The Digital Freedom Festival is a boutique, yet influential signature event. Around a thousand participants will discuss the latest trends and discoveries in digital technologies, as well as their impact on startups and corporations, policymaking, and modern lifestyles.

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Our event is more than just a startup conference. It is a multi-event meeting platform, which takes a special interest in uniting the world of technology. We encourage debate on how technologies can truly “make the world a better place”, creating greater digital dividends for everyone.

The Festival offers inspirational speeches, challenging discussions, workshops and networking opportunities for everyone: startups pitch their ideas and showcase their products; investors matchmake with startups and corporates; policymakers look for gains from digital transformations; corporates seek synergies and spinoffs with startups; students and teachers thrive on inspiration. Join the DFF to challenge the status quo, to co-create and to celebrate digital culture. About Shira Abel is the CEO of (H&B), a marketing and branding agency that works with fast growing, revenue generating SaaS companies on building their brand, awareness, lead generation and thought leadership. Shira is also a sought after Corporate Speaker – and has spoken at AdRoll, Axa Tech, Allianz, eToro and more. A thought leader in the startup marketing space, Shira works with companies to build and implement smart marketing strategies and build online communities that grow companies.

Shira has experience speaking worldwide at conferences on marketing for startups, judging competitions, teaching marketing for startups, and mentoring at several startup accelerators. She also works with companies to build the marketing into the product. MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

About Stephanie is a Co-Founder and Chief Pleasure Officer (CPO) of MysteryVibe, an award-winning British pleasure brand. As CPO, Stephanie is focused on changing perceptions around pleasure in a positive and empowering way. A strong advocate that pleasure is a beautiful part of the human experience, and fundamental to our happiness, Stephanie is MysteryVibe’s spokesperson on the role of technology within sex and relationships. She has been featured in major publications such as the BBC, The Times, Guardian, Economist, CNBC, TechCrunch and WIRED and regularly appears as a keynote speaker on international stages. About Anna Andersone started off her career in the advertising agency McCann-Erickson Riga after graduating Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.

In 2008 she started a graphic design studio HungryLab and together with Sandijs they Co-founded a website engine that became a successful web builder internationally. In 2012, the web design market had changed and partners decided to found, a web design tool for professional designers, to ease the process of communication between designers and developers and website building. FROONT went through acceleration in Startup Sauna, pitched twice on SLUSH and was one of the top 4 finalists pitching on the big stage in 2013. FROONT raised 3 rounds of investment and is currently a global company with most users in the US. Anna is board member since 2013. In 2014 Anna founded and ran – co-working space for designers and developers in the heart of Riga – and in 2015 Anna initiated and is part of the core team at – an NGO focusing on inspiring and educating girls and women in the tech field.

Anna is devoting a significant amount of time and energy to sharing her experience and mentoring. She is guest lecturing at SSE Riga, active member of the Mentor Club and talking on her experience on multiple seminars, workshops and events for new business creators and students. About Peter has spent the last 10 years building products that help people make better decisions.

As CEO and co-founder of, a fast-growing startup based in San Francisco and Budapest with over 85 million users and 300 employees worldwide. Prezi’s community is challenging the status quo of how to be understood and remembered in a world that is increasingly crowded with data but lacking insight. Prezi’s platforms are specifically designed to help improve communication and understanding between a presenter and the audience. Peter is also very involved with establishing organizations that promote entrepreneurship and diversity in Hungary and beyond. For example, Peter is the chairman and co-founder of Bridge Budapest, an organization that has shared 5 million stories of inspiration every year. The “We Are Open” initiative, co-founded by Peter, has built a community of nearly 1000 companies that are now committed to diversity and openness in the workplace.

Peter has won numerous awards since founding the company, including European Web Entrepreneur of the Year and the Europas European Tech Startups award for Best Startup Co-Founders. He was ranked number 11 on the 2016 OUTstanding & Financial Times Leading LGBT Executives List of 100. In his spare time, Peter enjoys prodding fellow colleagues to join him at yoga and meditation classes. Additionally, he’s the go-to cultural translator at Prezi, having lived and worked in Japan, Sweden, Hungary, Singapore and US.

About Moojan is a Tech entrepreneur and community advocate. She is the Co-Founder of a Paris based company called, which is a curated network of Tech conferences. Passionate about everything that impacts societies to drive positive change, she is the initiator of Women in AI, a global network of women experts and influencers in Artificial Intelligence, for the goal of closing the gender gap in this field. Originally from Iran, she is the founder of, which is the first international startup conference in Iran aiming at opening the Iranian Tech market to the world and solving local problems. About Arvils Aseradens is the Minister for Economics of the Republic of Latvia and the Deputy Prime Minister since February 2016. From 1990 to 2009, he worked as the Director of the leading Latvian daily newspaper Diena and the Chairman of the Board of Diena. He also was the Chairman of the Board of the leading Latvian business newspaper Dienas bizness. For 19 years, he worked as a Member and the Chairman of the Board, as well as the Vice President of Latvian Press Publishers Association.

Arvils Aseradens also was a Board Member of World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. He entered politics in 2010. In 2007, the was awarded to Arvils Aseradens. About Paul Bragiel is a 3 time entrepreneur that is the Founder of Bragiel Brothers, an early stage fund in Silicon Valley. He also sits on the advisory board of the car-sharing service Uber.

Collectively he’s invested in the seed rounds of 200+ companies which includes holdings in other billion dollar companies like Unity & Zappos. In addition to his work in US he has started regional funds in Africa (savannah fund) & Asia (golden gate ventures) and vertical funds in gaming (game founders) & VR (presence). Outside of work, he skis for the Colombia National Cross-Country Ski Team where he just recently competed in the 2017 World Championships in Finland. About David Braun is an award-winning extreme-sports athlete, Entrepreneur, UI/UX Designer and Mentor. His passion for running which started when he was a little boy growing up in Kenya, lead him to create, a sports app that connects runners.

The venture-backed startup was one of the winning teams to be selected for TechnoGym’s first cycle of its. Being at the fore-front of the sports tech world, he is also working with the grandsons of Adi Dassler on a new sports accelerator in Berlin. Having a pay-it-forward mentality, David dedicates considerate amounts of his time towards helping, advising and mentoring other startups and aspiring entrepreneurs and is a mentor at LeAD Sports Accelerator and Startupbootcamp Digital Health.

About Eamonn Carey an early stage investor, advisor and board member. Most recently, Eamonn was the MD at Techstars Connection in partnership with AB InBev program in New Y ork, and is currently a board member and advisor at Lingvist and venture partner at in Hong Kong. Eamonn is a regular speaker at conferences around the world – including SXSW, Mobile World Congress, Slush, Pioneers, Tech Open Air, the Pirate Summit, Arabnet, GITEX, the Global Apps Summit, the Mobile Games Forum, National Digital Media Summit, CultureTech, Liverpool Sound City and many others. About Viesturs Celmiņš is a social anthropologist who studies the relationship between infrastructure, public space and communities in cities. During 2013/2014 he organised “The City Seminar” at Cambridge University. During 2015/2016 participated in the creation of the Baltic Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, and since 2016 is one of the architecture programme directors for the Riga Technical University International Summer School.

Viesturs was a Fulbright scholar at the New School University (NYC, 2005) and is currently a ESRC doctoral student at Cabridge University. About Scott Cohen Co-Founded the with Liviu Babitz in early 2016. On December 14, 2016, they became the first people to permanently attach the North Sense by inserting two titanium rods in their chests and attaching a circuit board, compass, vibrating mechanism and battery encased in water proof silicone.

Scott Cohen is the co-founder of digital distribution pioneer The Orchard. The Orchard is the world’s leading distributor of music, film and video with operations in 30 global territories.

As a well-recognized public speaker and lecturer, Scott travels the world evangelizing new business models for the digital age. Scott is a human rights activist and strict vegan. No meat, fish, cheese, milk, honey, leather, wool or anything else derived from an animal. About Andrii Degeler is the head of brand and community at Rockstart and recovering journalist with ten years of experience in writing about technology, entrepreneurship, and internet business for local and international publications. His stories appeared in The Next Web, Ars Technica, VentureVillage, the Kyiv Post, and many others.

Andrii holds a master’s degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where he wrote a thesis about editorial structure of major online tech news websites. About She jokes that she has more Slashes in her job description than there are at a Guns N’ Roses tribute band convention, yet manages to achieve her trademark “decent indecency” at everything she takes on. Fox presents The Guardian’s groundbreaking sex& relationships real-life storytelling podcast Close Encounters and is resident X-rated agony aunt on The Modern Mann. Her writing and video work can be found in The Guardian, Stylist, Marie Claire, Grazia, Glamour, Fabulous, Cosmo, Vogue, Time Out, LOOK and more. S hortlisted for Women of the Future 2017 in the Media category, Alix works as a sex& Relationships Expert for Durex; is a proud Ambassador for Brook, the sexual health advisory charity; and is a spokesperson for Japanese adult firm TENGA and UK high-street chemist Superdrug.

She frequently pops up on TV like a neon mushroom. A former editor of alternative culture magazine Bizarre for many years, she began by specialising in covering extreme fetishes, subcultures and body modification, but now works with many mainstream outlets too, discussing topics from the mild to the wild, always with compassion and a view to advancing understanding, acceptance and people’s positive interactions with one another and themselves. She’s currently preparing her first novel with Penguin. About Paula Gould is Principal at in Reykjavik, Iceland, leading international growth, brand and marketing initiatives across the Frumtak Ventures portfolio. She has extensive experience working with startup and growth companies from the US, Israel and Iceland on brand, business development, marketing and public relations strategies internationally.

Prior to joining Frumtak Ventures, Paula was CMO of Greenqloud, which was acquired by NetApp in 2017. She served on the Board of Directors of Icelandic company CLARA when it was acquired by Jive Software in 2013. In addition to serving companies as a Board Director, CEO and CMO, Paulaowned PEG PR, a boutique PR firm at the intersection of IT and entertainment, where she advised and nurtured the growth of clients ranging from social media, video and gaming platforms to a fuel cell manufacturer and notable award-winning artists. About Political scientist, Assistant Political Officer at the Embassy of Sweden in Riga and Executive Director at Latvian Debate Association “?”.

For more than five years she has worked in private sector, but for more than ten in the field of non-governmental organisations. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Latvia. Additionally, she has studied at the Uppsala University, Sweden. Evija has been in charge of national and international projects in organisations like the Transparency International – Latvia (Delna) and The Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation (LAPAS). About Olga holds BSc from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and MSc from Norwegian School of Economics. She has also completed several MBA courses in Innovative Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Conflict Resolution at the Asian Institute of Management. Her career started in investment banking and over time deviated towards developmental work, social entrepreneurship and startups.

Olga lead Social Actions team at ASSIST Asia (Philippines) – an international NGO which works with Asian Development Bank and various UN agencies on projects related to renewable energy, digital technologies for development and youth leadership, among others. She also co-managed a Singapore-based IIX Impact Accelerator programme for social startups in the Philippines. Olga helped pioneering design thinking approach at Microsoft Asia. In late 2016, she returned to her home country and in May 2017 accepted a new challenge – Chief Startup Instigator at Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. In this capacity, she seeks to support Latvia-based startups, thus placing the country on the global startup map.

About Juris was appointed to the Board of Lattelecom on January 1, 2007, when he joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. Juris Gulbis began his career in 1994 as a junior accountant at Coopers & Lybrand in Riga, Latvia and continued in London UK, where he obtained qualification of certified accountant. On return to Latvia he held several finance and management positions in various FMCG companies. His first important executive appointment was in 2001 as a Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the largest bottler and distributor of alcoholic beverages in the Baltic States – Latvijas Balzams.

After that, Gulbis served as executive director of the S.P.I. Group SA, a producer and distributor of alcoholic beverages headquartered in Switzerland and Cyprus. Gulbis holds degrees in Civil Engineering (Road, Bridge and Airport design and construction) and Production logistics management from the Riga Technical University. He has attended Advanced Executive Management Program at INSEAD in France and Singapore. Gulbis is a member of Council of Employers’ Confederation of Latvia. He is also a board member of Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association. He also serves as a member of Advisory Panel of Riga Technical University and Riga Banking School.

He is also a member of the National Economic Council and the Chairman of the Competitiveness Committee. About Gaute is Innovation Norways global manager for smart city initiatives.

He focuses on accelerating smart city initiatives in Norwegian cities, and assisting city leaders in creation of innovative eco-systems. He is the Co-Founder of the Norwegian network of Smart Cities.

Gaute has several years of experience in international business development. Prior to that he was recently the manager of Innovation Norways office in Madrid. He holds a masters degree from Warwick Business School UK, and BI Busniess School Oslo. About Dean is an accomplished design leader, writer, presenter and tech pundit and his team at is shaping the future for the Automotive, Publishing, Music, Film, Education and Leisure sectors. Dean is a Fellow and the former VP of The Chartered Society of designers and a mentor for the fashion tech incubator Front Row I/O. Brandwidth has been responsible for designing and creating some of the world’s most dynamic mobile experiences, from ‘The Doors’, ‘Doctor Who Encyclopedia’ and ’Star Wars Scene Maker’ apps, to ‘Led Zeppelin: Sound and Fury’, ‘Saving Mr Banks’ and ‘Maleficent’ multi touch books. Mobile is also wearable and this provides the next interactive playground.

With many of Brandwidth’s SmartWatch, VR and AR projects still behind closed doors, it’s time to unleash a few. Dean was a finalist in the 2014 Shorty Awards, presents the ‘Gadgetarium’ on the Dadsaster podcast, is Inspector Gadget on Nikki Bedi’s BBC London 94.9 show, writes for Computer Arts, iCreate, Apps Magazine and his own blog www.activrightbrain.com and wrote the number 1 Multi-Touch book ‘’. About Jevgenijs is responsible for the development of the investment platform at, the fastest growing marketplace lending platform in Europe.

Prior to joining TWINO, Jevgenijs served as the Chief Marketing Officer at, a cross-border marketplace lending platform for investing in European personal loans, where he led company’s efforts on the acquisition of new borrowers and lenders. Jevgenijs graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga with the B.Sc. Degree in Economics and Business Administration and worked in Tallinn, Moscow and New York throughout his career. About Manuel is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and chairman of Pirate.global.

Ikea 2005 Catalog Pdf. He is building companies since more than 14 years and has experienced the entrepreneurial rollercoaster first-hand. Pirate.global connects the startup ecosystem and organizes e.g. The Pirate Summit, the “craziest startup conference in Europe”. He is known for its curated, authentic and somewhat unusual startup events and parties. In 2016 Pirate.global organized more than 80 events globally with more than 10.000 attendees.

Because of his vast startup experience Manuel is a sought-after advisor to corporates. He helps them understand technological disruption and startup dna and supports them in preparing for digital transformation.Manuel also invests as an angel investor in startups. His main investment focus is in tech-focused very early stage companies in the AI space. About After graduating Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Karina spent her first 10 years of professional career in investment banks specializing in corporate finance & M&A area.

She started as an analyst in LHV Investment bank and progressed to Associate Partner position at Icelandic Behrens boutique bank. Karina has been the CEO of international Law school – the Riga Graduate School of Law for three years as well as the Council member of the Latvian Judicial Training centre. Karina used the three months she spent living in San Francisko to complete an executive course at Stanford University.

And finally after returning to Riga she has taken up the challange to lead the Private Banking team of As Swedbank Latvia. Gunita’s background lays in architecture, urbanism and urban strategies. She is a member of Forbes’ 30 under 30 and a TEDx speaker. Archipreneur has also given her praise, as she was proclaimed one of seven most inspiring female entrepreneurs in field of architecture. Since 2016, she and her partners established startup company embracing VR as new medium for building better cities.

Vividly is well recognized on world XR map with expertise in real-time WebVR solutions. Company started in 2016 as a frontier in architecture and design industry empowering projects like NY Affordable Housing Challenge, Rail Baltica Riga Station and Expo Astana. The eager to build global business on emerging technology lead to acceleration in Startup Sauna, Helsinki and Slush 100 companies list. Risto Kuulasmaa is a prolific entrepreneur and executive in media and startups.

He is the Co-Founder and CEO at Tubecon the leading influencer event organiser in Europe. The latest Tubecon event in Helsinki gathered 17 500 visitors. Network is currently active in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain and extending to several new European markets in 2018. In his keynote Risto shares his hands-on approach answering to the following questions: Why YouTubers and Influencers are the game changer in media and marketing?

What it takes to master Influencer marketing? Why community matters? Outside of work, Risto travels with his camera and serves as a board member at UNICEF Finland. About Uldis is someone who doesn’t believe it until he’s seen it. A passionate photographer, Uldis has traveled to over 50 countries around the world, which included trekking across Iran (twice), and reaching the summit of Asia’s largest volcano the Damavand. Uldis is an experienced and awarded entrepreneur, designer, and co-founder of distinguished startups such as Attitude.ai, a conversational interfaces for marketing automation, and, an interactive data visualization tool.

He’s mentored startups in several regions as part of the and. About Dagnija is a passionate communications professional with a special interest in technologies, startups and community engagement. In addition to creating the Digital Freedom Festival, she is a Co-Founder of the boutique reputation management company, and is a Co-Founder of Riga Venture Summit and the Latvian Startup Association. In the past, Dagnija has led communications at the largest Nordic bank in Latvia – Nordea, also coordinating communications in Poland and the Baltic countries. She has gained experience in public affairs while serving as Press Secretary and Communications Advisor to the Latvian Foreign Minister. Whether it’s hiking in the Himalayas or exploring the thick jungles of southeast Asia, Dagnija has never denied a challenge and aims to push herself to unknown horizons.

At the same time she looks for ways that she can help others to achieve their goals by connecting people and building purpose driven communities. About Marvin is a Partner at Micro Venture Capital Fund, running the SF based accelerator program as well as investing in Seed stage start ups. He Invests in Digital Media, Enterprise SAAS, Marketplace, Mobile, AdTech/MarketingTech, Digital Health, Internet of Things & Fintech startups.

Formerly an experienced client-facing senior executive in the media and technology space in both large and start up growth companies, having managing large multifunctional teams across multiple countries. He has P&L management experience and most recently responsible for 100% YoY revenue growth while running a business unit and building new sales channels in EMEA & the Emerging Markets regions for the last ~4 years at Yahoo! A 10.5 year veteran of Inc., Marvin has held roles in the various departments of Sales, Business Development, Ad Operations and Marketing. Most of his roles were regional or global management roles giving him extensive experience across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States in his career at the company. Marvin presently serves on the boards/advisory boards of several internet advertising and ad technology companies across the globe. A longtime fan, participant, and an observer of the digital revolution occurring for the last 15+ years across the world, he is interested in opportunities with top growth companies large and small with a focus on driving monetization and expanding into new international markets.

About Anna is CoFounder and Director of Partnerships at, described by New Scientist as ‘Shazam and Spotify for art’. Previously, she managed education programmes at international museums such as Argentina’s National Gallery of Fine Art (MNBA) in Buenos Aires. Anna is a digital strategist and creative who has managed complex website design projects, communications, fundraising and event management for international arts organisations. Anna’s focus is on understanding how the shifts taking place around immersive technologies (e.g. Image recognition, Augmented Reality and AI) can provide value to visitors and staff at arts venues. She holds an MA in Cultural and Creative Industry from King’s College London and was a Clore Emerging Leader in 2016. She was selected as a Clore Emerging Leader in 2016, Pitch@Palace 7.0 finalist and winner of the inaugural EPFL Art Tech prize.

About Merle Maigre is Director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. Prior to this post, Maigre worked as Security Policy Adviser to the President of Estonia 2012-2017. In this capacity she was the President’s chief advisor on domestic and international security issues, including also the developments and challenges of cyber defence. From 2010 till 2012 she served as the Policy Adviser in the Policy Planning Unit in the Private Office of NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in Brussels.

Maigre has also worked as a researcher at the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS), where she focused primarily on Ukraine policy and development, including the security situation in Crimea. She has also served as the Deputy Head of the NATO Liaison Office in Kyiv and at the NATO Department in Estonia’s Ministry of Defence to support the country’s NATO accession. About Worked as UI artist and art-director for, Delfi, Lattelecom Technologies, Mediaparks. Founded digital agency True Vision with €1M+ in revenues. Launched first startup accelerator in Latvia – Eegloo with 300K in private funding.

Co-founder and former VP product of EdTech company BranchTrack. Author and facilitator of ERGO FinTech Academy and ERGO Innovation Bootcamp. In 2017 founded the first international corporate innovation program CHOICE. Mentor, coach, jury member at many startup events (Garage 48, Startup Weekend, Tuusula Cityhack, sTARTUp, SSE Riga, etc.). A husband to a lovely wife and a father of 4. About Yuri’s professional experience includes Executive Director at the MSU Business Incubator, he is the Co-Founder of “Mitin, Khomich and partners” LLC. He has been a radio and TV host, as well as the author of business programs.

Yuri was Head of the Education Department for the Science Park at Lomonosov Moscow State University and an Advisor to the President of Citibank, CIB, Citigroup, as well as an Account Manager at AIESEC. He has worked in technology transfer, educational programs, business model development, the commercialisation of startups in IT, e-commerce, and BioTech. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Corporate Economy and Entrepreneurship, a Master’s degree in Innovative Economics and a Ph.D in Economics.

About Named by CNN as one of The Top 7 Tech Heroes to Watch in 2015, Kathryn Myronuk is a leading expert on exponentially growing technologies and the synthesis of the broad set of related fields of the Singularity movement. As a founding staff member at Singularity University (SU) at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, Kathryn participated in the early formation of SU’s groundbreaking approach to experiential learning encouraging participants to shift from one field to another, sometimes on an hour-by-hour basis, creating connections to build solutions to solve global grand challenges. She designed curriculum and worked closely with interdisciplinary and international participants and teams in all eight of SU’s 10-week programs and within SU’s many shorter programs. About Since 2006, he has been also managing. Together with his colleagues he has created an environment to foster technology transfer and cooperation between entrepreneurs and scientists, and has strengthened the role of University of Latvia as significant innovation partner for industry.

Since 2011, together with other enthusiasts he initiated the process to establish the, that opened its doors on July 2014. It´s the only incubator with the focus on technology-intensive business ideas in Latvia. Currently, most of his time has been spent to design accelerator, where he is one of the Co-Founders.

Buildit Latvia accelerator program will be launched on spring 2018. About Thomas Ohr is the founder and editor of, one of Europe’s leading startup publications, which reaches more than 80,000 founders, startup enthusiasts and investors per month. He also organizes the annual EU-Startups Summit, which will gather 750 startups and investors in Barcelona. Before running EU-Startups (Menlo Media) as a business, Thomas worked in the German media industry for 10+ years.

Till December of 2015 he served as Senior Brand Manager at one of Germany’s biggest magazine publishers. About Started Giraffe Visual at age of 21 to make virtual tours a standard in real estate presentations, failed on that mission, but grew into one of the leading interactive technology providers in the Norther Europe, servicing real estate developers like NCC, YIT, CBRE and 5* Hotels like Hilton, Ritz London with cutting edge virtual reality, touch screen, 3D modeling, drone footage, virtual tour and 360 video solutions. A team of 16.

Co-founded Giraffe360 at 2015 to make virtual tours and virtual reality a standard for property sales and lettings. With spectacular engineering and programming team, they have built unique property recording camera that displays property in various digital forms, like virtual tours for VR headsets and wide angle photography. About Monk John has received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Engineering and a PhD in Telematics. In 2005 he began designing, developing and coding a unique 42-day free self-development program. He created an online platform, which incorporates new technology to help people balance their busy lifestyle and digital behavior. After completing his PhD, Monk John decided to become ordained as a Theravada Buddhist monk in Thailand, and was subsequently invited to join the Peace Revolution project as a meditation instructor.

He has been teaching on an online meditation program and at Peace-On-Demand meditation sessions with over 5,000 people from 123 countries. He has taught in 20 Fellowship programs, as well as meditation workshops and retreats in Africa, America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean in 50 countries all together. About Daniels is manager and management consultant with experience in the governmental, non-governmental and business sectors, experienced in advocacy, lobbying and politics. Obtained a Master in Public Administration (MPA) at Harvard Kennedy School in 2007. Currently, a visiting lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Board Member at ZENO Consulting and Managing Partner at Equity United Management. Daniels has previously advised a number of foreign governments on economic development and policy, served as a Minister of Economy of Latvia, a State Secretary at a Ministry of Culture, the Head of Corporate Affairs at Swedbank Latvia, Board Member at the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and has held other senior positions.

Daniels is also a Board Member and Co-Founder of Latvian Startup Association. In parallel to his business activities Daniels was recently appointed Chairman of political party “Movement Pro!”. Daniels has been collaborating with since 2007. He specializes in the fields of leadership, change management, negotiation and dispute resolution, organizational development and strategic planning. Stephan is the Co-Founder of Edge of Space, a company focused on exciting space based projects including enabling STEM based access to space for students around the world.

Stephan is also a member of Executive Committee, as well as the Executive Director of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) Space. He is the Co-founder and CEO of, a trust- based global network of angel investors, who actively evaluate a wide range of innovative investment opportunities. Stephan serves on the board of directors of several companies and has personally made over 37 investments since 2012. Per his passion for space, he formed a key strategic partnership with CASIS in 2013, enabling the expansion of Newspace angel investments. Prior to starting Angelus Funding, Stephan served in several international executive roles including: COO of DigiLink Software, a China-based embedded video solutions developer, and the Director of North American Sales at India-based Ittiam Systems. As the founding Director of EMEA Operations for Telogy Networks, his company was acquired for half a billion dollars by Texas Instruments.

Stephan holds Bachelor’s and Masters of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. A second generation Russian and a true native New Yorker, he is fluent in 5 languages. He enjoys travelling the world and has flown over 5.5 million miles, the equivalent of 11 moon missions. Stephan is a “professional” volunteer for several impactful organizations and an active community leader.

He resides in Golden, Colorado with his family. About Mikko Revonniemi is a Co-Founder of arguably one of the trendiest superfood companies in the world today, and an adviser to various health & wellness startups in Asia, Europe & North America. He is a 3rd generation entrepreneur who learned smart working and unorthodox thinking at a very young age. Four Sigmatic gained an enormous popularity after the legend himself endorsed it. The past decade Mikko has lived in Asia where he founded a few businesses, competed in ultra-distance running, and joined non-profit projects in helping children with education and health. About Stewart Rogers has over 25 years experience in sales, marketing, managing, and mentoring in the software and IT industries. He is currently Analyst-at-Large at VentureBeat, where he analyzes and studies marketing technology, artificial intelligence, and virtual/mixed reality.

He is also a journalist for, reporting the news on those same topics in addition to other emerging technologies, such as blockchain. Prior to VentureBeat, Rogers ran a number of successful software companies and held global roles in sales and marketing for businesses in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K. He has contributed to several sales and marketing publications and is regularly invited to speak at major tech events across the globe.

About Alise Semjonova is the Co-Founder and Product Designer at, a data visualization platform with a mission to create and deliver tools for people to tell and understand the stories behind data. Infogram is used by more than two million journalists, NGO activists, marketers, and educators worldwide. On May 2017 Infogram and, the visual presentation giant, joined forces to deliver most powerful tools for visual communications. Alise has witnessed Infogram’s growth from day one while working on continuous improvements and studying overall user reaction, which spiked interest in technology acceptance and human digital product design.

Alise has background is in Graphic Design, but after her passion had grown in digital product development, she pursued attaining her Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction. Alise’s passion for startups, entrepreneurship, technology and digital design led to co-initiating, the first community in Latvia dedicated to educating and inspiring women about technology. Alise has been selected by Forbes as 30 Under 30 in Europe – Media (2017). About Davis began his career working in IT and project management at Draugiem Group, one of Latvia’s pioneering tech companies. He’s now the CEO & Co-Founder of. Printful prints, stores, and ships t-shirts and other products for online merchants. It also offers tech solutions for merchants to automate order fulfillment, create designs, and publish new product listings.

Founded in 2013 under Draugiem Group, Printful has grown exponentially every year. It currently has over 300,000 registered users, three fulfillment centers, and a team of over 300 people worldwide. Davis’ obsession with tech began when he saved enough money to buy his first Macbook at age 13. He’s passionate about e-commerce and his ultimate goal is for Printful to become the first Latvian company to IPO on the US stock market. About Helen Sildna, based in Estonia, has been a music promoter and events producer for 15 years. Having worked at Baltics’ biggest concert agency as an international talent booker, she established her own music promotion company Musiccase in 2008, which has promoted Morrissey, Sigur Ros, Patti Smith, Feist and Regina Spektor to mention a few. Helen is the Founder and Owner of.

Having started out as a music industry conference and showcase festival in 2009, TMW has broadened its concept further into an all-encompassing city festival, covering arts, design, technology, city space and food culture, and discussing various societal issues within its talks sessions, presentations and conference panels. In 2016 Tallinn Music Week hosted over 1,000 conference delegates and 35,000 festival visitors, around 2000 of them international guests. She is a board member of Music Estonia, previously also a member of former President Toomas Hendrik Ilves’ Think Tank.

In 2014 Helen was awarded with the Tampere Music Award at Music & Media Finland’s industry gala for Exceptional Achievements in Music Business, in 2015 she was nominated the Citizen of the Year by Estonian Ministry of Culture and in 2016 Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves awarded her the Order of White Star of IV Class for her contribution to Estonian music life and civil society. Helen is an outspoken member of the creative community, vocal on equal rights, diversity and internationalization. In 2016 she was voted the most influential woman in Estonian culture. Photo credit: Laura Kallasvee. About James is a leading transactional venture capital lawyer, advising entrepreneurs, companies and investors through the funding life-cycle.

Since qualifying as a lawyer in 2000, James has helped entrepreneurs, high-growth technology based companies and investors navigate their way through multiple rounds of financing, growth, scale-up and ultimately exit/liquidity event. Over the years, James has also been one of the most prolific University spin-out lawyers to life sciences companies and continues to advise on spin-out activity. As a close adviser to many companies and investors, James is also General Counsel to the following companies like Bioven – an immuno-oncology business with a lead product in phase III trials; Mologic Limited – a point-of-care diagnostics spin-out from Alere; Grampian BioPartners – a specialist life science business angel syndicate, able to act as a micro-lead on specialist life-science deals. James is a graduate of both St Andrews University (BSc Hons) and Edinburgh University (LLB), and, as a Scottish qualified lawyer, holds a committee position on the Society of Scottish Lawyers in London and is a Writer to Her Majesty’s Signet. James is ranked as a recommended lawyer in the 2017 edition of Legal 500 for Venture Capital. About Elizabeth is CEO and Co-Founder of Lightning, a company building a programmable financial layer for the internet through instant, high volume blockchain transactions. Further, she is an advisor to, a startup building autonomous driving technology using AI and machine learning, and a fellow at Coin Center, the leading digital currency policy organization.

Stark previously taught at Stanford and Yale University about the internet’s impact on society, the economy, and the law, and was a visiting fellow at Yale’s Information Society Project. Elizabeth has worked on tech policy issues for over a decade, and played an instrumental role in the Internet freedom effort that defeated SOPA/PIPA, engaging 18 million people worldwide.

Stark was a longtime researcher at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society, covering issues such as Internet censorship, digital copyright, and privacy. She also cofounded the Open Video Alliance, which promotes innovation and free expression in online video, and has collaborated with industry leaders such as Mozilla and Google. Stark served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Stanford’s StartX and has advised numerous companies in the blockchain and decentralized technology space. She holds a J.D from Harvard Law School.

About Jia enjoys and have worn multiple hats in her career; media planner, advertising sales account manager, recruiter, offshore shipbroker and executive assistant where the common denominator in her careers are: People, Connections and the Community. Jia started to work at Golden Gate Ventures as Executive Assistant, currently her role as Market Developer for Golden Gate Ventures lets her take on multiple hats in these few areas: Events, Partnerships and Collaborations, Marketing and Communications, Talent Sourcing for Key hires in portfolio companies and Support Business Development and Expansion into new markets. Paulina is a serial entrepreneur, a TEDx speaker and a Founder of GrantTree and Treehouse. She is also a seed investor and startup mentor, often featured as women in fintech speaker and panelist. Paulina is particularly passionate about gender equality in financial services and transparency in business in general. GrantTree started in 2010 with a purpose to help navigate – and automate – the complex world of government funding. In the last seven years the team grew organically from 2 to 35, and raised £60m for 600+ technology clients.

GrantTree has also pioneered open salary scheme, and adopted holacracy. About David is passionate about tech startups. His journey started when he founded his first tech startup in 2006. The experience is filled with ups and downs – mistakes, loss of money, but also little victories. That’s why he decided to understand every aspect of startup business.

How to build them. How to manage them. How to support them.

How to invest in them. How to make money from them.

Currently, David does seed investments for Accelerace Invest in Copenhagen. He also sit on boards and do workshops and key notes, trying to learn as much as he possibly can, also putting everything down in his. Raimonds Vējonis became the President of Latvia on 8th July 2015. Prior to his appointment, President Vējonis was the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development for almost nine years, and a MP of the Saeima (Parliament) as well. Raimonds Vējonis studied at the Institute of Environmental Engineering and Water, Tampere University of Technology in Finland. He obtained a Master degree in biology in 1995. Upon appointment, Raimonds Vējonis outlined that national security would be among his major priorities.

It also included international security, by stressing that Latvia should be able to protect itself together with NATO allies. Raimonds Vējonis also committed to facilitation of peaceful coexistence of all the peoples living in Latvia in order to avoid any social unrest. About Ryan Williams has been fired up about what makes B2B sales work at startups for 9 years.

Ryan’s a speaker, trainer and thought leader, but he has also personally closed tens of millions in deals and as a sales leader he’s hired over 200 reps across the 5 different startups he’s been a part of (which include: AdRoll, LeadGenius and InVisionApp). Ryan joined 500 Startups as an EIR & Sales Coach in 2017 with the goal to help our founders go to market quickly when they are selling to other businesses. He’s a master of testing markets, building customer profiles, coaching deals and sales hiring. When not at 500, he is working on his own startup, SalesCollider, to bring founders together with top tier sales leaders through events and advisory. About He was the Visiting EU Fellow at St.

Antony’s College, University of Oxford for 2013-14, where is a Senior Member and Associate of the Political Economy of Financial Markets Programme. Previously, he was Deputy Head of the Bioethics Department of the Council of Europe, in its Directorate General of Legal Affairs. In addition, he has held various positions in the Latvian civil service (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Environment).

He was Senior Environmental Law Advisor to the World Bank/Russian Federation Environmental Management Project and was Regional Environmental Specialist for the Baltic Countries at the World Bank. He has been a member of the California State Bar since 1991, completed his J.D. At the University of Southern California, his B.A.

In Political ScienceCum Laude at UCLA, and the High Potentials Leadership Program at Harvard Business School. A recent publication of his is “The Need for an Innovation Principle in Regulatory Impact Assessment: The Case of Finance and Innovation in Europe” in Policy & Internet. He has published over 30 publications on innovation law and policy, European and environmental law, economy and finance, and bioethics in English, Latvian, and French. About In 2009 Giacomo Zuccon graduated theoretical physics at the University of Milan. He started working as a technology consultant for Accenture in 2008 while getting interested in Bitcoin, he found a clear path to unify his personal political ideas with his career. In 2014 he started collaborating in many Bitcoin-related projects, and he became the head of sales of. In mid-2015 he founded, an internationally-recognised applied consultancy centre in Milan specifically created for the study of Blockchain technology and its applications.

During the fall of 2016 BlockchainLab hosted the Scaling Bitcoin Conference in Milan, while making possible the so-called “Milan Protocol” BOLT in close collaboration with the main international Bitcoin & Lightning Network developers. BlockchainLab was just the beginning, at the start of 2017 Zucco decided to pursue a more global perspective with the BHB Network project and founding of the BHB Network Foundation. There are more startups springing up in Baltics than ever before. To survive and grow as a startup you need to expand. To expand you need to gain access to investment, market knowledge and access to network and right go-to-market strategy. How to expand outside Baltics?

Do you need to relocate your team? How to approach foreign investors?

What are the best strategies to enter the UK market and what are the first steps each start-up needs to make. Join us for insightful discussions followed up by questions from the audience with Mikus Opelts from Giraffe360, Paulina Sygulska from GrantTree, Raph Crouan from IOT StartupBootcamp. Moderated by Diana Gabrielyan from the UK Department for International Trade.

Moderator: Diana Gabrielyan (UK) Investment Adviser for Baltics at Department for International Trade Paulina Sygulska Tenner (UK) Entrepreneur, angel investor, cabaret artist Raph Crouan (UK) Managing Director & Founder at Startupbootcamp IoT London Mikus Opelts (LV) Co-Founder and CEO of Giraffe360. Sustainable Cities and Communities represent one of UNs 17 sustainability goals. Developing new urban solutions, based on high technology and Implementing them in cities is one of the cornerstones to save the planet. How can we achieve practical results, and how can we make new business thrive and create new economic growth related to these challenges? Opening remarks: Kristaps Soms (LV) Entrepreneurship Competitiveness Department Director at Ministry of Economics Gaute Hagerup (NO) Global Manager at Smart Cities and Societies at Innovation Norway. Five Latvian Entrepreneurs will share their story of how they have benefited from the NORWAY GRANT support in making the world greener through Green Technology Innovations.

Moderator: Matīss Neimanis (LV) Director of Green Technology Incubator Jānis Jātnieks (LV) Founder and CEO at Baltic3D Anna Ramata-Stunda (LV) Founder and CEO at Alternative Plants Toms Beinerts (LV) CEO at MHD Research Centre EMP Riga Iluta Skrūzkalne (LV) Founder and CEO at Academia Advisors Elīna Salva (LV) Founder and CEO at Recolo. There are more startups springing up in Baltics than ever before.

To survive and grow as a startup you need to expand. To expand you need to gain access to investment, market knowledge and access to network and right go-to-market strategy.

How to expand outside Baltics? Do you need to relocate your team? How to approach foreign investors? What are the best strategies to enter the UK market and what are the first steps each start-up needs to make. Join us for insightful discussions followed up by questions from the audience with Mikus Opelts from Giraffe360, Paulina Sygulska from GrantTree, Raph Crouan from IOT StartupBootcamp. Moderated by Diana Gabrielyan from the UK Department for International Trade.

Moderator: Diana Gabrielyan (UK) Investment Adviser for Baltics at Department for International Trade Paulina Sygulska Tenner (UK) Entrepreneur, angel investor, cabaret artist Raph Crouan (UK) Managing Director & Founder at Startupbootcamp IoT London Mikus Opelts (LV) Co-Founder and CEO of Giraffe360. Sustainable Cities and Communities represent one of UNs 17 sustainability goals. Developing new urban solutions, based on high technology and Implementing them in cities is one of the cornerstones to save the planet. How can we achieve practical results, and how can we make new business thrive and create new economic growth related to these challenges? Opening remarks: Kristaps Soms (LV) Entrepreneurship Competitiveness Department Director at Ministry of Economics Gaute Hagerup (NO) Global Manager at Smart Cities and Societies at Innovation Norway DRIVING INNOVATION THROUGH SUSTAINABLE CITIES.

Five Latvian Entrepreneurs will share their story of how they have benefited from the NORWAY GRANT support in making the world greener through Green Technology Innovations. Moderator: Matīss Neimanis (LV) Director of Green Technology Incubator Jānis Jātnieks (LV) Founder and CEO at Baltic3D Anna Ramata-Stunda (LV) Founder and CEO at Alternative Plants Toms Beinerts (LV) CEO at MHD Research Centre EMP Riga Iluta Skrūzkalne (LV) Founder and CEO at Academia Advisors Elīna Salva (LV) Founder and CEO at Recolo MAKING THE WORLD GREEN AGAIN. There has been a lot of talk of the need for leadership in business over the years. But there is still a lot of confusion as to what leadership is really like and what leaders do. How is being a leader different from being a good manager?

Why is leadership needed and what it takes to exercise leadership in a dynamic business world? Does being a start-up and having a disruptive business model qualify you to be a leader? Let’s explore some answers to these questions. Daniels Pavļuts (LV) Leadership Trainer at Triviums, Board Member at Startin.lv. Fintech has high-growth potential and what appears to be endless opportunities to disrupt the legacy markets of banking and finance – instant, frictionless, digital transactions at an unprecedented speed.

In early 2017, CNBC published a list of the 50 hottest FinTech companies in Europe. What is the common DNA that makes these startups succeed? This session is a compelling overview of five FinTech companies that have successfully crossed borders and expanded their business. Transferwise (Estonia); Ayden (NL); N26 (Germany); Onfido (UK) and Deposify (Ireland). This talk will also look at the growth of FinTech alongside changing EU borders. James Shaw (UK) James Shaw Partners.

New product and service development is booming. Would you agree, though, that there’s a little too little of revolutionary change happening? We’ll look at prototyping as a switch in thinking and doing to create better and more daring products, services and lives. A little about catching mistakes and using them to break beyond “almost great” and reach “outstanding”, a lot about learning by doing and gathering the courage to do so. Līga Efeja (LV) Changemaker, Coordinator at Riga Technical University Design Factory: R&D partner for start-ups and industry. In cooperation with Rockstart, one of Europe’s first multi-vertical startup accelerators, we invited startups to participate in the DFF & Rockstart Artificial Intelligence Pitch Competition. The best startups will pitch their ideas, competing for the chance to get ‘Rockstart’ed’ to the final selection round of Europe’s first AI accelerator by Rockstart in the Netherlands.

This is a chance to spend six months in ’s-Hertogenbosch and receive €20,000 cash and €80,000 of in-kind funding, mentoring and all the support you need to bring your startup to the next level. Which cooperations models help the green tech companies do their research and development more fruitfully and faster? What is the role of Clusters, municipalities and science institutions in green tech product research and development processes? Modarator: Evija Goluba (LV) Assistant Political Officer at Embassy of Sweden in Riga Krišjānis Kalnciems (LV) Project Manager at Smart City Cluster Solvita Kostjukova (LV) Co-Founder and CEO at ALINA LLC Dāvids Štēbelis (LV) Partner and Board Member at ALINA LLC, Coach and Business Trainer at Climate-KIC. As we move further into the age of technology, balancing screen time with face-to-face communication/interaction is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. As parents we often search for ways to talk about screen time and healthy use of technology in a way that our kids will hear us.

So how should we be talking to them? What are the best tips for balancing tech and face-to-face time in the family? Moderator: Laura Belevica (USA) Artist, Architect, Illustrator, Storyteller and Creative Entrepreneur Līga Bernāte (LV) Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist at Family Centre Līna Manuel Koleman (DE) Co-Founder and CEO at Pirate Summit. Being a leader is not easy. It’s a long journey and requires a lot of efforts to understand what a true leader is. Milda never imagined herself in business.

Vinted was born as a hobby project in 2008 and to her own surprise showed tremendous growth from the very beginning. That caused plenty of personal challenges in Milda’s life: how to lead a company if you don’t have any experience, what does it mean to be a good leader? How to get there? Milda comes to festival to share her personal growth story. Milda Mitkutė (LT) Co-Founder at Vinted.

As we have evolved from microorganisms to single cells to more complex organic systems, we are both very simple and complex beings. We once were food. And because of that being smart about food and drugs is both simple and complex.

Let’s dive into this topic – how to become smart through food and drugs. Mikko Revonniemi (FI) Co-Founder of Four Sigmatic Kaspars Vendelis (LV) Co-Founder of Biohacking.lv, Entrepreneur with health food background, who runs a project “How to Live till 120”. FUTURE OF FOOD, OR HOW TO LIVE TILL THE AGE OF 120. Being a leader is not easy. It’s a long journey and requires a lot of efforts to understand what a true leader is. Milda never imagined herself in business. Vinted was born as a hobby project in 2008 and to her own surprise showed tremendous growth from the very beginning.

That caused plenty of personal challenges in Milda’s life: how to lead a company if you don’t have any experience, what does it mean to be a good leader? How to get there? Milda comes to festival to share her personal growth story. Milda Mitkutė (LT) Co-Founder at Vinted LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES: PERSONAL STORY. In cooperation with Rockstart, one of Europe’s first multi-vertical startup accelerators, we invited startups to participate in the DFF & Rockstart Artificial Intelligence Pitch Competition. The best startups will pitch their ideas, competing for the chance to get ‘Rockstart’ed’ to the final selection round of Europe’s first AI accelerator by Rockstart in the Netherlands.

This is a chance to spend six months in ’s-Hertogenbosch and receive €20,000 cash and €80,000 of in-kind funding, mentoring and all the support you need to bring your startup to the next level. There has been a lot of talk of the need for leadership in business over the years. But there is still a lot of confusion as to what leadership is really like and what leaders do. How is being a leader different from being a good manager? Why is leadership needed and what it takes to exercise leadership in a dynamic business world? Does being a start-up and having a disruptive business model qualify you to be a leader? Let’s explore some answers to these questions.

Daniels Pavļuts (LV) Leadership Trainer at Triviums, Board Member at Startin.lv. Fintech has high-growth potential and what appears to be endless opportunities to disrupt the legacy markets of banking and finance – instant, frictionless, digital transactions at an unprecedented speed.

In early 2017, CNBC published a list of the 50 hottest FinTech companies in Europe. What is the common DNA that makes these startups succeed? This session is a compelling overview of five FinTech companies that have successfully crossed borders and expanded their business.

Transferwise (Estonia); Ayden (NL); N26 (Germany); Onfido (UK) and Deposify (Ireland). This talk will also look at the growth of FinTech alongside changing EU borders.

James Shaw (UK) James Shaw Partners. New product and service development is booming. Would you agree, though, that there’s a little too little of revolutionary change happening? We’ll look at prototyping as a switch in thinking and doing to create better and more daring products, services and lives.

A little about catching mistakes and using them to break beyond “almost great” and reach “outstanding”, a lot about learning by doing and gathering the courage to do so. Līga Efeja (LV) Changemaker, Coordinator at Riga Technical University Design Factory: R&D partner for start-ups and industry PROTOTYPE OR DIE.

Which cooperations models help the green tech companies do their research and development more fruitfully and faster? What is the role of Clusters, municipalities and science institutions in green tech product research and development processes? Modarator: Evija Goluba (LV) Assistant Political Officer at Embassy of Sweden in Riga Krišjānis Kalnciems (LV) Project Manager at Smart City Cluster Solvita Kostjukova (LV) Co-Founder and CEO at ALINA LLC Dāvids Štēbelis (LV) Partner and Board Member at ALINA LLC, Coach and Business Trainer at Climate-KIC. As we move further into the age of technology, balancing screen time with face-to-face communication/interaction is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. As parents we often search for ways to talk about screen time and healthy use of technology in a way that our kids will hear us. So how should we be talking to them? What are the best tips for balancing tech and face-to-face time in the family?

Moderator: Laura Belevica (USA) Artist, Architect, Illustrator, Storyteller and Creative Entrepreneur Līga Bernāte (LV) Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist at Family Centre Līna Manuel Koleman (DE) Co-Founder and CEO at Pirate Summit. About Uldis is someone who doesn’t believe it until he’s seen it. A passionate photographer, Uldis has traveled to over 50 countries around the world, which included trekking across Iran (twice), and reaching the summit of Asia’s largest volcano the Damavand. Uldis is an experienced and awarded entrepreneur, designer, and co-founder of distinguished startups such as Attitude.ai, a conversational interfaces for marketing automation, and Infogr.am, an interactive data visualization tool. He’s mentored startups in several regions as part of the Pirate Summit and Pioneer Festival. About Dagnija is a passionate communications professional with a special interest in technologies, startups and community engagement.

In addition to creating the Digital Freedom Festival, she is a Co-Founder of the boutique reputation management company “Lejiņa and Šleiers”, and is a co-founder of “Riga Venture Summit” and the Latvian Startup Association. In the past, Dagnija has led communications at the largest Nordic bank in Latvia – Nordea, also coordinating communications in Poland and the Baltic countries. She has gained experience in public affairs while serving as Press Secretary and Communications Advisor to the Latvian Foreign Minister.

Whether it’s hiking in the Himalayas or exploring the thick jungles of southeast Asia, Dagnija has never denied a challenge and aims to push herself to unknown horizons. At the same time she looks for ways that she can help others to achieve their goals by connecting people and building purpose driven communities. About An experienced journalist, editor and columnist, Juris is a Co-Founder of “Riga Venture Summit”, the Latvian Startup association and Co-Founder of the NGO Nordic Reputation Hub and flagship event “ReputationTime” conference.

In addition to organizing events, Juris actively attends tech conventions and never misses opportunity to dive into the after parties. Juris was Editor in Chief at Klubs, the largest men’s lifestyle magazine in Latvia for 10 years. He has experience in premium corporate publishing as the Editor for Audi Magazine and contributed to Mercedes Benz corporate publications. Juris has been published in local lifestyle magazines such as Klubs, Santa, Pastaiga, Deko, as well as international brands: Cosmopolitan, FHM, Shape, AutoBild, SNOB, Robb Report. Wine, cats and writing.

That’s Juris, if you had to describe him in three words. Juris enjoys long-distance running, and every now and then conquers mountain summits, such as Kilimanjaro. Juris believes in balance – if you drink fine wines and eat good food, then you have to stay in shape. He’s adopted the ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude in both his personal and professional life. If you’ll be joining us at our after-parties, you’re guaranteed to see Juris in the spotlight orchestrating all the fun. About The RiseUp Summit is the biggest entrepreneurship summit in Egypt and the Middle East to date, with an attendance of more than 3000. The summit is known for bringing together the entire entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt and MENA for the first time.

Before founding RiseUp, Abdelhameed worked at Injaz-Egypt where he helped create the first start-ups pipeline in all Junior Achievement countries. He is also a Global Shaper, which is a network of young people under the age of 30 from all over the world who are selected by the World Economic Forum for their exceptional potential and achievements. About Muzaffar is the Founder of Alchemy Ventures, Lecturer at SSE Riga, Co-Founder of Startup Wise Guys Riga and author of the book ‘Racing Towards Excellence’.

He completed his BSc in Industrial and Business Economics at the LSE in 1991, received an MA in English Literature from King’s College in 1992 and his MSc in Development Studies from the LSE in 2007. In 1998, Khan joined Moore Capital Management (a 75 billion dollar hedge fund), quickly becoming the Moore Emerging Market (MEM) fund’s senior strategist. Over Khan’s five-year tenure, the team enjoyed double-digit returns every year, with assets under management growing from $250 million to $1 billion. Khan retired from Moore Capital Management in 2003, becoming the Vice Chairman of ACOPS, an international environmental charity and consultant to the Man Environmental Capital Opportunities (Man ECO) division of Man Group.

The main focus of his current work is Alchemy Ventures, a social enterprise he founded in 2004. Alchemy’s mission is to increase social mobility and reduce aspirational poverty in the world’s youth. Now Khan spends majority of his time investing in startups and mentoring students for free. Khan’s mentorship philosophy and techniques are encapsulated by ‘Racing Towards Excellence’, a book he co-authored with one of his mentees, Jan Sramek.

About Joanna is a communications & PR strategist for international ecosystem builders, fast growth companies and startups in tech and creative industries. Currently based in Paris, she is Managing Director at, a non-profit organization that supports women in technology and entrepreneurship, and chapter lead for. Joanna co-founded the European Tech event programme and music project Tales & Remedies. Previously in charge of communications & PR for global entertainment and tech events Midem, MIPTV, MIPCOM and LeWeb, Joanna holds an MBA in Cultural Management in Europe from Paris 8 and a BA in European Studies from Reading University. About Kayvan has over 12 years of international experience in event organisation, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing and relationship management. Passionate about building communities and connecting people, he is constantly finding ways how to reach people through start-ups, scale-ups, tech organisations (VC’s, governmental organisations, investors etc.) corporates, NGO’s and the media. Kayvan is the founder and CEO of Challenge.rs (premium tech & innovation event) and one of the ambassadors of the Slush start-up conference and 4YFN, Spain’s largest start-up event. He is also a passionate Spanish guitar player and a car aficionado. About Alise Semjonova is the Co-Founder and Product Designer at Infogram, a data visualization platform with a mission to create and deliver tools for people to tell and understand the stories behind data.

Infogram is used by more than two million journalists, NGO activists, marketers, and educators worldwide. On May 2017 Infogram and Prezi, the visual presentation giant, joined forces to deliver most powerful tools for visual communications. Alise has witnessed Infogram’s growth from day one while working on continuous improvements and studying overall user reaction, which spiked interest in technology acceptance and human digital product design. Alise has background is in Graphic Design, but after her passion had grown in digital product development, she pursued attaining her Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction. Alise’s passion for startups, entrepreneurship, technology and digital design led to co-initiating Riga TechGirls, the first community in Latvia dedicated to educating and inspiring women about technology. Alise has been selected by Forbes as 30 Under 30 in Europe – Media (2017).

About Tim is the Managing Director of Pioneers Festival. He has founded three companies and studied industrial/mechanical engineering and management in Germany and Austria. Tim is an entrepreneur and tech & innovation addict driven by an inexhaustible curiosity about the future. Based on his interdisciplinary education (engineering, mathematics, social science, economics and IT), he is able to model, simulate and design systems from different perspectives. During 2012-2015 Tim was not only responsible for start-ups & investors relations and products at Pioneers, but also became MD of the Pioneers Festival in 2013. About Kiran, 76 countries and 290 cities old is an Impact Entrepreneur and is on a mission to make the world a better place one piece at a time. Passionate about building initiatives for Entrepreneurs, Women, and Young People he founded in India which is now one of the largest Startup Festivals in Asia.

August Fest turned five in 2017 and brings together fifteen thousand participants including Entrepreneurs, Creative folks and the Global Startup Ecosystems to celebrate arts and entrepreneurship every August. is his latest initiative that discovers women role models across the world. Kiran was also the brain behind India’s first social network during the pre-facebook era and over the last decade he launched and scaled up several tech and impact initiatives. Apart from creating brands and scaling up companies, Kiran loves to live on the edge and traveled to over 70 countries. The best way to catch up with him is while cruising through the Amazon Forest in South America or running with the Bulls in Spain.