Tag: webit.festival

The automotive industry is changing rapidly under the pressure of challenges on multiple fronts. The shift towards electric transport is making the engineering accomplishments of the past obsolete, while building electric cars requires less workers. In this new business environment, automakers, freight forwarders, transport companies and national and local governments must find the most effective ways to build the mobility of the future. This year, Webit.Festival will gather in Sofia Tech Park more than 300 speakers from every corner of the world. Within two days (25th and 26th of April) they will share invaluable experience from the largest enterprises in the digital industry and will explain to more than 5000 attendees from 90+ countries the key factors that will shape our future. During the Mobility Summit you will get the chance to listen to learn about the crucial factors, that are shaping the future of our transport systems. At the beginning of the conference you will get the chance to see the “New Mobility, New Paradigms” fireside chat between the Managing Partner at New Mobility Consulting Alexander Renz and the Senior Manager of innogy Innovation Hub at innogy SE Carsten Stoecker. Right after that, the Founder and CEO of StartBurst Francois Chopard will share his expectations about the development of space industry in the next decade. StarBurst Accelerator provides seed funding from the business angels and venture capitals firms dedicated to aerospace defense and security as well as access to the largest aerospace group stakeholders to get your first 1 million dollars contract. Then the audience will get the chance to see the fireside chat between the Digital Director for EMEA region at Oracle Luisella Giani and the Co-founder and CEO of Blacklane Jens Wohltorf. At the end of the Summit, ladies will take over the stage for a panel discussion about mobility innovation and business models. The talk will be between the Investment Principal of BMW i Ventures Sohaila Ouffata, the Managing Director of Smart Transportation and Energy at Startupbootcamp Tanja Kufner and the Director for Urban Development at Siemens Julie Alexander. 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.

Despite the fears of a slowdown last year, the investment in European startups hit $12 billion mark, which has put 2016 on par with previous year’s record levels. The Old Continent already has prominent hubs for startups and innovation. But right now we can see that the well established centers, such as Berlin, Stockholm and London are stepping aside to an emerging destinations in Central and Eastern Europe. This has led to an increasing volume of smaller investment deals, which helped to offset the decline in larger rounds across the region. In 2016 Europe registered 943 deals between $1m and $10m. Right now, there is also a growing appetite for tech investment among the private equity funds. This year, Webit.Festival will again give promising startups from Europe and around the world the floor to present their ideas in front of top-level investors. The event will be held on 25-26 April in Sofia Tech Park under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. We not only provide free grant for startups to get a free expo table, free festival tickets and opportunity to meet unparalleled selection of top enterprise leaders, but also a chance to win €200 000 seed investment in our Founders Games. With over 93% startup failure overall rate, the selected Webit startups for the Founders Games’s semi-finals in the past 7 years have less than 30% failure rate. Being among the Webit's Founders Games startup list is a statement of the company's credibility, innovation and potential in front of enterprise and investors as well as a great marketing opportunity. During Investments Summit you will get the chance to listen to the Partner Innovation Leader for Europe of IBM Watson Christoph Auer-Welsbach, the Vice President of IBM for Cloud and Mobile Technology Jonas Jacobi, the Global Head of Siemens Technology-to-Business Center Sven Scheuble, the CMO of AngelHack Brian Collins, the Partner at SpeedInvest Michael Schuster, the Partner at Flint Capital Sergey Gribov, the Co-founder & Managing Partner at AVentures Capital Andrey Kolodyuk, the Investment Director of 3TS Capital Partners Marius Ghenea, the Co-lead for Growth Capital & Venturing Services at Deloitte Sriram Prakash, the Investment Director of iTech Capital Alexey Telnov, the Advisor of 8VC Jon Soberg and the Partner at Hummingbird Ventures Pamir Gelenbe. 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.

Over the last few decades, the Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have become the modern economy’s greatest driver of innovation, productivity and growth. This industry managed to transform every element of business and society and to enable productivity and innovation in every sector of the economy. But to realize the full potential of this amazing opportunity, we first have to transform our education systems, so that they can create people with the right skill set to reap the benefits of the digital economy. This year, Webit.Festival will gather in Sofia Tech Park more than 300 speakers from every corner of the world. Within two days (25th and 26th of April) they will share invaluable experience from the largest enterprises in the digital industry and will explain to more than 5000 attendees from 90+ countries the key factors that will shape our future. During the IoE Summit you will get the chance to listen to the Director of Strategic and International Development at Wolfram Research Conrad Wolfram, among many others. The physicist, mathematician, and technologist, is uniquely operating at the intersection of computation, data and knowledge. Wolfram technology and consulting solutions drives innovation in data analytics, software development and modelling from startups to Fortune 500 companies, in industries as diverse as medicine, finance and telecoms. They include Mathematica software, the Wolfram|Alpha knowledge engine (powering knowledge answers for Apple's Siri), Enterprise Private Cloud and the Wolfram Language. Conrad is also recognised as a world authority on fixing maths education, including advocating a fundamental shift to focus on computer-based computational thinking rather than hand calculation. He founded computerbasedmath.org (CBM) to drive implementation of the change — now a worldwide force in re-engineering the curriculum with early projects in Estonia, Ireland, Sweden and Africa.Conrad attended Eton College and holds degrees in natural sciences and maths from University of Cambridge. On Webit’s stage, he will explain how the importance of quantitative understanding for jobs, society and management has exploded over the last few decades. He will also talk about the importance of understanding the changing role of computers and automation of knowledge is crucial. Conrad Wolfram will address these questions, explaining the fundamental shift needed in education, and describing the major project he's founded to build a dramatically new, problem-centric computational thinking curriculum. 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 world as we know it is collapsing and the change is happening so quick that even intelligent people struggle to understand exactly what is going on around them. In today’s public environment the whole concept of enterprise image is transforming. And while for the last several decades advertising was considered morally neutral, now we can see that big brands are more and more involved in politics. If you don’t believe this ascertainment, just take a look at the USA State Department, which is now led by the ex CEO of the biggest oil company in the world (ExxonMobil) Rex Tillerson. This year, Webit.Festival will address the transformation processes that are shaping the digital enterprises of the future in Europe and the world. The event will be held on 25-26 April in Sofia Tech Park under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. During the Marketing & Innovation Summit you will get the chance to listen to the Chief Creative Officer of DigitasLBi Chris Clarke. He oversees the agency’s creative output internationally, has overall responsibility for DigitasLBi’s point of view on the world, and is the father of the famous unicorn emblem. Known for his provocative views, Chris is a regular commentator in titles like The Guardian, Marketing and Campaign, and was among the first in this industry to highlight the darker side of digital disruption. He is a passionate proponent of the idea of enlightened self-interest, and believes that businesses can build their brands by creating work which has a social purpose at its heart - a view which is reflected in DigitasLBi’s initiatives for clients like Durex and AstraZeneca. On Webit’s stage, Chris will speak about the death of empathy and will explain why global brand consistency doesn’t matter anymore. He will talk about the emergence of filter bubbles and show how this has impacted politics, culture society and by extension, brands. Whether we like it or not, this phenomenon means we no longer understand the world outside our own network, so brands must increasingly play a game of channel authenticity over brand consistency. 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.

Over the next few years the world will undergo spectacular changes, driven by the rapid development of new technologies. Only prepared people can be successful in this new complex and increasingly digital world. Creating such people is among the biggest missions of Webit.Festival - the most influential forum for digital economy and technology in Europe. The event begins in less than a month, and the tickets for it are already running out. This year, Webit.Festival will gather in Sofia Tech Park more than 300 speakers from every corner of the world. Within two days (25th and 26th of April) they will share invaluable experience from the largest enterprises in the digital industry and will explain to more than 5000 attendees from 90+ countries the key factors that will shape our future. The agenda consists of several parallel conferences and events, workshops, round tables and exhibitions, such as: Marketing & Innovation Summit, Digital Transformation Summit, FinTech & Blockchain Summit, Big Data & Cloud Summit, Security & Privacy Summit, Health & Wellbeing Summit, IoE Summit, Mobility Summit, Smart Cities Summit, Digital Economy Leadership Summit and a series of social events. Here you may find a full list of the confirmed speakers. Part of our mission is helping startups with great ideas present themselves to a wider audience and giving them a chance to compete for a seed investment in Webit’s Founders Games. Webit.Festival gathers 100 of the most promising startups from all over the world. During the event they get the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of an audience of business leaders, policy-makers and investors from more than 90 countries. This year our prize is €200 000.That is why a separate area of the festival will be dedicated to startups from Bulgaria and the world.

“We are creating density of opportunities for Bulgaria and the world. We are drawing in Sofia the most innovative companies in the world, policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs and scientific communities and motivate them to work together for a better life for the people through development of entrepreneurship and innovations”, says the Executive Chairman of Webit.Foundation Plamen Russev.

The event is a brilliant way to stimulate your mind and imagination so that today we can be where our competitors will be tomorrow. It acts as a compass and a barometer, giving us an image of the situation worldwide and setting our development direction for the coming years. Come to Webit.Festival and adapt in the best possible way to the changes of the future. You may book your ticket for the event here.

Whether we like it or not, we are going to spend the rest of our lives in the future. This means that it will be a lot better for our common good to start building the one we want to live in. Right now we are witnessing an age in which the reality is moving ahead of science fiction and even Hollywood can’t catch up with the rapid changes in our daily lives. This year, Webit.Festival will address the transformation processes that are shaping the digital economy of the future in Europe and the world. The event will be held on 25-26 April in Sofia Tech Park under the patronage of the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. The 5000 attendees, coming from more than 90 countries will have the chance to see 300 top speakers, who will share their vision for the future during 12 parallel conferences, covering fields, such as Marketing & Innovation, Digital Economy Leadership, Smart Cities, Mobility, Digital Transformation, FinTech & Blockchain, Big Data & Cloud, Security & Privacy, Health & Wellbeing, IoE and Software Development. During the Digital Transformation Summit you will get the chance to listen to the Chief Designer of SAP, Martin Wezowski, among many others. Before he started working for a big corporation, he studied construction engineering and modern media production technologies. He also had a career in music, which he left behind few years ago. In a recent interview, Wezowski explained that playing in a band and managing it as a business have him a 360-view of a product life cycle, from the initial idea to getting customers to return and eventually to building up a fan base.

“You need to understand every tiny detail and at the same time see the full strategic overview. It was very educational”, he said.

At Webit, Martin Wezowski will explain to the audience why what it means to be an innovator and designer is merging. It is transforming faster than before, from classic styling of the superficial to system design of everything, including social and political systems, deeply rooted in a space of challenges and promises between cutting edge tech and humanism. In an increasingly exponential and converging digital change, we design a relationship, a behavior, that the product will follow. This change is our most important design brief and the stakes are high, it is just too important to be left only to designers. Martin Wezowski believe that everything can and should be given a purpose through innovation and design, including the innovation systems themselves.

Ever since the emergence of the homo sapiens species on this planet, human nature is directly related to constant processes of transformation and development. But in the modern society we live in, these changes are happening at a much faster pace than most of us can understand. This year, Webit.Festival Europe will address precisely these comprehensive processes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which in the coming years will change almost every aspect of our lives fundamentally. And there is hardly anyone, who understands today’s Digital world better than the renowned communicator and expert in Marketing and Media Igor Beuker. He will be among the keynote speakers during the Opening ceremony of the event, which will take place on 25-26 April in Sofia Tech Park. In the space of 25 years, Igor Beuker was kicked out of professional football and went from a college dropout to a radical marketing visionary and modern-day serial entrepreneur. He has become one of the prominent speakers in the international business speaking circuit. And he hasn't slowed down since. Today he is an energetic professional communicator, renowned keynote speaker & host, award-winning marketing strategist for Nike, Amazon, L’Oréal and Unilever, new breed trendwatcher for several Fortune 500 companies, serial entrepreneur with multiple exits, and angel investor. Global enterprise leaders and media have labeled him one of the most inspiring, innovative and influential speakers and entrepreneurs. In the recent years he appeared on countless television and radio shows as an expert voice on emerging trends in marketing, media and innovation. During his keynote speech at Webit.Festival, Igor will explain to the audience why he thinks that intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. Igor will look at the trends through his Math Man lens and will share his thoughts on the world’s current systems, that were developed for the 20th century. He will also present his views on the path Europe has to take to lead the digital economy and build collaborative ecosystems, instead of “egosystems”. Watch Igor’s appearance on at CEEDS’15 by Webit:

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.

Digital health is among the topics at Webit Festival - it starts with the champion of new technology in medicine Dr Shafi Ahmed who will show how virtual and augmented reality can revolutionize surgical education and training.

One of the first confirmed speakers for Webit.Festival 2017 in Sofia is Dr Shafi Ahmed - pioneer in the use of virtual reality during surgeries. In fact, he is the first person in the world to live-stream an operation using Google Glass. If you want to hear more from him about this, you will see him on stage during Webit.Festival 2017 from 25-27 April in Sofia. Next year’s edition of the festival promises to bring more than 5000 attendees along with the top executives from world’s most renowned companies, investors, hottest startups and policy makers. Going back to Dr Ahmed, he is world known as one of the best general and colorectal surgeons, operating at The Royal London Hospital. In 2007, he was appointed as a Consultant General, Colorectal and Laparoscopic Surgeon at Barts and the London NHS trust. But the thing he is most popular for is the world’s first live-stream of an operation using Google Glass, which was watched live by 13000 students around the world. Dr Ahmed is also the founder of Medical Realities - an innovative group offering medical training products, specializing in virtual reality, augmented reality and serious games. By using consumer-level virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift, Medical Realities can reduce the cost of training, reach a wider audience and provide a completely safe learning environment for medical students. This is a whole new way of education for students, who can take the role of a surgeon and see through his eyes how is the surgery performed. This approach could make healthcare more equitable, making the training of surgeons worldwide a lot better. All you need is a virtual reality headset and you don’t have to travel abroad to train yourself, which is in fact a huge expense. “Surgery has always been learned through apprenticeship. Students must spend time in an operating theatre to get quality training from a mentor. While hospitals have got bigger and surgery has improved, the theatre space around the patient is still limited and it is difficult to provide everyone with a good view. VR lets every student learn from the best seat at the operating table”, says the doctor in one of his interviews. The next step is the development of devices which imitate the physical contact between the user and computer. There are companies developing various gloves or bodysuits which can replicate touch and feel. Dr Ahmed thinks that this devices could be ready for use in 3 to 5 years and they will be the next addition in this new way of education for surgeons. Of course, to know more about his thoughts on the subject, we will have to wait till April and his speech during Webit.Festival. About Webit.Festival 2017: Webit.Festival is the European edition of the Webit Series of events, which will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from the 25th to the 27th of April, 2017. The festival consists of several parallel conferences and events, workshops, roundtables and exhibitions. The event is under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. The agenda includes Tech Summit, Marketing and Innovation Summit, Developers Summit and Smart Cities Summit. Separate area of the festival will be dedicated to startups from Bulgaria and other countries in the world. The agenda for the founders includes conference, meetings with investors, academy for startups and special stage for them to pitch their companies in front of a jury of investors, journalists and leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Webit.Festival is the most influential event on the tech and digital industry in the region. To buy your tickets for Webit.Festival 2017, click here. To apply for speaking, click here. To apply for partnership, click here. To apply for exhibiting, click here. To apply for our Founders Games, 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 all this information and even more, visit our website www.webit.bg. Contact: Aniela Russeva

aniela@webitcongress.com