Alexander Yesayan, President of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UITE), chair of the WCIT 2019 organizational committee, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS ahead of the Congress, talking about the preparation works, the speakers and expected interesting news.
-Mr. Yesayan, the World Congress on IT will be held in Armenia on October 6-9. Who are going to be the speakers? What is expected?
-I would like to state that our compatriots operating successfully abroad will join the WCIT to tell about their companies and their personal achievements, talk about the topics being discussed. Among these persons are Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Armenian-American reality TV star Kim Kardashian-West who will talk about the general impact of social networks, the effectiveness of use of platforms, PicsArt co-founder Hovhannes Avoyan, Pixar senior vice-president Catherine Sarafian, Agenus president and CEO Garo Armen. There will also be a great participation from Yandex, including the company’s deputy executive director Tigran Khudaverdyan, founder and CEO Arkady Volozh, our regional director Aram Sargsyan. Chair of the Synopsys Armenia Yervant Zoryan, famous scientist Garik Israyelyan and other Armenians will deliver reports. Among the speakers are also Richard Quest, CNN’s renowned business correspondent, VMware Chief Operating Officer Rajiv Ramaswami, VaynerX President Gary Vaynerchuk, Giphy founder and executive director Alex Chung, Head of the Russian Federal Tax Service Mikhail Mishustin. The total number of the speakers surpasses 100.
-How will be the launch of the Congress?
-The Congress will launch on October 6, at 20:00, with a concert in the Republic Square. More than 70 musicians from 15 countries of the world and 30 Armenian musicians will form the WCIT orchestra led by artistic director and chief director of the State Symphony Orchestra of Armenia Sergey Smbatyan. Interesting surprise is expected, the orchestra will perform an unprecedented concert, performing the music created by artificial intelligence. We think this is going to be great news. And the official opening ceremony of the Congress will take place on October 7 at Karen Demirchayn concert hall led by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
-What interesting topics will you mention that are going to be discussed at the Congress?
-Very interesting discussions are expected. For instance, the discussion entitled “The Future of Art” will be joined by the people who operate in the art sector at the same time linking it with the technologies. Sergey Smbatyan, as well as artist Ahmed El Gamal will attend the discussion. The Lightning Rounds will enable startups and innovators to present their ideas and gain investments before the large audience. Nearly 100 companies are going to take part in the Congress, 60 of which are Armenian companies, the rest are from abroad, including from Canada, Russia, Israel, Slovakia, England, Georgia, Chine, Australia, etc. The Armenian Technology Community has set the Armenian Technology Communities A-Prize for the best three participating startups, with 100.000 USD fund. During the discussion on “Business Transformation” representatives of business field will hold an interesting discussion on these transformations. The participants of “Smart cities: utopia or anti-utopia” discussion will talk about the role of latest technologies. Kim Kardashian will attend the Market of Ideas debate. As one of the persons having many followers Kardashian will share her experience and will present how the social networks can be used for business development.
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