INNOWAVE SUMMIT 2018 - MEET THE FIRST ANNOUNCED SPEAKERS

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  MARIYA GABRIEL

  European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  09:00 - 09:30

  Opening and Welcome Address

  Mariya Gabriel is the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society since July 2017. The overall objective of her overarching portfolio aims at the full realization of the Digital Single Market. Her strategic vision has consistently placed European citizens at the center of the policies, helping them acquire digital skills to succeed in the digital transformation process. She has focused her efforts on putting forward an ambitious digital programme in the context of the next MFF, investing in HPC, AI, cyber security, but also the creative, audio-visual industries and media, bringing benefits to all European citizens. She has extensively engaged with external EU partners to enhance digital cooperation, in particular with the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean region. Mariya Gabriel served as Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to July 2017. Being the EPP Group Vice-President, she tackled issues related to EU enlargement, Mediterranean region, Middle East and Africa and focused on priorities, e.g. security, migration, women issues. Mariya Gabriel also has considerable achievements in the area of the EU visa policy - she is the EP rapporteur on 1/3 of all EU visa liberalisation agreements. She was awarded twice the prestigious prize "MEP of the year" - in 2016 for the Development category, and in 2013 for the Gender equality category. She is the 2018 winner of the prize "Tecnovisionarie" awarding excellence in research, technology, innovation, and business. In 2017 she was honored with the Royal Spanish Order of Civil Merit for her contribution to the foreign relations of the country and 2016 - with the Columbian Order of San Carlos for merits to the country in international relations and diplomacy.

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  Michael Leander

  Marketing Innovation Global speaker

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  09:30 - 10:20

  Michael Leander

  Michael Leander is an accomplished digital marketing entrepreneur and an award-winning marketing speaker with a global footprint. A recognized thought-leader in "martech" and marketing innovation for growth, he has delivered great experiences to audiences in 51 countries on 6 continents. This has earned him a reputation as a “great marketing speaker and marketing trainer”. He currently heads up Markedu - an innovative marketing training institute headquartered in Portugal with local operations in Europe, East Africa and Iran. Michael Leander is also the principal data-driven marketing consultant at GIDMA - a boutique data-driven marketing consulting firm helping companies grow.

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  Andrew Weld-Moore

  Manager Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  13:30 - 14:00

  Andrew Weld-Moore - Facebook Speaker

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  17:30 - 18:00

  Digital Marketing trends Discussion panel

  Andrew Weld-Moore is Head of Digital Business for the CEE region at Facebook’s Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin and oversees general management responsibilities while serving as a cross functional liaison, working with product, engineering, sales, business development, marketing and finance to drive Facebook’s most important strategic priorities within the region. He joined Facebook after a number of years at UTV Radio, where he was responsible for strategic sales & marketing policies, driving revenue across the company’s portfolio of radio stations. In that role he helped build UTV’s radio network into one of the largest in the UK/IRE marketplace. He also sits on the board of UNICEF Ireland.

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  Fahim R. Kibria

  CMO at Kotler Impact Inc. and Executive Director of the World Marketing Summit Group

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  09:30 - 10:20

  Value Driven Marketing

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  17:30 - 18:00

  Digital Marketing trends Discussion panel

  Dr. Fahim R. Kibria is also working as exclusive Business Director worldwide for Professor Philip Kotler, the one & only re-known Guru of marketing whose books are taught in all the business colleges & universities around the globe. Lately, they together launched Kotler Business Program in collaboration with Pearson Education UK, in 35 + countries (to-date) around the world. Prior to joining Kotler Impact Inc., he worked as marketing management consultant with Prof. Philip Kotler. As Director on the Pan-American desk, his primary role in providing consultancy to both private and public sectors. Prior to that, he worked as Director Strategy & Business Development at Philip Morris, spearheaded the firm`s Global Products Development strategy firstly out of Albany-NY, and then in Toronto, where he moved to redefine the Canadian business. Fahim is also involved in marketing consultations to companies worldwide, while assisting for corporate governance assessments and improvement plans in NAFTA, SAARC, SAFTA & ASEAN.

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  JOHN TSCHOHL

  Customer Service strategist and best-selling author

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  11:10 - 11:55

  The Service Strategy: A Competitive Advantage

  Called the “Guru of customer service” by USA today, Times and Entrepreneur magazine, John Tschohl is a best selling author, a internationally recognized service strategist and President of service quality institute, the global leader in Customer service. For the last 34 years he has solely focused on helping organizations drive a service culture and create a customer experience through his technology built on practicality, simplicity and common sense. With his credibility and focus on empowerment and the power of the social media he has the ability to emotionally communicate the power of the service strategy from Top executives to the total workforce. Tschohl is dynamic, hard hitting, and inspirational. He will create an emotional Buy-in using measurable data that CEO’s respond to. His books are recognized and highly esteemed by Senior executives as the most powerful must-reads in Customer Service. John’s message is based on common sense built around his 44 years in speaking, designing training programs and developing a high performance workforce. He is featured on major television shows from Good Morning America, CNBC and PBS to USA Today’s cover story, newspapers, radio stations, and magazines from almost every corner of the world. John’s technology and books are translated in 11 languages, represented in over 45 countries, and 90 percent of Service Quality Institute’s business is international.

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  Dinis Guarda

  CEO and Founder @Lifesdna. Serial entrepreneur and Fintech influencer

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  09:55 - 10:20

  How Businesses and Governments Can Prosper with Blockchain and AI

  Dinis Guarda is an author, serial entrepreneur, advisor and experienced CEO. He creates and helps build ventures focused on global growth, 360 digital strategies, sustainable innovation, Blockchain, Fintech, AI and new emerging business models such as ICOs / tokenomics. Dinis is the founder/CEO of Lifesdna - one AI P2P, blockchain, search engine and PaaS in consumer wellness healthcare and life sciences with a global team of experts and universities. Dinis is the author of various books. His upcoming books “Blockchain, AI and Crypto Economics - The Next Tsunami” and “Tokenomics and ICOs - How to be good at the new digital world of finance / Crypto” will be launched in 2018. Dinis has advised and was responsible for some top financial organizations, 100 cryptocurrencies worldwide and Fortune 500 companies. Dinis is involved as a strategist, board member and advisor with the blockchain reward community app Glance technologies, where he leads its white label blockchain division Blockimpact, the seminal Hyperloop Transportations project, Kora and Token Communities. He is listed in various global Fintech, Blockchain, AI, social media industry top lists as an influencer in position top 10/20 within 100 rankings

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  Nancy Nemes

  General Manager Hardware at Google

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  13:30 - 14:00

  Connected Life & Diginauts - visual, augmented and mixed reality in the 21st century

  Nancy Nemes is a tech trendsetter with 20 years of global experience in high tech across Europe, USA, Canada and South America. Nancy heads up Google`s Hardware business in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Prior to that, she spent 15 years at Microsoft leading up IOT in its early days, Digital & Consumer Marketing, Business Development and Sales for various products and services. In recent years, Nancy has pioneered, implemented and optimized the impact of mobile, digital, and social aiming at enriching people lives through smart connected devices and services.

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  Marc Albisser

  Investor, Advisor and CEO in Aerospace, CryptoTech&Real estate | SpaceX

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  14:40 - 15:10

  How Blockchain will revolutionize space exploration

  Since 2017, he has collaborated with SpaceX as an operating partner and contributor. Marc is a successful investor, entrepreneur and advisor. He has a broad educational background in law and economics. Passionate about space and new technologies he is investing in and advising tech startups and companies that are trying to make the world a better and safer place, especially in SpaceTech, CryptoTech, Blockchain, Cognification, Quantum, Big data, IA and VR. As the founder and owner of several companies involved in space, real estate, finance and technology, Marc has extensive global investment and management experience in asset management, cryptocurrencies, startups and space industry

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  Vasil S. Denchev

  Chief Quantum Software Architect at Quantum AI Lab, Google [USA]

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  16:00 - 16:30

  Quantum Artificial Intelligence

  Dr. Vasil S. Denchev is the Chief Quantum Software Architect of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at Google. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University. Vasil`s PhD research gave impetus to the founding in 2013 of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab by pioneering important techniques allowing for the successful application of quantum annealing to statistical machine learning and computer vision problems. Currently Vasil is studying the computational effects of quantum tunneling and many-body delocalization via experimentation with existing quantum processors as well as distributed large-scale numerical simulations of various quantum and classical computational models. Most recently, in recognition of his overall contributions to the computing sciences, Vasil received the prestigious John Atanasoff Award from the President of Bulgaria.

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  Ivan Portnih

  Mayor of Varna

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  09:00 - 09:30

  Opening and Welcome Address

  Ivan Portnih is Mayor of Varna since July 2013. He has a Master degree in International Economic Relations from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, also he is Master of Business Administration from the Francophone Institute of Administration and Management. Portnih specializes in hotel management at Cornell University, USA. He is formal General Manager of Grand hotel Varna Resort & Spa (2001 – 2013). Ivan Portnih has command of French, English and Russia

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  Cüneyt Erpolat

  Country Manager of Alibaba.com Turkey

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  14:40 - 15:10

  Ecommerce trends in B2B

  Аppointed as Country Manager of Alibaba.com, one of the largest e-commerce portals in the world, Cüneyt is responsible for all business processes and stakeholder relationship management of Alibaba.com in Turkey since May 2013. Cüneyt Erpolat graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University and started his career as Product Manager at Xerox. He then worked as Channel Manager at Microsoft between 2000 and 2002, as Head of SME Department at Avea between 2002 and 2007, and as one of Anadolu Yatırım`s founding partners in 2007 serving as investment consultant. Erpolat, who served as Sales Director in Datamarket for one year in 2010, became Sales Director of Grenke Turkey between 2011-2013.

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  Ian Moyse

  Industry Influencer & Sales Director, Natterbox

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  15:25 - 15:55

  How to approach increased customer expectations in 2018

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  17:30 - 18:00

  Digital Marketing trends Discussion panel

  Ian Moyse, has over 25 years of experience in the IT Sector, with nine of these specialising in security, 12 years in cloud and over 20 years of channel experience. Ian is Sales Director at Cloud Telephony Provider Natterbox. He was named #1 on the top 100 cloud influencers list in 2017 through 2015. In 2015 he was named 46th most connected on LinkedIn Worldwide and awarded a Linkedin Power Profile as a top 10 Influencer in the UK technology sector.

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  Paolo Ruggeri

  CEO & Co-founder Open Source Management

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  14:05 - 14:35

  Value through people

  Paolo A. Ruggeri is a founding partner of OSM International Group www.osmconsultgroup.com, a USA based management consulting company with existing offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia, offering unique analyzing tools and business development methods with proven results for over 25 years. OSM International Group can sustainably improve any kind of business operations, no matter the market, economic conditions, or business cycles. Paolo`s TED speaker. Paolo is an expert in leadership and people development. His books on the subject have been translated into several languages and have become best sellers in Europe and the Americas

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  George Roter

  Director, Open Innovation Programs at Mozilla

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  12:00 - 12:30

  Democratizing Speech Technologies through Open Innovation: Mozilla Common Voice

  George Roter is a Director on Mozilla`s Open Innovation team. Based in Berlin, he is responsible for a company-wide crowdsourcing function and developing global community initiatives that engage thousands of contributors. Prior to Mozilla, George was co-founder and CEO of Engineers Without Borders Canada, a leading innovation, advocacy and talent development NGO.

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  Baybars Altuntas

  Chairman, World Business Angels Investment Forum

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  15:25 - 15:55

  Financial Road Map of Entrepreneurs from Startup to Scaleup to Exit

  Former Senior Advisor of the Elite Programme of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), star of the Turkish version of the television show Dragons’ Den / Sharks Tank, Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF), Co-chair of the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN), Vice President of the European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds, and Early Stage Market Players (EBAN), President of the Business Angels Association of Turkey (TBAA), the World Entrepreneurship Forum Ambassador to Turkey and the Balkan countries, and President of Deulcom International. One of the top global speakers on entrepreneurship, innovation and angel investment invited by former US President Obama to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Recipient of the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN) award for the Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaging with the Global Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 2014 (Ireland), 2015 (Netherlands), 2016 (Portugal) and 2017 (Spain). The only entrepreneur to be granted a personal audience with former President Obama at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, DC. Developer of the world-renowned entrepreneurship theory, the Altuntas Start-up Compass Theory, researched by Sheffield University and used in numerous MBA programmes. Advisory board member of the South East Europe Research Council in Greece. Appointed as JCI Ambassador, following Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations. Profiled regularly by leading international media such as CNN International and Bloomberg. A co-author of Planet Entrepreneur: The World Entrepreneurship Forum's Guide to Business Success Around the World, published by Wiley (2013). Author of Off the Bus, Into a Supercar! How I Became a Top TV Star and Celebrated Investor, published by Balboa Press (2014) and translated into Chinese, Croatian, Albanian, and Macedonian.

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  Isidro Laso

  Head of Startup Europe - European Commission

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  17:00 - 17:30

  European Commision

  Isidro had his first taste of entrepreneurship at university, where he created a junior enterprise. After graduating as an Engineer from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, he set up his on software business in the area of engineering working with sensors, actuators, Geographic Information Systems and design tools before becoming a strategic consultant to high-level executives (CEOs of large corporations), mainly in the telco and media sector. He then moved to the ICT sector where he worked on research projects related to Workflow Management Systems and Internet Collaboration Systems. This gave him the opportunity to create a new department within his company offering change management projects to customers, to complement traditional ICT projects. Subsequently he spent five months working for one of the Ministries in Spain before being seconded to the European Commission as a National Expert. Since becoming a Commission official he has managed research projects and drafted research strategy objectives. Since 2015 Isidro he has been nominated thought leader at United Nations ITU, and is member of several advisory boards to international networks of startups (EU – India, EU – Silicon Valley). He combines his professional activities with teaching activities as visiting lecturer to CEPADE (business school of the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid).

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  Klaus Beetz

  Vice President for External Cooperation, Siemens AG

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  13:30 - 14:00

  Digitizing the manufacturing value chain Siemens

  Klaus looks back on more almost three decades of industry experience in software and system engineering, including five years of international delegation to Eastern Europe. Over the years, he gathered extensive intercultural experience in numerous international projects involving multicultural cooperation, especially on the European level. Among other duties, he was a member of the board of trustees at the European Software Institute (ESI), member of the executive board of Digital Europe (DE) and member of the steering group at the Eureka cluster ”Information Technology for European Advancement” (ITEA). Just recently he was elected to the board of the Alliance Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI). He joined Siemens in 2002 and was heading the Global Technology Field “Software and System Engineering” and responsible for the worldwide research and technology transfer of innovative engineering technologies for software intensive systems and digital technologies. Now he is responsible for external collaboration in Research, Development and Innovation at the Siemens Corporate Technology. From 2011 to 2015 he was delegated as Director for Business & Entrepreneurship at the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) EIT Digital within the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and from July 2016 to December 2017 he was Interim Chief Operating Officer at EIT Food with overall responsibility for the ramp up of the operations of EIT Food.

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  Michael Roberts

  Lead Solution Engineer @ Salesforce

  Michael started his career as a digital marketer and quickly became a thought leader on B2B Marketing trends in Australia. He is passionate thinking about how data and artificial intelligence is helping brands to deliver more personalised messages across every channel. He is an energetic communicator, speaking at Salesforce World Tour, Dreamforce and the B2B Marketing Leadership Forum in Australia. Michael is also passionate about #EqualityForAll, founding Salesforce`s interfaith group, Faithforce globally.

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  Pascal Condamine

  Project Evangelist @Indiegogo

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  16:30 - 17:00

  Challenges of Running a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

  Pascal is Project Evangelist Europe with Indiegogo helping project creators to connect with the resources that Indiegogo has put in place to develop successful campaigns. Pascal loves to chat about projects with future campaigners and his experience in various fields such as molecular biology, webmarketing, ecommerce, and crowdfunding have given him a broad entrepreneurship mindset and open minded approach.

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  Jens Lapinski

  CEO & Founder at Angel Invest Ventures

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  14:05 - 14:35

  Evaluating Early Stage Ideas

  Jens is an early stage investor. He is CEO & Founder at Angel Invest Ventures and invests in ten European B2B startups per year. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Techstars, where he managed four programs and invested in 40 companies, which have raised $50m+ in aggregate. In 2015 he launched the Berlin office, which in 2017 became the most active office of the global Techstars Network.

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  MARC WESSELINK

  Managing Director Startupbootcamp

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  09:35 - 10:05

  Startupbootcamp Evaluating Early Stage Ideas

  Serial Entrepreneur, started 12 companies in FMCG, Home Electronics, Healthcare, E-Commerce, HR and Finance. Because of this, he has an in depth knowledge on many fields which can help entrepreneurs to maintain a 360 degree view on their business. He is a motivator, business coach, critical optimist. With his skills and experience, he is currently in charge of selecting Startups for the Accelerator programs in Amsterdam and helping the alumni from Startupbootcamp Amsterdam with the execution of their business. He is also co-founder of Startupbootcamp Africa with programs in Johannesburg & Cape Town.With his entrepreneurial experience, Mark advises managers and entrepreneurs to let their company grow faster and helps them establish a solid infrastructure. After founding and having bootstrapped 12 companies and failed 4 times, he is definitely an experienced entrepreneur with an international focus. After interviewing hundreds of startups as Selection & Alumni Manager at Startupbootcamp, he went on to co-found Startupbootcamp Africa.

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  Robert Neivert

  Venture Partner at 500 Startups

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  14:05 - 14:35

  What are VC`s looking for

  Robert is a venture partner at 500 startups focusing on B2B enterprise software and a veteran of nine companies. Twice as CEO, and multiple times as CFO, COO, and heads of sales and marketing organizations. Рreviously held the position of Executive in Residence at Quest Venture Partners. Robert is also mentor and advisor for Cardinal Ventures, Stanford iFarm, and Stanford`s Treehacks program as well as an executive advisor for over 15 funded startups.

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  Marius Ghenea

  Partner, 3TS Capital

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  16:00 - 16:30

  Marius Ghenea

  Marius is serial entrepreneur and business-angel with successful investments in many CEE countries, ranks in Forbes fortune Romanian survey. He is Co-Founder at VentureConnect and SchoolforStartups Romania, president of the Romanian Association of Online Stores. Also he is the author of “Entrepreneurship”, first Romanian entrepreneurship book, one of the Romanian Dragons from the TV show Dragons’ Den; Co-organizer of the BusinessDrive mini-MBA program, professor of Entrepreneurship. Marius is awarded with “Investor of the Year Romania 2016” by Central European Startup Awards.

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  Neil Thubron

  Executive Mentor, Motivational Speaker

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  14:40 - 15:10

  You Can Achieve Any Big Goal

  Neil works with individuals and companies to enable them to achieve more in their business and personal lives. He does through 1:1 mentoring and coaching, key note speeches, organising team strategic planning and break through events. He is the author of Yu Can - Achieve any Big Goal using the 7P formula for success. In this book Neil describes how he discovered and applied the 7P formula through his experience in the military, business and extreme sports.

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  Björn Weigel

  Business strategist and investor

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  15:25 - 15:55

  European innovation – status and main challenges

  Björn Weigel has worked with business development and economic growth for over twenty years. He co-authored The Innovation Illusion, Yale University Press, recognized as one of the Financial Times Best Business Books of 2016. He’s an independent investor, board member, strategic advisor and manager.

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  Nuno Varandas

  Co-Founder and BizDev Projects Expert @F6S

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  13:30 - 14:00

  Nuno Varandas - F6S "#GiveFirst business model"

  Nuno leads F6S partnerships with the European public sector that deliver growth to tech founders and tech startups. He has a passion for driving growth in the European founder and startup ecosystem through F6S` 1 million tech SMEs and partnerships with public and private entities throughout Europe. Prior to F6S, Nuno had technology leadership roles at Allianz, Bosch, eneida and the IPN Accelerator

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  Monica Miteva

  Marketing & Sales Director

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  11:35 - 11:55

  The next industrial revolution. How e-commerce is transforming B2B

  Monica runs the Marketing and Sales Department at DHL Express Bulgaria. She has been working hard to position the company as a strategic partner for corporate, small and medium-sized businesses, particularly start-ups and online retailers.

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  Norman Winarsky

  Co-founder and board member of Siri (Apple) Entrepreneurial Mentor & Technology Pioneer

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  09:05 - 09:35

  The Story of Siri and Predictions of the Next AI Breakthroughs

  Norman is past President of SRI Ventures at SRI International, a world-leading research institute founded by Stanford University in 1946. He has been a founder and leader of SRI’s venture strategy and process, which has resulted in more than sixty ventures worth over $20 billion. Norman helped create and build companies ranging from artificial intelligence, natural language, and computer vision, to medical devices, robotics, and nanotechnology. He was a co-founder and board member of Siri, which was spun out from SRI in January 2008 and acquired by Apple in April 2010. Siri has become a worldwide phenomenon, establishing the breakthrough market category of virtual personal assistant.

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  Aygul Zagidullina

  Google Developer Group & Women Techmakers London Lead

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  10:35 - 11:05

  Building a brand in the age of the Google Assistant

  Dr. Aygul Zagidullina is a digital marketing and brand strategist with 10+ years of experience. She is a Director of Social Media at MotaWord. Previously, Aygul worked at Todoist and Google. She holds a PhD in quantum chemistry and prior to Google dedicated 6 years to scientific research at the University of Stuttgart. Aygul is a very active member of the London digital ecosystem and has been involved in many innovative projects. She is a Google Developer Group (GDG)/ Women Techmakers (WTM) London lead, Google Top Contributor (TC)/ Trusted Tester (TT), and UK STEM Ambassador. Aygul has been a distinguished speaker at numerous international industry events in the US (at Google HQ), UK, Germany, Ireland, UAE, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Georgia, and Russia. She was named as one of The NEXT 100 Top Influencers of the European Digital Industry in 2013

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  Gary W. Whitehill

  Mentor at Startup Incubators & Accelerators | Global Board of Advisors: Dell Center for Entrepreneurs [Ghana]

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  11:35 - 11:55

  $250M in 3 Years: How to Drive Moonshot Growth in Emerging Markets

  Gary W. Whitehill is the founder of Entrepreneur Week and The Relentless Foundation. He is a relentless entrepreneur and driven philanthropist with a footprint on four continents; broad experience spanning entrepreneurship, M&A, business turnarounds, and Fortune 100 board directorships. In 2009, Gary began leveraging his global rolodex of accomplished leaders and innovators to build the largest network of Entrepreneur Weeks in the world. Currently, the global platform resides in 11 cities and 4 continents, providing knowledge, resources, relationships, and access to capital to early-stage entrepreneurs and business owners. Since its inception, Entrepreneur Week has convened more than 5,000 entrepreneurs, representing more than $8 billion in revenue and continues its expansion into 25 cities and 14 countries. Furthermore, the platform made history in both 2011 and 2012 as the first institution, aside from the President of the United States, to usher delegations of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and investors to other continents to advise Heads of State, Prime Ministers, and Presidents, which included Chile and Greece. A visionary in structuring the macro-level dynamics of entrepreneurial ecosystems, Gary has published more than 10 articles for industry-leading publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Inc. and Time Magazine, and delivered over 50 presentations to audiences around the World on many topical facets of entrepreneurship. Gary is also an investor in 8 companies spanning multiple verticals, including consumer products, outdoor-advertising, print, and technology. Philanthropically, Gary is driven by his desire to ensure every continent maintains a global competitiveness within the entrepreneurship space. He seeks to build a framework for teaching every child the tenets of entrepreneurship inside K-12 classrooms by 2030. This mission persists within the establishment of The Relentless Foundation, commenced in 2009. Gary also plans to expand upon this vision by implementing entrepreneurship-based curricula into schools across major cities around the globe within the next two decades. Driven to promote innovation in large corporations, Gary played an instrumental role in architecting the first Fortune 50 Entrepreneur-in-Residence program at Dell. He also resides as a member of the AOL Small Business Board of Directors, Astia Global Board of Directors, Dell Entrepreneur-in-Residence Advisory Board, and Holcomb Nature Farm Board of Directors. In 2011, Gary represented the United States at the Young G20 Summit in Paris, France, advising Heads of State on innovation in technology and communication. He was recently nominated to represent the United States at the G8 Young Global Leaders Summit in Chicago, Illinois held in May 2012.

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  Dirk Lubbers

  Former Managing Director at Heineken

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  14:40 - 15:10

  Dirk Lubbers

  Dirk is a former Managing Director at Heineken International. Under his supervision, Heineken Experience has more than doubled the number of visitors in five years and is now one of the biggest attractions in Amsterdam. Throughout his time at Heineken International Dirk is well-known for his enthusiastic Heineken spirit with heart for the business and people. Studied at the University of Nijmegen, Corporate Sciences/Business Studies. Dirk reads many (preferably historical) books, plays soccer, tennis and jogs. Dirk loves to sing along with Frozen, likes the Rolling Stones and INXS. Manipulating and teasing people are his most favourite activities. Since 2017 year Dirk is CEO at Tourism Group Holding.

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  Oana Calugar

  Principal consultant at Performance+

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  16:30 - 17:00

  Objective and Key Results = the Operating System for Digital Transformation

  Oana Calugar helps business leaders develop high-performing teams using and accelerate the Digital Transformation using the framework Objective and Key Results (OKRs). She set OKRs as a Customer Support Team Leader, as a Data Manager and as a Product Manager. After that she became a consultant, coach, and trainer and worked with high-growing clients, helping their team leaders to adopt and manage objectives and key results (OKRs) supported by data analytics. She loves to drive the performance of her clients and to improve employee engagement.

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  Aaron Hedges

  API Product Manager at Vimeo

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  17:00 - 17:30

  Why I`m betting on REST

  For the last seven years Aaron Hedges has worked on every part of the API lifecycle. As an engineer he designed and built the Vimeo API. After that he transitioned to Product Management to continue working on the design, developer experience and business needs of Public APIs.

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  Denis Rothman

  Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  10:35 - 11:05

  Boosting e-business with Blockchain artificial intelligence

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  10:35 - 11:05

  Boosting e-business, advertising, and tourism with Artificial Intelligence Smart Grids

  Denis Rothman, is the author one of the first Artificial Intelligence Cognitive NPL Chatbots. He also designed Automated Planning Systems and Artificial Intelligence software for corporate industries and online solutions.
  Author of the book "Artificial Intelligence by Example".

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  Hristo Stoyanov

  Regional Mandate Manager at European Investment Fund

  Hristo Stoyanov manages the business development activities in Bulgaria of the European Investment Fund. He joined the EIF office in Sofia as mandate manager in 2011 responsible for the operations of a Bulgarian holding fund providing EU Structural Funds through SME-focused financial instruments including guarantees, start-up accelerators and venture capital. He is member of the Board of Directors of JEREMIE Bulgaria – company, acting as an umbrella fund with diversified portfolio of private equity funds and risk-sharing commitments to local credit institutions. Prior to joining the EIF, Hristo managed M&A advisory projects at Forem Consulting in Sofia. He holds a MBA degree from University of Notre Dame in the USA.

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  Jamie Williams

  NFL & Super Bowl Veteran, Holllywood Actor, Entrepreneur

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  15:25 - 15:55

  A Conversation on Internal and External Ethics in Strategic Leadership.

  After becoming an All-American Football and Basketball player at Nebraska University, Dr. Williams played professional football and earned a NFL XXIV Super Bowl ring with the San Francisco 49ers. Following football, Dr. Williams embarked on a career that included work in the film industry as a writer, director, screenwriter and actor. Jamie is most known for his role as a writer, technical director and actor in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday. Along the way, he achieved both a Master Degree in Mass Communication and a Doctorate Degree in Education and Leadership. Jamie’s startup, Ymotion, creates everything from commercials, graphic design, music videos, web development, illustration/animation and social media presence. All of its “creatives” have degrees in Fine Art, and its clients mostly represent Fortune 500 hundred companies.

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  Syd Lawrence

  Co-founder @ The Bot Platform

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  16:30 - 17:00

  Syd Lawrence

  Syd is one of the co-founders of The Bot Platform and has over 14 years experience working with cutting edge technology. He’s worked with global icons including The Rolling Stones, Coca Cola, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony Music, Universal, Warner Music, and Greenpeace and has won a range of awards. Syd has also found time to have some of his personal projects featured in the Tate Modern and the Barbican Museum. It’s for these reasons and many more that in 2014 Syd was inducted into the Hospital Club 100 as one of the most influential technology experts in the world.

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  Lloyd Waldo

  Community Manager @ StartupYard

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  09:00 - 09:30

  Lloyd Waldo

  Hailing from San Francisco, California, Lloyd Waldo, the self-proclaimed “3rd most-famous American in Prague,” is a Partner at StartupYard, and resident Copywriter and Community Manager. Lloyd brings many years of professional writing and speaking experience to StartupYard, as well as an eye for defining the unique voice of a young company. Lloyd is a frequent speaker and panelist at startup and tech events throughout Europe, and he is a mentor at GjirafaLab, Kosovo’s first ever incubator for tech startups, and Numa, a leading tech accelerator in France. In 2014, he joined Gjirafa, a StartupYard startup, as a member of the Advisory Board.

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  Hélio Vogas

  Leadership & Motivational Speaker

  20 october 2018
  Business hall
  12:00 - 12:30

  Hélio Vogas

  Hélio shared his leadership concepts from local meetup groups to the United Nations headquarters in Vienna, Austria. From student organizations that foster entrepreneurship to audiences composed of CFO`s of Fortune 500 companies. He uses eye-catching demonstrations, humorous interactions with the audience and high energy moments to drive the message home and make it memorable and inspired action.

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  Майк Дохърти

  Основател на Doherty & Associates

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  10:50 - 11:15

  Building that Startup Ecosystem

  Майк Дохърти, основателят на Doherty & Associates, има дълга история на бизнес развитие, стратегия и планиране. Майк стартира и управлява няколко лични начинания, така че разбира предизвикателствата, свързани с управлението на ежедневните операции, като същевременно се концентрира върху възможностите за растеж и крайната цел. Бил е и инвеститор и кредитор което отваря кръгозора му за за изискванията и очакванията, които тези две позиции могат да имат в продуктовия микс, това помага на клиенти на Майк се възползват и от двете гледни точки.

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  Thomas Cochran

  Former White House and State Department digital leader

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  16:00 - 16:30

  Digital transformation at the White House during the Obama administration

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  17:30 - 18:00

  Digital Marketing trends Discussion panel

  Tom Cochran is a digital transformation consultant and executive keynote speaker. He spent over four years in the Obama administration as a presidential appointee and digital leader. He ran digital technology for President Obama and led the team that built the ‘We the People’ platform, opening up the White House and allowing people to digitally exercise their First Amendment rights to petition the government. He held a Deputy Assistant Secretary role at the U.S. Department of State, responsible for running their global digital public diplomacy platforms and network of physical American Spaces.

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  Pavel Šafařík

  ROI Hunter Product Leader

  19 october 2018
  Business hall
  14:05 - 14:35

  ROI Hunter - Facebook Ads platform

  Pavel’s fast, innovative thinking in Product Management from ROI Hunter’s infancy and leadership as Product Development Leader are one of the things what has moved ROI Hunter from a small Facebook marketing platform to one of the premier tools of its kind. His main focus is in new product development, business evaluation and creative growth that will help to shape the future of digital advertising.

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  Larry Biehl

  Founder of Interculture and founder of Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Center (BEC)

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  16:00 - 16:30

  larry Biehl

  Larry Biehl graduated Stanford University. After developing his own business in Silicon Valley, he starts helping young entrepreneurs to do the same. For over 50 years, he is a financial advisor and investment manager for different startups all over the world. He is the founder of Interculture foundation which finances the project Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Center.

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  Proloy Mitra

  Director of Business Development at Yandex

  Proloy Mitra is an experienced, resourceful and effective Digital Monetisation Expert with proven proficiency in all aspect of the monetization life cycle. He believes in constantly driving the use of technology to innovate consumer services and enhance revenue. Proloy is Director of Business Development at Yandex where he is responsible to build go-to-market strategy in India, engagement with existing partners and new partnerships. His experience includes different key positions in Disney Interactive, TATA Teleservices, MaxMobility, Veolia, and others.

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  Thomas P. Offner

  Senior Manager at PwC

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  10:05 - 10:35

  How can startups and corporates work together - i.e. how to get innovations and emerging technologies from startups into the corporation

  With 20 years experience in the startup and digital industry (and having started his first venture in 1998), Thomas is bridging the gap between the corporate and the start-up world. He has built and managed several successful startup programs, for example the P7S1 Accelerator ProSiebenSat.1) and the MS Spacelab (Media Saturn Holding) as well as working as an active venture capital investor for SevenVentures and Intel Capital. Furthermore he is the founder of one of the world’s most relevant startup competitions (Forbes Magazine), the SevenVentures Pitch Day (7VPD.com). The business management graduate also held management positions in numerous European companies, such as Intel, Audi and Siemens and has successfully founded and/or developed several Internet start-ups, including his first venture, Media Service Group, in the late 90s, fatfoogoo (successfully sold to Digital River) and also Groupon in Austria and Switzerland as co-founder (IPOed).

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  Jacob Burenstam

  Co-founder & CTO at Just Arrived

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  09:30 - 09:55

  Startup legends

  Jacob is a social entrepreneur and co-founder & CTO at Just Arrived, a service that helps immigrants in Sweden find a job, earning him a spot on 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Social Entrepreneurship. He previously worked in Med Tech building a patient recruitment platform named on the Top 100 Global Red Herring list, counting several of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies amongst its customers. He's also been in e-commerce working with some of Sweden’s top fashion brands helping them deliver new, exiting and engaging experiences. Jacob is an avid Open Source advocate and built Just Arrived as open source software.

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  RUMEN ILIEV

  Partner at LAUNCHub Ventures

  19 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  16:30 - 17:00

  VC Discussion panelist

  Rumen Iliev is a Partner of LAUNCHub since May 2012. Mr. Iliev manages the application process, the pre-selection and the portfolio relations. Previously, he had his own business consultancy practice focused on solving business issues and helping companies and their management in achieving business goals. During his professional career, he has held various senior expert level positions at some of the biggest multinationals in Utilities and Insurance in the CEE Region. Interested in Entrepreneurship, Startups, Venture Capital, Investments and focused on building connections with the relevant people in the startup / entrepreneurial ecosystem that can help early stage companies achieve their goals.

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  MIlen Ivanov

  Serial Entrepreneur, adviser and investor

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  12:00 - 12:30

  Investors Discussion panel

  Milen Ivanov was born in Silistra and has been a serial entrepreneur in various business areas over the past 15 years, mainly related to Marketing and B2B services. He has experience as an investor, employer and manager in spheres including advertising, event management, internet projects and business services. He has several awards - "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" 2003, "Creativity Award and Innovation" at the WYBA World Finals in Istanbul, one of the 40 younger innovators under 40ty who are changing Bulgaria according to a Darik radio contest. Founder and Chairman of CEO Club Bulgaria - the largest informal network of top managers and entrepreneurs in Bulgaria.Some of the companies he founded and run are JordanSheppard Executive Search, Horizons Recruitment, Gift.bg, Bulgarian Indoor Advertising, Sponsio. He is the author of the book: How to find a better job in Bulgaria?Since 3 years he has been the Director of The Founders Institute for Bulgaria, the world`s largest Academy of entrepreneurs and a startup incubator at the level of an idea with headquarters in Silicon Valley, and CEO of Angels Club, the angel club for investors who helps Young start-up companies to develop their business.

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  Kaan Mamikoglu

  Mobile Software Engineer at MyDrive Solutions Limited

  20 october 2018
  Innovation hall
  17:30 - 18:00

  Step into the World of Firebase

  Kaan Mamikoglu is a mobile software engineer at MyDrive Solutions, a Generali company, in London, UK. As an active community builder, he has co-organized a lot of developer events in the UK and Turkey such as DevFests, Android Developer Days’, Android Study Jams, and has been a distinguished speaker at many international industry events in the US, UK, Czech Republic, UAE, Turkey and Georgia. Besides being a Google Developer Group (GDG) London co-organizer, he is a Google Top Contributor (TC) and a Google Local Guide. Kaan is passionate about exploring new technologies and traveling around the world.

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  DESIGAN CHINNIAH

  Director of Open Innovation & Emerging Technologies atMozilla

  Desigan Chinniah is the Director of Open Innovation & Emerging Technologies atMozilla, the makers ofFirefox. As a seasoned firestarter, Dees drives strategy and outreach forMozilla technologies thinking about Web Next. He is a champion for all things open internet. Dees possesses a Swiss Army Knife of talents including being a veteran Dot-Com Firestarter and Futurist, a Non-Exec Advisor, an early stage Startup Mentor as well Board Member. Most recently he's been assisting Mozilla'sEmerging Technology andOpen Innovation groups explorations into the Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality, Voice/Speech, Internet-of-Things, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Bots space. Prior to this, Dees has worked within the world wide web as a Designer, Developer, Technical Evangelist, Product Architect, Community Manager & Business Development professional for 15+ years, including check-ins atAsk Jeeves,Skype,BBC,eBay,PayPal,Gumtree andMozilla Labs.

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