Varna hosted CONNEXUS 2026 - Black Sea Technology Forum, which was held from October 5 to 7 at the “Black Sea“ hotel under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Iliana Yotova. The organizers are ICT Cluster - Varna, Varna Municipality, the Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, BRAIN++ - the Bulgarian Artificial Intelligence Factory, and the “Applied Research and Communications“ Foundation. The three-day program brought together representatives of business, science, non-governmental organizations and public institutions from Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Romania, Turkey, Japan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Algeria and others.
The program followed the path from strategy through implementation to the business of tomorrow. It was based on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, automation and digital transformation, and to these were added sectoral topics - biotechnology and health, marine technologies, tourism, smart cities, smart agriculture and financing. Among the issues discussed were the transition from cheap labor to smart capacity and the adaptation of business to an artificial intelligence-based work model.
The official opening
The forum began with a musical flash mob and an opening by Svetoslav Stamenov, ideologist and strategic leader of the forum, Emil Tsankov, Chairman of the Management Board of ICT Cluster Varna, and Dr. Boyko Takov, Executive Director of BSMEPA. The Deputy Mayor of Varna, Eng. Plamen Kitipov, also addressed the participants. Welcomes were given by the Minister of Innovation and Digital Transformation Ivan Vassilev and the Minister of Tourism Ilin Dimitrov.
After them, President Iliana Yotova presented the keynote report “Black Sea Growth Poles - A Vision for European Innovation, Technological Sovereignty and Industrial Transformation“.
Day One: Europe and the Regions - Digital Transformation
The first day set the strategic framework. Lars Frølund from MIT and Strategic Advisor to the NATO Innovation Fund, Neven Dilkov from Neterra and Svetoslava Georgieva, Chair of the Board of Directors of the European Innovation Council Fund, discussed how Europe can compete and cooperate with the US and China. Ambassadors of France Marie Dumoulin and Belgium Paul Lambert and Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands Robin Peeters examined the innovative and geo-economic power of the European Union in the Black Sea region, while Aurel-Cătălin Giulescu, President of the Romanian Digitization Authority, presented the digital transformation policies of the regions.
A separate panel moderated by Cristina Eskenazi connected science, medicine and business - from imaging diagnostics and early screening for breast cancer with Prof. Elitsa Encheva and Prof. Kristina Bliznakova to innovations in wine with Prof. Tasinov. The Bulgarian AI factory BRAIN++ was presented by Prof. Simeon Stoyanov, and in the application block, Iliya Zhelyazkov from TiD-Engineering and Petar Topalov shared their practices. The day also included the first bilateral business formats with the Netherlands, Technostart Motivator and a gala cocktail.
In parallel with the program, an expo area was presented, where innovative products and technologies of 35 companies from all over Bulgaria could be viewed. Participants could see them live and talk directly with the teams behind them.
The second day: from strategy to implementation
The second day was dedicated to the practical application of technologies. Gilad Barash from Matrix DnA, Dr. Artur Kordon, Todor Madzharov from MEAVO and the team of the Ukrainian company Strateg from Odessa showed how artificial intelligence works in a corporate environment and in a laboratory. The cybersecurity block was led by Dragomir Vatkov from QIAGEN, and he was joined by Senior Commissioner Prof. Dr. Ilin Savov, Rector of the Academy of the Ministry of Interior, Hristian Daskalov, Yasen Tanev, Yoana Koleva and Paul Lambert.
Automation, robotics and smart agriculture were discussed by Prof. Teade Punter from Fontys University, Mitsuru Horinouchi, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan, Dr. Georgi Nikolov from Renesas, Konstantin Dinev from Robotoplus and Iliya Yordanov from ONDO. In the funding panel, representatives of the National Innovation Fund, the Employment Agency, the Fund of Funds and BAEZ presented the available tools for innovation and export.
Marine technologies, a natural topic for Varna, brought together Eng. Svetlin Stoyanov, CEO of MTG Dolphin, Prof. Boyan Mednikarov from the Naval Academy “N. Y. Vaptsarov“, Grigor Kanchev from Unity Ship Management, Borislav Teberov from Pontic Dynamic and Assoc. Prof. Ismail Bayezit from Istanbul Technical University. Tourism and the smart city were presented by Prof. Stanislav Ivanov, Andrey Lilov, Elitsa Stoilova, Hristo Hristov from TopMobility and Kalin Kostadinov from the GATE Institute with the digital twin of Sofia. In the evening, the program continued with a tourist tour of Varna and a party in the “Bulgaria“ hall.
International business formats
Bilateral business formats were one of the distinctive elements of the forum. The exchange with the Netherlands focused on secure supply chains, cyber resilience and critical infrastructure protection, with the participation of Jeroen van Hertum from the Netherlands-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, Prof. Albert Veenstra from Erasmus University and Dr. Martijn Leijten from Delft University of Technology. The exchange panel with Turkey, moderated by Kerem Ozbek and Svetoslav Stamenov, focused on technology transfer and access to new markets and brought together Burhan Nemutlu from BULTİŞAD, Miray Şanlı from Technopark İzmir and Cemile Koseler Usta from the Istanbul Chamber of Industry. In it, Gerasim Slavov from BRAIN++ presented the digital hub as a gateway to AI factories and the path of foreign AI “factories” to Bulgaria.
The UK Exchange Panel, with Rosalina Airakova from the British Embassy and Elena Yordanova from the British-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, focused on trade opportunities between Bulgaria and the UK.
Day Three: The Business of Tomorrow
The third day was dedicated to business process optimization and next steps. Tsvetan Rusimov from Imperia Online, Dominik Petek from ProCom with AI agents in procurement, Zvezdelin Borisov from BRAIN++ with CHAIN++ - a federated data warehouse for artificial intelligence, and Teodor Stavrov from Lirex BG looked at the applications of AI in business, and Dr. Arthur Cordon led an AI workshop. In the AI in Digital Marketing block, Nikolay Petkanov from Mbrand looked at how business gains trust in the era of artificial intelligence, Alexander Goshev from Netpeak showed how AI is changing marketing, and Malgorzata Brzhoska talked about digital reputation on LinkedIn. In the “New Horizons” session, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mariyana Todorova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Simeon Stoyanov and Dr. Artur Cordon discussed what is ahead, and Radoy Pavlov presented Switzerland’s experience in digitalization.
In the panel on business exchange with the UK, the success stories of EasyPay and Axiomy showed how Bulgarian business works with the British market. The forum ended with a discussion on formulating recommendations and a roadmap for the digital transformation of business, in which the moderator Emil Tsankov, Chairman of ICT Cluster - Varna; Ruslan Stefanov, Director of “Strategy and Innovations” at the “Applied Research and Communications“ Foundation; Prof. Simeon Stoyanov, BRAIN++, the Bulgarian AI factory; Eng. Plamen Kitipov, Deputy Mayor of Varna Municipality; Svetoslav Stamenov, ICT Cluster - Varna; Dr. Artur Kordon; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mariyana Todorova, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; Petar Topalov, ICT Cluster - Varna, and Prof. Dr. Yordan Sivkov, Naval Academy “Nikola Y. Vaptsarov“.
What remains after the forum
The organizers plan CONNEXUS “Black Sea Technology Forum Varna“ to be held annually. The goal is to establish Varna as a technology center in the Black Sea basin and to be positioned on the European technology map, and for business, science and institutions to connect in real partnerships that solve specific cases with the help of technological solutions. The brainstorming session and the subsequent discussions led to envisaged and discussed recommendations for innovation policies and a roadmap for digital transformation of business in the region.
Organizer
CONNEXUS „Black Sea Technology Forum Varna“ 2026 is organized by ICT Cluster - Varna in partnership with:
Varna Municipality
Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
BRAIN++, the Bulgarian Artificial Intelligence Factory
Foundation „Applied Research and Communications“ (ARC Fund)
The organizers thank all institutional, logistical and media partners, exhibitors and supporting organizations who made the forum possible. The full list of partners is published on blackseatech.org.
The distribution of the material is coordinated by PrMarket BG.