The world of life sciences is in a period of relentless disruption. Advances in technology are transforming research and development. Innovative treatments such as mRNA vaccines and cell therapies are reshaping healthcare as we know it.
The Financial Times Global Pharma and Biotech Summit is the essential annual event for you to stay on top of the latest trends and innovations and network with industry leaders.
Experts will discuss what’s new in areas such as drug discovery, clinical trials, market access, and patient engagement.
Recently our CEO Mykola Slobodian had visited Norway for a strategic business trip. It was organized in cooperation with Linda Oksnes from the Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (NUCC).
The main purpose of the visit was to get together with Norwegian companies and startups and discuss the state of IT outsourcing in Ukraine and Norway, define major touching points, priorities, and roadblocks. The ultimate goal of the discussion was to determine opportunities and possibilities for future cooperation.
During the discussions, Mykola and Norwegian colleagues had exchanged insights about local IT business environments (Ukrainian and Norwegian respectively) and talked about commonalities of various elements of work ethics between Norwegian and Ukrainian companies.
It turned out that Norwegian and Ukrainian companies have a lot in common in terms of company culture. Both sides appreciate proactivity and pay-first approach and embrace an open-minded approach to the development of new solutions.
One of the biggest takeaways from the discussions was the fact that prices for the services of local Norwegian developers are sky high and that they are mostly oriented to overseas markets. Another important factor is that Norway is lacking enough local resources.
That leaves Norwegian entrepreneurs looking for feasible outsourcing opportunities. Some turn to Indian companies due to low prices, yet, that experience is not always a pleasant one. On the other hand – despite the unstable economy, Ukrainian companies seem to be much more reliable partners due to the cost-benefit ratio. However, Norwegian companies still feel uncertain about full-fledged cooperation because of the limited word of mouth and exposure to credible outlets.
One of the key events of the Norway trip was the presentation at NTNU Accel, a university startup accelerator.
Mykola gave a public talk on the topic of selecting foreign outsourcing partners. The presentation titled “Insider’s Guide to Finding Outsourcing Partners” included a wide variety of tips, insights, and observations regarding the entirety of business operation from negotiations to project deployment. In his own words:
“I think this information can help startuppers to get well on their way in navigating the mad world of software development and not lose money in the process simply because they forgot to check something.”
Linda Oksnes also prepared a comprehensive presentation about Ukraine as a web/mobile outsourcing destination. The reasons for that include:
Large capacity (Ukraine has one of the largest amounts of software developers in Europe)
High competence
Comparatively low price levels
1-2 hour flight away from major European countries
Let’s hope that this trip will be something akin to what Neil Armstrong had said when he landed on the moon – one little step of CEO and a giant leap for the entire company in building a strong working relationship between Norwegian and Ukrainian companies.
* * *
NUCC is a non-profit member organization. Their purpose is to facilitate trade and business cooperation between Norway and Ukraine.
Here’s the list of upcoming AdTech / MarTech, Business, AI, and Machine Learning-oriented conferences worth visiting.
It’s time to catch up with the latest news from industry insiders, set up some new connections, and expand your professional network. There is whole lotta interesting stuff going on. It’s better to know what happens when in order to get the latest insights from the folk in the know.
Stay ahead of programmatic trends and connect with peers and industry partners you won’t meet anywhere else. Hear from innovators, industry leaders, researchers, and analysts on both the buy and sell-side of programmatic media and marketing.
Since 2011 d3con is the first and biggest German event about the future of digital advertising. More than 1,500 participants from the leading agencies, publishers, and service providers meet once a year in Hamburg to discuss, network, and learn at the top level.
Topics covered include Business Intelligence, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, AI Algorithms, Data & Analytics, Virtual Assistants & Chatbots as well as case study based presentations proving an insight into the deployment of AI across different verticals.
MarTech® is for senior marketing, IT, and digital executives and experts at the intersection of marketing, technology, and customer experience. What’s working? What’s not working? Dial into the global digital transformation with the marketing technology explosion at The MarTech Conference!
The Artificial Intelligence Conference delivers an unsurpassed depth and breadth of technical content—with a laser-sharp focus on the most important AI developments for business.
The Collision is “America’s fastest growing tech conference” created by the team behind Web Summit. In three years, Collision has grown to almost 20,000 attendees from 119 countries. Attendees include CEOs of both the world’s fastest growing startups and the world’s largest companies, alongside leading investors and media.
Ad Summit was designed for digital advertising executives to implement best practices & strategies, expand their markets and generate a new revenue stream.
The conference will focus on technical and practical verticals including use cases around predictive analytics, advanced machine learning, data governance, privacy, cybersecurity, Smart Home & IoT, digital transformation, Hadoop, cloud analytics, and cloud computing.
The Artificial Intelligence Conference brings the growing AI community together to explore the essential issues and intriguing innovations in applied AI. We’ll delve into practical business applications, compelling use cases, rock-solid technical skills, dissections of failures, and tear-downs of successful AI projects.
By creating Future Port Prague together with our visionary partners, we want to help people and businesses in our region better understand the phenomenon of exponential progression; not just the technology, but the deeper societal changes that will require a rethinking and rewiring of our business models and environments, our education systems, and most importantly our own mindsets.
As we arrive in a post-GDPR world, what will advertisers and marketers have to consider in order to develop innovative, yet compliant channels of engagement? Now co-located alongside stellar industry events Technology for Marketing and eCommerce Expo, ad: tech London is here to help savvy practitioners unlock the power of the latest emerging tech, spur opportunities for experimentation, and open minds to the future.
Organizations that successfully apply AI innovate and compete more effectively. Those who fail to implement AI successfully will fall behind. The AI Conference in New York will give you a solid understanding of the latest breakthroughs and best practices in AI for business.
From applied solutions for corporates and enterprises to the implications of AI on society, including ethics and AI4good, World Summit AI will tackle head-on the most burning AI issues for 2018 and beyond.
We live in uncertain times for business. At Web Summit we welcome the people who shape the world around us. Our attendees hear from C-level executives driving change at the world’s most influential companies, participate in workshops, roundtables, and more.
Business networking at meetups, conferences, and summits is one of the best ways to meet people and find client partners for work.
The APP Solutions has been a partner for Collision and Web Summit tech conferences for over three years, as well as a participant at the other meetups.
We’re sharing our experience on how to prepare like a pro and make sure you get the most out of the meetings. Also, what to do after the conference is over.
Before the Conference
The APP Solutions has been helping one of our clients, a young marketplace startup, with preparation for the Web Summit. One of their goals was to find investors for the project as well as meet other business people and test the idea.
If you are a startup or a business person looking for partners and investors, there are several things you should consider making before the event:
Landing Page
If you have a complete website, that’s awesome. If you don’t – start with a landing page, where you include all the necessary information about your product, company, and team.
Tell visitors about what kind of problems and challenges you’re helping your customers to overcome.
Also, have your contact information on that page, so people know how to write to you in case they have questions or want to work with you.
Facebook Page
In our day and age, being present in social media is a convenient tool to use for publicity (even though Elon Musk and several others have joined the #deleteFacebook thing, it’s still a valid tool). Even if your startup so far is just an idea, don’t give up the opportunity to talk about this idea. Besides, some people might not find your landing page, but it is much easier to search Facebook or LinkedIn.
Create a #hashtag for your business, use it throughout the social media, and encourage employees to use it as well.
Another way to create awareness for your business is to launch Facebook ads targeted at people who are interested in WebSummit. Think of something you can offer your web visitors – whether it’s more information about your product or access to the beta version – and promote that idea among people who are into digital transformation. At the ad’s landing page, have a form to set up a meeting with you during the WebSummit.
Leaflets
Leaflets are more of a POS material, but you have to prepare them beforehand as well.
It would be good if all your communication – both offline and online – would be created in the same design style and carry the same messages. Therefore, it’s easier to create them at the same time (and preferably, by the same designer as the one who does your website/product/anything.)
Presentation
In case you don’t have a working product yet, consider creating a presentation (whether simple slides with information or fully automated) to have on your computer that describes your idea.
The video presentation can be more helpful than a simple click-through one because you don’t have to navigate through it and visitors can watch it while they are waiting to talk to you.
At the Conference
Get enough sleep the night before
It seems like obvious advice, but seriously, the more rested you are, the more adequate your day will be. Granted, there’s the allure of the Night Summit, but unless you’re going there to deepen the relationship with the potential client/investor, it’s better to save your strength and pass up on the drinks and party. (At least before your stand day.)
Get ready to talk more than you’ve ever talked in your life. Pretty much all the time at the WebSummit, you’re talking. (Well, or listening.)
Get an elevator speech ready
Be ready to describe your product/ service/goal in 30 seconds. Considering the amount of information that goes through your brain as well as all the other attendees’ brains, the more concise your description is, the better.
First, you get to talk to more people this way (in case someone just wanted to grab candy at your stand and asked about your business to be polite). Second, people simply want to hear and meet with so many other attendees at that time is extremely precious.
Take turns at the stand
If you came to the WebSummit with your colleagues, you don’t have to crowd the tiny space at the same time all the time. It would be good to walk around as well because you never know where you’ll meet *that* person.
Perhaps the best connection you’ll make will be during lunch while waiting in line. That said, try to have at least one person at the stand at all times (two is better).
During our preparation stage for the WebSummit, we’ve used a tool called Jupyter Notebooks in the DataScientistWorkbench because digging through the list of thousands of people manually didn’t seem like a good idea. It’s a great tool to explore, clean, and transform data and it helped us to create a shortlist of people who would potentially be interested in what we had to offer.
If we take WebSummit as an example, there are several ways you can get people’s contacts:
Event’s mobile app
Most of the tech conferences these days offer a mobile app. For example, WebSummit’s mobile app is a convenient tool to scan the QR codes on the badges of attendees you’ve talked to. The information is saved in your phone and you can also opt to send it as an excel file of contacts to your email.
The only drawback is that there is no way (in the current version of the app) to write a note about your contact to remember what exactly you’ve talked about (unless you’ve got perfect memory – then, well, good for you.)
Good old business cards
Even in an online age, traditional business cards are still present.
Drawbacks: it’s easy to lose and it’s not really eco-friendly.
Advantages: you can write notes on the business card to do your follow-up in a more personalized way instead of a generic “Hi, we’ve met at WebSummit, let’s talk.” The response rate to personalized follow-ups is higher (for obvious reasons) therefore aim for it.
Phone’s Contacts
If anything, you can always add the person to your contacts on your phone/in a notebook. The option is not preferred since it is quite time-consuming, but hey, it’s an option in case all else fails.
After the Conference: Follow-Ups
Finally, there are follow-up emails. Lots of them.
Three things to remember in following people up after the WebSummit (and other conferences):
Most people might still be getting over the jet lag, lack of sleep, and general exhaustion after the conference, so it may make sense to wait a couple of days (up to a week) before writing to your contacts.
Remember, again, that personalized follow-ups have a higher response rate, therefore abstain from generalized emails.
Put a face to the name. Take a selfie with the person you’ve just discussed business with or simply attach your own photo to the follow-up email so that your contact person will have a chance to remember you.
Once you’re done with the personal follow-ups, it’s convenient to use an email marketing automation tool. At the APP Solutions, we use both MailChimp and Reply.io. MailChimp offers colorful drag-and-drop templates, convenient for blog digests. Reply.io, on the other hand, focuses on plain-text emails, helping to create email chains that are simple and yet powerful.
We hope these tips were helpful to you and will be of service next time you buy tickets for a conference.
Ukraine’s reputation as a reliable outsource partner with exquisite expertise and innovative approach is growing with each passing day. More and more foreign companies are visiting Ukraine in search of a company to do make their project a reality.
Case in point – recent visit of Norwegian startups for matchmaking.
Here’s what happened. On April 16-18, the Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (NUCC) had brought a delegation of Norwegian companies and start-ups for a series of networking events in Kyiv. The catch is that these companies had never been in Ukraine and never used outsourcing services before. So it was both a trying to a new ground and establishing new relationships.
The main purpose of these events was to discuss business opportunities, possibilities of building working relationships between companies, the potential of the outsourcing market in Ukraine, comparison business environments in both countries and build bridges with a potential to grow into a successful long-term partnership between the companies in various fields of interest.
April 16 was dedicated to discussions and bringing everybody on the same page concept-wise. The main topics of discussion were outsourcing business and the way it is done in Ukraine and methods of cooperation. There were several presentations dedicated to outsourcing in Ukraine and specifics of the Ukrainian business climate.
The APP Solutions CEO Mykola Slobodian was there with a presentation about how The APP Solutions works with startups. (As you know, he was in Norway recently, meeting with the businesses on their “own ground.”) Over the course of the presentation at the Kyiv IT Cluster, he explained the basics of international cooperation and secrets of overcoming cultural differences, showed examples of The APP Solutions projects, and told about how the company is establishing a business relationship, i.e. taking part in events and collaborating.
April 17 was all about B2B meetings between Norwegian and Ukrainian companies. Every meeting was a short and intense matchmaking session. Companies exchanged their visions of cooperation and discussed the most feasible and viable possibilities.
Among the things Norwegian companies were especially interested in were:
communication (especially level of English speaking among the managers and development team);
UI / UX approaches;
innovative technical solutions in the hot industries (AI, machine learning, chatbots, drones);
Later that day there was also a meeting with an Ambassador Extraordinary And Plenipotentiary Of Norway To Ukraine Ole T. Horpestad with whom Ukrainian and Norwegian companies had discussed business environments in both countries.
On April 18th Kyiv IT Cluster held a masterclass by Karin Ellis, CEO of Ellis Culture, author of the book “Working with Norwegians”. During the workshop, she showed several case studies on the subject of cooperation with Norwegian companies on various levels and shared few thoughts about major stumbling blocks occurring while dealing with Norwegian companies.
Overall, this series of events shows that Ukraine becomes more and more lucrative as an outsourcing service provider.
The main takeaway is that Norwegian companies are genuinely interested in developing partnerships with Ukrainian companies – not only it is due to lower prices and geographical location but also because of expertise and eagerness to explore.
Anyway, it’s definitely the beginning of something really-really exciting. Stay tuned!
It was a hot season for the businesses and especially for those who deal with the mobile internet. Our team has visited the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Tel-Aviv and it was truly the place where mobile Internet influencers gather to learn about the latest innovations and connect with industry thought leaders.
GMIC Tel-Aviv 2017 explored the various aspects of the mobile ecosystem like:
Big Data;
Mobile Health;
App Space;
Mobile Educations;
Mobile Marketing & Growth;
Mobile Games;
IoT & Wearables;
Internet of Vehicles;
Cross-Border eCommerce.
We were also glad to hold the APP Solutions networking event at the coworking space Merkspace, where we met to discuss сommon global issues in mobile app development and ways to solve them.
Last week The App Solutions team spent in Tel-Aviv. We had a very tight schedule this week and wanted to share with you some news and insights.
We have started at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) on March 22. The conference was really busy with events and meetings. We have discussed the potential cooperation with such company representatives like
Maria Levin, IT&Communication Manager of Harel-Hertz
Jonathan D. Fox, Business Development Manager from Mobilda
Moses Abudarham, Head of Strategic Relations from Wombat
Eve Sal, International Business Developer from Numberly
Mike Milgram, Business Development Manager from Edge226, etc.
We are looking forward to furthering collaboration and partnership.
Also, as we had announced before, there was a tech meetup held by The App Solutions in a cozy coworking office called Merkspace. Our Global Business Development Manager conducted a presentation “How to create an engaging app and what will make it successful.”
This meeting revealed some interesting insights:
Clients prefer to outsource development, but leave in-house marketing and in some cases UI/UX.
Startups are mostly interested in developing MVP (minimum viable product).
Most of the startups and big companies looking for outstaffing development model.
The APP Solutions team once again became the Bronze Partner of Collision Conference.
We’re happy to join Collison’s tech crowd for the third time in a row and to share the expertise of skilled software engineers and designers from Eastern Europe.
It’s been a crazy growth of The App Solutions since last year:
We’ve caught the wave of custom application development for services on demand;
Added 9 successful projects to our portfolio, including the companies like EY, FlixBus, Novytec, and others;
Crafted an APPraisal tool – a cost estimation tool and a real time-saver for figuring the budget for developing your mobile app.
Acquired Grossum, a software development company in Ukraine, to strengthen our expertise not just in mobile development, but also in the web area.
For the second time, The App Solutions attended the Collision conference. This tech rally took place in New Orleans, LA, USA, from 2nd to 4th of May, 2017.
Now, when guys are back, it’s clear they got tremendous recognition, a lot of insights and connections.
Being a partner of Collision from the very beginning, our team reached into both, investor and business development, aspects of the conference:
our investors met a lot of highly prospective tech startups as well as consulted their colleagues on related topics;
the sales squad negotiated with numerous Beta startups and investors on enhancing their businesses by highly functional web/mobile platforms;
it was also great to meet last year Alpha companies, who obtained financing and shifted to the next level, and discuss opportunities together.
Overall, great organization, around 20 thousand attendees from around the globe, international influencers among partners, media and speakers, and of course the most fantastic business atmosphere – these are the things that make Collision a superior platform for exchanging experiences and crafting new compelling ideas.
Thanks to y’all, guys, and see you next year AGAIN at Collision!
And stay tuned for more exciting projects very soon!
The APP Solutions is going to be the WebSummit 2017 Partner!
WebSummit is taking place in Lisbon on November 6-9 and we’re excited to have this opportunity to meet our clients and friends face to face.
Since Collision 2017, we have gathered even more talents under our roof by acquiring a Ukrainian software company called Grossum, that specialized in Symfony development, among other technologies. Therefore, we’ve never been stronger as we are now and we’re looking for challenging development tasks and projects.
We have also fine-tuned our APPraisal tool – a cost estimation tool and a real time-saver for figuring the budget for your mobile app development.
So, with all this, we’re going to be present with a stand at the WebSummit and we’d love to talk to you in person.
