The 15th Edition of ISTA Conference Is Coming Up

The agenda of one of Bulgaria’s most prestigious tech conferences features global industry leaders, and tickets are now on sale.

September 11, 2025, Sofia – The agenda for ISTA Conference is now live. As one of the first and largest tech conferences in Bulgaria, ISTA will bring together IT professionals from across the country and the region for its 15^th anniversary edition on October 16 at Sofia Tech Park. Tickets are available now via bilet.bg.

This year, more than 30 speakers will take the stage at ISTA – including globally recognised experts and leading professionals from top tech companies in Bulgaria. The agenda is structured into two parallel tracks and will focus on the most current topics in technology: artificial intelligence, automation, and software testing.

Velizar Dimov, Vice President of Advanced Development and Systems Europe at Ampere, will deliver the keynote address to open the conference. With over 21 years of experience in the automotive industry, he leads a team responsible for introducing and industrialising new technologies, as well as defining systems in cockpit electronics products for the European market at Visteon. Among the international guests is David Burns, Head of Developer Advocacy and Open Source at BrowserStack and Chair of the W3C Browser Testing and Tools Working Group. He previously served as Engineering Manager at Mozilla, where he worked on tools and infrastructure to improve web development. Joining him is Liran Barokas, who leads the Solution Engineering team at Applitools and is at the forefront of the AI revolution in testing. He demonstrates how artificial intelligence can transform approaches to quality, accelerate innovation, and enhance products. Hamza Mudassir is another prominent speaker featured at the conference. He is a Lecturer in Strategy and Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School and the founder and CEO of Strategize.inc – a Cambridge University spin-off company pioneering the use of agentic AI for strategic planning.

We expect ISTA 2025 to be our biggest and boldest edition yet. We started this conference 15 years ago with the mission to unite the IT community in Bulgaria and the region, to exchange knowledge, and to remind ourselves that world-class innovation is created right here. Every attendee will find something valuable in the program and have the chance to connect with peers in our networking zone,” said ISTA’s organisers.

This year, the conference stands behind another cause – supporting the aspiration for every child in Bulgaria to have equal access to quality education.

In pursuit of this goal, the “Teach For Bulgaria” foundation, which also celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2025, becomes an official partner of ISTA. The organization works to improve education in Bulgaria by training and supporting teachers and school principals across the country, and by developing school teams so that lessons become more meaningful and engaging for students. Representatives of “Teach For Bulgaria” will take part in the agenda and will be available for meetings in the event’s networking area.

The full ISTA Conference program is available on the official website.

Since its launch in 2011, ISTA has become one of the most respected tech events in Bulgaria and the region, traditionally gathering between 600 and 900 professionals interested in technology, software engineering, testing, and automation. ISTA Conference is organised by six leading tech companies in Bulgaria – Experian, Infragistics, Avenga, SAP, Merkle, and Accenture. Event partners include XactWay, Superhosting.bg, AIBEST, BASSCOM, and BAIT, with media partners dev.bg.