Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Agrokor’s communication to the media, engaging younger audiences with serious news, digital transformation of the economy through STEM, challenges of developing new product categories, these were just some of the topics that were covered by the conference part of the jubilee, tenth Weekend Media Festival.
The conference section was opened by the Our Daily Agrokor panel, which tackled Agrokor’s communication to the media during the crisis. “There were too many people in the communication line who offered the craziest possible stories through informal channels, even when it was obvious that everything was over. For example, there was a story that they received huge amounts of money from the Chinese, and this was rather shameful,” said Gojko Drljača, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Jutarnji List. Director of the communications firm Colić, Laco and Partners Violeta Colić, who was a part of the communication team at Agrokor five years ago, thinks that the whole communication regarding the crisis was done wrong. “When a crisis occurs, the only thing you don’t have the luxury to do is to choose not to communicate. Agrokor opted exactly for this. Interest doesn’t go away. People will turn to other interlocutors and seek information in other places. As much as 95 percent of the information came from other sources, and only five percent from the company,” she said.
Next was the panel about STEM, announced by Pepper the robot. “In order to conduct digital transformation of the economy, we need about 200 thousand ICT digital experts, and today we have about 50 to 60 thousand of them. Only two to three thousand workers of such profiles are produced by our education system per year. Not only do we not educate enough of them, but we also do nothing to keep them here,” said Boris Drilo, Board member and Chief Technical and Information Officer at Croatian Telecom. Mate Rimac, an innovator who constantly employs professionals from the STEM area, expressed his opinion: “We have over 100 open job vacancies, and most of them are from the STEM area. If a small company in a small country needs so many experts, this is your best illustration of its enormous potential.”
Media experts from Australia, Austria and Croatia talked about how radio managed to become stronger than ever with the TV that dictates the media scene. Singer Mia Dimšić appeared as a special guest, and was presented by panelists as a good example of ‘visualized sound’. “The classic division of TV and radio is gone, because now radio also produces visual content. Social networks made it possible for the radio to replace image, that is, the missing component,” said program director at Antena Zagreb Katarina Sučić, adding: “If the content is good it will find a way. I’m sure that radio will survive, it’s just a question on which devices it will live, and that is the challenge that we in Croatia will face before anyone else in the world.”
Social networks were the topic of ONE ON ONE: How to get big audiences for serious news. “With videos produced for social networks, the first three seconds in which you have to provoke emotions and to tell users why they should care about your content, are the most important,” said Jon Laurence, an award-winning editor of the online content at UK’s Channel 4, whose video feeds reach millions of views. “As soon as we started to deal with serious and challenging news, the topics that really mattered, the audience grew. The three most important things we take into account in producing video are: emotions, identity and mobile. This is extremely important for all industries, and mobile especially if you are dealing with journalism,” he concluded.
The panel “When new packaging is no longer enough” talked about the challenges of various development sectors. “Telecoms have long ceased to be only providers of fixed and mobile services, they are now, in short, Internet companies,” said Saša Kramar, Board member at Croatian Telecom, adding: “The networks we have are the basis of digital transformations for other industries as well, but this does not mean that we necessarily consider them as competition, we just expect to be treated equally in the regulations. HT has long since developed a number of new service categories, and in some of them, such as IT services for business users or Smart City services, we are already leaders in the market.”
The panel “Don’t Stop Me Now” with Ram Addanki, General Manager of BAT’s Adria Cluster, analyzed how to achieve steady growth in companies and take positions in new markets. Prior to Croatia, Ram Addanki worked in many countries, from India, through Russia and Kazakhstan to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. “The challenges are different, but everywhere the biggest challenge is to understand what consumers want with regard to the diversity of cultures. Product quality is crucial. Growth is the core business goal, and our growth lies in the products of the next generation,” Addanka said.
Panel “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Your Neighbors, but Were Afraid to Ask” was one of the most visited at this year’s Weekend. The crowd spent an hour and a half in a packed hall listening to some fantastic remarks on the good and bad sides of neighbors. News directors of N1 channel had the task of asking the guests about the current situation in the Balkans, and the dialogue eventually turned into a standup comedy where everyone made fun of everyone. “They asked me one time why I was constantly criticizing the government? Would not it be nice to give them a little help? Well, OK, I’ll help them when they move. I am not really a big mover, but I will do my best”, Dragoljub Draža Petrović, editor-in-chief and columnist of Danas magazine from Serbia joked at the expense of the current government.
The panel “Is Croatia Really Going Forward?” sparked a debate among experts about whether there are two Croatias – one that wants to maintain an existing economic model and one that wants a more open economy. “Competition is always good, and we have very few private providers of educational services in our country. Private services are also few in the public sector. We should work on increasing competition within the public sector and enable the private sector to develop,” said Mladen Fruk, partner at McKinsey & Company for Croatia.