27.09.2013
2nd edition of KosICT Regional Conference
The second edition of the regional KosICT Conference organized by STIKK in Pristina, Kosovo, again gathered local and regional speakers to talk around Digital Transformation, Mobile Solutions and the Future of Near-shoring/Outsourcing.With the dedication to help out the long-term-growth of the ICT Industry in Kosovo, STIKK managed again to gather key players from the country and experienced leaders, entrepreneurs and managers from companies in Norway, Germany or Bulgaria, to come and share their experience on the importance of digital transformation and adaption, the mobile trends of today and the mistakes to avoid in outsourcing. Opening remarks by Shkumbin Brestovci, Chairman of the Board of STIKK, representatives from the Ministry of Economic Development of Kosovo, the Ambassador of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Prishtina and Vjollca Çavolli, Executive Director of STIKK put emphasizes on the important role of the whole industry on working together and the role of the association in representing and facilitating the communication between Government, Industry and Academia.
Presentations by Alexander Ammer, Anders Indset and Georgy Buchokov, focused on the role of how digital has made changes in different areas of different industries, may it be a mine factory in Africa or a video trend by Ylvis, which is booming with views on YouTube. “Failure is good, you need to fail to be successful!” was an advice given by Anders Indset, as he was focusing his presentation of the role of lessons learned from failures. On the topic of the Future of Nearshoring/Outsourcing, Bernhard Janischowsky had an interesting talk as well on his experience with large scale IT projects and international clients.Uranik Begu, Executive Director of ICK, had a presentation as well talking about what has been done in this direction by ICK itself on supporting their companies, whereas ZAG Apps showed a bunch of impressive international clients with which they are working on nowadays, while Solaborate, the social network for IT professionals continued to tell their story of further development and a growing user-base. The last part consisted on the focus of mobile solutions, where the audience had the pleasure to hear talks by Arild Bjord Larsen, director of marketing and development at Making Waves, during which he spoke about the importance of having mobile presence as a business and focusing on quality on products and services delivered.
“We are 5 million people living inNorway, and we consider ourselves a small market. Half the size of London” said Larsen, while focusing on the importance of aiming big and having your web optimized for mobile. Karl-J Wack had a presentation on the challenges of mobile enterprise solutions today and how the company with which he is involved in lets-dev, is dealing with them by delivering solutions for enterprise clients. The two other speeches where again two startups from the ICK Incubator, XIIIK and Appsix,sharing their part of what happens if you launch to a new market with no experience but a lot of passion, and how to choose the right developing team for your application.
The conference featured over 130 participants, while it was led and moderated by Villu Arak, speaker and entrepreneur from Estonia, who moderated the conference last year as well. Main sponsors include SPARK, The Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norwegian Embassy, GIZ, German Coopreation, ICK, IPKO, IPKO Foundation, IPAK, Crimson Capital, and Microsoft. Supporting sponsors:Cisco, Cacttus, httpool, Emerald Hotel, Universum, Adaptivit, Primedb, DM-Consulting Services, Frutomania.Industrial Partners: AITA and MASIT. Media Partners: Kosovalive360, Telegrafi.com, Digjitale.com and Indeksonline.com Creative Partners: Entermedia, Frakton, Project Graphics and VM3. The conference marked also the 5th anniversary of the Kosovo ICT Association – STIKK for which STIKK prepared a short video presenting the achievements during these 5 years.The conference marked also the 5th anniversary of the Kosovo ICT Association – STIKK for which STIKK prepared a short video presenting the achievements during these 5 years.
