By: Ekrem Dupanović
Vedrana and I had a very rich and dynamic weekend.
While driving towards Bihać, the final destination of our two-day business trip, we first came to Travnik for a meeting at the Pharmamed pharmaceutical factory.
Vedrana has been successfully managing her beauty salon for 38 years, one of the first in Sarajevo. For some time she has been thinking about collaboration with Pharmamed. Years of experience points to the need for some products that can’t be found on the market, and Vedrana has recipes and ideas to make them available.
We were received by master of pharmacy Šejla Mehić, Pharmamed’s Development Manager. We talked for an hour and during that time devised some models of cooperation that could eventually result in a special Vedrana cosmetic line for teenagers.
You can imagine we had more than enough topics to think about on our way to Bihać.
We arrived in Ripač, a village near Bihać, about four afternoon. We had arranged a lunch at the River Doc restaurant with Armin Amidžić, the owner of the rural estate Japod Islands, five miles from Ripač upstream along the River Una.
In the third week of June we plan to organize a five-day event for the young leaders of the communication industry of the Adriatic region at Japod Islands.
Many will remember the very successful event, The Young Leaders of Tomorrow, which we organized four years ago in Mokrin, at the House on the Flat Hill.
Now we chose Japod Islands as the venue. Five isles on the river Una which provide excellent infrastructure for the event that will include 100 young people, representing the future of our industry.
We’ve been talking with Armin about this project since the last Creative Republic of Bihać. After we agreed everything, we signed a contract on Friday and started the implementation already on Monday.
After the lunch at River Dock, we returned 30 kilometres back on the road to Sarajevo, to another, completely different rural estate– Čardaklije. Upon arrival, we found Martina and Božo Skoko, who came from Zagreb with their two children, and Azra and Amir Bekić, who came from Vienna.
We were welcomed by Zoran Radošević, the owner of Čardaklije, who is developing an investment plan to expand the accommodation and content capacities of this rural estate in partnership with Azra and Amir.
We all gathered this weekend to talk about branding and the strategy of developing this rural estate that has all the capacities to become one of the most interesting places for peaceful and content rich family vacations, for team building activities, or for hosting a whole range of family, recreational, cultural and business content.
Dinner was great. Čardaklije have excellent chefs.
In a friendly and relaxed conversation we stayed late in the evening. Snow was falling outside as the wind blew, lowering temperature further by some ten degrees. Going to sleep in such weather, in a house that uses wood burning stove for heating, is a real pleasure.
Immediately after we got up, we went on a tour of the stables. The encounter with beautiful horses gives special peace. It was very cold outside, but it was quite cosy in the barn. The kids were particularly delighted.
Čardaklije should be a central place for breeding and preserving the Bosnian horse, a special species threatened with extinction if some things are not seriously taken care of.
Zoran, Azra and Amir are determined to do so.
After the breakfast fit for royalty, we began talks about the potential of Čardaklije and the development strategy of this rural estate. There are many ideas, so it was a true brainstorming that slowly rounded up the vision of what Čardaklije could and should be in the next three to five years.
Božo, as a destination branding expert, gave several very useful ideas. I focused more on the vision and development strategy. By lunchtime, we had mostly completed some basic ideas on which we should work in the coming months.
At lunch we were joined by Nervesa and Nino Kasupović from Bihać, with their two children. Lunch was on the level of dinner and breakfast. Excellent cuisine.
So far, you’ve known Nino as organizer of the Creative Republic of Bihać. From now on, you’ll also know him for Braško, the new brand of pie pastry, whose production he started with his wife. He brought two packs with him so we could sample them.
Amir, who manages an entire retail chain throughout Europe from Vienna – owned by his company Adriatic Group – immediately became interested in export potentials.
Kasupović family really have a chance to make Braško into an excellent brand.
“I’ve had an agency for eight years, and nobody ever gave me a nickname after it. It has been no more than twenty days since we started marketing this pastry, and when people meet me they immediately call me Braško,” Nino said.
We left Čardaklije on Saturday early afternoon, agreeing to gather soon in the same place.
February 26, 2019.
