Can a perfectly delivered project still fail to create real value? Can a project that faces setbacks, changes direction, or even fails ultimately lead to greater impact?
Bringing together professionals with diverse experiences across industries, this panel will explore the complex relationship between project success, failure, and value creation. The panelists will share real stories from their own experiences, revealing how unexpected outcomes, difficult moments, and lessons learned have shaped their understanding of what makes a project truly successful.
The discussion will challenge traditional definitions of project success and explore how setbacks, pivots, and even failures can create opportunities for learning, innovation, and meaningful value. Ultimately, the conversation will look beyond successful delivery to ask a more important question: did the project create the value and impact that really mattered?
Meet the Panel Participants
Veneta Behar
International Business Leader, Board Member & Strategic Advisor
Veneta Behar is an international business leader, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor with over 25 years of experience in business management, transformation, and leadership across different countries and cultures. As a former General Manager and Board Member of an international company, she has successfully transformed businesses into sustainable and profitable operations, combining strategic vision with a strong focus on people, performance, and long-term value.
Today, Veneta dedicates her experience to projects that connect people, ideas, and opportunities. As the founder of The Art of Win and owner of SpeakersHub.bg and M3 College, she focuses on leadership development, executive influence, and supporting individuals and organizations through change. She believes that true leadership is not defined by titles, but by the ability to inspire confidence, navigate uncertainty, and create meaningful, lasting value with people at the heart of every transformation.
Nika Romanenko
Organizer of Fuckup Nights Sofia & CEO of Kika Lab
Nika Romanenko is an entrepreneur, product design leader, and the organizer of Fuckup Nights Sofia, part of a global movement that brings entrepreneurs and professionals together to openly share stories of failure, lessons learned, and personal growth.
With over seven years of experience in UI/UX and digital product design, Nika has built her career from hands-on designer to Head of Design and entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of Kika Lab, a digital design and development studio that helps businesses turn complex ideas into intuitive digital products and experiences. Her expertise combines user-centered design, product strategy, team leadership, and a strong understanding of the business behind technology.
Through Fuckup Nights Sofia, Nika is building a community where entrepreneurs, founders, and professionals can speak openly about their mistakes, challenge the culture of perfection, and learn from each other’s experiences. She believes that failure becomes valuable when we turn it into learning, better decisions, and the courage to try again.
Boyan Rashev
Sustainability Expert, Entrepreneur & Strategic Advisor
Boyan Rashev is a sustainability expert, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor with
extensive experience in environmental management, economics, and investments. He is the Co-Founder of denkstatt Bulgaria, one of the region’s leading sustainability consulting firms, working with businesses across a wide range of industries. With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Environmental and Resource Management from Germany, Boyan combines academic expertise with practical experience in balancing economic growth, environmental responsibility, and societal impact.
He also advises the Expat Natural Resources investment fund and is the founder of MindYourFuture.org, a platform promoting critical thinking and realistic optimism. Through his consulting work and public speaking, he challenges conventional thinking and helps businesses turn complex challenges into practical, value-driven decisions.
Mihail Stoyanov
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, EADX
Mihail Stoyanov is an entrepreneur and enterprise technology architect, Co-Founder
and Managing Partner of EADX, an international engineering and consulting company with offices in Bulgaria, Germany, the United States, Dubai, and India. The company delivers integration, data & AI and cloud solutions for enterprise clients in Germany, Switzerland, Dubai, and the US.
Mihail began his career as a software developer, and that engineering mindset still shapes how he runs the business. Over more than ten years of large-scale integration projects for multinational companies, he has seen plenty of projects delivered on time, on budget, and to specification, and learned that this says very little about whether they created value. Today he leads distributed teams across several countries and time zones, and spends much of his time on exactly that gap: the difference between a successful technical delivery and actual business impact.
Venci Lukanov
Serial Entrepreneur, Project Manager, and Board Member
Venci Lukanov is a serial entrepreneur, project manager, and marketing professional with extensive experience in startups, immersive technologies, and community leadership.
As a founder in the virtual and augmented reality space, an award-winning project professional, and a leader across multiple organizations, he brings together innovation, strategic thinking, and a people-centered approach. His roles include board member at Share Europe Network Association, Vice President of Marketing at PMI Bulgaria Chapter, and Chairman of the Board at Mountain Bike Institute Foundation.
Venci is passionate about creating meaningful digital and real-world experiences, advancing quality of life through empathy and innovation, and building communities that thrive in harmony with the environment.
