From May 7 to 10 in Rovinj, Dani komunikacija will once again gather several thousand participants from across the industry, including advertisers, agencies, media, platforms, and other key players within the communications ecosystem. With nearly 100 program segments, around 200 speakers, and the ambition to address issues that directly shape industry development, the festival once again confirms that its role extends far beyond the traditional festival framework.
The completion of the main stage lineup particularly clearly demonstrates the festival’s programmatic direction. The focus is no longer exclusively on visible campaign results, but on a deeper understanding of consumer behavior, the attention economy, market shifts, and business relationships that are redefining how communication functions today.
Global advertisers and new rules for industry partnerships
One of this year’s key speakers is Stephan Loerke, CEO of World Federation of Advertisers, who brings the perspective of global advertisers to the festival through the session Inside the Minds of Global Advertisers. As the leader of an organization that brings together more than 150 of the world’s largest brands and over 60 national advertiser associations, Loerke will address the transformation of client-agency relationships, with a particular focus on new global guidelines for agency selection and pitch processes being developed by WFA and VoxComm.
At a time when the industry is increasingly reassessing transparency, efficiency, and the sustainability of partnership models, this topic further confirms how Dani komunikacija seeks to open strategic questions of long-term significance.
Market economics from the perspective of IAB Europe
The festival’s macroeconomic and market dimension is brought by Daniel Knapp, Chief Economist at IAB Europe, through his presentation Tomorrow’s Advertising Market, Today. Knapp will analyze the European and global advertising market through investment data, regulatory frameworks, platform shifts, and budget reallocations, offering participants clearer insight into where the market is genuinely growing, where instability is emerging, and how to distinguish short-term trends from long-term transformations.
For decision-makers, this type of market context is becoming increasingly essential at a time when the industry operates under economic, technological, and regulatory pressure.
Attention as the new currency of effectiveness
Mike Follett, co-founder of Lumen Research and one of the world’s leading experts on the attention economy, further deepens the discussion around measurable communication effectiveness. Through his presentation The Long and the Short of Attention and Memory, Follett will present insights based on extensive global research into the relationship between attention and memory, including the dentsu Brand Reset study.
His work focuses on how much attention is truly necessary for communication to leave a lasting impact, why many campaigns remain merely “seen” but not remembered, and how attention metrics are increasingly becoming more relevant than traditional indicators such as reach or viewability.
Connected commerce and user experience design
Daan Klaver, co-founder and creative director of Build in Amsterdam, will open the topic of connected commerce models in Rovinj through his presentation Commerce, Designed to Connect. Drawing on experience working with global brands such as Adidas, Polaroid, and Akris, Klaver demonstrates how modern brands can no longer think in isolated channels, but instead through connected systems of experience that remain consistent regardless of platform.
His presentation further highlights the broader industry shift toward models where consumer behavior, rather than internal organizational structure, becomes the central principle of communication design.
A program reflecting broader industry transformation
Alongside these names, the main stage also gathers a range of globally relevant experts, including Jürgen Schmidhuber, Julie Supan, Mark Pollard, Chris Do, Steve Keller, Dora Pekeč, Alex Cattoni, Neil Patel, and Jule Kim.
It is a program that clearly demonstrates how Dani komunikacija this year is increasingly shifting its focus from festival form toward content that offers the industry concrete insights into AI, strategy, leadership, the attention economy, digital growth, and the future of business models.
