Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
PRO.PR conference begins in about ten days Tuheljske Toplice. It will bring three days of top PR (18 lectures and three round tables), good socializing, networking and, in the end, celebrating the success of the foremost communications professionals, from the Adriatic region to India, at the PRO.PR Awards.
PRO.PR is a story of love and passion, both of those who organize it, and those who come to the conference from around the world to share their extensive knowledge of the communication profession, as well as those who come to absorb this knowledge, establish new contacts within the industry, and thus make their work more successful. PRO.PR is the constant pursuit for something better, more useful, more applicable. After 15 years, we can freely say that PRO.PR is a successful entrepreneurial story of Danijel Koletić, CEO of the communications agency Apriori World, the man who created it all and who for 15 years now endures in maintaining and developing a great idea. This was even recognized by the President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who accepted to sponsor this year’s conference – the first communications conference in the history of Croatia which has received such an honor.
Media Marketing: People from your environment claim that this year’s PRO.PR conference will be one of the best so far. Do you share their opinion?
Danijel Koletić: We always strive for a better and more meaningful program. PRO.PR is a story of passion, but also of great responsibility. Ultimately I’m the one who takes most of the risk – there is no association.
This is a story of a business trip, of creation and the constant struggle for improvement. It was really challenging to prepare program content this year. Yet, this is the anniversary conference and I wanted to give the participants the best we can. Those who are not burdened with vanity or, on the basis of inaccurate stories, have some wrong image about our conference, will be in err if they don’t come and take the opportunity to learn something new from the leaders in the profession. We are not a broad, “consumerist” conference, but an event for those interested in knowledge, open and simple communication, for those who want to network and meet new people, and who will not come just to drink coffee, meet with acquaintances from their own city, and be seen. Those who come know that they could meet prospective clients, and we also save them a ton of money. One-day seminars like the ones we offer, with these presenters, could cost you in registration fees, accommodation and food about 900 pounds and more per day, and with us it’s 525 euros for 18 lectures, three round tables, seven meals, gala dinner and two educational trips. Calculate on your own how much the participants gain, especially if they carefully analyze the most important thing, and that is the program content. We have always been innovative with our programming and we are consistent in that. Ultimately, we are the first communications conference in history of Croatia sponsored by the President of the country.
Media Marketing: Festivals and conferences are usually held always in the same town, but you move PRO.PR every year to a different city, different country, and thus demonstrate the idea of communication on the move. Isn’t that too complicated? For example, two weeks before the PRO.PR, when all the organizers are doing final touch-ups and eyecandy, you are negotiating with the town and hotel in which the next conference will be held, because everyone expects that you will announce the place and date of the next year’s conference at the end of this one in Tuhelj.
Danijel Koletić: This conference represents a private initiative and is the oldest professional event in the region specializing in the area of public relations. It has inspired and continues to inspire many such platforms that come behind us.
The conference came at a time when diplomatic relations between the countries in the region weren’t the best, and the foundation of every challenge lies in communication, so slowly, while traveling, we were discovering differences in standards of communication processes, habits and traditions. We removed the barriers between people and nations through communications on the move, demonstrating to influential international experts that we people of the Balkans are not how they see us, but people with knowledge and soul. This is something that our participants and regional speakers also carry in themselves.
My guideline is the fact that PR is everything that surrounds us, and if you want to understand the differences, in order to adjust your campaigns, then you have to travel and see and meet people. You have to give yourself a chance to get closer to them, to get to know them, and with them continue to communicate on the move. Destinations, where we organize the PRO.PR conference, are sometimes undiscovered pearls for people from this profession – for example, the island of Rab, Ohrid, Subotica – Palic lake, Malinska – island of Krk. These destinations are not the first choice of the organizers of such conferences. Such events are organized in safe destinations financially covered through partnerships, such as Belgrade, Rovinj, Portorož, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana. Mayors and cities today understand the value PRO.PR conference and the importance of the industry. We’re not just some conference that provides overnight stays and consumption. We are the unity of program, people and the media. At PRO.PR people are not just numbers in attendance fees and compensations, but acknowledged experts who recognize the values that we have been promoting for 15 years. We’re not perfect, but we give our best as a team.
If you have an open and honest approach, and now with a tradition of 15 years, then you have the credibility and everything is easier.
Media Marketing: The next characteristic of the PRO.PR is you, as its president. All festivals and conferences are organized by associations like HURA, SOZ, UEPS, IAA, HUOJ, DSOJ and others. For PRO.PR, people usually say: “Danijel’s conference”. Is that something you wanted to achieve, or is it a burden for you?
Danijel Koletić: No, that’s not something I was trying to achieve, but I can’t hold it against people if they say something like that. I don’t want anyone to insult my intelligence so I sometimes don’t act diplomatically, in gloves, but I like to make positive criticism to raise discussion, and not to have everything happening in a rut. I mainly do so in Croatia, towards the HUOJ in which I am a member.
Sometimes I feel as if I’m in someone’s way, but I cannot help that. I’m sorry they have to deal with me. Instead of communicating with me, they simply organize events a week before, or in the same week as the PRO.PR conference. This ultimately benefits no one – least the profession – but everyone has the right to make their business decisions. We don’t have hostesses or starlets, because that’s not the focus of our program additions.
Of course, this identifying of the conference with me does represent a great burden, because a team of people is behind this project, but I will not deny my charisma. This is a conference that represents a financial risk each year. We don’t have members of an association, at least 20 of them from large companies who would convince their bosses to pay the sponsorship of three, four thousand euros and then everything goes easier. Here, all the advance payments are made by us, from the agency Apriori World, and we bear all the risk. It’s not easy, but our energy always wins.
In the end, people know what they want. Some want to be seen, others want to learn and network. I never aspired to have a lot of participants. The focus is always on the agenda and the atmosphere of togetherness.
Through these fifteen years we have not had a single billboard. Our campaigns are modest and direct, more through PR tools.
Media Marketing: Most of the participants of the conference are always the same. People come, of course, because good content, excellent speakers and topics, but also because of the charm with which you run the conference, because of the family atmosphere you are creating that makes them all truly feel like a family, as members of the same idea, of the same profession. The atmosphere is such that everything goes fast and, when it’s all over, most people feel sad because the time has come to part ways, because the conference doesn’t last at least another day. Is that something you wanted to achieve?
Danijel Koletić: Everyone has the right to choose. The fact is that sixty percent of our participants are the same PR experts each year. Sometimes people from the profession want to investigate and they give us a chance. They come once, and then they keep on coming back if the date and time permits. Our conference is not specialized in buying media space, but in managing reputation. Sometimes a crisis situation and the travels don’t allow everyone who are interested to come. People who return were in other conferences as well, but they decide to come again to PRO.PR. I’m sure they feel the ease, honesty, and openness. We’re not fancy, we don’t have that style. We do our best to achieve quality with an emphasis on networking.
What I want and expect for myself, I try to provide to others as well together with my team. That’s the PRO.PR conference. In the eternal positive search we are succeeding in attracting people to come back to us, happy and connected. It fills my soul, and the souls of the members of the organizing committee, and it gives me the strength to go to new victories in order for our profession to progress and be respected. My heart always clenches when I see that we succeeded, when I see a hall full of people at the opening. Then I know that we have achieved our goal. Therefore, on this occasion, I want to thank all those who were part of PRO.PR conference for all these years.
Media Marketing: You have been selected as the member of the jury of the World Communications Forum in Davos. People from the very top of the organization from Davos were at the PRO.PR conference last year in Budva. That was enough for them to give you this great honor. To be a member of the team that decides on the best communications projects in the world is truly a matter of prestige. How do you experience this?
Danijel Koletić: Well, I see it as a reward for hard work, results and love. You never know who is watching you and evaluating your work.
It is certainly the most prestigious position that has been given to someone from the region in the last 25 years, to someone from the public relations profession and I’m very proud of that.
I work on PRO.PR with passion and love. I personally visit each speaker, wherever they may be, and at the end it all comes back to you. In addition to reputation, you also have to have the knowledge for someone in the international community to respect you and take their time to share their knowledge with people who came to your conference.
Media Marketing: Do you have some exclusive news on the eve of the PRO.PR in Tuheljske Toplice? Some message that you would like to send to the PR public at the last moment to inspire them to come?
Danijel Koletić: PRO.PR does not aspire to be the best conference. Only those who recognize the value of content and knowledge which can be obtained there for more than favorable financial stake will choose the PRO.PR conference. We are limited in budget, but we give back to participants everything we get from them.
I’m particularly proud of the fact that we have established the only European program of rewarding individuals, rather than projects in the field of Public Relations. For PRO.PR award you don’t need to pay any money to reach the finals, and, in the end, be selected or not. We do not collect money for the organization overheads, nor create profit through this award program.
PRO.PR is based on the method by which the winners, along with members of the organizing committee, are nominated by former winners of the PRO.PR Awards, selected representatives of media houses and representative of the IPRE, the international organization for public relations in London. Our industry is attacked by the EGO virus, and that’s why the national associations cannot possibly choose one among themselves to whom the honor would be given for their contribution to the profession.
For me, there are individuals who are more successful than I am and who manage projects as carriers of ideas, as operatives. Such experts will never be awarded by anyone, simply because of vanity. That is why there is the PRO.PR Awards which I personally founded on the occasion of the tenth anniversary, and it is recognized by the international community of public relations experts. Laureates this year come from India, Italy, Russia, Great Britain and, of course, from countries in the region. More than eighty percent of winners I never even met. The first time I see them is at the awards. The whole process from nomination to election takes six months.
I would particularly like to point out that the statues, which will be presented at the ceremony on 8 April in Terme Tuhelj, were made by students of the Academy of Applied Arts of the University of Rijeka.