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History

  • 2014
  • 2015
  • 2016
  • 2017
  • 2018
  • 2019
  • 2020
  • 2021
  • 2022
  • 2023

IT Arena in 9 years

24493
Attendees
800
Outstanding
speakers
988
Startups
215
Meetups
700
Hours of exciting
networking
53
Countries
29
Afterparties

IT Arena 2022

Despite the ongoing war, IT Arena 2022 took place in Lviv. On September 30-October 1, the event brought together tech professionals, government officials, cybersecurity and digitalization experts and representatives of the country’s two biggest charity funds to support Ukraine in these uncertain times and lay the foundation for rebuilding the country after the victory. Due to safety concerns, IT Arena 2022 scaled down and was visited by up to 1,000 attendees. The international media presence at IT Arena 2022 included The Economist, TNW, Spider’s Web and others. The event took place in two locations in Lviv – a former glass factory revitalized into a creative space !FEST Republic and Lviv National Opera.
956
Attendees
73
Startups
22
Speakers
12
Countries
$ 340000
Prize fund

Speakers

During the event, IT Arena hosted five panel discussions with a focus on cybersecurity, military tech and cooperation between government and business. The first day of the conference kicked off with a panel discussion with Serhiy Prytula and Taras Chmut, representatives of the two biggest charity foundations in Ukraine, Prytula Charity Foundation and Come Back Alive, joined by Haluk Bayraktar, CEO of Turkey’s premier UAV manufacturing company Baykar, who connected online. On the second day, cybersecurity expert and journalist Kim Zetter came together with Viktor Zhora, Deputy Chairman of the State Service of SCIP and Kenneth Geers, External Communication Analyst at Very Good Security, to discuss Ukraine’s cyber defense as well as challenges and opportunities of modern cyber tactics.

For the first time in its history, IT Arena featured a discussion on advancements in military tech, in particular, UAV technology. Ivan Tolchinsky, CEO & Founder of Atlas Aerospace, Cameron Chell, President and CEO of Draganfly, Ihor Maslov, Business Development Director at Ukrspecsystems, and Yaroslav Kalinin, CEO of Infozahyst were joined conversation with award-winning defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko.

Speakers included representatives

Startup Competition

Startup Competition has also a slight change in format this year. Due to the war, fewer startups than normally applied for the competition. Out of 70 applications, 28 teams have been qualified to pitch their ideas from the event’s stage, with 10 teams subsequently qualifying for the finals. The finalists focused on solving real-world technological and humanitarian emerging problems. Five of ten teams focused on medtech solutions.

The winner of the Startup Competition 2022 became WRAP, an app automating video production flows. The team won the Best Startup Award and a $20,000 prize from IT Arena, CRDF and USF. Knopka, a creator of an IoT/SaaS solution for hospitals that ensures medical assistance is provided within 3 minutes, took the second prize and $18,000. The third prize, or $15,000 went to Nanit – an educational robot and EdTech solution for kids and adults that allows them to identify creative and technical abilities, learn engineering skills in the creative process and raise professional orientation by 30%. The total Startup Competition prize in 2022 equalled $340,000, which included money grants and in-kind services.

Resilience in times of uncertainty

IT Arena 2022 showed the local tech community and international guests the power of unity. Despite air raid sirens, curfew and survivor’s guilt of attendees, the industry representatives, government officials, startups and entrepreneurs came to discuss hands-on steps the industry can take for the economy to continue to operate.

Following the panel discussion on the unstoppable volunteering forces, the event’s organizer Lviv IT Cluster, together with its member company JustAnswer, supported the initiative of the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation to fundraise ₴8,000,000 by the end of 2022 for the training of 4,000 military drone pilots within the Boryviter school. Lviv IT Cluster and JustAnswer donated ₴2,000,000 and encouraged tech companies to join by making a corporate donation.

IT Arena 2021

The eighth edition of IT Arena took place on October 7-9, 2021. This time, the event took place in a new hybrid format, combining the best of online and offline events, providing participants a chance to connect from any place in the world and visit meetups and afterparties. In total, IT Arena 2021 united 5345 attendees from all over the world. 172 companies have used the platform's B2B matchmaking opportunities. During the online part, online access to IT Arena platform for two devices, a desktop platform and a mobile app, allowed to switch between the conference talks, ask questions to speakers, and network with other participants. And the offline part of IT Arena united attendees at a great number of offline events and meetups, boosting the power of in-person communication and networking.
During the online part, online access to IT Arena platform for two devices, a desktop platform and a mobile app, allowed to switch between the conference talks, ask questions to speakers, and network with other participants. And the offline part of IT Arena united attendees at a great number of offline events and meetups, boosting the power of in-person communication and networking.
5345
Attendees
115
Startups
100
Speakers
53
Meetups
$ 170000
Prize fund

Speakers

Within two intensive online days, 100 speakers from 4 continents covered topics on how to handle competitors and improve functionality, be obsessed with your product, deal with cybersecurity risks, strengthen mental health, use AI and machine learning in healthcare system personalization, regulate remote work mode, and more. The discussions were held by the representatives of such global companies as Google, AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Headspace, Remote, Airbnb, RollsRoyce, Axdraft, etc. Leading Ukrainian companies that successfully scaled worldwide were also represented at the conference.

Speakers included representatives

Startup Competition

In 2021, 115 startups applied for participation in the Startup Competition. A committee of professionals chose the top thirty startups, which presented their products during the second day of the conference. Since IT Arena 2021 took place in a new hybrid format, only a part of the jury members was physically present during the pitches, while the rest joined online. Startup Competition finals were hosted during the conference's closing ceremony at Lviv National Opera, where ten finalists performed in front of a live audience. The total prize fund of the Startup Competition in 2021 equaled $170,000.

The third place of the Startup Competition went to Caretech Human, daily health checks and disease detection gadget which received a $15,000 prize. The second-place winner is Zeely, a mobile app for creating corporate websites that received $18,000. Mosqitter, eco-friendly and innovative protection from mosquitoes, won the Startup Competition 2021, receiving the grand prize of $20,000.

Networking opportunities at offline events and meetups

IT Arena 2021 hosted a series of offline events, providing the attendees with the networking of the highest quality. Networking & Beer Party and Tech Lounge events were visited by 1931 attendees, bringing together conference attendees, top management, investors, and government officials in an informal context to share ideas and discuss the key prospects of tech industry development. On the 3rd day of the conference, 51 meetups were held in the nicest venues of the city center. After two intensive days of talks, IT Arena attendees continued informal communication, workshops, and discussions in the historic center of Lviv.

One of the brightest and most anticipated in-person events was held at Lviv National Opera, including a number of events – IT Arena Startup Competition Finals, IT Arena Startup Competition Awards Ceremony, Lviv IT Cluster 10th-anniversary celebration, and informal networking at Closing Afterparty. These events, with an unforgettable atmosphere, become the center for tech expert’s networking and communication. The events were organized following the health and safety guidelines.

IT Arena 2020

October 8-10, 2020 marked the seventh edition of IT Arena. This time, following the ongoing pandemic and travel restrictions, the event took place in a new digital format: providing participants with a safe virtual experience and a chance to connect from any place in the world. In total, IT Arena 2020 united 4076 online attendees tuning in from 28 countries. 93 companies have used the platform's B2B matchmaking opportunities. All participants could simultaneously access the event from two devices. The mobile and desktop mediums allowed conveniently switching between the conference talks, asking questions to speakers, and networking with other participants. IT Arena 2020 revolved around the theme of the speed of change, raising a question to all participants 'Are we ready to embrace changes and withstand new challenges?'
Participants savored 78 hours of curated content from 88 speakers from 4 continents on topics ranging from deep learning, product building fundamentals, customer trust crisis, glocalization to computing, freedom and privacy by the notorious Dr. Richard Stallman, Founder of the Free Software Foundation.
4076
Online attendees
78
Hours of curated content
88
Speakers
39
Startup semi-finalists
4
Offline studios
$ 120000
Startup Competition prize fund

Speakers

IT Arena attendees had a chance to listen to the insights from the representatives of the world's largest tech giants, including Tesla, Formula 1, BMW Group, Facebook, NVIDIA, Google, Vimeo Enterprise, Atlassian, Klarna, SAP, Sixt. Leading companies with Ukrainian roots, which are successfully expanding worldwide, were also represented at four conference tracks. Among them, MacPaw, Reface, Sigma Software, DataRobot, Softserve, N-iX, Intellias, Exadel, Luxoft, Poster, and others. The top viewed talks in 2020 included Pivotal moments: from knowing nothing to knowing a little by David Helgason, founder of Unity; Data driven and data informed teams by Sherif Mansour, Distinguished Product Manager at Atlassian; Driving commercial opportunities at F1 races with WiFi analytics and technology by Matt Roberts, Director of Research and Analytics at Formula 1.

Speakers included representatives

Startup Competition

More than 100 Ukrainian startups have applied for the Startup Competition 2020. 39 teams made it to the finals, among which solutions to the world's most pressing problems, particularly the agriculture industry, people with bipolar disorder support, anti-insect products, sanitizers produced from water, and digital self-services in restaurants. The total prize fund of the IT Arena Startup Competition amounted to $120k. The winner of the Startup Competition 2020 main prize, $10,000 from CRDF Global & IT Arena, was Kharkiv-based startup Tradomatic.

The startup helps farmers sell crops, buy inputs, get financing, and buy/sell land faster by matching their buyers and distributors' requests. Runner-up of the competition was the hardware startup IOON a device that transforms water into a sanitizer in a few seconds. The team received $6,000 from CRDF Global and many other valuable benefits. The third prize $5,000 and a 6-month membership in the Sigma Software Lab went to ORTY Restaurant Management. ORTY is a solution that enables restaurants to launch digital self-service quickly.

Networking opportunities & offline C-level event

IT Arena online included a combination of insightful content, matchmaking and networking opportunities, and interactive sessions. The participants were able to share photos and posts in the mobile and web activity stream, send direct messages to other attendees, create chats, take part in polls and Q&A sessions during talks. To maximize business partnerships, there was a private chat available for Executive attendees. The B2B matchmaking chat was powered by an online functionality tailored for the close-knit communication exclusively for C-level companies’ representatives. It was also complemented with a catalog containing comprehensive information on the companies from 15 countries participating in the event in 2020.

In 2020, the only offline event hosted by IT Arena was Tech Lounge. Tech Lounge gathered tech industry and business leaders, investors, and government representatives in an informal context to share ideas and discuss the key prospects of tech industry development. The event was organized following the health and safety guidelines.

IT Arena 2019

On September 27-29, 2019 IT Arena united 3816 attendees from over 30 countries to discuss products, businesses, startups, and technologies that might be used with a harmful aim such as hacking, spying, data theft, and information manipulation. This year the conference was held under an ambitious motto “The Humanity of Technology”, which aimed to draw attention to how we, humans, can influence the world of technology on a daily basis. The total of 91 speakers, including representatives from Microsoft, Spotify, Audi, UiPath, Uber Freight, The Number 1 Agency attended the event.
Traditionally, the event was hosted by Arina – IT Arena’s mascot, the female prototype of artificial intelligence, who delivered an inspiring 30-minute lecture. “Be it a careless meme or a discovery aimed to save millions – there’s a human behind it. It’s you, your friend, neighbor, colleague, kid who can alter the course of history,” said Arina. “Good or bad tech? It’s up to you to decide. But only if you combine efforts, streamline them in the proper direction and share the responsibility, humanity will stand a chance.”
3816
Attendees
91
Speakers
40
Meetups
104
Media representatives
45
Startup semi-finalistsw
$ 100000
Startup Competition prize fund

Speakers

The stage program of IT Arena 2019 included over 90 speakers: from the Daniel Dines, Co-Founder & CEO of UiPath, the first Romanian unicorn and one of the fastest-growing startups in history, to the world’s most famous prankster and acknowledged filmmaker Oobah Butler. By bringing together representatives from top companies, including Sharon Lo, Product Manager at Microsoft, Hemant Bhanoo, VP of Product at Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, Oleksandr Konotopskyi, CEO at Ajax Systems, Anya Ruvinskaya, Product Lead at Spotify, and others, IT Arena had once again proved that Lviv is a promising platform for the global tech community.

Speakers included representatives

Startup Competition

45 startups made the cut into Startup Competition semi-finals and pitched their ideas on stage in front of the expert jury and the event’s attendees. Demo-versions of the products were displayed at the Startup Alley. For example, you could test out Nuka, a notebook claimed to last forever, created by a bunch of Ukrainian teenagers. Legal Nodes, a tech solution that helps companies define their legal needs online, among other prizes, received the competition’s main prize – $10,000 from CRDF Global & IT Arena. Legal tech was a popular topic among 2019 startups, with another representative – PatentBot. PatentBot makes the trademark and copyright registration process fast and simple. Nuka and PatentBot shared the second place at the competition.

Networking & parties

Networking is a vital part of tech events and IT Arena is not an exception. The event’s organizers make sure the jam-packed agenda is combined with informal satellite events and afterparties. In addition to 2 full days of talks, over 30 meetups, 3 afterparties, a charity run and a giveaway breakfast with speakers took place within IT Arena. IT Arena app served as a great tool for business matchmaking as well as staying up-to-date with any changes in the agenda, therefore, making the conference experience smooth and comfortable for everyone.

IT Arena 2018

IT Arena is growing! 2018 marked the 5th anniversary of the conference - a benchmark not all tech events make through. On September 28-30, 2018 IT Arena brought together a record number of attendees - over 3300. The conference program was divided into 4 tracks: business, technology, product, and startup to cover the key aspects of the IT industry. 100 top experts from global companies, including Facebook, Tesla, Google, eBay, Samsung, etc. shared their experience from IT Arena stage.
For the second year in a row, the event was hosted by Arina - IT Arena’s mascot, the female prototype of artificial intelligence. The geography of visitors was rather impressive: USA, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Qatar, Portugal, Norway, Canada, etc. To give the attendees a chance to enjoy Lviv’s old town, the third day of IT Arena moved to the city center.
3300+
Attendees
100
Speakers
40
Meetups
130+
Media representatives
150
Startups
$ 70000
Startup Competition prize fund

Speakers

Among top IT Arena 2018 speakers were: Sachin Rekhi, Founder & CEO at Notejoy, ex-Head of Product at Linkedin, ex-Product Manager at Microsoft, Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google Cloud, Martin Villig, Co-Founder at Taxify, and many other. Semyon Dukach, Managing Partner at One Way Ventures, former Managing Director at Techstars was the keynote speaker of the conference. Semyon started his talk with a personal story of an ambitious MIT student who won more than $4 million in Las Vegas casinos with his university team. Later he became a successful entrepreneur, investor and founded his own Troublemaker Award for the most interesting and inspiring startups, ideas and or even pranks. According to Semyon, he invests rather not in a company, but in people driven by an exciting idea.

Speakers included representatives

Startup Competition

150 projects had participated in the selection phase of the Startup Competition. 50 teams made it to semi-finals and had a chance to pitch their ideas on Startup Stage as well as display demo-versions of their products at Startup Alley. Two days of pitches on the Startup Stage and demonstrations on the Startup Alley ended with 11 finalists, which received impressive prizes. The main prize of $ 10,000 granted by IT Arena went to a team called Liki24, a platform that brings medical products, doctors, clinics, pharmacies, insurance companies, and clients together. The prize fund of the Startup Competition 2018 totaled $ 70,000.

Afterparties

It’s no news that IT Arena takes networking and entertainment seriously. The first-day afterparty was held at Pravda Beer Theatre, recently listed as one of the best breweries in Europe by The Guardian. Executive ticket holders could relax and meet fellow attendees in a more chill atmosphere during Tech Lounge.

The second day of IT Arena ended with Futureland Festival, a real celebration for all electronic music lovers. The festival was headlined by Juicy M, one of the best female DJs and a Ukrainian by origin. Amazing light show and loud beats have left the audience stunned. The last evening of IT Arena 2018 with Silicon Drinkabout, which allowed attendees to network with speakers and share their impressions about the event.

IT Arena 2017

The 4th edition of IT Arena gathered the biggest number of attendees yet – 2300+. In 2017, the conference has traditionally focused on 3 thematic tracks (product, technology, and business), and united speakers from the world’s leading companies, top management of Ukrainian and foreign IT companies, local and international media representatives, investors, startups, and tech experts.
The stellar speaker lineup and the incredible computerized host Arina, have brought the conference to a new level. The marathon of insightful talks lasted for 2 days, offering on the third day a more practical take – a series of meetups with hands-on information which took place in 9 locations around the city center.
2300+
Attendees
97
Speakers
28
Meetups
130+
Media representatives
11
Startup finalists
3
Afterparties
40+
Hours of networking

Speakers

Representatives of Cambridge Analytica, Bluetooth SIG, Amazon Web Services, Telenor, Petcube, etc. were among IT Arena 2017 speakers. Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica was the most anticipated speaker and attracted participants from all over Ukraine and other countries to visit the conference. In his keynote speech, Alexander introduced Big Data's approach to electoral and commercial campaigns referring to the previous projects his firm has worked on.

Speakers included representatives

Startup Competition

Out of more than a 100 applications, 30 startups were selected for the competition before the event and pitched their ideas to win the attention of jury members and worthy prizes. 3 winners in different nominations were selected by the jury that included representatives of global partners and European tech media. Read more about Startup Competition winners here.

Futureland Festival 2017

Knowledge comes first, but IT Arena organizers never underestimate the importance of networking and entertainment - the event is famous for its afterparties, and 2017 was not an exception. Futureland Festival, an open-air party took place right on the stadium field, gathering a few thousand of electronic music fans. In spite a (very) cold autumn night, the place got heated up by the famous French duo Cassius.

IT Arena 2016

Launched in 2014 as a local event, IT Arena has quickly grown as one of the biggest tech conferences in Eastern Europe. In 2016 nearly 1800 participants, including developers, entrepreneurs, business analysts, designers and startuppers from 12 countries and almost every region of Ukraine have united to discuss the latest tech tendencies. Representatives of some of the world leading companies were included in the conference lineup: IBM, Philips, AlmazCapital, Twitter, Spotify, Uber, Microsoft etc.
IT Arena 2016 explored topics ranging from breakthrough technologies to challenges IT business in Ukraine is facing at the moment. The conference was divided into four streams: Technology Hands On and Technology Innovation, Product, Business. Every day participants could choose lectures from a list with more than 20 positions. In addition, participants had a chance to take part in workshops – there were 6 of them during the conference.
2000+
Participants
80+
Speakers
60%
Foreigners
10
Workshops
1
Tech Expo
3
Afterparties

Speakers

Esther Dyson - the most influential woman in IT according to The New York Times, Anton and Irene - a multicultural duet of New-York based designers, Stephen Russo from IBM and Aleksandro Grabulov from Philips have become the real rockstars of the conference.

80 speakers from 14 countries:

  • Belarus
  • Canada
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Lithuania
  • Moldova
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • UK
  • Ukraine
  • USA

Startup Competition

Startup Competition became one of the highlights of the conference. In total 80 startups took part in it, but only 10 made their way to finals. Viosk (Ukraine) won the best B2B startup, and Likely (Slovakia) was nominated as the best B2C startup. The winner of Startup Competition – Blynk won The Best Pitch nomination.

Futureland Festival 2016

Everyday after parties have been productive sites for networking. The last day of the conference finished with the mega-show – Futureland Festival, attended by more than 2600 visitors. The world famous drum&bass DJ Netsky performed at Arena Lviv Stadium accompanied with a great light show and DJ Omnia – the only Ukrainian DJ who got into the list of world’s Top 100 DJs.

IT Arena 2015

The second IT Arena, held on October 2-4 2015, brought together about 1400 participants including hundreds of IT professionals, top managers, designers, investors, entrepreneurs and startuppers. The number of the attendees exceeded the expectations of organizers – the conference almost doubled in size compared to 2014.

In 2015, the conference consisted of 3 simultaneous streams: Product, Technology and Business. Attendees could visit discussions conducted in English, Ukrainian or Russian and listen to speakers coming from 10 countries (USA, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Estonia, Russia, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine). The selection of speakers was decent and included representatives from IBM Design, Amazon, FitBit, Epson, Facebook, SAP, HP, Petcube and Microsoft.

Speakers included representatives

Conference geography:

  • Azerbaijan
  • Belgium
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Lithuania
  • Poland
  • Romania
  • Netherlands
  • Ukraine
  • UAE
  • UK
  • USA

Tech Expo

Hi-tech Expo – an exhibition of robots and latest IT developments also took place within the conference. Participants had a chance to pilot drones, experience VR and interact with the legendary NAO robot.

Startup Competition

Traditionally, Startup Competition was held on the last day of the conference. 13 young startups and entrepreneurs competed for 5,000$ in Amazon Cloud Services and a chance to attend the Traction Camp.

Closing IT Arena 2015

Even though the conference agenda was packed with talks, the organizers have left some space for entertainment too. The final day of the conference ended with a performance of a well-known Ukrainian band – TNMK.

IT Arena 2014

The first IT Arena took place on October 2-4 2014. Being a meeting ground for 800 participants, including IT professionals from all directions (software engineers, designers, QAs), CEOs, young entrepreneurs and startups the conference became the biggest tech event in Western Europe.

Speakers included representatives

IT Arena 2014 had 11 sections

Startup

Management as fun

Data Science

QA

Google Development


Mobile

User Experience

IT Outsourcing

Value Management and Business Analysis

Information Security

Game Development

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