The 16th Weekend Media Festival in Rovinj was successfully completed

"Weekend.16 exceeded all expectations! It was fantastic to enjoy again the incredible atmosphere, the view of the full halls and the satisfied faces of the record 6000 visitors who enjoyed the last weekend of September. We once again proved that we are a festival - a leader in the exchange of experiences, great energy, friendships and the creation of business partnerships, as well as a festival of new ideas." he said Tomo Ricov, program director of the Weekend Media Festival. which took place again this year under the general patronage of the Adris group.

Artificial intelligence is ubiquitous, of course younger generations will also develop with it, but it is up to us to learn about all its possibilities, educate ourselves, inform ourselves and accept the positive changes it will bring, was the focus of the panel Open about AI. A dynamic discussion from an AI expert Boris Debić, director of ZŠEM, Mislav Malenica, president and CEO of the Croatian Association of Mindsmiths and Joška Mrndžeta, director of the Adriatics region of Google, which he moderated Aco Momčilović, expert and consultant, Futurehr, concluded with the message that it is not so much the technology that is important as the fact that the era we are facing is a new revolution. Boris Jokic, director of the Institute for Social Research, concluded in his lecture that the development of digital technologies and artificial intelligence have radically changed all aspects of our lives and that private space almost no longer exists.

Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean diplomat, former President of the UN Security Council and an expert on international relations, was on the panel Has the West Lost? shared incredible insights about the future, geopolitical changes and Asia's influence on the West. "The next 10 years will be the 10 most exciting years in geopolitics," Mahbubani said, noting that never before in human history have we watched two incredible forces of equal size and power clash. "This is going to rock the world, fasten your seat belts!" said Mahbubani from the inspirational lecture.

A lively discussion took place on the panel - Where are the mistakes of PR people? "The problem is not that too much information flows to us, but usually the problem is that PR people want to control the work of journalists, sometimes with political, sometimes with commercial power, and they think they have the power to control information. In short, it bothers journalists because they want information that PR people don't want to give, and PR people push information that is not uninteresting to the journalist because it is of a promotional nature. The audience is at a loss because there is a conflict between two currents." were the words Tomislav Klauški, a journalist from 24 sata, who participated in the panel with Ivano Galić Baksa, director of marketing and communications of United Media and Ruža Veljović, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Wireles Media Group and Vladimir Preselj, director of Millenium promotion. Zoran Turković, chief executive officer of 24 sata, Aleksandar Stanković, TV presenter, spoke about the influence of the media on the perception of entrepreneurs. Zoran Šprajc, RTL, editor and presenter, Hrvoje Bujas, president of the Voice of Entrepreneurs Association and Tihomir Ladisic, N1, director of the informative program on the panel Controversni podjetnik powered by UGP, which he moderated Petar Štefanić.

"At the beginning of the 90s, the word entrepreneur was mostly associated with crime, and the whole idea of UGP was to make the word entrepreneur a term for people who create new values. The word businessman is a person who has reached a position through a political connection, and therefore we must distance these two concepts. Of course, politics works in the media, but there are also entrepreneurs who would like influence and power." Bujas said.

Although the mass media are no longer the kings of media culture as before, they remain alive and strong, and technology has changed their dominance and, paradoxically, made them more powerful, the thesis of the lecture How data and artificial intelligence are shaping today's DOOH and the last mass media that leading names in the field of DOOH – Kai-Marcus Thäsler, a member of the Board of Directors of the World Outdoor Advertising Organization (WOO) and Denis Gaumondie, a pioneer and world leader in outdoor digital advertising and retail display measurement, shared their stories and experiences. "It's easiest to give up, the hardest to continue" is the message of this year's Pušiona 2.0 panel, where successful people revealed their less successful stories, while the insurmountable differences between boomers, generation Z and millennials, i.e. flower children and rockers and the young generation that listens to trap, explain the musician Relja Popović and Zembo Latifa, Đorđe Trbović, co-founder and CEO of IDJ, and Milan Majerović Stilinović, ZAMP. They found that although boomers often don't understand trap culture, it has become a phenomenon that has united the Balkans, demonstrating the power of music as a means of bringing people together and fostering connection.

Sports fans were treated to a one-on-one conversation between the multiple Emmy winner and the creative director of CBS Sports Five Radoviches and famous Croatian basketball players Damjan Rudež titled How to Sell Soccer (and the Destination) to Americans. "The example of the Superbowl confirms that for Americans the show is more important than the sport," said Radovich, who together with Rudež announced the new edition of the Sunset Sports Media Festival, a project that brought together world stars of sports, promotions and entertainment in Zadar and took a step forward in the promotion of Croatia on the American market. The mayor of Rijeka is on the panel Everyone is talking about Rijeka - the new Rijeka perspective Marko Filipovic and director of the Tourist Association of the town of Rijeka Petar Škarpa pointed out that in recent years many opportunities have opened up in Rijeka for the revitalization of infrastructure and many cultural and economic facilities - from a new cultural quarter, a new library, a bus station to a new nautical marina. All these investments led to a paradigm shift – the river from a port and industrial city is becoming a tourist destination. Together with the moderator Neveno Rendela Vejzović, director of Prime Time Communications, also announced the second regional conference Women's Weekend, which will take place in Rijeka from March 7 to 10, 2024 in the new space of Art kvarta and will certainly contribute to a new perspective of Rijeka.

What is the audience laughing at on the banks of Vardar and what at the foot of Triglav? For which audience is it more important that something be funny, and for which is it enough that it's just funny? These questions were answered by the wittiest group of Vikenda - stand-up comedians Tin Vodopivec, Goran Vinčić and Peđa Bajović and journalist and presenter Zoran Kesić, who does not believe that his audience is disturbed by nationalist issues, even though it is still a topical issue in our region, which would export our politics to Europe instead of political satire. We rounded off the Weekend Media Festival with a party until the morning hours with an excellent Dutch-New Zealand band My Baby and on RNB Confusion in the organization DJ Medo and DJ Turk and Zembo Latifa and ended this year's Weekend.16 with great music, lots of fun and socializing.