Legendary Football Referee Pierluigi Collina at the Weekend Media Festival

Only two days remain until the start of the Weekend Media Festival, the largest gathering of the media and communication industry in the region, which will take place from September 23 to 25 at the old Tobacco Factory in Rovinj.

Each subsequent Weekend is better and bigger than the previous one, and this year the festival brings the highest quality program, the most renowned speakers, and the largest number of participants, over 2000. Along with about twenty lectures and panel discussions featuring 120 experts from media and communications, this year’s Weekend also includes workshops, presentations, and promotions, all within just two days. The richness of the program is confirmed by the organizers’ decision to open a third hall. 

The Weekend Media Festival is not just a place for lectures and discussions, but also for widely known parties, central networking spots. On Thursday, the Hellish JD breakfast powered by Antena radio is announced, on Friday the After Beach party by Soundset network and Javno hr., and the 24sata party, while on Saturday the Birthday celebration of Radio Dalmacija and the Sarajevo dernek will take place.  ‘In this difficult economic situation, we are aware that it is not easy for anyone to take time, especially money, to come to the festival. Therefore, we had to offer participants added value through a higher quality program and even more content. It is evident that our efforts have been recognized and that we have hit the interests of the regional media and communication industry,’ emphasizes the director of Weekend, Tomo Ricov.

Among the many distinguished guests, Pierluigi Collina, the legendary football referee, is likely to be the most interesting to the general public, arriving as a spokesperson for MasterCard. Collina is, by profession, a financial advisor, and at the Weekend, he will speak about how to apply techniques he successfully used as a referee in the business world. Media and communication professionals may find Andrew Keen’s lecture particularly interesting, a fierce critic of the internet. Keen will talk about what he calls the ‘cult of amateurs,’ referring to the increasingly widespread phenomenon of amateurs taking on the role of trained journalists on the internet, often without any knowledge of the facts. Along with Keen, it is also worth mentioning Pete Radovich, one of the leading sports TV producers in the world, a winner of 18 Emmy awards.

The Weekend Media Festival has always been a stage for technological innovations, and this year in Rovinj, Hipersfera, an unmanned autonomous stratospheric aircraft, will be presented. This is a Croatian innovation being developed by a team of 25 young engineers and scientists, aimed at changing the aeronautics industry and initiating a wave of change in consciousness. Hipersfera is a kind of ‘eye in the sky’ that could soon replace satellites and airplanes, as well as communication towers and relays, because it is cost-competitive and technically superior.