Tag: innovation

Webit.Festival will show you how Big Data and Cloud Services are...

We are standing at the start of a giant transformation, that will change every business and aspect of our lives. In the past two years the world has created more data than in the entire previous history of human race. According to EMC study, the data volumes are growing so fast, that by the end of 2020 we will create 1.7 megabytes of new information every second. By then our digital storage will grow from 4.4 zettabytes today to around 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes. Right now the Big Data market worldwide stands around $7.6 trillion, which is bigger than the whole fuel industry. This is the reason many experts said that data has finally become the new oil of the world. In the next few years we expect the number of connected devices worldwide to reach more than 34 billion. This news is more than welcome for the business, because all the gathered information will completely change the way enterprises approach their customers. The expanding big data comes with adoption of cloud technology and online delivery of hosted services. This enables companies to consume a computing resources, such as virtual machine or storage, rather than having to build and maintain their own computing infrastructures. In 2016 the spending on public cloud infrastructure reached $38 billion, while Forbes predicts that it will grow to $173 billion in 2026. At this year’s Webit.Festival you can listen to some of the top experts in those innovative fields of digital industry. During the Big Data & Cloud Summit they will share their thoughts on the development of IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Technology and convergence of cognitive and cloud security as a business enabler. The Vice President of Cloud and Mobile Technology Strategy at IBM Jonas Jacobi will talk about the power of the combination between AI and IoT and how it will impact our daily lives - both personal and professional. Meanwhile, the Community Director and Technology Evangelist at TIBCO Kai Waehner will tell the audience about the latest trends in Cloud Native Architectures, Hybrid Integration Platforms and Microservices. He will also talk about Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Real Time Event Processing. IBM’s Chief Information Officer on Cloud & SaaS Operational Services David Cass will explain some of the fundamental digital changes that the world is going through and how the use of Cognitive and Cloud is helping businesses transform themselves and deliver insights not previously available to them. The CEO and Co-Founder of Resillo Inc. Eric Klinker will share his global forecast for edge computing and will explain why the rapid scaling of systems across every conceivable industry will not accommodate traditional thinking or traditional architectures.

Learn how to build your marketing strategy from industry’s best at...

Our life today is more dynamic than it was at any point in history and none of our days is like the previous one. In the world of business this new form of operation speed is both a gift and a curse depending on your company’s ability to adapt to the social and economic changes and use the full potential of the new environment. In 2017 serious marketers use every tool in the kit, from native ads and influencer channels to visual storytelling and now or never expiring content. The biggest trends in the industry will help these expert engage consumers more directly by increasing their marketing reach. At this year’s Webit.Festival you can listen to some of the top marketers in the world. During the Marketing & Innovation Summit of the event they will share their thoughts on topics, such as Programmatic, Mobile, Video and Native Advertising, Brand Strategies, Metrix & Data, Mobile Marketing, OmniChannel & Personalisation Strategies and Media & Digital Entertainment. Their insight information will help you transform your business into the enterprise of tomorrow and will give you the best tools to increase your performance. As more and more brands learn the true value of content, our lives are becoming increasingly over-saturated in information. This means the competition for our attention has never been greater and getting eyes on your content is no longer good enough. The design director of TBrand Studio International Graham McDonnell will tell us more about the importance of the story in storytelling. The President and Global Brand Director of Havas Worldwide Jason Jercinovic will talk about the rise of Artificial Intelligence and its role in today’s politics and political marketing. Meanwhile, the CMO of Selligent Nick Worth will tell us more about marketing automation and the use of AI. During the Brand Strategies track, the Chief Creative Officer at DigitasLBi Chris Clarke will tell us more about the death of empathy in marketing and why global brand consistency doesn’t matter anymore. Chris is a member of the Campaign A-List and was recently placed at #53 in The Drum’s Adverati, a list of the most influential people in advertising. Twice Reply’s Managing director for digital transformation Volker Glaeser will inform you how new innovation processes can change the digital world and what are the most efficient ways of creating and testing future products. The German expert will explain the two most important approaches of today’s leading global innovators - Rapid Prototyping and Constant Beta. The General manager of Advertising at Phunware Jon Hook will talk about the changing landscape of mobile advertising, what are the best ways to adapt your strategy to that change and where are the biggest gaps when starting a mobile ad tech business. Meanwhile the Global chief strategy and digital officer at Mindshare Norm Johnston will explain the exploding market of connected devices and how to use the marketing opportunities it brings to better connect and service consumers. In his session, Norm will share examples from his recent book Extra Sense, which illustrate how marketers are exploring the post-mobile third wave of digital marketing. 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.

Smart cities are standing out, traffic jam fading

It’s morning rush hour. You are on your way to leave the kids at school and then to go to your office. There are hundreds of vehicles in front of and around you, you’re stuck in the traffic, but you listen to your favorite radio station, you’re in your own car and you already got used to it. That’s the current situation - traffic is unavoidable, you think. But as cities nowadays get bigger and bigger, researches predict 70% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. What does that mean? Crowded, polluted and an uncomfortable urban environment, a lot of you would quite reasonably imagine at first. But just here, the idea of smart cities comes to the rescue. When looking forward to the bright tech future, we can think of connected technologies, ensuring a better quality of life, conscious use of natural resources, instant communication and bettering of all that needs to be bettered. Imagine sensors showing you whether there are free spots on the parking lot, technologies limiting the water you’ve unconsciously wasted and cameras identifying the thief who has just stolen your bag. Imagine, but with your eyes open - in the years ahead, these appliances won’t be dreams, but reality. And not just in the big, distant cities. Just like with human brain whose full potential we don’t always use, by now urban cities use a very small part of their full capacity in terms of smart, friendly appliances and connected technologies. But it’s just the right time that this is going to change. Now, why don’t you watch this video and think again about the morning rush hour? What if you had this vehicle on your way to work? This ‘Straddling Bus’ was shown in action in the Chinese city of Qinhuangdao, in the Hebei province. The citizens have probably been reasonably shocked at first: The enormous vehicle-prototype “eating cars” which they’ve seen is around 22 meters long, 8 meters wide, around 5 meters tall. It provides 2 meters of underneath space for cars to travel and is able to carry up to 300 passengers. Maybe now this technology still feels too futuristic, but its creators and many others think it will give the perfect solution to overcome traffic. While driven cars may still seem long-lasting for many customers, tech innovators show us self-driven automobiles are soon to be widely affordable. While it may seem smart cities are only reflecting on humans’ lives, truth is technology connects to nature to help us save, not destroy it. While many big cities’ governments already embrace the concept of being a smart city, there are a lot yet to be convinced. To learn more on the topic of Smart cities and innovation, visit the Smart Cities Summit of Webit.Festival 2017 and hear the latest trends in Digital Transformation, Smart Mobility & Transportation, Smart Energy and many more. Amongst the confirmed speakers is Erion Veliaj, the current Mayor of Tirana, thanks to whose efforts the city was awarded for successfully applying innovations in communication between government and citizens. You will also see on the scene Alexander Renz, Managing Partner at New Mobility World, who works towards a future where mobility is environmentally sustainable.

Next generation marketing is all about video

In marketing you always have to be one step ahead of the pack and if you don’t have a crystal ball in your office, the best way to be switched on the trends of the future is to build a better understanding about the technological advancements of today. In fact new tech is more than just an engine of the digital age marketing. It is a generator for new types of customer demand and market shifts. According to Entrepreneur Magazine’s poll, 51.9% of the marketers worldwide named video as the content type that gives the best return of investment. Meanwhile Cisco predicts that by 2020 video will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic. This hot trend is visible even in the media coverage as more and more outlets prefer to share a viral short and texted clip on their timeline instead of writing an long analytical piece on the topic. The reason for the new strategy is the new life dynamics and the inability of users to hold their attention on something for more than minute and a half. Social media already promotes the video content in their algorithms, while Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg forecasted that within five years the social network will be mostly filled with video. About 43% of people online want to see more video content from marketers, but social media gives even more effective ways to communicate directly with the customer. One example of that is the the Snapchat geofilter that gives businesses the capability to customize ads and to target them to the users in specific location and time, for example the attendees on a concert, sports event or Webit.Festival 2017. Apps like Snapchat are becoming a prefered advertising option because of the limited lifespan posts they are providing. That way companies can run ad campaigns that disappear after a set period of time. Instagram already launched their own feature for this type of marketing activity. Five9’s CMO Kevin Garvin thinks that in 2017 video customer service will finally go mainstream and will be a powerful tool to ease communication problems in an easy and efficient manner. Part of the reason is the advance in marketing tech, that gives small and midsized marketers sophisticated tools with small budget. Many companies that never considered advertising on TV can now add an online video strategy to their program for B2C communication. Last year was big for live streaming as every major social network has incorporated this in its platform. But before they start streaming the marketers first have to carefully think about ideas for authentic instant content. If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of marketing Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During the Marketing&Innovations Summit, you can listen to top level speakers such as the Chief Creative Officer at DigitasLBi Chris Clarke, who was recently placed at 53th place in The Drum’s Adverati list of the most influential people in advertising.

Webit.Festival Europe presents the next three speakers at one of the...

One of the most popular stages of Webit.Festival, the Marketing and Innovation Summit, is once again bringing together the top CMOs, CTOs and CIOs from the advertising world, broadcasters, publishers, and ad/media/digital agencies. 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 trends in marketing, media and how the digital transformation is continuously changing the whole business world.

Main topics on the agenda of the summit will be the rising use of virtual and augmented reality, especially in the digital entertainment, how consumer empowerment is driving new brand opportunity, brand social strategies, digital and programmatic advertising, metrix and data, video and mobile video marketing, the future of artificial intelligence in marketing, creating relationships with audience, benefits of storytelling in marketing and many more.

We have 3 new top-flight speakers in our lineup for the Marketing and Innovation Summit! They include top executive from one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world, the CMO of one of the biggest business media worldwide and the chief digital officer of Wi-Fi security and privacy providing company, so read our guide to taking part or find out more about our latest speaker additions below.

  •  Victor Milligan, CMO, Forrester Research.
victor-milligan-470x470As the CMO of Forrester, the American advisory company, executing technology and market research, Victor Milligan aims to drive clients’ growth by combining all kind of marketing operations, analytics and customer experience. Previously, Victor was responsible, again as the CMO, for the marketing development of two other companies: Nexage, a marketplace in mobile advertising relying on the forces of mobile revolution and programmatic technologies; and Lavastorm Analytics, a company combining enterprises-grade business applications with the potential of analytics. His professional approach lies on analytics as a key to early discovery of risks and delivery of transparency and liquidity to both buyers and sellers. Previously a Senior Managing Partner and Vertical Industry Leader at Gartner Consulting, another information technology research company, Victor developed and led $125M global vertical industry team. Before Gartner, Mr. Milligan led the architecture and planning team as Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton for 9 years. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Vermont and have started his career in the US Air Force Space Command, contributing to the launch of the Global Positioning System, which is the base of so many location-based services today.   Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer and Head of the CMO Practice, Forbes Media. bruce-rogers-470x470Currently responsible for Forbes Media's Insights division, Mr. Rogers works on the company’s leadership practice engaged by blue-chip companies like IBM, KPMG, Google, EY, Deloitte and Cisco. He also deals with content and events for senior marketers. His career at Forbes started as a VP Marketing at Forbes Magazine in 1991, continued as Chief Brand Officer at Forbes Media in 2008 and led to his current role of Chief Insights Officer and Head of the CMO Practice at Forbes Media. Mr. Rogers is the author of a regular column on thought leaders changing the business landscape, several articles and reports. He is also the co-author of three books: “Profitable Brilliance,” “In the Line of Money” and “I Win You Whatever”. His business thoughts may be read under intriguing titles like “Publish or Perish”, “Using Thought Leadership to Grow“, “Why Companies Need a Chief Reason Officer” and so on. Bruce Rodgers is a member of several organizations such as Adtech, Business Marketing Association, SBV Solutions. Another proof of his effective marketing ideas is receiving the Gold Effie Award from the American Marketing Association. Baglan Rhymes, Chief Digital Officer & SVP Global Revenue, AnchorFree Inc. baglan-rhymes-470x470Ms. Rhymes’ CV is rich not only in job titles and successful work projects, but in continuous volunteering experience too. Ms. Rhymes has played a key role in the history of her current company - the Wi-Fi security and privacy providing company AnchorFree. She actively contributed in raising $53M in Series C funding and in launching four new products, currently representing 98% of the company’s revenues. Besides her main job title of Chief Digital Officer & SVP Global Revenue, she is an experienced speaker, lecturer and panelist in the field of entrepreneurship, innovation in technology and digital media. She contributes to the development and branding of some of the hottest tech startups in Silicon Valley. An active member of Forbes Agency Council, Ms. Rhymes is named as one of the most Influential Turkish Women in the USA. She is the author of several white papers like “Customs Union & Turkey”, “Customs Union & the Aegean Region”, “The Expectations of Turkish Newspaper Readers”, “The Role of the Universities in Establishing and Maintaining the Democratic Foundations in a Society: The Turkish Case". She has recently published her first, co-authored book - “Of Love, Autonomy & Wealth: Work and Play in the Virtual World”, named as one of the best in self-help and business. Previous speakers at the Marketing and Innovation Summit are top level executives like Ward Van Duffel, VP and General Manager Direct to Consumer Lego, Benjamin Faes, Managing Director PBS Google, Anosh Thakkar, CTO Philips, Jim Rosenberg, Chief Digital Officer UNICEF, David Moore, Chairman of Xaxis and President of WPP Digital, Jay Altschuler, Director Global Media Unilever, Pete Blackshaw, Global Head of Digital Marketing and Social Media Nestlé, Norm Johnston, Chief Digital Officer Mindshare Worldwide, Dr. Torsten Wingenter, Head of Digital Innovations Lufthansa, Tom Bowman, VP, Strategy&Operations, Global Advertising Sales BBC World. The Marketing and Innovation 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 and its marketing. 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.

Creative or Innovative?

In order to cope with many of the market challenges in 21st century, what business needs is to be creative and innovative. Creativity is needed at all levels within an organization. Creativity is the key to innovations and nowadays innovations are all around us. Being a true innovator is much greater than just simply improving on something already known, it’s the creation of something new that defines the unknown. True innovation is measured by the impact that a company has on the market as well as on the consumers. It defines the leaders and the followers in the world we live in. Do you know what the term `blue ocean strategy` stands for? It teaches the business how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. The rapid pace of innovations make experts look for a new way and that is the blue ocean strategy. For managers and entrepreneurs who try to develop a unique value-adding strategy, it fits perfectly, but keep in mind those four risks:
  1. Ignoring relevant competition - when it comes to the blue ocean strategy managers and entrepreneurs come up with new ideas for products, services and strategies rather than mimicking those of competitors. That’s great but it is also pretty easy for a manager to believe that their product or company is unique which can be a crucial mistake.
  2. Reinventing the wheel - it could happen when you do not know your competitors in details. In order to make the competition irrelevant, first you should know it - what your competitors do, how they do it, why they do it. If you know those things, the chance to reinvent the wheel is zero
  3. Swimming too far - do not attempt to go too far off your own competences. Yes, the competition is irrelevant, but this does not mean that you should forget about the existence of potential competitors.
  4. No fish - this is the worst that can happen and it’s up to you how you will react. But in order not to have to react, start your blue ocean  journey with the best reality check. Each successful business and company starts there.
Innovations require taking risks, but think in a perspective, strive for success and dare to dream. CEEDS’15 by Webit makes dreams come true, so book your ticket now.

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