IT Agenda for the Week, August 24–30: Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum, GAIEC 2026, and Startup World Cup

Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum
The first international forum that Uzbekistan is launching as a flagship platform for FinTech, digital finance, and financial innovation in Central Asia. Organizers: the Central Bank of Uzbekistan and Global Finance & Technology Network. Approximately two thousand participants are expected from Central Asia, ASEAN countries, the Middle East, and South Asia — regulators, representatives of financial institutions, founders of fintech startups, and investors.

When: August 24-26
Where: Tashkent

QwenWork: Meet Your AI Coworker
On August 25, the series of practical webinars "AI in Action" begins. The first session is dedicated to QwenWork — a new AI agent from Alibaba for automating daily work. The webinar will demonstrate how to use AI to work with documents and data, manage schedules and email, create web applications and multimedia from a single prompt, and connect AI to corporate data, tools, and team workflows.

When: August 25 at 17:00
Where: online 

Yandex Cloud Meetup for Partners
A meeting for IT companies and integrators working on infrastructure and data projects, corporate storage, and AI solutions will take place in Tashkent. Experts will discuss partnership terms with Yandex Cloud and three models for delivering technological services — cloud, on-premises, and hybrid.

When: August 25
Where: Tashkent

AI in Action: Webinar Series by Alibaba Cloud International
Astana Hub, together with Alibaba Cloud International, Khan Tengri Innovation Hub, and Freedom, is launching a series of practical online webinars on Alibaba's AI solutions under a cooperation agreement. Two out of four sessions will take place this week: QwenWork — on how the AI agent automates documents, data, schedules, email, and web application creation — and AI LLM — on the Qwen model family, multimodal AI, autonomous agents, and fine-tuning. The remaining sessions on cloud infrastructure for AI and AI tools for content and trading will take place on September 1 and September 3.

When: August 25 and 27
Where: online

WOMEN BACKING WOMEN
For the first time in Almaty, the event "Sisters Female Founders" — a global community of women founders from Silicon Valley — will take place jointly with Sisters Capital, the first venture fund in Central Asia focused on startups founded by women. Participants will discuss how women are changing the venture industry, how to start investing in startups, and how female founders can attract venture capital.

When: August 27
Where: Almaty, Most IT Hub

Live Stream of The Tech with the Founder of Extella.ai
Extella is an AI platform that unifies models, tools, APIs, and AI agents in a single workspace, allowing automation of tasks ranging from research and analytics to development and content creation. The founder and CEO of Extella.ai, Anvar Bakiev, will share how the startup managed to raise over $2.5 million in investments and which solutions helped attract investor interest.

When: August 27 at 18:00
Where: The Tech YouTube channel

Cybersecurity & Antifraud Meetup
Experts from Halyk Bank and invited speakers will discuss how digital services are protected from cyber threats and fraud. Using real-life case studies, participants will learn how cybersecurity and antifraud teams operate, which approaches help identify modern threats, and how artificial intelligence and analytics are applied to combat fraudulent schemes.

When: August 27 at 19:00
Where: Almaty, Forum Shopping Mall, Event Space Hall

Global Artificial Intelligence Economy Conference 2026
One of the largest international AI conferences in China, dedicated to artificial intelligence and the digital economy. The program includes more than two hundred speakers, a technology exhibition, startup pitch sessions, and meetings with investors. Confirmed speakers include Andrew Ng, Kai-Fu Lee, Yann LeCun, and Fei-Fei Li. The conference is held jointly with the HICOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit.

When: August 26-29
Where: Beijing

Startup World Cup 2026: Regional Stage in Kazakhstan
The Kazakhstani regional stage of one of the most prestigious international technology startup competitions, Startup World Cup, will take place at Nazarbayev University. The organizer of the national selection is the Foundation for Sustainable Innovation and Technology, supported by NU Impact Foundation and NU Science & Technology Park. The winner will earn the right to represent Kazakhstan at the global final in San Francisco, where $1 million in direct investments will be awarded.

When: August 29
Where: Astana, Nazarbayev University