Agenda

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This discussion explores the pivotal role of technology and innovation in shaping Ukraine’s defense, resilience, and sovereignty. International media representatives will analyze how digital tools, advanced warfare technologies, and civic innovations influence the battlefield and the broader geopolitical context.

The panel will also address the interplay between technological progress, international support, and information warfare. By examining these factors, participants will highlight how innovation is redefining both Ukraine’s struggle and the future of modern conflict.

Ukraine’s investment market is in deep stagnation. Outside of defense tech, almost no capital is moving, and for civilian startups raising money has become close to impossible. What can founders do in such a market? This panel will confront the hard questions: how investors actually assess risks, what factors make them say “yes” or “no,” and whether there are still realistic chances for non-defense startups to attract funding. No sugarcoating — just the brutal truth about capital, priorities, and survival in wartime Ukraine.

Ukraine is no longer just a battlefield — it is becoming the world’s fastest-growing defense innovation lab. New technologies are being forged and tested under real combat conditions, creating a unique environment where startups turn into globally relevant companies at record speed. This panel will uncover why the next generation of defense and dual-use unicorns may be born in Ukraine, and why waiting means missing out. The discussion will cut through the hype and focus on real opportunities, risks, and returns. It’s not about “if” to invest in Ukraine’s defense tech — it’s about “how fast” you can get in.

Ukraine’s resilience has become a powerful asset for global business. Leaders from Glovo, EPAM, and BNP Paribas/UKRSIBBANK join the Ministry of Digital Transformation to discuss how Ukraine is shaping markets, driving innovation, and attracting investment despite unprecedented challenges.

Designing software for prosthetics feels like cooking without a recipe — there are no established references or best practices. We are shaping our own playbook as we go, with three key ingredients: care, playfulness, and equality. In this talk, I share how these principles guide our current work, the challenges of designing for muscle signals instead of clicks, and what we are learning from real users, including Ukrainian veterans.

Penetration testing isn’t a one-size-fits-all practice. From applications and networks to people and processes, this session breaks down the different services behind pentesting and demonstrates how they strengthen an organization’s overall cybersecurity.

The rapid evolution of the Ukrainian defence sector, driven by immediate need and threat, has catapulted its tech and talent to the top of countries scrambling to innovate their security needs. As we accelerate the adoption and integration of these technologies into all aspects of our lives, every layer that underpins them is on the frontlines of great power competition and unforeseen systemic risks. 

Whether it’s espionage, sabotage in the depths of the sea, cognitive warfare, or solar storms, the digital architecture that we rely on to innovate and operate is being compromised and sometimes weaponised, with far-reaching impacts on our cyber and cyber-physical systems. As these risks converge, adversaries are finding new ways to collaborate to their advantage, while traditional Western partnerships are challenged. This requires entrepreneurs to not only understand the threats to their own startups but also how to identify opportunities for growth as innovation and instability collide.

Discover how a bold idea transformed an unexpected material into a luxury product and captured an international market in just one year. This session will unpack the strategies, challenges, and insights that helped a niche startup scale rapidly — offering practical lessons for founders seeking to turn unconventional resources into global opportunities.

Hacktivism is emerging as a decentralized alternative to state intelligence, capable of exposing vulnerabilities, disrupting hostile networks, and amplifying information flows with unprecedented speed. Unlike traditional intelligence structures, hacktivist groups operate independently and are often driven by ideology or activism rather than national interests. While their actions can reshape the digital security landscape, the absence of oversight raises fundamental concerns about accountability, legitimacy, and unintended consequences. Together, we will examine how hacktivism is reshaping the landscape of digital security and intelligence.

Explore how a simple online quiz evolved into a full-fledged sexual wellness platform. This talk will uncover how to navigate stigma, niche markets, and cultural differences while building a digital product that can scale globally. It offers a candid look at innovation, intimacy, and the art of turning taboo topics into opportunities.

Technical interviews were fragile long before AI. Now, with tools like ChatGPT able to solve standard questions and generate polished responses, many interviews risk measuring polish instead of depth, and confidence instead of competence. This talk explores what interviews are really for in 2025 — and how teams can redesign them to reveal true engineering judgment, not just correct syntax.

We’ll walk through a new mental model for interviews: one that prioritizes behavior over recall, thinking over answers, and collaboration over interrogation. You’ll leave with practical strategies to make interviews more grounded, signal-rich, and resistant to AI automation — not harder, just smarter.

Crypto exchanges may not seem exciting. But in reality, they are at the center of a rebellion against an overregulated financial system that kills innovation, entrenches inequality, and limits opportunities for the youngest and most talented. Will you ignore our fight, or join in and earn money from the best financial system in history?

This session explores the shift from simple task automation to true expertise augmentation with Generative AI. Drawing on Gartner’s Hype Cycle, McKinsey insights, and Fortune 500 case studies, we’ll examine how AI is reshaping the software engineering lifecycle, redefining enterprise service delivery models, and demanding new talent strategies.

Discover where AI outperforms humans, why enterprises need more senior engineers, and what changes are required in customer engagement for the AI-driven future.

Terrell’s keynote invites the Ukrainian audience into a deeply personal journey—from growing up in Detroit, the largest Black city in the United States, to standing in solidarity with Ukraine’s fight for liberation and justice. Often asked, “Why are you over there helping those white people?” Terrell responds with clarity: Black people and Ukrainians share more than history acknowledges—resilience, struggle, and the pursuit of dignity.

This talk is more than storytelling. It’s a call to action. Terrell aims to equip listeners with the skills and confidence to build authentic relationships with Africans and Black people whose cultures may be unfamiliar. Through shared experiences and honest reflection, he will encourage the audience to embrace cultural differences, overcome discomfort, and initiate new connections—not only with African peoples, but with diverse communities around the world.

A decade ago, the world of innovation and startups was squarely centered in Silicon Valley and a handful of superstar ecosystems in North America and Europe. Want to raise money? Go there. Want to sell your MVP? Go there. Today, that story has changed dramatically, as opportunities for innovators and founders are no longer constrained by geography. And while this creates incredible potential for founders, it also raises competition in the tech ecosystem to levels never seen before. Anyone, anywhere, can build, deploy, and sell great technology. So how will you win? And what do you need to protect from an IP perspective to ensure your growth isn’t capped?

Join former government executive and now documentary filmmaker Dan Herman on a journey through the world’s innovation economy and learn key lessons on how to succeed in it.

This session covers how to build reasoning models for Ukrainian. We’ll discuss our model, how to prepare data for pre-training, methods to turn existing models into reasoning models, and ways to optimize these models for Ukrainian language tasks.