IT Arena has grown tremendously since the event started – from 800 attendees in 2014 to over 3300 in 2018. In 2019, we’re expecting 4000 visitors, which might bring additional challenges to our venue. Of course, we want to get better. And by saying this, we mean not only the conference size but also content quality and customer satisfaction. IT Arena takes attendee feedback very seriously, conducting surveys after every event. Today, we look at three major complaints from 2018 – and explain what will change this year.

Bigger space for startups 

The trend we noticed in recent years – people are interested in startups. The youth are competing with each other for a better, more innovative startup idea. Startups attract media, investors, and tech geeks from all around the world. Last year, we received a lot of feedback that the space for Startup Alley was too small, hence, always crowded.

We took this kind of feedback seriously, and we’re ready to unveil some new info – we’re building a separate glass structure for startups. It will be spacious enough to accommodate not only startups and their booths, but would also allow attendees to roam around freely, avoiding lines as last year. The new location of Startup Alley can fit up to 60 startup booths.

Less general & more technical content

Every year we pay scrupulous attention to planning the agenda of IT Arena, trying to balance the content between 4 thematic tracks – Business, Product, Tech, and Startup. We invite speakers from the world’s leading brands to talk about the most pressing challenges the world of tech is now facing. However, in 2018 a substantial number of our attendees complained that the content was either too general or not technical enough.

What did we do about it? In 2019 we have invited new members to join the IT Arena program committee. Leaders of certain tracks have changed completely, bringing new ideas and possible development vectors onboard. We meticulously review every speaker and their topic before validating them. Just take a look at a few topics that will be discussed at Tech track:

• AI for car diagnostic with Tensorflow and Google Cloud Platform by Mohamed-Achref Maiza, Senior Data Scientist at Renault Digital

• What it takes to develop a Vehicle Companion App for Mercedes-Benz Cars by Viraj Tank, Mobile Team Lead at MBition GmbH

• Computer vision and privacy by Kira Rudik, CEO at Ring Ukraine

Better navigation

Due to the venue’s architecture, IT Arena is not the easiest or fastest place if you want to go from point A to B. We do our best to make sure the navigation is clear and simple. However, last year we experienced some problems with navigation.

Which can only mean one thing – expect better navigation in September. All technical details are being carefully thought through to ensure a comfortable and stress-free time at IT Arena 2019. In addition to navigation markers on the floor and the conference map in the app, there will be even more volunteers on every floor who are ready to assist or guide you to the destination you’re looking for.

All feedback used in visuals was taken from the anonymous survey conducted after IT Arena 2018. The photos have been generated at https://thispersondoesnotexist.com. 

Any resemblance with real people is purely coincidental.