Brace Yourself, ‘Cause Spark.me 2018 Is Coming!

In just one day, we’re officially turning the Spark.me mode ON! 🙂 Beautiful Montenegrin coast, tons of sunlight, and two days filled with great stories from the world’s top experts from different industries. Not to mention an additional day of hands-on marketing and startup workshops on May 25, which are completely free to everyone with a conference ticket.

I already wrote about some of the speakers who will be rocking Spark.me 2018 stage, and yes, they are awesome! Now is the perfect time to share with you all the aces we’ve been hiding up our sleeves, and once again show you why attending Spark.me 2018 is a must! 🙂

Let me introduce Xenia Tchoumi, high-fashion digital influencer with 7+ million followers on social media, online entrepreneur, and public speaker based in London. Armed with an economics degree and knack for entrepreneurship, the Swiss-Italian influencer with Russian origins speaks six languages (Italian, Russian, English, German, French, and Spanish), and turned down an offer to work full-time at J.P. Morgan to continue her online endeavours for her web-magazine, Chicoverdose. She has recently given three motivational TEDx talks and spoke at the United Nations. This bio definitely deserves a WOW! 🙂

Maybe you’ve heard about the first Israeli conductor to perform with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Leipzig Opera house? Itay Talgam, an orchestral conductor turned into ‘conductor of people’ is the new Spark.me 2018 keynote speaker. Just how amazing is that? He teaches leadership to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and universities, and at conferences around the world, including TED, Google’s Zeitgeist, and the World Economic Forum at Davos. His TEDGlobal 2009 talk, „Lead Like the Great Conductors“, has more than 3 million views online. His first book, The Ignorant Maestro, was published in May 2015 by Portfolio/Penguin.

Spark.me is an epicenter of inspiration, energy, creativity, and innovation. Above all, it’s a place which gathers great people who share amazing stories. If you don’t believe me, the fact that the three last year’s speakers expressed a desire to come back to Montenegro and be a part of Spark.me adventure once again says it all. 🙂

We have a great pleasure to welcome back Dave Birss, a man on a mission to get rid of the bullshit that surrounds the fields of creativity and innovation. Earlier this year Iconic Advantage, a book he co-wrote with Soon Yu, was released. It looks at how some of the world’s most successful companies use innovation to build their brands. Dave is the founder of Additive, a London-based digital marketing consultancy which runs workshops for brands and agencies which often leads to consultancy gigs. Additive clients have included Google, BBC, ESI Media, Sky, The Drum, and lots of advertising agencies.

Another speaker whose ballsy talk we enjoyed last year is Jon Burkhart, an award-winning keynote speaker, content strategist, and co-author of Newsjacking: The Urgent Genius of Real-time Advertising. In addition to running marketing consultancy TBC Global, he develops interactive games that enhance and amplify content marketing efforts. Jon serves on the board of the world’s largest innovation conference South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) as well as the SEAT (Sports and Entertainment Alliance in Technology). In 2017, he created and led a unique, highly interactive ‘happy hour training’ course at Cannes Lions and is making it bigger and better for 2018. You’ll find his work in places like Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and The Guardian, to name a few.

And last but not least, we’ll have a pleasure to welcome back the moderator of Spark.me 2017 panel discussion, Matt Desmier, this time in the role of a speaker. Matt is a strategist working with brands and organizations helping inform their next big decision. Through his agency Wise Old Uncle (a loose collective of equally talented individuals), Desmier and his team have worked with some impressive organisations, including the UK’s largest crowdfunding platform, the UK’s most respected insurance company and a global leader in mapping technology, helping them discover their voice, grow their audience and develop products and services fit for the 21st century.

The awesome list of Spark.me 2018 speakers doesn’t end here. Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas, cyborg activists, will rock our stage. Neil is a Catalan-raised, British-born contemporary artist and cyborg activist best known for having an antenna implanted in his skull and for being officially recognised as a cyborg by the (UK) government. The antenna allows him to perceive visible and invisible colours via audible vibrations in his skull including infrareds and ultraviolets as well as receive colours from space, images, videos, music or phone calls directly into his head via an internet connection. He is also a TED speaker whose TEDGlobal 2012 talk has 2.7 million views online.

Moon Ribas is a Catalan avant-garde artist and cyborg activist best known for developing the Seismic Sense, an online seismic sensor implanted in her feet that allows her to perceive earthquakes taking place anywhere in the planet through vibrations in real time. She shares this experience by translating her seismic sense on stage. Ribas transposes the earthquakes into either sound, in her piece „Seismic Percussion“; or dance, in „Waiting For Earthquakes“. She believes that by extending our senses to perceive outside the planet, we can all become senstronauts. Don’t miss this majestic duo! 🙂

See You on May 26-27 in Budva, Montenegro!

Excited about Spark.me 2018? ’cause we definitely are! 🙂 Don’t miss your chance to meet great people, enjoy the beautiful landscapes of Montenegro, and learn from some of the world’s greatest minds!

For all of you who want to attend Spark.me 2018 and experience its magic, the conference tickets are available at the conference official website – www.spark.me. The price of the ticket is 300€. High school, undergraduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. students who are 27 years old or younger can get their ticket for a special price of 50€. Conference ticket includes: pass for all conference sessions (May 26-27), workshops (May 25), and the start-up competition (May 26-27), buffet lunch on both conference days, all coffee breaks on both conference days, and a cocktail reception (the evening of May 26). A ticket does not include accommodation and transport. All bought tickets can later be transferred to another person (‘name change’) but cannot be refunded.

Spark.me 2018, one of the most carefully curated business/Internet conferences in Southeast Europe, will be held on May 26-27, in Hotel Mediteran, in the Mediterranean seaside resort of Budva, Montenegro. This year, Spark.me has prepared something brand new – an additional day of hands-on marketing and startup workshops on May 25, which are completely free to everyone with a conference ticket. Find out more about the conference at Spark.me’s official website, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram account. See you at Spark.me! 🙂