Tag: policy

The situation we find ourselves in today is very unique. There are many crises in the areas of ageing, security, health, economy, migration, food and they are all happening simultaneously. In order to solve a problem, we need to look at the bigger picture and consider how each crisis contributes to the problem in question. At the 2017 edition of Webit.Festival Europe the Adviser at DG Connect at the EU Commission Ilias Iakovidis talked about how these crises should be viewed as opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship. It is important to understand the NGOs and social entrepreneurs can’t cope with societal challenges on their own. This is how business opportunities arise and it is up to entrepreneurs to look for them and take advantage of them. Demographic change has the greatest impact mostly because it happens so slowly that politicians don’t notice it. It is estimated that from 25% of the world population, Europeans will shift to representing only 4%. This is a major problem that will take its toll on people’s minds and way of living.   [caption id="attachment_5165" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Adviser at DG Connect at the EU Commission Ilias Iakovidis[/caption] It is important to understand that the time of crisis is the right time to innovate. Even if we are not good at something, we should accept the challenge as an opportunity to grow. Especially when we have the infrastructure and the brains needed, the only road leads to success. But to get to success, it is vital to know what we are doing and how exactly to do it. At some point, it is necessary to work with public administrations and the key is to understand they are not there to take care only of our issues. In fact, they have their own targets to achieve and problems to solve. If we are clever enough, we should divide the problem in parts and consult a different administration responsible for that particular issue.

“Innovation is not invention!”, Ilias Iakovidis said.

According to him to innovate and obtain both societal and economic benefits, funding is not enough. Many people make the mistake to obsess over funding. And if the ideal for success is becoming an unicorn, then the lack of a single European market will leave many disappointed. But that doesn’t mean other opportunities don’t exist. On the contrary, they do, especially in the work with societal issues. It is all about ecosystem and in both demographic change and health we have a developed ecosystem. There are already regions putting money in this areas and entrepreneurs who work in health, smart homes, ageing and independent living should check what financial support they can receive from these regions and grab the opportunities for digital innovation. The so called silver economy creates huge opportunities for businesses. Age is a very active lead market which the EU Commission has an interest in approaching. A lot of consensus and collaboration are needed to build a successful innovation business. The creation of an ecosystem requires people to get out of their comfort zone and to even start doing things they are not very good at. But this is the only way to success. The worst thing that we witness today is scientists who are behind the invention trying to be inventors, innovators and businessmen all at the same time. The truth is, it doesn’t work that way, they have to choose to be either an inventor or a businessmen. For sure they can’t do both. You can watch his full lecture here:   If you want to keep up with the latest trends in the world of digital economy and technology, then Webit.Festival is the right place for you. Visit our website and book 2 in 1 of our Super Earlybird tickets for Webit.Festival Europe 2018. Feel the Webit vibe with some of the best photos from this year’s event! [easingslider id="4954"]

Amid the political turmoil in Europe, caused by the unprecedented influx of refugees from the MENA region and the election victory of Donald Trump in the United States, the issue of immigration quickly established itself as a major in today’s political life. And although most people in the developed world have their reasons to be worried about the migration and its effect on their country’s social system, on the political scene we see a clear conflict between the stated policies of governments and the interests of the industry, and especially the tech sector. Last week we saw that the tech companies in USA continued to rally against the new president’s immigration ban for the citizens of 7 countries with Muslim majority population. More than 100 firms in the sector voiced their opposition to Trump’s executive order, and among them were Apple, Facebook, Tesla, SpaceX, Airbnb, Twitter and Microsoft. Meanwhile Starbucks even announced that it will hire 10 000 refugees in 75 countries over the next 5 years. But what caused the strange connection between large technology corporations and the issue of migration? Quite simply, it’s the fact that vast majority of the directors of successful businesses in the US and around the world are either immigrants or descendants of those and feel committed to this issue. Among them we can mention the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk, who grew up in South Africa and studied in Canada, the Co-Founder of Google Sergey Brin, who was born in Moscow, the Аrmenian refugee descendant and founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian, the Cuban immigrant descendant and Founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos and many others. In fact, the connection between being an immigrant and becoming an entrepreneur is well studied, even by Harvard. Last year the famous university published a report on the extensive cross-cultural experiences of top level business leaders and how it helps them take over the industry with out of the box decisions. According to the Harvard’s experts immigrants in USA are almost twice as likely to become entrepreneurs as native-born citizens of the country. Right now they represent 27.5% of the US entrepreneurs, but only around 13% of the population. This pattern extends beyond the United States. The data from 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor showed that the vast majority of the 69 countries surveyed reported higher entrepreneurial activity among immigrants, than among natives, especially in growth-oriented ventures. This year Webit continues its mission of hosting top level policy discussion about dealing with Europe’s most pressing issues and forming the digital future of the continent. The Digital Economy Leadership Summit of this years Webit.Festival will again become a platform for presenting the best ideas for the future development of European industry. The event will gather some of the most influential policy makers and top level experts, that shape the global agenda of the World Economic Forum, like the Global Leadership Fellow at WEF Thomas Philibeck, the Head of Europe and Eurasia at WEF Martina Larkin,the President & Global Brand Director of Havas Worldwide Jason Jerinovic and the Director General of Digital Europe John Higgins.

One of Webit.Festival Europe's most important summits, the New Economy Leadership Summit, is invitation only highest level event, gathering political leaders (e.g. Presidents, Vice Presidents and top European political leaders), top entrepreneurs and founders, Nobel Laureates, scientists and innovators along with top enterprise executives from Europe and rest of the world. 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 views of political leaders on some of the major challenges the humankind faces in today's Digital age, well being, ageing, innovations, cyber security, digital transformation, disruptive legislation and many other topics.

We have 3 new top-flight speakers in our lineup for the NELS! They include one of the top executives of World Economic Forum, the mayor of Tirana and a highly respected professor of Economics.

 

• Martina Larkin, Head of Europe and Eurasia, World Economic Forum.

Member of the Executive Committee of World Economic Forum (WEF), Martina Larkin is definitely one of the professionals who fit on the New economy leadership summit scene. Her career starts as a marketing manager at Nestlé, continues with world of banking and consulting and ends up so far with the Swiss nonprofit foundation officially recognized as the international institution for cooperation between the public and the private sectors. Martina’s WEF professional story starts in 2004 as a Senior Project Manager of The Forum of Young Global Leaders - a gathering of 800 selected enterpreneurs. Since then, she has been heading different departments in the international institution for cooperation between public and private sectors, till the moment she became Head of Europe and Eurasia of the WEF two years ago. What connects her professional roles is the work with thousands of experts and leaders representing all the stakeholders involved in creating projects for public goods. In 2011, Martina becomes part of Yale University’s signature leadership development program as a Yale World Fellow helping creative minds to work on world’s contemporary problems. Besides WEF, she is part of several non-profit boards.  

• Prof. Fátima Barros, BEREC Chair 2015, President of the Board, ANACOM Portugal.

Barros is Chair of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) for 2015 and Vice-Chair for 2014. Since May 2012, she is the Head of the Portuguese National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANACON). Prior to that, she was a Board Member of several international academic and business institutions. Currently professor of Economics and former Dean of Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics (2004-2012), Prof. Barros holds Ph.D. in Economics from Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and a BA in Economics from the Catholic University (Portugal). Her numerous publications in the area of regulation, competition and contract theory can be read in leading international scientific journals.    

• Erion Veliaj, Mayor of Tirana.

Erion Veliaj is the current, 42nd elected mayor of Albania’s capital Tirana. Prior to that, he was Member of the Parliament for the district of Gjirokastra and Minister of Social Welfare and Youth. During his minister’s mandate, he has worked on much needed reforms, concerning pensions, employment, social welfare payments and professional education. In the period of 2015’s elections, his team created a crowd-sourced multi purpose smartphone application, giving easier access to information for Tirana’s citizens and visitors and a platform for real-time signals and feedback straight to the government on problems or issues in their neighborhoods. This same smartphone app brought to the city of Tirana the 2016 Award from the Ljubljana Forum Future of Cities. It also won the reputation of a tool that "offers an instant access from the mobile phone to all real-time information related to road traffic, urban transport, tourism and many more things of interest".  Mr. Veliaj believes in leading by example - and as the current mayor of Tirana, he works for a notable change in the city. His political career starts in 2003 by founding a civic organization which gained popularity as a youth movement.   The main topics of the summit are the urgent need of the best cyber security solutions, the well being of the whole human kind, digital transformation and the ways for boosting the EU entrepreneurial system. So far speakers at the NELS have been top level executives and innovators like Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank, Rossen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria, Markku Markkula, President, European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Andrus Ansip, Vice President European Commission, Binali Yildirim, Prime Minister Turkey. 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.