Presentations from Sofia, Vienna, Goteborg and Amsterdam at SOFIA’s PLACE Тent at Webit.Festival Europe 2019

More than 20 speakers, 13 presentations, Sofia-based organisations and municipal programmes in support of the local business, as well as success stories of entrepreneurs and foreign partners from Vienna, Gothenburg and Amsterdam will be part of the two-day agenda in SOFIA’s PLACE tent – the exhibition space of Sofia at Webit.Festival Europe on On 14-15 May 2019

The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is one of the partners of Webit.Festival Europe

This year, hosts in the SOFIA’s PLACE tent are Sofia Municipality, Sofia Investment Agency, Sofia Development Association, Sofia Tourism Administration, Green Sofia, Sofia Municipal Guarantee Fund for SMEs and Sofia Urban Mobility Centre. We are all united by the mission to develop the potential of our city to the full extent.

The two-day programme will be in English, and will include interesting projects and presentations, under two main topics. The presentations during day one will focus on Urban Development and International Partnerships. Keynote speakers from Vienna Business Agency, Business Region Gothenburg and The Next Web (TNW X) Amsterdam will join us at SOFIA’s PLACE. Our guests will present different activities and initiatives for encouraging entrepreneurship, as well as business opportunities for Sofia-based companies. The programme will also include presentations by the Sustainable Cities Fund and the European Investment Fund. 

The guests of SOFIA’s PLACE will get acquainted with some of the smart city projects that are being implemented in Sofia, and learn about two interesting initiatives, supported by Sofia Municipality: they will be able to test some of the computer games, developed during the first edition of the Hack&Design Challenge, and meet the winners of the 2019 Datathon (Data Science Hackathon), dedicated to the modelling of the static air polluting factors in Sofia.

During the two-day programme, the Urban Mobility Centre will introduce the  urban transport developments in Sofia, demonstrate a new working electronic bus stop sign and give international and  local guests the opportunity to activate and (re)load electronic transport cards, valid for Sofia’s transportation network.

Educational centre Technokrati will demonstrate a small clean energy hydrogen fuel cell car, explain the mechanism behind the fuel cells and harvest hydrogen in real time.

The second day will be dedicated to the programmes and instruments for support and encouragement of start-ups and small and medium-sized companies in Sofia. Municipal start-up funding and acceleration programmes supporting the development of Sofia-based companies, as well as success stories supported by Sofia Municipality will be presented at SOFIA’s PLACE. The programme will also include presentations by representatives of the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sofia, and a one-hour crash accelerator programme for start-ups.