New Europe: Open Market and Available Talent

New Europe is not only Eastern European countries who joined EU (recently Bulgaria and Romania) but the term comprises the emerging part of Europe increasingly gravitating towards the West which includes former Yugoslav countries (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro), Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova..with a total population of nearly 200m.

It is a very vibrant and dynamic economic and social environment; after years of political and cultural hegemony, the new generation is starving for freedom to create and decide on the future on their own.

Hence, opposite to Western Europe, New Europe is producing world-class engineers and innovators, especially in high-tech and internet. Skype (Estonia), LogMeIn (Hungary), and many others...The iPhone first-ever hack considered mission impossible was done by a Macedonian.

And now New Europe is experiencing strong growth, especially in media and IT: - massive growth in internet penetration in general and broadband in particular; many countries are leapfrogging to state-of-the-art infrastructure (i.e. Macedonia might become the 1st WiMax 100% covered country in the world, the world's first national wireless broadband network.

The Macedonia Connects Project, a program designed to provide the entire country with affordable high-speed wireless connectivity) - strong economic growth as GDP per capita levels tend to EU norms; - increasing advertising spend in these markets as disposable incomes increase; and - a wholesale shift in the structure of the advertising market as advertisers move from traditional media to online media. This panel will examine the climate and opportunities of this market.