Last Friday, Nataly Veremeeva, the Director of TechUkraine, came to Warsaw to share her thoughts and to take part in an exciting Tech event: The Tech Emerging Europe Advocates Meeting.
The meeting was highly productive both in terms of content and networking gathering the brightest ecosystem builders from all the three countries.
The format of the event
The London-based platform Emerging Europe empowers public and private organizations for international growth and expansion. This year’s conference connected 180+ tech communities and NGO leaders, tech businesses, start-ups, scale-ups, and government leaders and explored collaboration opportunities.
The event was run by:
ANDREW WROBEL, Leader, Tech Emerging Europe Advocates, Founding Partner, Emerging Europe, Emiliano Ramos, Founding Partner, Emerging Europe and CRAIG TURP-BALAZS, Editor, Emerging Europe.
Among speakers there were:
- YEGOR DUBYNSKYI, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine
- MIRCEA GEOANĂ, Deputy Secretary General, NATO
- RUSS SHAW CBE, Founder, Global Tech Advocates, Co-founder, London Tech Week
- KERRY HALLARD, CEO, Global Sourcing Association (GSA)
- MICHAŁ KRAMARZ, Head, Google for Startups CEE
- PRU ASHBY, Head of Sustainability, London & Partners
- DANIEL KORSKI, CEO and Co-founder PUBLIC, Member UK Digital Economy Council
- PAVLO KARTASHOV, CEO, Ukrainian Startup Fund
- KONSTANTIN VASYUK, Executive Director, IT Ukraine Association
- LIGIA KORNOWSKA, Ambassador for Poland Tech Emerging Europe Advocates, Managing Director, Polish Hospital Federation
- BALÁZS HORVÁTH, Ambassador for Hungary, Tech Emerging Europe Advocates, Founder, Tech In The City
- YEGOR AUSHEV, Co-Founder, CyberUnitTech and others.
Two main European tech powerhouses were in focus this year — Ukraine and Poland.
Our key messages:
The hot topics in the Ukrainian ecosystem at the moment are: war, resilience of the UA Tech sector, investments and post war recovery, and – transforming the attention towards Ukraine to cooperation with the state. We absolutely need to win this war together.
What to look at: new wave of startups, support to NGOs that develop the ecosystem, building better bridges between communities.
Our key insights are:
- We didn’t expect the impact that we made by launching the community of Tech Emerging Europe Advocates Ukraine on the 3rd of March last year. On Friday we discovered that it was an inspiration and a topic for a lot of people throughout this whole year. Thanks to Russ Shaw and Emiliao Ramos for showing the true importance of such small steps that make a big impact. We are super proud that the Ukrainian Chapter of Tech Advocates started with such a story. You can see the video of the launch here.
- There are so many bright, powerful and talented people and organizations, willing to help and cooperate from all over the world, we need to have structures and organizations in place, which is able to support these intentions and transform them into something sustainable. The support to NGOs and ecosystem organizations is vital for ensuring working structures and further ecosystem development.
- There is a huge potential in cooperation between UK, Poland and Ukraine and all present members were highly motivated to transform this potential into something which could work now.
Our current needs:
You can support Ukraine by doing business with Ukraine, to invest, to buy UA products and services – we need to be very resilient, to survive even if Russia prolongs the war and our victory will take more time then we initially expected. Moreover, UA NGOs that build the sector also need support, there is a great chance to set UK Aid to launch support programs, as is brilliantly done by USAID. And also – we need to reform Ukrainian education and put special focus on R&D and knowledge transfer. So such initiatives as SET University should be supported, they needs funds and connections to international HEIs.
Besides the needs, our tech ecosystem is able and ready to give. What Ukraine can give in return: very smart, resilient and stress-proof tech workforce, smart new ideas from a new wave of startups, insights in the cyber sphere and military tech, which we will be happy to share. What’s more, the open market for international businesses.
How can Ukrainian ecosystem contribute to building of a regional tech hub in Emerging Europe
We consider the UA Tech ecosystem has three main strengths:
- talent (240 thousand tech professionals and an ambition to educate more),
- R&D capacity
- ease to start and grow business.
New ideas, startups, Ukraine as a testbed for the rest of Europe are among our strong features as well. To conclude, our freedom, flexibility, creativity and energy can give the necessary boost and push to rethink structures and adopt new approaches.
About Emerging Europe
Emerging Europe is a London-based growth hub that empowers public and private organisations to grow and expand internationally. Our mission is to foster sustainable growth in emerging Europe. We are a go-to partner for those looking to navigate or grow in the region. Through in-depth analysis, market intelligence, research, programmes and engaging content we help businesses, governments, and civil society organisations thrive. We provide them with targeted insight, access to key stakeholders and data to make the right business decisions. Our online platform, Emerging Europe, is the world’s most prominent source of English-language analysis about the region.
About Tech Emerging Europe Advocates
Tech Emerging Europe Advocates (TEEA) is a community of tech entrepreneurs, leaders, experts and investors eager to make emerging Europe a global tech hub. The community is led by Emerging Europe and comprises advocates from 25 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It is part of Global Tech Advocates.
About Global Tech Advocates
Global Tech Advocates (GTA) is the only truly international grassroots tech community, uniting the private sector in multiple cities and regions worldwide. The network has over 40,000 advocates globally, from South Korea and Japan to Colombia, the United States and Canada. There are 29 geographic GTA groups, in addition to six GTA working groups.
The photos from the event are here
Read more about Ukrainian IT here
The full recording of the event you can find below