Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović, ekrem@www.media-marketing.com
Bane Brkljač is a proven friend. Twenty days ago, when we spent some time together in Ljubljana, he told me, “You know at the end of May every year I go to Montreal to the C2 Conference. I was thinking that this year, at the end of each day, I could write a text for the portal about what happened during the day. So the readers could get a timely text for each of the three days of the conference.” It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, but I also didn’t believe he would do it. I didn’t even know the date of the conference. I know that Bane is quite ‘strict’ in writing his texts, and I figured at the end of the day he would go to dinner, and then the partying – because we here have accustomed people going to festivals that you should party until the dawn … Bane is not of this sort – but still, he has to mingle with the people a little in the evening (networking and all). And then, when you get back to the room ‘dead’ tired, you’re supposed to sit at the computer and write for Media Marketing? Even I wouldn’t do that, let alone expect it from someone else. But Bane is made out of some stronger stuff than us mere mortals. For him, a word is the law, and if he said he would do it, so will it be.
He told me how during his life he had been to countless conferences, but none like C2. What makes it exceptional is not the roster of great speakers and topics, because there are other conferences that gather eminent names together, but the overall experience you can take away from here. The whole concept of this conference is designed to take you out of your usual comfort zone, so you can understand the topics of discussion differently, and experience them in a new way. This is further boosted by its format – apart from lectures, each participant has at their disposal a wide array of workshops, courses, a variety of demonstrations and experiments and various other activities that encourage direct, personal involvement.
On Wednesday, 25 May at 07.00, the first text from Montreal ‘landed’ on my computer. “As promised…” the mail read. If the text arrived at 07.00, it means that Bane sent it at 01.00 am his time, and this means that he sat down to write it at… “Thank you, comrade Bane,” I thought to myself, “and happy Youth Day.” Yes, that morning was the date on which all of us in Yugoslavia rejoiced – the Youth Day, the day which we celebrated as the birthday of Josip Broz Tito. It was not the exact date of his birth, and I can’t remember anymore why this exact date was chosen as his birthday, but we were all looking forward to that date. I could now unleash some fury on these newly composed Democrats who equate communism with fascism, and Tito with Hitler, but I won’t. It’s a nice and sunny day – the day after the day that I fittingly celebrated as Youth Day.
Why is Youth Day so important for my story about Bane Brkljač? Because Bane was a prominent youth leader, President of Youth of Vojvodina, and member of the last Presidency of Youth of Yugoslavia. He was also the president of the organizing committee of the last Congress of the Youth League of Yugoslavia, where the Relay of Youth was buried together with Tito. Bane thus practically concluded a big and important piece of our history.
During the long night conversations we had in the summer in Mokrin, where Bane built the House on a Flat Hill, which has now become a coworking space of the regional creative industry, I learned from Bane a lot about life, work, direct marketing (he is the creator of Top Shop), new trends, the people. He told me about his vision to create a center of regional creative industries in Mokrin, which would be available primarily to young creatives from different areas of the creative industries. The complex in Mokrin, called the House on a Flat Hill, does not arise from commercial and business reasons, it can only arise out of love, only out of a desire to do something good and useful, “just because I can”.
I still miss a crumb of info to form a complete picture of Bane in my head. And I’ll get it next weekend. Ladeja Godina Košir from Ljubljana, CEO of Giacomelli Media, Bane’s great friend, is coming to the summit of 100 leaders of Southeast Europe in Sarajevo. The two of them have their monthly lunch, actually a half-day socializing when they exchange the latest knowledge and insights, comments about books they have read this month, etc. Ladeja knows Bane much better than I do, so I’ll snag from her some pebbles I need to finish my own mosaic of Bane.
Sarajevo, 26 May 2016