Split Tech City Festival: preparing for this year by remembering last year

A while ago, we announced the 2024 edition of the Split Tech City Festival – an event that gathers entrepreneurs, experts, and enthusiasts from the world of technology and entrepreneurship which, for the fourth year in a row, brings inspiring stories to the beautiful setting of the Bačvice Open-Air Cinema.

So, mark your calendars for 6 and 7 September and the 4th edition of the #STCFestival! 😀

For the past two years, one day of the Festival was deemed International Day and this year is no different in that regard – September 7 is reserved for all our worldwide guests with content in English.

That doesn’t mean you aren’t welcome for both days, because, while the content of the Split Tech City Festival is always on point, we put as much emphasis on quality networking and ensuring you have a great time.

That’s the added value of #SplitTechCityFestival – the value of human connections it brings year after year!

And while networking is the icing on the cake, the #STCFestival cake is layered even before the networking starts with a rich program and pre-program.

In the coming period, we’ll be slowly revealing the program segments of this year, but while you wait there is something that can showcase what you can expect when you come to this year’s Split Tech City Festival: a throwback to its previous editions!

We remembered how it was in 2022, now let us guide you through #SplitTechCityFestival2023!

Discovering the Power of Youth in Business

In 2023, we introduced the pre-program segment to the Split Tech City Festival International Day. Therefore, last year we held the third Split Startups Meetup. We have focused on youth and entrepreneurship as two core topics for that occasion.

The first segment of this program was a panel discussion titled: “Am I Too Young to Be Taken Seriously?” This panel discussion revealed the pain points and the benefits of youth in entrepreneurship and business in general.

The group of panelists that have been tasked with that grand reveal are Ron Brumbarger, founder of Apprentice University, innovator and mentor; Blaž Perić, co-founder of SmartNest and a high school student; Ivana Perić, founder of RESOLVE and Acceleration Manager at Silicon Castles; and Suzana Špika, Head of People Operations at Postindustria.

Benefitting from New Technologies

The pre-program continued in a youthful tone with a fireside chat discussing new technologies – AI and Web3. In particular, how being young and into new technologies can be a benefit that can help you get ahead in the entrepreneurial game.

That’s why we named this fireside chat – “Get Ahead of the Game!” The ones in charge of taking us on this deep dive into new tech and its benefits in entrepreneurship are Mirela Petrović, founder of mAI way; and Antonio Perić-Mažar, CEO of Locastic.

Uncovering the International Side of Split

The official program of #InternationalDay started with an international topic! We believe Split is more than meets the eye, more than just tourism-related news that makes it to various worldwide headlines. Actually, believe is a wrong word here – we know Split is more than that.

That is why we decided to showcase that side of our city with a panel discussion titled: “International Side of Split”. During this panel discussion, the audience had the opportunity to hear about Split as an international city, not from the point of view of tourism, as we are used to, but through the perspective of people who moved to Split from various parts of the world and consciously chose it as their place to live.

The panelists who brought this part of Split to light are Jan Bodnar, Slovakian entrepreneur and the co-founder of Unique People, one of the many tech companies in Split; Geoff Bratton, an entrepreneur born in California, the co-owner of Fig restaurants, and the co-founder of the Association of Foreign Entrepreneurs; Sara Dyson, founder of Expat in Croatia originally from Texas, co-founder of the Association of Foreign Entrepreneurs, and winner of the Influential Women of Croatia award for 2023; and Piero Palevsky, founder of Poma and Staff Software Engineer originally from Boston.

Learning the Key Factors of a Successful Tech Venture

And after discovering the international side of Split, we took you across the globe! More precisely, Andreas Spechtler, the founder and CEO of Silicon Castles, has taken the audience on a worldwide journey to success with his talk titled: “Key Success Factors for Worldwide Tech Business”.

Throughout this lecture, you can discover how to drive accelerated growth, create a product or service that solves a problem, properly develop the technology that supports the product one brings to market, why IP (intellectual property) is extremely important, the importance of the complementary relationship between the market and sales, and how to enter the global market and grow.

Diving into the Future of Marketing

Any worldwide success has a lot to do with doing marketing well. That’s why we thought the Split Tech City Festival audience could benefit from learning from Dr. Aleks Jakulin and his lecture “The Future of Marketing”.

There has been a huge revolution in marketing thanks to search engines, social media, and targeted advertising. This gave rise to the direct-to-consumer (D2C) trend.

However, this type of advertising has become expensive and progressively less effective. Many of the pioneering D2C companies are now struggling.

Because of that, a new approach appeared – commerce media. Commerce media is content we all love, but now seamlessly integrated with commerce. There are 4 types of commerce media, and Aleks helped us get insight into which types will work and which are destined to fail.

Gaining Inspiration from a Rollercoaster of an Entrepreneurial Journey

Yes – we have the key factors to success. Yes – we know what the future of marketing looks like. But what can make or break an entrepreneurial journey is something entirely different. Therefore, in compiling the Split Tech City Festival program, we figured you might also benefit from an outstanding and inspiring entrepreneurial story.

This set the stage for Ivan Burazin, the CEO of Daytona, and his talk titled: “How Embracing Setbacks Shows You the Way Forward?”

This is what Ivan had to say about it: “From the entry into the world of startups over enjoying success to severe disappointments and risks – my entrepreneurial journey was a real rollercoaster of failure and success coupled with a whole range of emotions.

So, why today, after all that, do I unreservedly believe in Daytona and feel ready to play in the startup Champions League?” Well, we found that out at the third Split Tech City Festival!

Split Tech City Festival – Quality over Quantity

As you’ve seen from this throwback to the 2022 edition of the Split Tech City Festival, we care more about quality content than mere form. Our goal has always been and always will be the same: for you to leave our Festival inspired, full of new knowledge, and with broadened horizons.

We also always take into account the fact that our Festival visitors are as varied as our tech community, so we do our best to come up with a program that will have something interesting for every single one of you sitting in the audience.

That being said, it also reveals another thing: for us community is very important.

We always say, from its very first edition, that the Split Tech City Festival is a community event: organized by the community for the community.

This means that one of the most important aspects of this event is the networking which is always amazing and of equal importance as the pre-program and main stage program!

Additionally, we consider YOU a part of our community! By attending our Festival, you will be supporting the work Split Tech City does and the growth of Split’s tech ecosystem. And have a great time while you do it! So, come and be a part of this year’s #STCFestival magic! 😀