The Slovenian Advertising Festival (SOF) once again this spring turns Portorož into a regional stage for creativity, business and open industry debate. Magazine Grando on 14 and 15 May brings together agency leaders, brand managers and creatives who are not coming for validation of the existing, but for movement forward.
Among the speakers setting that tone is Dominic Czaja, founder and CEO of DOJO from Germany, a man whose campaigns regularly ignite public attention and then turn that attention into concrete business results.
Czaja launched DOJO in 2006 immediately after university, without capital or experience, but with a clear stance toward an industry that, as he says, too often accepts worse conditions and plays defence. Today the agency is known for viral and provocative campaigns for clients such as Spotify and HBO, but also for its ability to turn media polarisation into a strategic advantage.
Among the creative projects, the viral video for Mustafa’s Gemüse Kebap, provocative posters for EasyJet Inländer raus and the campaign Behind German Walls for the Berlin City Senate stand out in particular.
At SOF he will deliver a lecture on 15 May at 10:30 titled The Audacity Advantage: Saying No Isn’t Arrogance – It’s a Business Strategy. The focus is a question many agencies avoid: why in times of economic uncertainty do we accept smaller budgets, worse conditions and projects without real value?
Czaja argues that agencies are not subcontractors waiting for crumbs, but partners solving multimillion business challenges. The message is clear: the courage to say “no” is not arrogance, but a strategy of long-term sustainability and professional dignity.
Alongside Czaja, the SOF stage will also host Fabio Seidl, global director of creativity and brand at X from the USA, Fabrice Plazolles, executive director of Havas Playa from France, David Schwen, creative director from SDA, Dave Birss, an artificial intelligence expert from the United Kingdom, Darja Teržan, general director of SPP Delikatesni namazi from Atlantic Group, and Tomislav Čizmić, president of the management board of Telemach Slovenia. Different contexts, but a shared question: how to build brands and businesses at a time when security often proves to be the greatest risk.
SOF 2026 therefore offers not only inspiration, but also uncomfortable yet necessary conversations about the value of creative work, industry self-confidence and the responsibility of brands toward society. Portorož will once again in May be the place where creativity is measured not only by ideas, but also by attitude.
