On June 13-14th in Sofia, Sofia Tech Park will host the first ever Tech Tour Eastern Europe Tech Tour (EETT), to be held

in Bulgaria.

The EETT is a three-day investor roadshow in Warsaw and Sofia, showcasing successful start-ups and SMEs from Central and Eastern Europe.

As part of EETT, an invitation-only strategic policy discussion meeting will be held; it is entitled: Entrepreneurship, Investment, Tech Transfer and Incubation: Best practices and next initiative for cooperation in South Eastern Europe upon the initiative of the Bulgarian Minister of Economy on the 13th of June.

It will convene representatives of Ministries of Economy, Science and Innovation, Venture Capital and Private Equity associations, Funds-of-Funds and National Promotional banks with the aim to discuss best practices for fostering innovation and agree on next common initiatives.

The policy meeting consists of 3 sessions, each consisting of a strategic discussion with introductory presentations followed by interventions by all participants with best practice examples and recommendations:

·         Regional initiatives and challenges of SEE countries fostering entrepreneurship

·          Investment fund formation attracting private capital

·          Tech transfer and incubation leading to societal and economic impact

The meeting will help participants the opportcan bunity to participate in active discussions and to also gain insight from other local and international policy makers, VC and corporate investors and financial institutions, among which IBM, Almaz Capital, Samsung, Microsoft, and Earlybird Venture CapitalAll participants and speakers of the Eastern Europe Tech Tour can be found here.

The full programme is available here.

This meeting format encourages active participation.

To register, please message petar@techtour.com.

During the second day of the  Eastern Europe Tech Tour (EETT), on the 14th of June in Sofia, will be held Innovative Enterprise Week Sofia 2018 (IEW) –  Financial Instruments Fostering Research and Innovation. The event is an initiative of the European Commission with strong senior presence from the EC, EIB and EIF.

A particular focus of the conference will be to enhance interactions between financial instruments to help innovative firms access finance more easily including: Innovfin, COSME’s financial instruments, European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the European Innovation Council, and including instruments at regional, national and local levels.

Discussion topics will include:

·         The next Multiannual Financial Framework

·         Important new financial instruments, such as Horizon Europe, which was announced this week

·         The  €2.1 billion Pan-European Venture Capital Funds-of-Funds Programme VentureEU just announced by the European Commission

IEW will bring together policy makers in research and innovation, including:

• Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation
• Jean-Eric Paquet, Director General, DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission
• Roger Havenith, Deputy CEO of the European Investment Fund
• Jean-David Malo, Director, Open Innovation and Open Science, European Commission

Details about the confirmed speakers are available here, and the event programme here.

Participation in both events is free. I’m attaching a detailed programme of both events.

For more information  about the IEW and to register please contact info@innoweeksofia2018.eu

In April 24-26, 2018 in Stuttgart, Germany, a facilitator training was organized under the Smart Factory Hub project, funded under the Danube Transnational Program, to which the Cluster Information and Communication Technologies Foundation is a partner.

Agile Serbia Conference has become the biggest Agile event in the region. During the last conference 500+ attendee from 10+ countries across Europe visited the event!For the next, 3rd Agile Serbia Conference, are prepared hot topics about Agile, Leadership and Software Development. You can also expect some novelties. The 3rd Agile Serbia Conference will be even more interactive than the 2nd one, with the promise to keep the quality of an educational part of the program. Join the biggest Agile and IT event in the Balkan region! See you on the 27th of April 2018!

For the full list of the speakers, more information and registration visit: AGILE SERBIA 2018

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PuzzleSoftware/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/1174093/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/PuzzleSoft

Peter Statev – chairman of the board of ICT Cluster presented the project Smart Factory Hub at the TCI Conference Europe 2018 that was held in Sofia Tech Park on 21st of March. TCI Conference is one of the biggest events on European level and it was attended by representatives of cluster organisations, public agencies, industry and universities from 26 countries. The project SMART FACTORY HUB, on which ICT Cluster is a partner, was presented as a tool for shaping the digital future of Bulgaria and increasing the competitiveness of the manufacturing companies with implementing smart technologies in the production process.

After the great success of six previous editions of SEETEST in Bulgaria and Romania, the prestigious conference in the area of Software Testing and Software Quality Management will take place in Belgrade for the first time. The event rotates in different Balkan countries and gathers more than 300 IT professionals, software testing experts and well-known speakers every year.

The conference will be preceded by full-day courses on September 26, 2018 where the participants will get hands-on training in small groups in Software Testing’s latest concepts.

SEETEST 2018 will cover topics like Security Testing, Mobile Testing, Test Automation, Cloud Testing and many more current trends in the area of Quality Assurance. The conference format will be three parallel half-day tutorials in the morning and three tutorials in the afternoon on September 27. The Tutorial speakers at SEETEST are internationally recognized testing experts with tons of practical experience.

It is followed by one day of keynotes and presentations on September 28. Prospective authors are encouraged to submit papers for evaluation by the Program Committee. Organizers SEETB and Quality House guarantee that all papers will be subject to a “blind review” by at least two members of the Program Committee, on the basis of relevance, originality, importance and clarity.

SEETEST offers countless networking opportunities at the conference itself but a great addition is the Social event. It is specially designed in a format that allows attendees, sponsors and speakers to network and enjoy the evening.

The Serbian capital will host the event at the heart of New Belgrade business district in the luxury four stars hotel Crowne Plaza.

Save the dates and take advantage of discounts for early registrations! For more information, please visit the conference website.

Bulgaria ranks #1 for female ICT specialists in Europe

Sofia, March 7, 2018 - The Bulgarian Center of Women in Technology (BCWT), in partnership with the Ministry for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, are organizing the first SHEleader@digital conference dedicated to role of women in the digital economy.

Bulgaria has the highest percentage of women and girls in the ICT sector (27.7%) among the EU member states. The country is also at the top of the ranking for female IT professionals with 30%, almost double to the 16% average.

As the leading EU country with women in tech, on April 12^th Sofia will welcome top ranked women leaders from all across Europe to discuss how to encourage and inspire more women and girls to enter professional and leadership roles in the digital industry.

The conference is part of the official calendar of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU and will be held under the official patronage of the Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mrs. Mariya Gabriel. The event will be opened by Lilyana Pavlova, Minister of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU and Sasha Bezuhanova, Board Chair of BCWT and founder of MOVE.BG.

“The transforming digitally connected world that we live in requires the collective intelligence and professional contribution of all talented women and men who take on leadership to experiment with innovative ideas and validate new solutions. Women can play an even greater role than today with their participation in the digital economy of Europe and the world. SHEleader@digital brings together women leaders from Europe to find together solutions to this imbalance, to look for the dimensions of the female leadership authenticity and to connect the new generation of female entrepreneurs.”, said Sasha Bezuhanova.

Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg is among the keynote speakers and she will open the conference with a special video message.

The event will gather over 250 representatives of the business, non-profit and public sectors.

„At SHELeader@digital I want to get inspired form the stories of many other women and to be able to share with all the attendees some energies and good vibes to those who need it.", said Sabela Garcia Cuesta, Program Manager at Next Media Accelerator and one of the keynote speakers.

The conference will examine how women leaders can effectively partner to support female leadership in the digital world and change the common perception of women in tech. SHEleader will also discuss women’s role in today’s social and economic life and will explore how women leaders can contribute to the professional affirmation and economic independence of women at risk.

SHEleader@digital conference is organized in partnership with MOVE.BG, EDIT, Google, VMWare, Dell EMC, DSK Bank, Cisco.

More information: https://www.sheleader.digital/

About BCWT

The Bulgarian Center of Women in Technology (BCWT) is an organization that inspires, motivates and supports girls and women to find their place in the digital world. BCWT initiates and cooperates in the implementation of regional innovative projects, organizes trainings and thematic events and stimulates research collaboration, exchange of good practices and resource mobilization in the ICT sector. More information: http://bcwt.bg/

For more information

United Partners

Nikol Breycheva

+359 882 758 089

Nikol.breycheva@united-partners.com

Agile Serbia Conference has become the biggest Agile event in the region. 

During the last conference 500+ attendee from 10+ countries across Europe visited the event!For the next, 3rd Agile Serbia Conference, are prepared hot topics about Agile, Leadership and Software Development. You can also expect some novelties. The 3rd Agile Serbia Conference will be even more interactive than the 2nd one, with the promise to keep the quality of an educational part of the program. Join the biggest Agile and IT event in the Balkan region! See you on the 27th of April 2018!

For the full list of the speakers, more information and registration visit: AGILE SERBIA 2018

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PuzzleSoftware/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/1174093/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/PuzzleSoft

The 6th International Exhibition and Smart Cities 2018 will be held from 27 to 29 March.

Six clusters in the ICT sector signed a charter and established a federation, with which they unite efforts to increase Bulgarian business competitiveness by developing the digital innovation and smart technologies. The first step of the Federation is to provide expert support to the legislative initiative to provide qualified specialists for the Bulgarian ICT sector.

On 24-25 January 2018, the kick off meeting of GIVE ESCP was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The meeting was hosted by the Coordinator – ICT Cluster and attended by representatives of all 7 partners.

The main aim of the kick off is to facilitate a successful project start and provide an additional boost of motivation for the team members. Many aspects of the project implementation were discussed among partners and important decisions concerning project’s financial and technical implementation were taken. The project team has chance to meet face to face and to put the framework of a future successful and fruitful regional cooperation.

On 25^th January 2018, the annual meeting of the Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network took place. The event was hosted by ICT Cluster Bulgaria and was attended by representatives of 12 member organizations and guests from GIZ, USAID REG project, ESI Centre Bulgaria and Latvian Green Technologies Cluster. During the meeting 4 new partners were accepted – ICT Cluster Burgas, ICT Cluster Varna, Georgian Cluster National Platform and Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The annual meeting was devoted to report from Serbian Clusters about activities in 2017, agenda for 2018 and election of new chairing organization. In the framework of Bulgarian precedency of the Council of EU, ICT Cluster Bulgaria was supported to be the chairman of the network in 2018. Additionally, the members discussed closer and more effective collaboration, new information and communication tools and upcoming innovative projects.   

The seminar was organized by ICT Cluster Bulgaria, Small Business Standards (SBS) and. European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

The seminar was part of a broader SBS campaign on trainings for SME associations and ICT clusters and was designed to provide SME associations’ and clusters’ staff with the possibility to upgrade their knowledge and understanding of the European standardisation system and, in particular, of the ETSI specifications.

The objective was to raise awareness among National Standardisation Organisations (NSOs) about the value of further including SMEs in standardisation and to share experiences on SME initiatives.

The event was attended by representatives and experts from SBS, ETSI, CEN, CENELEC, European Commission, French Standardization Association, representatives of universities, ICT clusters and ICT associations from Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Greece, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo.

The exercise allowed participants to share and identify good practices in reaching out and involving SMEs in standardisation.

Presentation form the event could be find below:

Session 1: Setting the scene - The standardisation landscape in the Balkans
- Lubomir Stanislavov, CEO and Member of the Board of Directors, Automotive Cluster Bulgaria

Session 2: Standardisation in the European context
- Radek Maly, Head of Unit, DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Unit B.3 Standards for Growth, European Commission
- Ingrid Soetart, Project Manager – Stakeholder Engagement, CEN-CENELEC
- Xavier Piednoir, Head of External Relations at ETSI
- Christel Davidson, Director of SBS

Session 3: Tools for SMEs involvement in the standardisation - practiacl cases and exhchange of good pracices
- Jean-Loup Commo, French Standardization Association (AFNOR)
- Massimo Vanetti, IoT expert, appointed to oneM2M
- Emil Dimitrov, SBS experts, appointed to ETSI TC TCCE
- George Sharkov, SBS expert, appointed to ETSI TC CYBER

Session 4: Looking ahead
- Ingrid Soetart, Project Manager – Stakeholder Engagement, CEN-CENELEC
- Xavier Piednoir, Head of External Relations at ETSI