ways of designing the future we truly want to live in together. And while “designing” the future may sound strange, the Chief Designer of SAP Martin Wezowski is sure that the ability to articulate and visualize our ideas will be among the most important skills in the years ahead. During his long career Wezowski moved across a broad range of design disciplines from visual, interaction, usability, service to system design. Right now he is on a mission to map, build and inspire a brighter future for the generations to come. He was among the top speakers at Webit.Festival Europe and explained to our guest his vision of this process.

“The changes in our lives are happening faster and faster and are becoming a flow and a platform for you to utilize as you want. But it is also a platform of fear. Everything we change and everything we see as something that we do not recognize is something we think is dangerous”, he said.

This is why the designer thinks that we must have a greater conversation about the processes that are happening today and the best ways of managing them. According to him the problem often is that people are not thinking about the future in a coherent ecosystemic way. [caption id="attachment_4963" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Chief Designer of SAP Martin Wezowski[/caption] In the next 1000 years our brains will not grow or develop that much, so that we can catch up with the exponential growth of technological capabilities. That is why our fast lane to evolution passes through symbiosis with machines. This is already not a science fiction, because there are companies developing interface solutions for connecting our brain to a computer. There are paralyzed people controlling computers with their minds imagining they are moving. Wezowski thinks that to build a better future we must use a method, called a human-centered design.

“Change is our innovation pipeline. Change, if you study it deeply, is you design brief. And it comes in systems. Once you have electric cars, to change the game globally you need an infrastructure. You need to articulate it and make a picture. It helps, because people already want it when they see it”, he said.

The expert is sure that we need a culture and conversation beyond the economy, society, ethics and politics that we have today. He thinks that there is a growing need to understand the needs of people, even if they still don’t understand them. He gave an example with SAP, that is regarded as one of the most emphatic companies in the world, together with Netflix, Microsoft, Google and Facebook. Empathy is a very good tool to design the things that people actually need in their lives. It is a good tool for innovation. Good design is good business. High empathy and high performance go together, increasing value and market capitalization. This is what empathy gives you the ability to understand human beings and your customers. Wezowski advised Webit’s guests to try and design the relationships they want to have with their customers and then to start building products and services around their needs, because “content may be the king of digital, but context is the King Kong”. The business is designing products and services. These services shape our behavior, like the smartphones changed our everyday lives. Our behaviours shape our communities and discussions. Communities shape our societies and they are shaping the course of politics. So the design have serious reflection on the political life. SAP’s Chief Designer predicted that in a decade somewhere in Europe we will have a minister, that is not only a clever mathematician, but an expert with strong design and innovation background, because this will be some of the most important factors for shaping our politics in the near future.

“Tim Brown from Ideo said that design is too important to be left only to designers. This is very very true because design and innovation is the same thing. The future is too important to be left to any of us. This is where need to get in one room and start this conversation. We have seen the exponential speed of change and we are able to do this. We have these conversations, but we need to spread them across the globe. And I think that if we can do it really really right we can build a future we want to live in. I was thinking we could start today”, he said.

Soon you will be able to see Martin Wezowski’s full presentation on our YouTube channel. If you want to keep up with the latest trend in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018 for just €100. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

The ability of offering long-term innovation to the customers is the main factor, that is dividing the companies of the 20th century from the ones that are emerging with the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Right now we are living in a world that is changing so fast, that even the biggest players of the corporate world are having a hard time catching up with the trends. But there are some that follow, and some that are setting the tone, both for customers and enterprises. Certainly one of the best examples in this regard is Amazon - the fourth highest valued company in the world that has notorious obsession with its customers. At this year’s Webit.Festival Europe we had the chance to listen to the company’s Vice President for Global Innovation Policy and Communication Paul Misener. The famous expert spoke about the 3 leading innovation principles in Amazon - the Customer obsession, Long-term thinking and Passion for Invention. He gave the Bulgarian-American scientist John Atanasoff as an example of 20th century inventor, who managed to create the world’s first digital electronic computer. On the contrary he pointed out a 24 pages long research paper, published by CERN couple of years ago, that had over 5000 co-authors.

“Somewhere in the past century we have gone from the lone innovator all the way to 5000 working on a particular innovation”, Misener said.

According to him one of the reasons for Amazon’s success is the ability to foster innovation with “Two-pizza teams”. The concept is that any new innovation or problem that needs to be solved should be solved using a group of individuals that can be fed comfortably with two large pizzas. It means that there is a number of people between 4 and 12 who can effectively work together as an innovation team. With larger teams it turns out that there are difficulties with communication between team members. With smaller it turns out that you are not getting enough talent in the mix. The idea here is clear, you want enough individuals to make a difference but at the same time you don’t want too many, because the communication between them becomes impossible. Paul Misener said that within the context of innovation Amazon uses the Working backwards doctrine. When the company has a plan to have a new product or service, the team sets time to see it on the market and starts looking backwards to the present day to figure out what it needs to do to get to that point. The second guiding principle is the ability to Engage in long-term thinking. This process ignores the short-term hurdles, but it also speaks to a willingness to be misunderstood by others who may not share the long-term vision. As examples for that Mr. Misener showed the audience several Amazon project that have failed the expectations and were shut down. But there are more than one successful initiative, like the idea to let third-party sellers to market their products on the company’s website and introducing customer reviews to the products.

“When we first introduced this our investors and partners said that this is crazy, because we are trying to sell things and in the same time we are allowing customers to come to our territory and criticize the things we are selling. We have lost a lot of short-term sales because of this, but we have built a long-term trust in our company”, he said.

The third leading principle in Amazon is the Passion for invention and the notion of experimenting and being willing to fail in the process. The ability to take risks is a crucial part of innovation, because if you know what the outcome of your experiment is going to be, than it is not experimenting. An actual experiment has to be able to fail. And to innovate and introduce new things to the customers, you have to be willing to try them out. Soon you will be able to see Paul Misener’s full presentation on our YouTube channel. If you want to keep up with the latest trend in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018 for just €100.

For the last few years we have witnessed an incredible growth in the market for mobile apps, that is expected to generate over 268 billion mobile downloads and an income of $77 billion in 2017. But now many experts predict the coming of post-app era. This does not mean that apps on our smartphones, tablets and PC’s are going to disappear completely, but that we will be interacting with them differently. We are seeing the battle between the two most used platforms for mobile iOS and Android since the creation of the smartphone. And while the apps in Apple’s store make the most money, they account to only 15% of all downloaded apps. The market is changing fast and some apps just lose their attractiveness or becomes a built-in tool in the new phones. That was the case with the flashlight, most camera apps and other things, that your phone already can do. For example, usage of dedicated video apps declined four percentage points between 2015 and 2016, that of standalone maps apps dropped three percentage points while social media app usage reduced by two percentage points. On the other hand, the use of messaging apps increased 3% and shopping apps grew with 4%. According to the CEO of data quality services company PCA Predict Jamie Turner the significant work on newer browser technology that feels as fast as native apps will remove the need for hundreds of them to exist. Gartner expects that by 2020 almost 40% of mobile interactions will be made by smart agents, or virtual private assistants. This means that we can predict major developments of products like Google Now, Cortana, Siri and Alexa. For the last year the use of digital assistants increased by 4%. At this year’s Webit.Festival you can listen to some of the top Digital Transformation experts in the world, like the CEO of JetPack Aviation David Mayman, the Partner for Europe and Innovation at VCI Roby Strancel, the CMO of AngelHack Brian Collins and the Chief Designer at SAP Martin Wezowski. Here you can see a full list of the confirmed speakers at Webit.Festival, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event.

Digital transformation is the process of adopting digital technology in all aspects of human society. Right now it sits atop the strategic agenda for businesses around the world and two-thirds of the top executives worldwide predict that their organizations will be vastly digital after the next two years. This will not be easy task, but it may bring huge opportunities for emerging and already established businesses. In the next 10 years between 40% and 60% of the companies in Fortune’s 500 will not play the same role on the world. Their places will be taken by new enterprises that manage to adapt best to the economic realities of the future. Over the last 8 years Webit.Festival has been all about creating density of opportunities for the business and entirely new entrepreneurial ecosystem. Among the 5000 guest of this year’s event in Sofia you can find top level speakers from all over the world, that will talk about the latest trends in the world of digital transformation. During the event’s Digital Transformation Summit the CEO of JetPack Aviation David Mayman will tell the audience about the smallest and lightest jetpack ever created and the change it can bring to the transportation industry. The chief designer of SAP Martin Wezowski will share his thoughts on how to build the future we want to live in and the merging meaning of what to be an innovator and designer. He will also talk about the designer’s role in creating of everything, including social and political systems in a space between cutting edge technology and humanism. The partner for Europe and Innovation at VCI Roby Stancel will talk about the digital transformation in the most real world. He brings to the stage two decades of experience in innovation, services, strategies, roadmaps and cultural transformations for over 100 partner companies. Now Stancel offers a unique combination of design thinking innovation and business strategy. As founder of Change Sciences, Pamela Pavliscak advises designers, developers and decision makers on how to create technologies that promote well-being. On Webit’s stage she will tell the audience how to design happiness - which has been the promise of technology right from the start. Researches suggest that technology has negative impact on our lives instead of aspiring us to get better at our work and augmenting human abilities. Pamela will share her thoughts on how we can start designing a long-term well-being rather than short-term goals. The Chief marketing officer of AngelHack Brian Collins will tell the best options for the existing communities to leverage their resources and build up their well-being. Right now AngelHack is the world’s largest and most diverse global hacker community. The company helps drive open innovation of tech products, platforms and brands with extraordinary smarts, scale and speed with tech education and hackatons. The CEO and Founder of SignAll Technologies Zsolt Robotka will speak about the first automated sign language translator that can improve the lives of 70 million people and unlock services for the deaf. Furthermore, the expert will share his thoughts on how to accommodate sign language users in smart cities. Here you can see a full list of the confirmed speakers at Webit.Festival, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event.

The Theory of Evolution’s author Charles Darwin once said that it is not the strongest of species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is the most adaptable to change. And more than any other aspect of human society, these words are relevant to the world of business, especially in the years of the next industrial revolution. The new economic environment in the information age is putting additional pressure for businesses to change, while the new players on the market are disrupting whole industries. J.P. Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon thinks that all the major banks are endangered by the Silicon Valley. And if they don’t manage to up their game, the tech companies will take over their business. Right now there are hundreds of startups with ideas and money for creating alternatives to traditional banking. And if the banks don’t act quick with the digital transformation of their services, they can be overtaken by the emerging tech companies. According to Cisco System’s Executive Chairman, John Chambers, at least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years, if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies. This forecast includes even the companies in Fortune’s 500. Many experts expect that between 40% and 60% of them will not be on the list by the middle of the next decade. The process of digital transformation quickly became mandatory for anyone, who wants to survive the changes. We can see examples of that everywhere, and even industry’s biggest are trying to adapt to this next generation of computing. For most of the businesses this transformation end up with simple solutions, like using automated software for the processes, that were previously manually-driven. But there is much more. For retail and financial institutions the new technology gives the opportunity of omni-channel programmes for selling products and services in new ways, while adding more analytics. All this helps for finding new paths to the customer, and in the digital age importance of his experience is growing rapidly. Customers are more cautious than ever and are ready to turn their back on any brand that don’t align with their values and needs. Innovation and agility are the best ways to stay competitive in evolving market, and this needs constant assessment, testing and analysis of new technological solutions. But to know the most effective practices of digital transformation, you most certainly must learn from the best. This year Webit.Festival is the place, where you can meet policy makers, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, scientists and experts fascinated by technology and fostering the digital transformation in the business and the society. During the two-day agenda of the event you can listen to top level speakers like the CEO of JetPack Aviation David Mayman and the VP Digital Transformation at SCA Gael De Talhouet.

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.

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.

We have all seen how the technological advances change the world around us by the day. They have change the way we live, the way we communicate with others, the way we organize our lives. And they are rapidly changing the way the businesses work. The introduction of new technology has led to not just changes in the existing businesses, but also to the creation and development of whole new fields like outsourcing. By making ideas more easily shareable than ever it has become simple to find like-minded people and create a startup together. This, combined with the power on the Internet has led to the creation of giants like Facebook, but has also allowed small business like WhatsApp to grow immensely over the course of a few years. Technology has affected the business in many ways, both directly and indirectly. On one hand, it has become easier for business to find new talent and build a lasting relationship with their customers with the power of social networks. On the other hand, it has become easier for customers to find a new company that can give them more value for their money, which has forced big companies to try and find new ways to satisfy their customers. One of the biggest changes we have seen in the recent years has been the development and popularizing of “loyalty programs”. While they look innocent and like a small change, programs like Tesco Clubcard or Wizzair’s Wizzclub have greatly affected the way people spend their money. By becoming a part of the club you are not only accepting the rewards it gives, but you are accepting the responsibility to keep giving your money to this company and not any other. The loyalty programs have also enabled companies to collect big data about their customers – what is the demographic, how much do people spend on average, what are their habits. By finding an answer to all these questions, a company can greatly improve the service it provides, which leads to more people joining the program, which leads to more data and so on. Technical advances have been affecting the business world ever since the invention of the steam engine. However, it has only been in the recent decades, with the invention of the Internet that we have seen a skyrocket of the impact technology has on every industry. No one can imagine building a company nowadays without having an IT department, or at least and IT guy. In the foreseeable future technology will keep increasing its impact on every area of our lives and on every area of our businesses.

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.