The industry's elite, in one room.

James Hewes is a transformational media executive, Honorary Professor, and sought-after advisor who has led global organizations through periods of significant digital disruption and growth.

As the former President & CEO of FIPP, James brings over two decades of experience driving innovation across digital media, publishing, and communications sectors on five continents.

Known for his strategic vision in revitalizing media businesses, achieving consistent double-digit profit margins, and expanding into new markets, James combines deep industry knowledge with practical leadership experience that has guided major media transformations, including the £120M sale of BBC Magazines.

Through his consultancy Soho Consulting, he continues to shape the future of media, advising high-profile international clients while sharing his expertise as a guest lecturer at prestigious institutions worldwide on topics spanning digital transformation, revenue diversification, and the evolving media landscape.

Kate Borovanska is a London-based investor, CEO and Group Architect of F Major Group (Est. 2009). She orchestrates a cross-border Private Equity and Venture Building ecosystem across the UK, Switzerland, and the EU. The Game Changer is a venture-building and innovation company which also holds summits and other stakeholder and public affairs activities.

Her complex portfolio spans Defence & NATO projects, Deep-Tech (AI, Quantum, Cyber), Banking & Real Estate Funds, and Risk Intelligence and Non-financial Due Diligence (The Nexus company based in Geneva and London).

Combining capital efficiency with elite Executive Education and a global Media matrix (Fenix Awards and FREYA agency). The Art of Smart (TAOS) and The Quasar Institute embrace the education for the future.

Kate builds, finances, and scales high-impact market infrastructure from inception to global significance.

Nico Sarti is a senior media and creative strategy executive with leadership roles across Condé Nast, The Economist, and POLITICO.

At Condé Nast he served as Global VP / VP of Global Creative Strategy, driving global commercial strategy at the intersection of culture, storytelling, and innovation.

He has worked with global brands including HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Nike, and Disney, bringing premium strategic insight to high-impact partnerships and campaigns.

Helen Anglim is a senior commercial creative and media innovation leader, currently Director at Condé Nast Commercial Creative.

Her career spans world-class media and tech brands including Condé Nast, The Guardian, HuffPost, AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verizon, where she built high-impact storytelling and brand partnerships across platforms.

She is known for strategic precision, editorial-level craft, and creative leadership that turns premium content into real business results.

Peter Gasston is Innovation Lead at VCCP, working at the intersection of creativity and emerging technologies. He has delivered projects for global brands including Google, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Disney, HBO and LVMH. Previously at Rehab, he is also author of The Book of CSS3 and a regular speaker across Europe.

Jan Kotek is one of the leading voices in Czech influencer marketing and digital advertising. As CEO of the agency group Peppermint Group, he oversees companies specializing in brand and performance marketing as well as influencer marketing. He is also a founding member of the self-regulatory platform Férový influencer, which promotes ethical and responsible standards for collaboration between brands and creators.

Erika Lahka is a Higher Education Internationalization expert with over 11 years of experience in strategic and project management within academia. She specializes in international cooperation, global academic relations, and the development of institutional partnerships that enhance the global visibility of universities and research ecosystems.

She is an affiliated expert of the Mestenhauser Institute for International Collaboration and a frequent speaker at international conferences, including QS Higher Ed Summit, EAIE Academy, and EXPO 2020.

Andy is a branded content and native advertising leader who founded Seznam Brand Studio and helped set a new standard for publisher-brand collaboration. Named Native Advertising Marketer of the Year in 2023, he now runs elevAte by Andy, delivering hands-on consultancy and workshops for media and publishers. His focus: partnerships that perform without annoying audiences.

Michaela Rakova is the founder and CEO of 52pages, a data-based consulting & creative studio focused on building smart, scalable brand and employer brand content across Europe.

Her work combines editorial craft, proprietary research and AI-driven automation to help organisations create content that is strategic, multi-market and genuinely useful. She develops premium corporate media, multilingual content operations and custom AI tools, including the 52agent used by hundreds of professionals.

Anna Anderson is a senior fashion and communications executive with over 20 years' experience across luxury, media, and brand marketing. She began her career at H&M before she went on to launch Mr Porter and then spent five years at Condé Nast, before she launched Decode Collectif - a London-based Creative Agency specialising in luxury fashion, lifestyle, and cultural brand building.

Through Decode Collectif, she advises on Brand Strategy, Go-To-Market Planning, Creative and Advertising, Partnerships and Experiential Activations, working across the UK, Europe, and the US.

Anna has worked with global brands including Gucci, Audemars Piguet, Prada, Stella McCartney, Armani, and Dior, delivering culturally relevant campaigns that bridge heritage, youth culture, and measurable commercial impact.

She is also the host of Decode Sessions, a podcast exploring modern brand building through conversations with industry leaders shaping contemporary culture.

Odessa has been with GARI since its inception as a research institute in 2017. Today, GARI Enterprise is a deep-tech AI company building a large-scale digital simulation of the globalised world to forecast commodity prices, geopolitical shifts, and systemic economic risk. Her work sits at the intersection of data modelling, strategic foresight, and behavioural science, translating complexity into decision-grade intelligence for leaders in procurement, finance, energy, and policy.

As Executive Director of the Global Arena Research Institute (the originating organisation behind GARI Enterprise), she founded the Next 100 Symposium, the ReDefine Next 100 young professionals programme, and the podcast Last Week on Earth with GARI, bringing together leaders from science, policy, energy, academia, technology, and the economy. Her background spans advisory work with EU institutions, humanitarian field work in Greece and Lebanon, and contributions to international policy consultations, including UNSC Resolution 2250.

Odessa combines analytical rigour with sharp insight into human behaviour and power dynamics. She specialises in non-verbal communication and strategic presence grounded in neuroanatomy, advising leaders on authority, influence, and decision-making under pressure.

Her work challenges conventional narratives by grounding strategy not in trends or ideology, but in data, systems, and how humans actually behave.

Analyst, author, and speaker commenting on industry developments at both the European and global levels. His expertise includes digital transformation, management, leadership, and geopolitical developments affecting technology, manufacturing, and global supply chains. Prior to joining Trask, he led the Manufacturing Insights Europe team at IDC and held management positions at EY and Deloitte.

Opens the Prague Launch Summit with a welcome to ČSOB Campus Radlická - a flagship headquarters by architect Josef Pleskot, designed as a modern "city for work." Sustainable by design, built for clarity, openness, and intelligent collaboration.

Petr Šmíd is General Partner of Rockaway Ventures, the venture capital fund of Rockaway Capital investing in late-seed and Series A startups across Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe. He joined Rockaway in 2024 from Google, where he held senior roles across Google Pay and Google Assistant, leading product and go-to-market work across international markets.

Petr began his career at McKinsey & Company as an engagement manager, advising clients on strategy and business transformation across Europe. He champions keeping CEE founders rooted in the region while connecting them to U.S. capital and operating know-how, with a focus on helping teams scale internationally from Series A onward.

At Rockaway Ventures he invests across retail and e-commerce, digital media, cybersecurity, defence, cleantech and proptech, working alongside leading Western European funds on joint deals.

Tomáš Froněk leads Sales Acceleration for the Digital Industries portfolio at Siemens in the Czech Republic, connecting technical solutions and deep domain expertise with the real-world needs of industrial customers.

His team works with manufacturers on automation and factory digitalisation - designing advanced control architectures for production machines and lines, and building edge-based systems for data acquisition and analytics that turn operational data into business decisions.

With more than a decade inside Siemens across sales, product and portfolio roles, Tomáš focuses on how AI, edge computing and industrial software reshape competitiveness for CEE manufacturing - from discrete automation to process industries.

Tomáš Ščerba, Ph.D. is a Partner and Head of Technology at DLA Piper in Prague, with almost 20 years of experience in corporate and commercial law with a primary focus on the technology sector.

He is one of the leading Czech experts in cybersecurity and information security law, AI regulation, telecommunications, intellectual property and data protection (including GDPR). His practice covers ICT law - commercial technology transactions, online contracting, IT in/outsourcing, cloud services, telco contracts - IP law, competition matters, and regulatory and compliance work for regulated industries.

Tomáš has contributed to the drafting of Czech cybersecurity legislation and cooperates with universities and industry bodies on the legal framework for emerging technologies. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer, advising boards and executive teams of financial institutions, technology companies and public-sector clients on AI governance, cyber resilience and digital regulation.