Google DeepMind and LinkedIn Experts Join E-commerce Conference 2026 in Skopje

The conference returns to the National Opera and Ballet in Skopje, North Macedonia, with more than 900 participants and over 30 speakers expected across two stages. The organisers are positioning this year’s edition around a practical question facing retailers and digital businesses across Europe, what changes when AI moves from experimentation into everyday operations?

Last year’s edition already pointed strongly in this direction. As we reported after the 2025 conference, more than 900 participants from over ten countries gathered in Skopje, with AI emerging as one of the dominant themes alongside marketing, payments, personalisation and security.

Google DeepMind and LinkedIn among the first names

One of the headline speakers announced so far is Jovan Andonov, Senior Research Engineer at Google DeepMind. Andonov works on Gemini, focusing on information retrieval and ranking for Gemini Personal Intelligence. His background also includes previous roles at Google and IBM Research.

He will be joined by Armita Lal, Senior Client Solutions Manager at LinkedIn. With more than a decade of experience in marketing and brand development, Lal has worked with brands including Ferrero, Huggies and Douwe Egberts Coffee and now focuses on helping organisations strengthen their digital presence and brand strategies.

The line-up also includes Nikolai Zenevitsh, Group Head of Partner Ecosystem at Iute Group. Before joining Iute, he spent eight years at Bolt and was involved in the expansion of Bolt Food across more than 20 markets and 350 cities.

For e-commerce companies looking beyond their home markets, his experience is particularly relevant: partnerships and local ecosystems are increasingly important when digital businesses expand across fragmented European markets.

Search, advertising and AI move closer together

The regional side of the programme brings a strong performance marketing and AI focus.

Miroslav Varga, a well-known Google Ads specialist from the region, will address digital advertising and search. His appearance comes at a time when AI-generated answers and new discovery behaviours are forcing marketers to reconsider a search strategy built predominantly around keywords, traditional search results and paid placements.

Borislav Vukojević, founder of BoroGPT, university professor and AI consultant, will bring the discussion closer to practical generative AI. His work covers large language models, AI agents and their application inside companies.

This is also where the conference theme becomes relevant for e-commerce teams. AI is no longer limited to generating product descriptions or marketing copy. Retailers are increasingly experimenting with it across customer service, internal workflows, data analysis, personalisation and automation.

A regional view of e-commerce

The first group of speakers is completed by Nina Angelovska Stankov, President of the Macedonian E-commerce Association. An entrepreneur, author and former Minister of Finance, she also leads the Balkan E-commerce Alliance (BECA).

Her participation adds a regional perspective to a programme otherwise heavily focused on technology. For businesses operating in Central and South-Eastern Europe, issues such as cross-border expansion, payments, logistics and differences between individual markets remain just as important as the latest AI tools.

This combination of global technology and regional market experience could be one of the more useful aspects of the Skopje event for retailers. The Balkans remain a collection of relatively small e-commerce markets, making cross-border growth and cooperation increasingly important for companies looking for scale.

From AI discussion to practical use

The 2026 conference will run under the motto “From Wait to Go: E-COMM AT AI SPEED!”.

Rather than treating artificial intelligence as a standalone technology topic, the programme is expected to examine its impact across e-commerce, marketing, sales, logistics and customer experience. The organisers say the emphasis will be on practical sessions, tools and real-world applications rather than purely theoretical discussions.

The event will gather 30+ speakers across two stages and participants from 12+ countries. Alongside the main stage, a hands-on stage is planned for more practical sessions. The full agenda is still being finalised.

For European e-commerce professionals, that makes the conference worth watching not simply as another AI event, but as an indication of how businesses in South-Eastern Europe are adapting to the same technological shift affecting larger Western European markets.

The 9th Regional E-commerce Conference takes place on 3 November 2026 at the National Opera and Ballet in Skopje, North Macedonia. Registration is already open, with further speakers and the detailed agenda due to be announced ahead of the event.

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