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Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Marketing (Mini-Conference #003)
June 20 @ 08:30 – 17:30 EEST
49EUR – 99EUR
In-person tickets (early-bird price) at 99 EUR, recording tickets (available to all) at 49 EUR
Reserve a spot at the event
Buy a ticket to third mini-conference on the 20th of June, 2026 in Sofia. Hosted in the Kitchen59 space, with scenic rooftop and conference area, this event will feature lectures and panel discussions on topics related to Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Marketing.
🎤
12 Sessions Across the Day
5 lectures, 4 rapid-fire talks, 2 panel discussions, and 1 leader interview.
🍽️
Catered All Day
Pastries, lunch, refreshments, and cocktails on the rooftop — all included.
✨
Curated & Capped at 70
Marketers, founders, agency leaders, and in-house pros — built for real connection.
THE EVENT
A full day designed for marketers who want more than slide decks
Whether you’re building a team, thinking about starting a business or scaling one, navigating the agency world, or simply trying to stay ahead in a fast-changing industry — this event was built for you.
Over the course of the day, you’ll hear from a carefully curated lineup of marketing leaders, agency veterans, entrepreneurs, community builders, and brand strategists — each bringing a distinct perspective shaped by real-world experience. These are practitioners, not theorists.
The lectures dive into the topics shaping modern marketing leadership: winning at managing team dynamics, what it actually takes to build influence without authority, managing cross-boundary teams, and engineering personal peak performance. Expect candid, practical sessions designed to challenge assumptions and give you tools you can use immediately.
The panels bring together voices from across the industry — agency professionals, founders, and community leaders — for honest, unscripted conversations about thriving in agency environments, starting a business as a marketer, and how community can become one of the most powerful levers in your marketing strategy.
The interview (a new format we’re introducing just for this event) goes one-on-one with a senior marketing executive, offering a rare look at how marketing is practised at scale inside a major organisation — the decisions, the trade-offs, and the lessons that don’t usually make it into conference talks.
Beyond the programme itself, the event is designed with connection in mind. From the morning coffee to the closing rooftop cocktail party, there’s ample space to meet peers, swap ideas, and build relationships that last well beyond the day itself.
THE DAY AT A GLANCE
The full event schedule
Three programmed tracks plus a closing rooftop cocktail party — designed so the day flows naturally from learning to conversation.
08:30 – 09:30 Welcoming guests · arrival, registration, badges & gift bags
09:30 – 11:00 Leadership Track · 4 sessions
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:30 Career & Entrepreneurship Track · 4 sessions
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 Stories From the Women Who Walk the Path · 2 panels + 1 interview
15:30 – 17:00 Rooftop Cocktail Party · networking on Rooftop59
★ LEADERSHIP TRACK · 09:30 – 11:00
Four sessions on what it really takes to lead
From challenging the “command and control” myth to running cross-continent teams, leading performance teams with the same clarity you bring to your campaigns, and engineering personal peak performance — four leaders sharing what they’ve learned in the trenches.
LECTURE · 20 MIN
The Anti-Boss Approach to Leadership
⏱ 20 min · Bethan Vincent — Founder & Managing Partner at Open Velocity
Leadership is often framed as a linear progression: climb high enough, gain authority, tell people what to do. Yet anyone who has actually led a team knows that helping humans achieve their goals is not that simple. In this session, Bethan challenges the persistent myth of “command and control” leadership and offers a more human, resilient alternative grounded in trust, clarity, and intelligent autonomy.
Drawing on her experience as a marketing director, founder, and strategic adviser to fast-scaling companies, Bethan shares candid lessons learned from leading diverse teams and collaborating with senior clients across high-stakes environments. She explores why the instinct to tighten control almost always backfires, how self-doubt shows up even for experienced leaders, and why being “soft” and being ineffective are not the same thing.
Attendees will leave with:
→ Practical ways to set direction without slipping into micromanagement
→ The difference between coaching and commanding — and when each belongs
→ How to build an environment where people take ownership because they want to, not because they fear the consequences
→ A reminder that leadership isn’t a trait you either have or don’t — it’s a learned skill anyone can develop
About Bethan: Founder and Managing Partner of Open Velocity, a strategic marketing consultancy for high-growth, tech-led businesses. With over a decade in senior marketing roles, Bethan has led successful go-to-market strategies, repositioned brands, and built high-performing teams across competitive global markets. A serial founder herself — including a B2C coffee business and a sustainability certification platform — she brings an entrepreneurial mindset to helping others grow with clarity, confidence, and commercial focus.
LECTURE · 20 MIN
Leading Without Borders: Lessons from the Trenches of International Team Management
⏱ 20 min · Hristina (Tina) Mangelova — VP of SEO & AI Optimization at MissionOne Media (BarkleyOKRP)
What does it really take to lead a team scattered across time zones, cultures, and continents? In this talk, Tina shares hard-won lessons from building and managing cross-continent teams — how to earn trust when you can’t share a coffee, how to build a sense of community among people who’ve never met face-to-face, and the discipline of communicating with clarity and intention.
Tina will explore what remote female leadership looks like in practice, how to create genuine mentorship relationships across distance, and the art of managing up when your manager is time zones away. Along the way, she’ll challenge the assumption that authority requires proximity — and make the case that the best long-distance leaders lead through influence, clarity, and care rather than control.
Attendees will leave with:
→ A framework for remote leadership grounded in influence, clarity, and care — not control
→ Practical ways to build genuine mentorship across distance
→ The art of managing up when your manager is time zones away
→ A more intentional approach to leading people you may rarely meet in person
About Tina: VP of SEO & AI Optimization at MissionOne Media, a BarkleyOKRP division, where she leads the evolution of organic search in the AI era. With 10 years across agency and in-house roles, she specialises in the intersection of technical SEO, content strategy, and emerging AI technologies. Bulgarian-born and US-trained, Tina has built her career on SEO’s interdisciplinary nature — blending technical expertise, creative strategy, and user-centric thinking. She’s previously presented at SerpConf, hosted webinars with Oncrawl, and shared insights on industry podcasts.
LECTURE · 20 MIN
The Team Performance Stack: Leading Your People with the Same Confidence You Bring to Your Campaigns
⏱ 20 min · Marina Cholakova — Head of Search, Data Analysis & Paid Ads at Franchise Fame & Leads to Fame
The best performance marketers don’t guess. They build systems, read signals, and make decisions with clarity — because the data tells them where to focus before problems become expensive. So what if you led your team the same way?
Every performance marketer knows the rule: if you’re not tracking it, you can’t improve it. Yet most of us step into team leadership and quietly abandon that instinct — relying on gut feel, one-to-ones that go in circles, and the hope that if something were really wrong, we’d know. We usually don’t. Not until someone quits.
In this session, Marina translates the analytical instincts that make great marketers great into a practical leadership framework: the Team Performance Stack. A simple set of signals — not surveillance, not micromanagement or spreadsheets — that tells you who on your team is thriving, who needs support, and where your energy as a leader will have the most impact.
She’ll also tackle one of the most overlooked challenges facing modern marketing leaders: the blended team. Because full-time employees and freelance contributors are not the same, they are not motivated by the same things, and tracking them with the same lens means missing what matters for both.
Attendees will leave with:
→ The Team Performance Stack — a simple set of leadership signals (not surveillance, not micromanagement)
→ A clear view of who’s thriving, who needs support, and where your energy will have the most impact
→ A framework for leading blended teams of full-time and freelance contributors without flattening what motivates each
→ Tools you can apply whether you’re leading three people or thirty, in-house or across the globe
About Marina: A performance marketing leader with 15+ years of experience in SEO, paid ads, and team scaling. Marina helped build one of Bulgaria’s first and biggest in-house SEO teams — recruiting, training, and mentoring people who’ve since grown into leadership roles of their own. Today, she leads Search, Data Analysis, and Paid Ads at Franchise Fame & Leads to Fame, delivering multichannel growth for clients worldwide. Her teams describe her as a “machine” of professionalism, and her cultures as high-performance environments fuelled by curiosity and feedback.
🔥 RAPID-FIRE TALK · 10 MIN
The High-Conversion Leader: Engineering Personal Peak Performance
⏱ <10 min · Dr. Julika Novkova, PhD — Business Psychologist & Founder of Juls’ Psychology
A sharp 10-minute distillation of how leaders can stay connected to meaning under pressure. Julika brings the tools she’s developed to help leaders find personal meaning through their work without losing themselves — practical, sharp, and built for the marketers and founders in the room who are leading through change.
About Julika: Dr. Julika Novkova, PhD is a business psychologist, founder of Juls’ Psychology, and the creator of the InnovaCeption model. With 15+ years of experience in business psychology, she helps leaders transform “powerlessness and lack of control” into opportunities for growth through personalised tools for self-empowerment and self-structuring. Her core belief: the most important resource for success is YOU — and the goal is to burn with passion for your ideas without burning out in your work.
★ CAREER & ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRACK · 11:30 – 12:30
Four sessions on building the career — and the business — you actually want
From reigniting your creativity to designing your dream job and building a business that scales — practical frameworks from people who’ve done it.
LECTURE · 15 MIN
Press Play on Your Marketing Career: A Framework for Turning Chaos into Curiosity
⏱ 15 min · Rita Cidre — Head of Customer Education and Community at Semrush
Modern marketing has never been more complex — or more chaotic. We optimize everything for performance and efficiency, but somewhere along the way, something essential disappeared: our curiosity.
In this talk, marketing strategist and future-of-work thinker Rita Cidre explores the Play Gap — the growing distance between the creative energy professionals start their careers with and the heaviness that can set in over time. Drawing on two decades of experience with brands like Zillow, NPR, TIME, and Qualtrics, Rita shares how burnout led her to one driving question: why do some marketers thrive creatively while others slowly lose their spark?
Attendees will leave with:
→ A new way to spot the early signs of creative burnout — in yourself and your team
→ A framework for reframing chaos as a source of curiosity, not exhaustion
→ Practical ways to bring play back into a high-performance career
→ Lessons drawn from two decades inside some of the world’s most demanding marketing teams
About Rita: A marketing strategist, educator, and future-of-work thinker who has spent two decades leading marketing teams for brands like Zillow, NPR, TIME, and Qualtrics — and teaching at universities from Harvard to NYC to WU in Vienna. After experiencing burnout firsthand, she became obsessed with a single question: why do some people thrive creatively at work while others lose their spark? Today, as a podcaster, speaker, and Head of Customer Education and Community at Semrush, she helps ambitious professionals reconnect with the curiosity that makes work meaningful.
🔥 RAPID-FIRE TALK · 10 MIN
Design Your Dream Job
⏱ <10 min · Diana Racheva — Erickson-Certified Professional Coach & Enterprise Agile Coach
What if you stopped searching for the perfect job and started designing it?
Discover how Design Thinking principles can help you reframe career questions, explore new possibilities, and take small, practical steps toward work that truly fits you. For those ready to move from waiting to creating.
About Diana: Diana has over 20 years of experience leading teams, projects, and organizational transformations — focusing not only on processes and systems, but on how people grow through change. As a Scrum Master, Enterprise Agile Coach, and certified Erickson Coaching International professional coach, she works at the intersection of continuous improvement, authentic leadership, and organizational transformation, building cultures where people feel seen, valued, and engaged.
LECTURE · 15 MIN
How to Start a Business That Scales: Lessons from Businesses I’ve Started and Mentored
⏱ 15 min · Vyara Stefcheva — Entrepreneur, Marketing Strategist & Exited Agency Founder
A practical session drawing on Vyara’s three vantage points — founder, agency leader, and educator — distilling what she’s learned across building, scaling, and selling a marketing business, and from mentoring dozens of other founders along the way.
Expect honest reflections on what works, what breaks, and what only the people who’ve done it know — the early decisions that compound, the ones that quietly cost you, and the difference between a business that grows and one that scales.
About Vyara: An entrepreneur, marketing strategist, and exited agency founder, having successfully built and sold Zahara Consult, a marketing agency serving clients across three continents. She’s developed growth strategies for brands including Wacom, Binance, Postbank, Aroma, BSB, and Radina Group, among others. Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Vyara is a sought-after lecturer at SoftUni and Finance Academy, training thousands of entrepreneurs and marketers each year. Today, she mentors founders through her Mastermind program, helping them achieve clear, measurable growth and make smarter strategic decisions.
🔥 RAPID-FIRE TALK · 10 MIN
The Revenue Leak Audit: 5 Questions Every Founder Must Answer
⏱ 10 min · Silyana Bojilova — Business Growth Consultant & Founder of RevenueLab
Most people who step into entrepreneurship don’t have a growth problem. They have a revenue leak — and it’s quietly draining the business they’ve worked so hard to build.
In this session, Silyana Bojilova brings a 5-question diagnostic built from working with founder-led businesses across industries — and turns it into a live exercise. Scan the QR code, answer the questions, get your result in real time. No slides to copy down — just a clear picture of where your business is losing money, and what to do about it first.
Attendees will leave with:
→ A quick mini revenue-leak diagnosis — done during the session, on their phone
→ The 5 most common places founder-led businesses silently lose revenue
→ One concrete action to take this week
→ An invitation to a free in-depth diagnostic session with Silyana — for those ready to go further
About Silyana: Founder of RevenueLab and creator of the NEBULA 360™ business diagnostic methodology. With 17+ years across startups and scale-ups as COO, Head of Customer Support, and Product Owner, Silyana now works with entrepreneurs who are good at what they do but losing revenue in the gaps they can’t yet see. She helps them find it — and fix it.
★ STORIES FROM THE WOMEN WHO WALK THE PATH · 14:00 – 15:30
Two panels and one in-depth interview
The afternoon block is built for honest, unscripted conversation — the kind you can’t get from a slide deck. Two panels with founders and community builders, plus our first-ever live interview with a senior marketing executive.
💬 PANEL DISCUSSION · ~25 MIN
Community as a Lever for Marketing and Beyond
With Delyana Samolova, Ekaterina Ancheva, and Stefy Krushkelova
Communities have quietly become one of the most powerful — and most underestimated — drivers of trust, influence, and real business results. In this panel, we sit down with the people building them in Bulgaria to unpack what works, what’s misunderstood, and how community has become a strategic lever rather than a marketing nice-to-have.
Expect a candid, unscripted conversation about how to grow a community that compounds over time, the difference between an audience and a community, and where community fits into the wider marketing strategy of brands serious about trust.
Delyana Samolova — CEO & Co-founder at SocialMama | Founding Member of Mamapreneur. A marketer and entrepreneur with a solid economic background from Germany and nearly a decade of experience as a Social Listening Expert. Having spent years analysing digital conversations and consumer behaviour, she transitioned her expertise into a powerful mission: transforming the motherhood experience through connection. Delyana is the founder of Mamapreneur, a thriving community for mothers in business, and the creator of SocialMama — a mobile application designed to eliminate social isolation and help mothers build authentic friendships and supportive networks. Ahead of its highly anticipated launch, SocialMama already boasts a waitlist of nearly 300 mothers eager to connect. A proud mother of a three-year-old girl herself, Delyana is deeply passionate about the strategic power of community as a driver of trust, peer support, and real-world impact.
Ekaterina Ancheva — Head of Identity and Communications at UniCredit Bulbank. She has over 15 years of experience in internal communications, integrated communications, corporate reputation management, strategic planning, digital channels, and event management. Ekaterina is a member of the communications group of the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria, where she also served as Chairperson from 2019 to 2022, and a member of the Bulgarian Public Relations Society (BDVO) since 2019.
Stefy Krushkelova — Founder of NOVARA Consulting, bringing 14+ years across marketing, sales, partnerships, and communications, with a 6+ year focus on building online brand communities that drive retention and long-term revenue for e-commerce brands across the US, UK, and Australia. Currently pursuing an MSc in Cognitive Science, grounding her work in how people process information and make decisions.
💬 PANEL DISCUSSION · ~25 MIN
Starting a Business as a Marketer — Lessons Learned
With Zhenya Dimitrova, Teodora Ivanova, and Fatima Mergaby
What does it actually take to build a business when your background is marketing? In this panel, three founders share the unfiltered version — the early decisions, the hard pivots, and the lessons you only learn by doing.
Expect candid stories about the leap from marketer to founder, the marketing levers that actually move the needle in early-stage businesses, and the mindset shifts no one warns you about.
Zhenya Dimitrova — Co-founder of Momfident, a mobile app making psychological support accessible to every mother. A social entrepreneur with 8+ years of experience and a former Sales and Marketing Director in international education, Zhenya combines science, technology, and business to address real social challenges — including leading the first large-scale psychological study among young mothers in Bulgaria.
Teodora Ivanova — Co-founder and CMO of Skillsome, where she applies marketing as a tool for behavior change to close the gap between what schools teach and what real life demands. Trained in Stuttgart in Advertising & Marketing Communications, Teodora’s “scenic route” through customer service, project management, business coaching, and event management gives her a rare 360° view of customer psychology, execution, and human growth.
Fatima Mergaby — Founder of Randum Goodies, a woman-owned Bulgarian brand creating high-quality, functional gear made for adventure, winter sports, and everyday movement. A long-standing member of our community, Fatima brings the perspective of building a product brand from scratch — design, supply, storytelling, and all.
🎙 LIVE INTERVIEW · ~30 MIN · NEW FORMAT
Interview with an Enterprise Marketing Leader
With Yana Durzheva — Head of Retail Marketing at ProCredit Bank Bulgaria
A new format we’re introducing just for this event — a candid, one-on-one interview offering a rare look at how marketing is practised at scale inside a major organisation. The decisions, the trade-offs, and the lessons that don’t usually make it into conference talks.
“Marketing should go beyond selling — it should create trust, deliver value, and build lasting connections.” — Yana Durzheva
About Yana: Head of Retail Marketing at ProCredit Bank Bulgaria, where she leads a team responsible for acquisition, activation, and retention with a strong focus on digital transformation, CRM, and customer experience. Her work sits at the intersection of data and creativity. Yana’s career has been shaped by a deep interest in understanding people and building marketing strategies that truly resonate — across performance, lifecycle, and brand. Today, she works closely with cross-functional teams across Bulgaria and Greece, aligning local initiatives with the broader group vision.
15:30 – 17:00
Rooftop Cocktail Party 🌇
A full hour and a half on Rooftop59 — open-air, 360° views of Sofia and Vitosha mountain, seasonal cocktails, food, and the kind of conversations that turn a day of ideas into the relationships that actually compound.
WHAT YOUR TICKET INCLUDES
Everything covered in your ticket
The Programme
✓ Front-row seat to 5+ hours of lectures, panels, and our first-ever live interview
✓ Video recordings of every session, delivered by email after the event
✓ Post-conference rooftop cocktail party at Rooftop59
✓ Professional photos from the event
Food & Drinks (All Day)
✓ Four catered breaks — pastries on arrival, lunch, refreshments, and rooftop catering
✓ Coffee and soft drinks available at every break
✓ Drink vouchers for the rooftop cocktail party
Swag & Networking
✓ Gift bag with our new community swag, plus swag and gifts from sponsors
✓ Networking with 70+ attendees — speakers, founders, in-house leaders, and agency professionals — all day long, in line with our community’s code of conduct
THE VENUE
Kitchen59 & Rooftop59
Kitchen59 is more than a hotel or a restaurant — it’s an ecosystem of creativity where talented people, passion for food, and unforgettable experiences meet. Located in Sofia’s Hipodruma district, the venue brings together event spaces, a world-class restaurant (Talents), and co-working floors under one roof.
The closing cocktail party takes place at Rooftop59 — an open-air rooftop bar with a 360° view of Sofia and Vitosha mountain, complete with a pool, seasonal cocktails, and a relaxed atmosphere that makes it one of the most beloved spots in the city.
Kitchen59
Conference space & Rooftop59 cocktail bar
📍 bul. Tsar Boris III 59, Hipodruma district, Sofia, Bulgaria
📅 Saturday, 20 June 2026
🕣 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM (programme + rooftop party)
PARTNERS & SPONSORS
This event is made possible with the support of
🤝 COMMUNITY PARTNER — WOMEN IN MARKETING – BULGARIA
Modern, Development-Oriented Banking · Celebrating 25 Years
ProCredit Bank is a modern, secure, and fast-growing German development-oriented bank, part of the international ProCredit Group. The bank’s philosophy is built on transparency and honesty — their experts understand the real needs of both households and businesses, enabling customers to make informed financial decisions and plan their future with confidence through clear and straightforward communication.
ProCredit Bank is strongly committed to sustainable development and invests in digital services to make everyday banking operations simple, fast, and convenient — enabling customers to manage their finances with ease.
★ SPONSOR SLOT — OPEN
Your Brand Could Be Here
Reach 70 carefully curated marketers, founders, and business leaders at our most ambitious event yet. Sponsorship slots are limited.
★ SPONSOR SLOT — OPEN
Your Brand Could Be Here
Connect your brand with a senior marketing audience and gain visibility across our channels, event materials, and post-event content.
MEDIA PARTNERS
Our media partners
🗞 MEDIA PARTNER
Courageous Coaches is the first coaching platform in Bulgaria dedicated to helping people and organizations grow with awareness, creativity, and humanity through professional coaching.
Founded by certified coaches and active members of the International Coaching Federation — Diana Racheva, Aneliya Manolova, and Vasya Vankova — the platform creates transformational learning experiences that foster deep professional and organizational growth.
Rooted in the belief that real change begins within, Courageous Coaches supports individuals and teams in building emotional agility, authentic connection, and courageous leadership. The platform combines a human-centered, solution-focused approach with measurable impact, creating space for meaningful development, conscious leadership, and lasting cultural transformation.
🗞 MEDIA PARTNER
Sofia Expats is a weekly newsletter and go-to resource for English-friendly events, activities, and culture tips for expats and internationally-minded locals.
🗞 MEDIA PARTNER
Finance Academy is a national leader in education focused on personal finance, investing, business, and accounting. The organization also runs a Mastermind program led by Vyara Stefcheva, designed to help entrepreneurs build and grow their businesses while providing mentorship and strategic guidance throughout their entrepreneurial journey.
🗞 MEDIA PARTNER
Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria
The Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria is a public-benefit association dedicated to promoting best practices and programmes for the professional development of women in small and medium business and their advancement into management positions.
The Council supports young professionals in realising their potential in Bulgaria and develops projects aimed at strengthening businesses and nurturing talent across a range of industries. With 240 corporate and individual members, the association brings together leading managers with extensive experience in management, corporate culture, technology, and education — all of whom stand behind the Council’s initiatives with their name and expertise.
🗞 MEDIA PARTNER
Bulgarian Public Relations Society (BDVO)
The Bulgarian Public Relations Society (BDVO) is Bulgaria’s first national organisation in the field of Public Relations, uniting PR practitioners, lecturers, and students. Founded as a meeting point for all current and future communications experts, the Society fosters professional development, ethical standards, and collaboration across the Bulgarian PR community.
🗞 CALL FOR MEDIA PARTNERS
Help us spread the word — partner with us
We’re looking to collaborate with media outlets, digital platforms, podcasts, and content creators who share our mission to spotlight women in marketing, leadership, and entrepreneurship.
→ Visibility across our website, LinkedIn, and event materials
→ Behind-the-scenes access to speakers, panelists, and our community
→ Complimentary access for your editorial team to cover the event
→ Membership in a growing regional community empowering women in marketing and tech
THE COMMUNITY BEHIND THIS EVENT
🇧🇬 COMMUNITY
Women in Marketing – Bulgaria
Women in Marketing – Bulgaria (WiM-BG) is a registered Foundation dedicated to empowering, supporting, and uniting women in the marketing field across Bulgaria.
Founded by Lazarina Stoy, WiM-BG was born from a desire to create a space where Bulgarian women in marketing can network, share challenges and wins, and grow together. What started as a Slack community has quickly grown into a thriving network that brings members together both digitally and through in-person events across Bulgaria — and now beyond.
The community offers exclusive member events including networking dinners with expert panelists, mini-conferences with educational presentations, a mentorship programme, and career advancement support.
📋 CODE OF CONDUCT
All attendees must adhere to our code of conduct
We are committed to providing a welcoming, inclusive, and harassment-free experience for everyone. By attending this event, you agree to follow the code of conduct of Women in Marketing – Bulgaria:
JOIN US ON 20 JUNE 2026
Only 70 seats — make sure one of them is yours
A full day of practical leadership, real entrepreneurship stories, and the kind of conversations that only happen in a room kept this small on purpose.
Questions? Email us at team@womeninmarketing.bg
English (UK) 
Български