This year, between 17 and 19 May, Podim will reunite around 1,000 participants - startups, scaleups, investors, representatives of established companies and other entrepreneurial enthusiasts from Central and Eastern Europe. Preparations for it are already in full swing, and many speakers are already known. Meet some of them.

Leanne Kemp is the founder and CEO of Everledger and a major entrepreneur in Queensland. Co-chair of the World Economic Forum Council on the Future of Production, participating in the Global Future Council in the field of blockchain. Leanne leads workflows in the Global Blockchain business world, is co-chair of the Sustainable Trade Action Group at the World Trade Board, and serves on the IBM Blockchain Platform Advisory Board.

Some of the many awards she has received are: the AIM Global Allan Gilligan Award 2019, the Advance Global Australian Awards 2018 for Technological Innovation, and the title of Innovator of 2016 and 2018 at the Women and IT Awards (London).

Devika Thapar, co-founder and chief operating officer of Wilbe. Prior to that, she was Head of new product development at IBM Watson in New York City. In various positions, she has commercialized artificial intelligence solutions across corporations in the US and Europe for 5 years. She began her career in management consulting with Accenture India. She is also an angel investor in companies at an early stage of development.

Peter Cowley, a serial entrepreneur who has founded and ran 14 companies in technology, real estate and publishing over the past 35+ years. He has built a portfolio of 76 angel investments with 10 successful exits.

He is the Honorary President of the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), a board member of the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN) and is on the board of eight startups. He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs, and through The Invested Investor, he shares his experience and the experience of others with the aim of educating business angels and entrepreneurs.

Rina Onur Sirinoglu, a former entrepreneur who has transformed into an “early-stage tech” investor. She is one of the main partners in the 500 Startups Istanbul fund and co-founder of Peak Games, a leading developer of online and mobile games in the Turkish region.

Shubber Ali, one of the innovation leaders at Accenture, a successful innovator, mentor and experienced entrepreneur. Co-founder of several successful technology startups, including Centriq and Flaik.

David Rose, innovation director at EPAM Continuum. A five-time entrepreneur with extensive experience in technology and business, lecturer at MIT, author and expert in the fields of digital product innovation, the Internet of Things and new areas of computing (spatial computing, computer vision).

Michael Schuster, co-founder and partner of Speedinvest. Prior to that, he worked in the new generation of online banking and set up the first commercial blog host in Europe.

Natalie Nixon, creativity strategist and president of Figure 8 Thinking. Her clients include Comcast, Bloomberg, Vanguard and Living Cities. She regularly writes articles for INC online magazine, is the editor of Strategic Design Thinking and an executive coach at the Forbes Coaches Council.

Are you interested in who the other speakers of the conference are? You can find everything here.