Microsoft Romania organizes the fourth edition of Microsoft Summit, the most important annual event for business and technology. The event will take place in Bucharest National Theater, on the November 8, 2016.
The first speaker that Microsoft Romania announces as a guest for Microsoft Summit 2016 is David Rowan (photo), editor since the creation of the British edition of WIRED Magazine, probably the most important publication of technology worldwide. Rowan stood face to face with the representatives of the leading companies in the digital industry, like Eric Schmidt, Michael Dell or Reid Hoffman and entrepreneurs and developers of innovative start-ups from Tel Aviv to Shenzen, in the attempt to investigate how the technological innovation will transform the world.
Founded in 1993, WIRED has quickly became “the official magazine” of the technological culture that develops in California (which would become in a few years the famous “Silicon Valley”). Combining the technological speculation with the journalism, the magazine has managed to stay more than two decades, in which it has gathered numerous publicist awards, the best known title in the field of journalism dedicated to the digital age (with an ironic large circulation in print – 850 000 copies in US only). Over time, the authors and the topics presented in the pages of the WIRED website are almost a step by step history of the modern technology.
Moreover, many of the WIRED titles have influenced the history of technology itself – from the explosion of the OpenSource culture (with Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux on the cover) until the establishment of “the age of privacy” (the controversial cover untitled bearing the portrait of Edward Snowden, announcing in the content of the magazine the longest interview he gave at the beginning of his asylum in Russia).
“The technology, the Internet and the new business models are challenging in real time the existing order, so before we know it, the old rules have no longer any importance. However there are new exciting opportunities, if you understand the new rules.
Suddenly, every type of business, from hardware to services, is realising that should become a digital business to survive. That means changing the corporate mentality and the preparation for a continuous search for new ways to create value. Thus, unless you are not prepared to innovate, you risk to be left behind” , said David Rowan.
Microsoft Summit 2016 is built around two content sections. The first is a series of plenary sessions, during which the speakers will highlight the most important trends in the digital age and the main areas of impact of technology on the business environment. The second section includes sessions that raise specific areas or topics (solutions for industries, data management and analysis, mobility, productivity etc).
“For us, Microsoft Summit is an opportunity to bring into question the latest developments in technology and how this area, in an unprecedented trend, gets out of the IT area, practically transforming all the areas of business. We are proud that every year we manage to provide a framework for networking which the technology and the people around them – both those who create and those who serve it – can meet to exchange information and to make themselves aware of the digital age evolution at global level” , said Gabriela Matei, General Manager of Microsoft Romania.
The theme of 2016 edition – “The Digital Transformation” – addresses the changes to the business environment by this digital. The speed with which today’s data is transferred and held, the value that is brought by their intelligent and extremely fast processing, translate into changes and significant opportunities for how a business, regardless of its size, operate – from the processes that constitute the activity core to the interaction with the market and customers.
The digital transformation is not just about the technological progress, but also to adopt a new vision for the business model. A vision that puts together people, data and technology to add value to the products, to the companies and to the communication with customers, but which also comes with new challenges of agility, security and transparency.
