Last Friday, on 28th of May 2021, Split Tech City had the chance to participate in a conference aimed at all digital nomads, those yet to become one, as well as all those interested in the topic of remote work and how it affects and will continue to affect the labor market. The event was held in the hybrid form: offline at Wespa Spaces in Zagreb, as well as online in the form of a live stream.

The conference, organized by JCI Zagreb, was a two-part event. The first part of the event was reserved for speakers. During this part of the conference, Jan de Jong, the founder of the Digital Nomad Association in Croatia, and representatives of Osijek Software City and Split Tech City shared some insights about their work and their experiences.

The second part of the conference was held in the form of a panel discussion titled “Digital Nomads – Just a Trend or the Future of the Labor Market” and moderated by marketing expert Tanja Džido. Panelists were Jan de Jong – representing Digital Nomad Association Croatia, Steve Tsentserensky – representing digital nomads and their experiences in Croatia, and representatives of the Ministry of Labor, as well as Osijek Software City and Split Tech City.

The panel discussion, while mainly focused on its primary topic of the effect the digital nomad and remote work movements had on the labor market, still touched upon some other aspects of this lifestyle and how they affect our society today. Being a digital nomad, Steve shared his insights into the digital nomad lifestyle and his experience with applying and being approved for Croatia’s digital nomad residence permit, as well as his insights on living in Croatia.

Being the one who gave the final push to the Croatian Government to create Croatia’s digital nomad residence permit, Jan de Jong shared his point of view of how this movement started changing Croatian society and what potential it might have for entrepreneurs and young people.

Representatives of Osijek Software City and Split Tech City, the associations that are both focused on gathering the local tech community together, provided insight into their experiences related to this global movement, both from the aspect of the local community at large, as well as the tech ecosystem within it, and how digital nomads can contribute to it, but also what our communities can do for digital nomads.

The Ministry of Labor representative gave some great insight into lawmaking and how challenging it can be to adapt the current Labor Law to the changes happening in the world where remote work is used more often than ever before. The lawmakers are presented with some unforeseen challenges to create a unique Law that will be able to adequately protect the workers who cannot work remotely, as well as those who can and want to do so.

All in all, the conference was very insightful and offered different perspectives about this topic. Since it was streamed live, videos of both parts of the conference will also be available and we will share them with you as soon as they are.

We would like to thank JCI Zagreb for the invitation to take part in this event and commend them for their excellent organization. We are happy the topics discussed during the panel were recognized as important and we hope there will be more events of this kind in the future. Split Tech City considers digital nomads as a part of our community, now and in the future, and we agree that discussing the things we as a society still need to work on is important to make digital nomads feel welcome in Croatia.