Kim Kardashian to Attend WCIT Forum in Armenia

YEREVAN — Kim Kardashian, the world-famous U.S. reality TV star of Armenian descent, will participate in the upcoming World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in Yerevan, organizers of the global forum announced on Tuesday.

The forum scheduled for October 6-9 will bring together 2,500 tech professionals from more than 70 countries. It will be held under the aegis of World Information Technology and Services Alliance, a worldwide consortium of national IT associations.

The WCIT organizing committee in Armenia said Kardashian will be a “special keynote speaker” and panelist at the forum. She will talk about “how decentralized technologies have democratized the worlds of entertainment, media, and journalism.”

“Kim Kardashian West is one of the most followed people on social media with nearly 240 million followers. She is one of the most influential voices in the world today,” the statement quoted the committee chairman, Alexander Yesayan, as saying.

Yesayan also described her as “an extraordinarily savvy and successful businesswoman” who has “something important and interesting to say about the world of social media entrepreneurship.” “In our opinion, a serious conversation about this subject matter is not possible without her participation,” he declared.

It will be Kardashian’s second trip to Armenia. The 38-year-old first visited her ancestral homeland in April 2015 together with her husband, American rapper Kanye West, and sister Khloe. She filmed several episodes of the reality series “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” in Yerevan and other parts of the country.

Armenia hopes to use the upcoming WCIT conference to showcase its burgeoning IT industry that employs some 15,000 engineers and generates more than 6 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. The sector is dominated by local subsidiaries of U.S. tech giants like Synopsys, Mentor Graphics and National Instruments and a growing number of homegrown software firms.

“From all over the world IT specialists, startup owners and investors interested in the IT sector are already showing a strong interest in Armenia’s potential,” Armine Udumian, a spokeswoman for the WCIT organizing committee, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We can already say that it’s a fact.”

“We will be hosting very important figures at the conference,” Udumian said, adding that they will raise Armenia’s international profile.