Today’s fast-moving digital landscape is shaping the evolution of all industries, forcing companies of all sizes to rethink their operations and product offerings. From using artificial intelligence to improve operations to incorporating data analysis to extract key insights, leveraging technology in the right way has become imperative for a business to succeed. However, this does not come without its challenges. ‍

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Join our next live networking event taking place on Monday 18th July, live at the Xara Lodge.

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‍Simon Azzopardi, President of Silicon Valletta, will serve as moderator and will discuss the importance of embracing technology trends to remain competitive in the marketplace.The discussion titled, “The Challenges Facing the Tech Industry” will also be led by Yasmin Degiorgio, CEO of Shireburn, Emilio Maciel, Founder and CEO of Logbook, Johnathan Azzorpardi Frantz, Co-Founder and CEO of Get Hitched Inc. Ltd and Philip Camilleri, Co-Founder and Former CTO, SmartAsset.com.

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Simon Azzopardi

‍Simon Azzopardi is an entrepreneur, venture builder, and investor. He has worked with tech businesses across Europe, from startups and SMEs to 2000+ employees. He is currently the President of Silicon Valletta and a Non-Executive Director at Izola Bank, supporting and involved in several tech businesses in gaming, insuretech, banking, consumer products, and b2b tech.

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Yasmin de Giorgio

‍Yasmin de Giorgio is a serial entrepreneur who spent the last ten years building start-up businesses in innovative fields and is passionate about personal development and mentorship. She is currently involved in two key roles for two very different companies. She is very passionate about keeping the same core beliefs and ideas as the foundation for her work for both.

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In 2021, Yasmin joined Shireburn Software as Chief Executive Office taking over from her father who ran the Company for 38 years. Shireburn is a leading software products company specialising in the development and support of business software solutions for retail, inventory, accounting as well as payroll and HR.She is also the Founder and Managing Director for Sanya Eco Spa. This wellness hub has taken the traditional spa concept and expanded out to be much more relevant to the modern-day challenges of stress and anxiety that many people struggle with. The mission is to provide support for people to heal, learn and most importantly go within.

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Emilio Maciel

‍Emilio is an electronics engineer from the University of São Paulo and a Sloan Fellow at Stanford Graduate School of Business, class of 2020.He is also an entrepreneur with experience in sales and software development, having worked with different startups in several countries. After a year-and-a-half at McKinsey Brazil, he was responsible for founding Groupon in Brazil and in China, leading sales and editorial teams of more than 500 people, and establishing operations in more than 30 cities in Brazil and 50 cities in China.He then founded 55social, a social media marketing SaaS focusing on the Brazilian market that had the backing of Redpoint Ventures and RPeV. In 2015, he founded Gympass in France, helping establish the company in Europe. Gympass developed a network of more than 1,500 gyms and established contracts with marketing agencies and telecom operators.After working as a divemaster and diving instructor in Indonesia, in 2017/18, he is now developing Logbook, a scuba diving social network designed to accelerate climate change research and scale ocean-based climate solutions.

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Jonathan Azzopardi

‍Jonathan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Get Hitched Inc Ltd, a fast-growing local tech start-up company that owns and operates a portfolio of online brands: Get Hitched; a wedding service finder, Evently; a corporate & personal event service finder, Bookia.mt; a restaurant discovery and booking platform and their latest product, Bookia SMART Diary, a restaurant reservation management platform. Jonathan started his career in Software Engineering and has a wealth of experience working on complex EU-funded projects and the iGaming industry before starting his own award-winning digital marketing agency. Jonathan has consulted some of the top brands in Malta and helped them generate millions of euros in online revenue.

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Although lacking a formal academic education, Jonathan possesses an entrepreneurial mindset with a constant quest for knowledge. Jonathan has a passion for investing in, building, and scaling brands throughout their different life cycles. His primary focus now is to internationalise Tableo, a locally built Restaurant & Venue reservation management platform.

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Philip Camilleri

‍Philip was born, raised and educated in Malta. After working for several years in the web, mobile/telecoms and fintech industries, Philip moved to the USA, where he co-founded SmartAsset.com in New York City, in 2011. In 2012 he and his cofounder raised an initial seed round for the company, and joined Y-Combinator (YC) in Mountain View, California — Philip was the first Maltese person to join this prestigious incubator.Since then, SmartAsset has raised over $160M in venture capital funding, from such firms as Javelin, Citi Ventures, TTV, New York Life, IA Capital and others. SmartAsset is today valued at over $1B, making Philip the first Maltese cofounder of a “unicorn company”. SmartAsset has also grown to become one of the top online destinations in the USA for consumer-focused financial information and advice that powers SmartAdvisor, a nationwide marketplace connecting consumers to financial advisors.

Today Philip spends much of his time helping early-stage startups, in Malta and the USA, both from technology & scaling perspective, as well as with fundraising, pitching and networking. He also invests in some promising young startups through small angel investments and a few US-based Seed Funds.