The Business Club Lider, Weekend Media Festival, and Day of Big Plans have proven in a week that the virtual world is still not enough. Those who forget to meet their business partners in person are lost.
|
Written by: Miodrag Šajatović |
It is encouraging that even the web generation feels that life in the virtual world is not complete. |
|
Thursday: City Café in Zagreb. Business Club Lider in collaboration with AutoZubak. Topic: Innovations for profit and savings. From Friday to Sunday: the old TDR factory in Rovinj. The third Weekend Media Festival. Common theme: The future of media. Tuesday: Sheraton Hotel in Zagreb. Topic: Day of Big Plans, what will 2011 be like. Three events in one week. What do they have in common? Besides the fact that all three examples are related to the Lider editorial office (two are our conferences, and for Rovinj, we prepared a special on the media industry), the common denominator is – live networking. No matter how much internet technology allows for virtual gatherings on social networks, teleconferences, and other communication platforms, live gatherings have no real substitute. Those who completely ‘bury’ themselves in front of a computer and then in front of a TV, neglecting the good old meetings, conferences, and gatherings, will sooner or later become part of what is called consumerism. Those who want to manage themselves, have a real network of business friends or interest groups, cannot live only virtually. The Motivator Biljecki event we held on the topic of innovation was therapeutic for most of us participants. Entrepreneurs and managers in Croatia, no matter how difficult it is for them, do not like to show how hard it is, how depressed they can be, how often they are overwhelmed by despair, and how often they ask themselves ‘what did I need this for’. They can read as much as they want about the need for adaptation, innovation…, but until they find themselves among the best, those who innovatively engaged in the fight against the recession in time, it will be hard for them to regain hope. At the gathering in the City Café, it was enough to listen live to Zvonko Biljecki, the owner of Geofoto, and awaken their motivation for new innovations, for anticipating trends in their own business. I admit, due to many articles about Geofoto, I had already become somewhat tired of that company, but when one feels the ‘vibe’ live – it is something completely different. The same was true during the three days of mingling with domestic and regional players from the media industry at the Weekend Media Festival. There are sparks that occasionally flare up among friends on Facebook throughout the year, and something entirely different when discussions take place face to face, on one of the panels or in one of the Rovinj cafes around the Adris management building and the halls of the old cigarette factory converted for lectures. Therefore, participating in the panel on the relationship between media and PR professionals was very useful. Precious body language We told each other what drives us. In response to the claim that their business is obviously going too well and that they have become uninventive, reducing their actions to ‘bringing’ journalists to press conferences and urging editors to publish interviews (as if there are no other journalistic forms) with their clients, some of the public relations industry employees found themselves offended. But in the meeting with one of the main players the next day, it was learned that he accepted the criticism live and asked his people to shake off the routine. Of course, we in the media could also acknowledge some messages from the other side. ‘Media professionals of the middle older generation’ can be particularly pleased that even the young population in the industry, no matter how much they ‘hang out’ on Facebook or Twitter, shows a strong need for live interaction. There is still hope for them. I do not know how it will be when today’s 10-year-olds enter the workforce, but if they neglect live meetings, they will be much poorer than us who have not been completely infected by the internet. However, the ‘collision’ with 300 participants of the second Day of Big Plans, a conference we organize with HUP aimed at providing as many assessments as possible about the upcoming business year, was confirmation that physical meetings are irreplaceable. |
|
