Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
I have to admit, I’ve gotten lazy with the diary entries lately. In fact, it’s not so much about laziness as is about chronic lack of time.
While the Sarajevo Film Festival lasted, I had a fully packed program until the very last moment. We went to film screenings, visited the events we were invited to, and there were two or three at the same time.
People from advertising and feature movies
Advertising people are slowly moving to the movie industry. At this year’s SFF, Špela Oblak (former CEO of Luna TBWA Ljubljana agency), had a movie in the competition for which she wrote the screenplay. This is her second or third movie I think. Sašo Pešev from Skopje’s New Moment was not in Sarajevo, but he did apply for co-financing of a film for which he wrote the script. This year I haven’t seen Milena Garfield, who comes to the festival almost every year. She is very successful in film production. Those who are still alive know that before moving to Washington Milena worked in New Moment, and was one of the closest associates of Dragan Sakan.
What are people from advertising doing in the film industry? I guess they’re fed up with the 30 seconds format. They want something bigger, something in which they can tell some interesting stories other than ads for clients. On the other side, serious movie directors record 30 second spots, believing that the biggest challenge is to tell a whole story in half a minute or a minute. The fight for every detail is much fiercer here than in a movie.
Bora Miljanović, CEO of the Represent Communications, was also in Sarajevo for a day during the SFF. He came to sign papers to open their agency in Sarajevo. Represent will thus complete a network throughout the region, which is good for both the profession and the clients. I hosted a lunch for Bora and Ena Maglić, CEO of the newly established Represent Sarajevo. We talked about new projects and our cooperation in their realization. Represent is one of the agencies that provide the most support to Media Marketing in every respect.
Ljubljana
After the SFF I immediately went to Ljubljana to attend the meeting of the presidents and directors of the national associations of the advertising industry in the Adriatic region. It is very important that associations have regional level coordination so that their members are more successful in the entire market. In addition to this meeting, I had my first morning coffee with Valerija Prevolšek to talk about support for Sempl, I met with Žare Kerin, with whom I arranged the latest details of his exhibition organized by Media Marketing within the Creative Republic conference in Bihać, I met with Viktorija Radojevic and her marketing associates at Mercator, to record some interesting stories that we will release these days, I visited the ArnoldVuga+ agency and made an interview with Radovan Arnold.
On returning from Ljubljana, I went to Bihać for a meeting with Nino Kasupović. When I was starting that trip to Bihać in the morning, with my daughter Asja and my granddaughter Tara, I had no idea how nice and exciting day that would be.
Čardaklije, Japod Islands and dinner at Una river
We first stopped at Čardaklije – a traditional village 30 kilometers before Bihać. There we were greeted for lunch by Azra and Amir Bekić, Asja’s friends (now mine as well), partners in Čardaklije project. A fantastic place! A large estate with several houses for accommodation of guests, a large restaurant, trails for hiking, biking or horse riding. We toured the stables. Magnificent animals. They freely roam the entire estate, and thus complement the already unique atmosphere of Čardaklije. Azra and Amir told us about further development plans for the village. Everything sounds very good. Zoran, owner of Čardaklije, wasn’t there that day because he took two days off and found refuge at the sea side.
After lunch, Azra and Amir went to Vienna with their kids, while Asja, Tara and I went off to Ripač, where Nino was waiting for us. While we were driving, I was thinking about the Čardaklije and how I would like to spend a couple of weeks in the year here. I love the peace and tranquility of nature, I like the greenery. It probably comes as a result of the intense life I’ve lived (and still live). Man simply wants to find some peace. Among other things, because of that same peace, the fantastic greenery of nature and its silence, Vedrana and I were so delighted with our recent vacation in Gorski Kotar (Ravna Gora) in the house that Iva Todorić gave us to use. Priceless experience.
I was very much looking forward to my encounter with the Una river in Ripač, where I spent three months each year during my childhood with my grandpa and grandma. The most beautiful part of my youth. The older the man is, the more often you return to your childhood. It has been happening to me for some time. Almost every day in my mind I spend an hour in Ripač and in Bihać. In fact, I think that those nine months of the year that I lived in various places where my father was serving in the army were just a vacation from Ripač. My real life was actually reduced to those three months at Una. Grandpa would take the cow to the pastures early in the morning, while grandma would make breakfast which I would then take to grandpa so we could eat together. After that, I would go straight to Una to swim, which usually lasted until the evenings. I would make a break only at lunch time. And those were the meals fit for a king. Grandma (or Momma, as we called her) would only prepare the dishes she knew I enjoyed. The same was with dinner. Unrepeatable. And am I not just like that, a family chef, for my granddaughter Tara today? Of course I am.
We arrived at Ripač in the evening. Nino waited for us. I just took a “running” tour of the village, checked the place where our house stood, which was demolished to the ground during the war, and watched Una for a few minutes. Then we continued five kilometers to Račići, so I could visit for the first time the Japod Islands, an ethno-village built by Armin Amidžić on three islands in Una river. It’s amazing what this young man did. Air-conditioned bungalows with one side wall completely in glass, facing Una that flows just 1 meter away, then a house on a tree, a restaurant, a garden beside the coast so close to the river that you can keep your feet in the water while eating, a small amphitheater for concerts and late movie screenings. Everything is at your fingertips, even the cottages that are rented to the guests who haven’t booked their accommodation on time on the islands. I’m trying to compare Čardaklije and Japod Islands. It’s impossible, they are not the same things so one can’t compare them. Čardaklije have something that Japod Islands don’t, and vice versa. If you were to ask me which is better, I would advise that you spend a couple of days at Čardaklije, and then a couple of days on Una and Japod Islands. If you only go to one place, you will miss the other one to have a complete experience.
And while we were drinking coffee, it dawned on me that we could organize the meeting of young leaders for the future of advertising industry right here next year. We have a concept, but we didn’t know where to organize it. Now we know. We would also like to invite the young leaders of the advertising industry from other European countries to exchange experiences and to connect. In the future, the key competencies that will differentiate successful organizations from those that are not are innovativeness and creativity. Our industry is based on these competencies, and we want to see what young leaders think about that, those who will inherit the future of our industry. The deal was made – it will be held in the last week in June next year on the Japod Islands.
After the deal, we leave our host Armin because Nino constantly reminded us that in Ripač, at the Coast of River restaurant, we had a reserved dinner boat at half past seven. No, we were not going to dine the boat, but to dine on a boat. We arrived there in 15 minutes. At the dock of the restaurant there was a boat waiting for us, with a dining table right across its middle. Soon the plates packed to the brim arrived, and the guy who was tasked to drive us around turned on the electric motor. Total silence. Only thing you can hear is the water against the bow. We move toward the Ripač waterfalls. Tara was delighted. She was recording everything all the time on her iPhone, sending snaps immediately to friends at St. Galen. She had to say goodby to them with heavy hard last month, as they were leaving to live in Sarajevo. We come under the waterfalls from which I dived countless times. Now they seem kind of small, but when I was a kid, they were tall as a skyscraper. Nevertheless, I dived from them. It was a matter of honor. We got so close to the waterfalls that water was splashing us. It was nice to be with my granddaughter at the same place where I once came with my grandfather. I was his greatest love, and now Tara is mine.
Sarajevo-Bihać-Sarajevo in a single day
About half past eight we finished the dinner and said goodbye to Nino. Though the two of us were supposed to talk about the Creative Republic, which is soon to be held in Bihać (September 14th and 15th), we didn’t get to exchange a single word about it. We agreed to communicate everything via e-mail. We then returned to Čardaklije where we had reserved an apartment. One doesn’t simply drive from Sarajevo to Bihać and back in the same day. Driving towards the Čardaklije, charged with the emotions and creative ideas for the meeting of the young leaders at the Japod Islands, I thought I won’t be able to sleep from all the excitement all night. And if I can’t sleep yet, why not continue to Sarajevo? We just stopped by at Čardaklije to return the key of the the apartment and continued onwards to home. Tara was also very excited, but she still fell asleep. Asja and I were dreaming awake all the way home. We arrived in Sarajevo one hour after midnight.
What a fantastic day.
We threw ourselves into Communis’ embrace
I like that I came back in the evening, because I needed the next day to prepare for a meeting with the Communis agency, which was scheduled for Friday. We need a creative and event agency. We can’t do everything on our own. Besides, Asja and I think it’s more cost effective than hiring a couple of people that we would need right now. I go through projects all day and try to sketch a presentation that would motivate creatives and accounts at Communis to accept us as a serious client.
On Friday, Zvezdana Žujo greeted us accompanied with her closest associates. I have to admit I had a slight stage fright initially. For the first time I was letting everything I usually do into the hands of an agency. Only then, as we drank coffee before the presentation, I realized how important an agency is for a client. At that moment, Communis seemed so important to me. That’s why I drank the coffee so long before I dared telling them what I was planning. It seems to me I was speaking more than an hour. I didn’t want them to write anything down. I promised I would send all that I was talking about (and more than that) on Monday, which would enable them to prepare their own presentation for me. After another hour of talking, I mostly answered their questions. It was a successful meeting, and a successful start of cooperation. I said in the end: “When next year we talk about plans for 2020, I want us to be at the very top of your list of clients by all parameters.”
On Saturday evening, I had coffee with Iva and Ivona, finally in Sarajevo. We had a lot to tell each other. Vedrana and I pass on our impressions from Ravna Gora to Iva. Still, we dedicate most of the time to our future business cooperation, which primarily focuses on the development of the educational function of the Media Marketing portal. No, no, relax, we don’t intend to drill you or anything. We know that you know everything. It’s about research projects through which we can deliver you data that will lead you to greater business success. I cannot say anything more, except that these projects are similar to those that AdAge and AdWeek make for their subscribers. We want to stand side by side with the biggest. Only the best is good enough for our readers.
Iva and Ivona go to dinner with their friends afterwards, and Vedrana, Asja and I go to Sartr (Sarajevo War Theater) for the Children of the Sun play.
What an exciting week it was!
September 6, 2018.