The World Congress on Information Technology 2019 drew to an end in Yerevan. The WCIT is considered one of the most prestigious events in the IT sector, and this year, it gathered representatives from more than 70 countries around the world (photo report).
The congress featured speeches by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan; President of WITSA Yvonne Chiu; US National Security expert Richard Clarke, as well as President of VaynerX and VaynerMedia Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of GIPHY Alex Chung, TV star Kim Kardashian West, co-founder of Reddit and Initialized Capital Alexis Ohanian, rock musician Serj Tankian, founder of Acer Stan Shih and other reputable IT experts.
In addition, Serj Tankian, Alexis Ohanian, President of Synopsys Armenia Yervant Zorian and Minister of High Technological Industry Hakob Arshakyan announced the launch of the Highconnect pan-Armenian digital platform, which will unite all Armenians around the world.
During the closing ceremony, the best startups were selected and received the Armenian Tech Community Prize (established on behalf of the Armenian IT organizing committee) on the sidelines of WCIT 2019 for the first time in the 40-year history of the congress. The first place and second place winners received $25,000 and $10,000, respectively.
The following are the winning startups:
GeBe Cert: $10,000
ForgeFiction: $25,000
Virtlo: $10,000
Embry Tech: $25,000
Viciniti: $10,000
Krisp: $25,000
In his closing speech, Secretary-General of the World Information Technologies and Services Alliance (WITSA) James Poissant expressed gratitude to all the organizers of the event and stated the following: “We will go back home, but everything that happened these days will always be in our hearts.”
In his turn, President of the WCIT 2019 organizing committee Alexandr Yesayan expressed gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Armenia, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, the Armenian Tech Community and the volunteers who participated in the event. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan thanked the organizers, participants and the audience. “I think the event was wonderful,” Avinyan stated, adding that Armenia needs to hold more events like this.
The opening of the congress was marked by an unprecedented concert that featured performances of music composed through artificial intelligence for the first time in history and performances by Grammy Award-winning DJ Armin van Buuren.
NEWS.am was the official media partner for WCIT 2019. It presented exclusive interviews with the participants on its own and in partnership with famous journalist Henri Arslanian. The World Congress on Information Technology is established by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance.