Cyprus’ flagship tech and startup festival, Reflect Festival came to a close on Friday, 31 May. Over 9,000 people attended the festival with 270 speakers across 5 stages, 2 roundtables and 2 workshops in Limassol’s IT Quarter at the Kolla Factory. From the Big Picture Stage, to more intimate workshop environments; investors, entrepreneurs, startups, CEOs, governmental reps, and general “Doers” discussed future trends. These included embedded finance, blockchain and crypto, cybersecurity, edtech, biotech, robotics, renewable energy, mobility and more. As a media partner of the event and with one of our Directors moderating 3 panels, we’re reflecting on Reflect Festival.
A Word From The Co-Founder
We’re beyond ourselves seeing that the dream to transform Cyprus into a thriving tech and entrepreneurial hub is coming alive. Reflect’s rocket growth is the best possible testament to that, and I’m grateful to everyone who’s hustling with us to bring as much inspiration and as many ‘doers’ to the island as possible. This festival brings real, tangible change – and that’s what truly matters.
Stylianos Lambrou, the co-founder of Reflect Festival.
Who’s Who At Reflect Festival
Attendees from 70 countries came to Reflect, around 1,500 companies participated, and 130 governmental representatives from 20 countries were part of it. StartupIndia in association with the High Commission of India, Cyprus, brought a delegation of 10 highly innovative Indian tech companies. These included unicorn startups, led by Mr. Sanjiv, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, India, to showcase their ideas and achievements, building bridges between the two ecosystems. On top of that, embassies from India, Slovakia, United States, UK, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands, Sweden, Egypt, UAE, Hungary, Romania, Austria, and Japan supported the festival with their presence.
The lineup included Elizabeth Yin, the VC legend from Hustle Fund; Tony Jamous, the man behind Oyster – a company that reached unicorn status in 2022; and Vaibhav Kapoor, who co-founded the Indian healthcare unicorn Pristyn Healthcare.
The overall number of speakers exceeded 270, with more than 250 VCs and 400 startups joining the ReflectX startup-investor program.
36 hopefuls pitched their startups for the ReflectX Competition and 6 were selected for the final race on May 31. Congratulations to Wafa al Obaidat of Playbook for presenting the winning pitch.
Panels, Workshops, Roundtables, Exhibitors, Parties, Side Events
It was a busy 3 days and attendees were spoilt for choice on panels to attend. From fintech trends on Payabl’s sponsored Money stage to the impact of AI data centres on energy requirement at the PWC Tech Stage. The Futures stage sponsored by Exness had topics ranging from creating sustainable future cities to raising kids in a new technological world.
Contentworks Agency Moderates 3 Panels
No stranger to the stage, our Director Niki Nikolaou moderated a total of 3 panels on both the Money and Futures stages.
1. Bridging worlds: The future of finance in the age of crypto
Joined by Mihkel Vitsur of Klarpay, Rikke Staer of Coinify, Mo Ali Yusuf of Fuze andElina Mantrali of Harneys, Niki introduced the panel with a recent look at the growth of crypto in the markets. The speakers dove into ways blockchain has evolved and the challenges and opportunities involved in the technology. A lively Q&A session kept the session bubbling along and could have continued much longer than their allocated time.
2. Future of fintech: Decoding startups, trends and opportunities
Last minute changes to the speaker line up saw Niki throw away the script and freestyle on what’s hot for VCs in Europe, MENA, UK and North Africa. Expert speakers included Andreas Ioannou of CommerzVentures, Sara Enan from VentureSouq and Artem Nikulshim from The Alternative.
3. Limassol – 5 Pillars to Wrap Your ESG Agenda Around
On the last day at the Futures Stage, Niki hosted a discussion on the future of Limassol and the challenges it is facing with exponential population growth. The aim was to highlight some of the practical ways in which corporates could support city-wide initiatives and at the same time address their ESG agendas. Speakers included Penelope Vasquez-Hadjilyra from EU City Mission, Maria Kamargianni of MaaSLab, Alexander Shkuratov who runs a successful tech company in Silicon Valley plus The Island School in Limassol and Christos Gkartzonikas of MobyX.
What’s Next for Reflect Festival
This year, we truly built a playground for doers. With five stages, workshops, roundtables, meetup spots, a massive expo, networking and relaxing lounges, a massage room, a dance floor, and even a basketball court, Reflect found an incredible new home.
Alexander Jahn , Managing Partner of Reflect Festival
The team behind Reflect Festival announced its next steps and launched The Doers Company as an umbrella organisation behind the event and further activities. Lambrou explains:
Next up, you’ll see us during Elevate Summit, our proptech event here in Limassol, in October. We’ll travel with Reflect pop-up events around the world, and we will continue working on our fashion brand, Doers United. Plus, we have one more project in the works: the GetForward accelerator that will help startups take off. And that’s just the beginning.
Contentworks Agency first met the Reflect Festival organisers 7 years ago as media partners to their very first festival. As a new agency ourselves, we were excited to see their vision which has matured over the years. This year’s festival was by far the best to date. Congratulations to their team and we look forward to the next one.