At the beginning of this month, we completed the announcements for this year’s Split Tech City Festival main stage program. So you’re already very familiar with all who will step on the stage of Bačvice Open-Air Cinema on September 7 during this year’s #STCFestival International Day.

And then we started revealing what you can expect during the Pre-Program, too. 😉

While we were slowly and steadily working on this year’s Festival edition, the tickets were already being sold from the first announcement and, with each passing day, more and more of you are getting ready to join us at the Festival.

We really appreciate that kind of support! We try to show our appreciation in many ways: from keeping the prices the same as last year, over tailoring the program to the desires of our community, to offers such as Early Bird tickets and special discounts for students.

Therefore, we’re looking forward to hosting you at this year’s International Day and making sure you have a great and inspiring time! 😀

Here’s what you can expect during the Pre-Program of this year’s Split Tech City Festival on September 7.

Important to note is that this part of the Festival is set in a Mediterranean pine forest overlooking Bačvice Bay and the island of Brač which is always a hit because it represents the true vibes of our #MediterraneanTechHub! 😉

Split Tech City Festival 2024 Pre-Program: Silicon Castles

Silicon Castles is a Tech Company Builder and Strategic Business Accelerator for technology startups focusing on intellectual property (IP) licensing businesses located in Salzburg, Austria but has also been a big part of Split’s tech ecosystem for several years.

The Silicon Castles team works on developing European Diamonds: tech startups with unique business ideas, scalable technology, and outstanding intellectual property – three things they consider key to achieving global success. Aside from focusing on developing European Diamonds, Silicon Castles also invests in early-stage startups with a great team, a promising idea, and innovative technology.

To the pre-program of this year’s Split Tech City Festival the Silicon Castles team is bringing an engaging panel discussion titled: “AI Beyond ChatGPT”.

The panelists for this particular Split Tech City Festival pre-program panel discussion will be Konstantin Mirin (Postindustria), Matthias Röder (Beethoven AI Project), and Vitalii Yehorov (Red Leg) moderated by Andreas Spechtler (Silicon Castles).

Split Tech City Festival 2024 Pre-Program: CroAI

CroAI – Croatian Artificial Intelligence Association was founded in 2019 and is a community of tech optimists bringing together crazy, creative minds who believe they can make the best products in the world.

They unite big corporations and small startups, lawmakers and artists, business leaders and academics – all under one association to share knowledge and push boundaries. CroAI’s mission is to make Croatia a leading hub for AI innovation through collaboration and creativity.

To this year’s Split Tech City Festival they’re bringing a fireside chat titled: “The Solo Founder’s AI Odyssey”.

This fireside chat will explore the creation of Sulie through an interactive conversation with Dominik Šafarić, Sulie’s founder and CEO, moderated by Lea Sorić, Community Manager at CroAI.

Split Tech City Festival 2024 Pre-Program: IAB Croatia

IAB Croatia is a collective of leaders in digital marketing that in two and a half years gathered more than 110 companies that work together on market standardization and the development of the digital economy.

They are the ambassadors of the interactive marketing industry, ensuring the stability and development of the profession, and setting high industry standards by educating the market and insisting on the highest standards and knowledge.

To this year’s Split Tech City Festival they’re bringing a very specific type of Vox Populi panel discussion – “Tech Trends in Marketing to Watch”.

While you explore the latest tech that is creating a new form of digital marketing on steroids with Jan de Jong (Co-Founder of Webpower Adria, Member of IAB Croatia), Anja Gadža (PR & Events Lead at Sofascore, Member of IAB Croatia), and Ivana Postružin (Digital Marketing Group Leader at Hrvatski Telekom, Member of IAB Croatia), hosted by Dunja Ivana Ballon (Director of IAB Croatia, HURA & DK Festival), don’t be afraid to give your inner voice an outlet.

During this particular discussion, you will be invited to voice your opinion by raising a FUCK or LOVE card to show whether you’re a lover, hater, supporter, or fierce opponent.

Split Tech City Festival 2024 Pre-Program: NEXT Youth Conference

The final part of the pre-program is brought to you by the NEXT Youth Conference: the #SplitTechCityPowered conference for future generations whose first edition was held last year. The main organizational team consisted of three young Split Tech City volunteers – high school students Lana Todorovski, Timea Podrug, and Karlo Marasović. 

These students of Split’s School of Design, Graphics, and Sustainable Construction, who are majoring in web development, brought great lecturers and panelists to NEXT and enabled hundreds of high school students, university students, and other young people in the audience to hear inspiring stories from the world of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, and personal development.

The same goal exists in bringing the NEXT Youth Conference in the form of a panel discussion to the Split Tech City Festival – we wanted to showcase that Split is the city of youth and there is space for future generations at our Festival, as well.

To this year’s Split Tech City Festival the NEXT crew is bringing a panel discussion of a simple but loaded title: “Youth Leadership”.

The NEXT crew gathered panelists who represent organizations that actively engage Split’s youth in a variety of activities that build leadership skills and promote youth participation in several different ways: Nikolina Barada (Student Business Incubator), Sanja Kosor (Jedna Mladost), and Mia Petrović (Neutroni) who will be moderated by Michael Freer, eternal supporter of youth engagement.

Split Tech City Festival: Pre-Program, Main Stage & Beyond

As you can see, the Pre-Program at this year’s Split Tech City Festival is very varied and perfectly tailored for our audience.

But that is not the only thing your Festival ticket brings! 😀

Aside from the Pre-Program and the main stage program, you can expect another #SplitTechCityFestival highlight: the networking which is always fun and full of interesting people you can meet, and accompanied by tasty food, great drinks, and fab music courtesy of our DJ. 😉

Get your tickets so you don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to attend a really great and inspiring event!

We can’t wait to welcome you all to the Bačvice Open-Air Cinema on September 7. 😀

p.s. There are some rumors about an afterparty, too… Stay tuned! 😉