Theme: Ahead of Time

This year we bring on stage and in our audience a stellar array of guests, people working on potential ground-breaking research in medicine or technology, individuals with revolutionary approaches in education and human behavior, minds with paradigm-shifting views on economics or society. We know for sure that through careful reflection on our past and close examination of the present, we get an immense opportunity to imagine our future and build it beforehand.

Sala Radio
60-64 Gen. H. M. Berthelot Street
Bucharest, București, 010163
Romania

Subcarpati

Performer

Explosive mix, traditional Romanian music & beats of today

Alexandra Butmalai

Social Entrepreneur

Meet a 19 years old social entrepreneur who wants to improve the educational system in Romania. Alexandra just finished “Saint Sava National College” and now is a student at The Entrepreneurship Academy. During high school she had numerous initiatives, volunteered and participated to national and international entrepreneurship contests like “The Company of the Year”, “Leaders for the future” and “Social Impact Award”. She started “The Experiments Factory” one year ago, launched through a crowdfunding campaign and organised science shows for 2500 children. Her team consists of more than 150 youths all over Romania and together with them she wants to raise the next generation of curious, inspiring and game-changing individuals.

Alexandru Catalin Cosoi

Chief Security Strategist, Bitdefender

As Bitdefender's Chief Security Strategist, Alexandru Catalin Cosoi wears many hats, from energizing and publicizing the company's technological progress from within the CTO Office to leading the cyber-intelligence team tasked with helping local and international law enforcement agencies fight cybercrime. Alexandru is also a member of the Internet Security Advisory Group at Europol and Bitdefender’s liaison with Interpol, and he is in direct contact with 60 CERTs worldwide. Throughout the past decade, Alexandru has been delivering talks and trainings to numerous international events, evangelizing the threat landscape of the cybersecurity industry, dissecting attacks and training people to use different technologies.

Ana Bercaru

High School Student

"As most parents do, my mom always used to tell me that I’m here for a certain reason and that I am on a journey to an appointment with that reason. I don’t know whether or not my keen for science was inherited, but I know for sure that this is what I live for." Ana is a 16 year old student at the International Computer High-School Bucharest and a frequent participant in Olympiads and contests related to math and physics, considering them as a career. In short term, her goal is to participate in the official IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) or IPhO ( International Physics Olympiad) by end of secondary school. On the long run though, Ana would like to study at MIT and take two courses in particular: Aerospace engineering and Applied Physics. Afterwards, it's NASA from there. "My dream is that through this one single precious life I would contribute and maybe accelerate the research and development in FTL (faster than light) travel methods in the hope that I will catch at lea

Andy Hood

Head of Emerging Technologies, AKQA

Andy Hood is Head of Emerging Technologies at AKQA. He founded and leads the Creative Research & Development team, which specializes in rapid design and development of new digital products and services for clients, and in demonstrating how new technologies can be applied to solve business and consumer problems. Andy was featured in AdWeek as one of the ‘Top Ten Creative Minds’ in Digital and included in the BIMA 100 of 2016. He is regularly called upon by the press to offer expert commentary and presents at influential global events such as 2nd Screen Summit at CES, Dmexco, Mobile Convention and the Guardian’s Changing Advertising Summit. Andy has also been a member of the Cannes Lions Mobile jury.

Bogdan Micu

Enviromental Entrepreneur | Volunteer, Romanian Goverment | Founder, Alpin Sun GmbH

Bogdan Micu started business at the age of 14, when he used to sell mountain shoes. Today, he runs his multinational company. Bogdan is currently leading the way for a new approach to entrepreneurship, where the most eager, most skilled and most innovative entrepreneurs are fighting for causes like Illegal Logging, Wild Life conservation, Pollution and many others. His story is one of success and lessons learned, given the four prosperous business out of the twelve he started.

Cornel Amariei

Inventor | Author | Entrepreneur

Romanian born engineer, Cornel Amariei is known for inventing .lumen, a blind assisting device which help the visually impaired regain a part of their visual perception. He is an Jacobs University Alumni and currently the R&D Innovation Manager at Continental Automotive. For his work he was inducted in the first ever Forbes USA 30 Under 30 Europe list, as one of the ten standout members.

Cristina Balan

Owner & Lead Designer, Tesseract Motors LLC

Cristina Balan left Romania fourteen years ago and was part of the engineering teams that designed two of the most famous US products in the world – Tesla Model S and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. She is also proud of her interior design work for Porsche, Audi and Honda that also earned her the Catia Fairy nickname

Dani Sandu

Freelance Sociologist | Researcher | Academic | Consultant

A keen interest in people and how they choose to live has led Dani to an endless quest to understand. After researching cultures and trends all across the world, he has come to realize that the more you know about the past, the more you can expect from the future. Apart from his more recent activity in public policy and research, he also has a working experience in political campaigns, having worked in multiple campaigns in Romania and for the Barack Obama re-election campaign of 2012, in Ohio. Since returning to Romania, Dani has worked with multiple NGOs and private sector initiatives to increase political participation, improve civic culture and offer social protection to the underprivileged.

Delia Dumitrescu

Lead Innovation Architect

Meet the person responsible for developing and delivering TrendWatching’s Innovation methodology. Delia has worked in innovation consultancy and led workshops for audiences across Europe. She is the author of Road Trip to Innovation – How I came to understand Future Thinking (2012), and co-author of Trend-Driven Innovation (Wiley 2015).

Flavia Oprea

Computer Science Student

Meet a student with a knack for business development and innovative start-ups. Flavia Oprea leads team ENTy, an innovative med-tech start-up aiming to empower doctors to issue data-based assessments, while also increase accessibility to medical grade devices for doctors around the world. In the ImagineCup international competition, Flavia took the stage and delivered a remarkable speech, blending tech elements with user experience and usability, and securing ENTy’s top position in one of the most prestigious youth tech competitions in the world.

Jon White

Leadership Consultant | Inspirational Speaker | Property Developer

Jon White was an Officer in the British Royal Marines when he sustained apparently devastating injuries in Afghanistan. His journey over the last 5 years has seen physical recovery, the starting of a family, the building of a “Grand Designs” house and the starting of a new career. He now seeks to help Leaders world wide find the inspiration and confidence to lead with more focus on their people. His story shows how strong the human spirit can be and what we are all capable of, for Jon is by his own admission “A normal guy in an Abnormal Situation”.

Nikola Serafimovski

Director Business Strategy, PureLiFi Ltd

Nikola worked with major companies in the area of Li-Fi technology and commercialization, leading the creation and cultivation of the Li-Fi ecosystem, marketing, sales and standardization. His experience with T-Mobile and T-Home in Macedonia focused on mobile network deployment and analysis as well as database app development. Nikola worked for the UK-China Science Bridges project to successfully demonstrate the world’s first practical implementation of the Spatial Modulation MIMO concept. He received a BSc in electrical engineering and computer science and an MSc in communications, system and electronics, both from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. Nikola earned his PhD in digital communications and signal processing from the University of Edinburgh.

Patrice Renaud

PhD | Professor, Researcher, Quebec University | Director, Virtual Reality Applications, Forensic Psychiatry Lab

The kind of man who could read your mind if he really wanted to, Patrice studies sexual urges using the latest technological innovations. Using Virtual Reality, he has come up with a method of assessing sexual deviance and is working on ways to improve available therapies for offenders.

Patrick Kramer

Expert, Wearable Technology & Internet of Things

In addition to his consultancy work, Dr. Patrick Kramer is also the founder and CEO of the “Digiwell – Smart up your life!” platform, launched in 2014 as a way of addressing key issues of importance to the digital transformation. In this capacity, he has seen his prediction become reality, with wearables no longer only worn but also implanted.Besides promoting wearables, neuro-feedback and biohacking equipment, he is also a popular speaker on the latter, as well as on digital lifestyle. He himself is also “chipped”, and is a member of the German Cyborgs Club.

Zoe Philpott

Director, PHILPOTT Design | Writer, Director and Designer, Ada.Ada.Ada

Zoe Philpott combines technology with the arts to tell stories that engage new audiences. Her work has won seven BETTs and one BIMA as well as a BAFTA nomination. She has choreographed 4m high industrial robots for Ford, created a binaural immersive experience to shine a light on world poverty for the Nike Foundation, and created a 50,000-LED interactive Christmas Tree installation at the White House for Google. She is now combining all her STEAM skills to update History with Herstory, starting with the story of Ada Lovelace.

Zoli Toth Project

Performer

Spectacular act, classical and unconventional percussion instruments