Even though the very first one, the new meeting point of communications industry, marketing, media and business in the center of Zagreb, Picnic sparked huge interest. More than a thousand communication professionals, managers and students on Monday night completely filled cafe Johann Franck, to hear the lecture by Russell Siegelman, an investor from the Silicon Valley and a professor at Stanford Business School.
“In the next 20 years we can expect another two or three places that will be successful and innovative like the Silicon Valley. I do not know where they will emerge, but they might emerge in Croatia, if you create a favorable environment for innovative entrepreneurship,” said Siegelman.
Key elements of such environment, according to Siegelman, are quality educational institutions, innovative companies from which future innovators will come, more venture capital funds and business angels, and successful business leaders who inspire new entrepreneurs. Also very important is the culture of accepting failure as a normal part of business, because it brings greater willingness for risk and experimentation, Siegelman added. As the most important skills for success he considers communication skills, or the ability to convey ones ideas, and as an area in which it’s currently the most profitable to invest he stated Big Data and health and biology.
“We knew the lecture by Russell Siegelman will garner great interest, but we were still pleasantly surprised by the number of visitors, which briefly resulted in a long line in front of Johann Franck. Picnic has obviously struck the right moment and goal. It has met the great need for gathering of people from the communications industry in a relaxed atmosphere in Zagreb. After such response, it is our obligation to prepare the next Picnic to be even better. See you again in two months,” said Nikola Vrdoljak, director of the agency 404, and Tomo Ricov, director of the agency Pepermint.
At the first Picnic Siegelman was accompanied by students of the postgraduate MBA program at some of the most prestigious US business schools, Stanford and Yale. Three innovative Croatian startups also presented themselves, Bellabeat, Oradian and Photomath. After the lecture, many participants of Picnic remained for the second part of the event, which consisted of socializing and fun with music by the best DJs.
Picnic is organized by the agencies 404 and Pepermint, which also organize the largest communications festival in the region, Weekend Media Festival.
