For years, Weekend has accustomed its audience to Rovinj picking up a slightly faster rhythm ahead of the weekend in late September. This year, that rhythm started a day earlier. Weekend.19 opened on Thursday for the first time, while the festival program began at the Grand Park Hotel Rovinj with the first edition of Health.Weekend.
Medicine is only one part of the conversation. The program brought together experts from technology, pharmaceuticals, business and the wellbeing industry, with health that increasingly extends beyond the doctor’s office becoming the common theme. Smart devices, home diagnostics, employee health, longevity and the future of the healthcare system are part of a change in the way people monitor their own health and what they expect from healthcare services.
Tomo Ricov, director of Weekend, pointed out at the beginning that the idea did not emerge overnight.
“Health.Weekend is not a new idea – behind it are Iva and Krešo Pihler, who recognised the potential of connecting healthcare with the energy and format of Weekend. Today we are at the first Health.Weekend, with an enormous turnout that confirms the idea has arrived at the right moment. This is only the first of a total of eight festivals, and already tomorrow we are moving to the old Factory,” Ricov said.
Ana Soldo, president of the Croatian Chamber of Pharmacists, also stressed that the goal is not to remain only at the level of exchanging experiences among experts.
“We want to transform the system and the relationship towards health, and let this event be our first step in that direction,” she said.
How much that relationship is already changing was demonstrated by the panel “Health Industry, Global Trends”. Victoria Loomes, Head of Trends at TrendWatching, spoke about technologies and new services that are raising consumer expectations, as well as how experience from one industry very quickly becomes a benchmark for all others.
“Consumer trends are actually patterns of new expectations. People may not change that quickly, but every new technology and experience changes what they expect next time – how quickly they will get an answer, how accessible the service will be and how tailored it will be to them. Those expectations do not stop at one industry: what we expect from a healthcare service today, tomorrow we expect from other services as well, and also from our employers,” Loomes said.
One of those changes is already happening in patients’ homes. At the panel under the patronage of Medikor “Healthcare Is Moving Home”, the discussion focused on home diagnostics, self-monitoring and telemedicine. Prim. dr. sc. Borka Pezo Nikolić, a cardiologist at KBC Zagreb, pointed to the importance of reliable measurements and their proper interpretation. “Scepticism is the only welcome approach, we cannot be too sure of ourselves, and I support patients carrying out measurements at home.”
Mario Ravić, Business Owner Services at Ericsson Nikola Tesla, also linked the rise of self-monitoring to the pressure that longer life expectancy and a growing number of patients place on the healthcare system.
“The self-monitoring trend is happening because of mathematics. We are living longer and there are more of us, while the healthcare system cannot keep up with that on its own.”
The first day of Health.Weekend did not end there. The program continues with topics including the future of pharmacy, longevity, resilience, organisational excellence and the development of the healthcare system.
Ana Soldo will speak about the role of the pharmacist of the future, while Jack Kreindel, founder and CEO of WellFounded Health, will raise the question of whether longer and better-quality lives are built in specialised clinics or in a healthier society.
Mirna Radošević, Executive President for Culture and Organisational Excellence at Salveo CEE Group, will speak about resilience, focus and mindset. Financing, technology and what the healthcare system could become by the end of the decade will be discussed at the panel “Health 2030”. Taking part in the discussion are Assoc. Prof. Ana Bobinac, PhD, Head of the Centre for Pharmacoeconomics and Health Economics and Vice Dean for Science at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Rijeka, Filip Glavan, director of Croatia Polyclinic, and Ivan Šipek, co-founder of Mediion technologies, moderated by Ognjen Bagatin.
At the same time, Health.Weekend serves as an introduction to a much broader program that takes over Rovinj from Friday. At the Rovinj Tobacco Factory, Finance.Weekend, HR.Weekend, Tech.Weekend powered by Telemach and Education.Weekend will be held on Friday and Saturday. Energy.Weekend powered up by E.ON is scheduled for Friday at the Grand Park Hotel, while Investment.Weekend will take place on Saturday at the old Tobacco Factory.
After health, the program therefore opens up towards media, finance, human resources, technology, education, energy and investments.
Thursday, however, will not end with the final health panel. For the first time, Slušaona powered by Rotary Audio is coming to the Rovinj Tobacco Factory, a program intended for lovers of vinyl and high-quality music listening. It will be opened by Emil Tedeschi, aka SMS Deutsch.
The evening also brings the MTV Farewell Party. Stanko Bondža and Anđelko Preradović will bring back the atmosphere of the MTV era through a DJ/VJ performance featuring music and music videos.
The nineteenth Weekend has therefore gained its own Thursday for the first time. Health opened the program, and from Friday the conversation expands to almost all the industries that bring audiences back to Rovinj every autumn.
