27.9.2017
This year Combis Conference is being held in a new, three-day format, with the motto Challenge the Future. On the first Conference day, a great public interest was prompted by the lecture of Robert Kopal Ph.D., Asst. Prof., on the topic of social networks analysis.
The eleventh edition of Combis Conference, one of the largest regional technology conferences, has started on Wednesday in the first and the largest conference centre in Croatia - Convention Centre Šibenik.
At the beginning of the three-day gathering, member of the Board and Chief Development Officer in Combis Mario Vojvoda pointed out that Combis Conference entered the new decade of its existence with many novelties - a new direction has been defined in the organization's concept, starting from longer duration to a series of additional content and non-IT content. In addition, Vojvoda stressed that one of the greatest achievements of the first decade of the Conference was forming a broad high-tech community of experts and users who are leading together in market trends.
"Together we build better IT systems and applications, we develop and integrate, create a better business, and hopefully a better world around us. Combis just had the best business year in the history of the company. However, we are always focused on the future. On experimenting, building new things, on development and what's yet to come in the IT world. We are always a part of change and of transformation into something even better, something that is currently even difficult to imagine", said Vojvoda.
Luka Markota, Architecture Lead from Cisco company - this year's platinum Conference sponsor said: "Combis and Cisco have been successfully collaborating for many years and we are extremely proud that we have numerous innovative IT projects behind us. The power of collaboration is also visible at the Combis Conference, which year after year encourages, but also directs the technological development of the region. And that's precisely why I am pleased that Cisco is a part of the Combis Conference project from the very beginning, all 11 years. Digital transformation is happening everywhere and it affects all industries, with network as a platform in the heart of this digital transformation and security, automated infrastructure and collaboration as the foundation. Today I can proudly say that Cisco and Combis as partners, know the solution, which we will present to you in the next two days."
Through the motto Challenge the Future, Conference goal is to encourage discussion on future of technology and challenges in the process of developing advanced solutions and services. Combis' experts, as well as visiting experts will present complex case studies, new knowledge and trends, and insight into the exclusive results of projects of the companies that have already started their own digital evolutions.
The plenary lecture powered by Cisco was held by Robert Kopal, Ph.D., Asst. Prof.. With interesting examples from telecommunication industry, banking, suppression of corporate fraud, HR and national security, Kopal clarified to the public the concept of social networks analysis and the direct business benefits it provides.
"It is important to raise awareness of how connected we are, and what connectivity actually means. We shape the networks ourselves, but our networks also shape us. We are influenced by our friends, but also by friends of friends of friends. Furthermore, networks have their own lives and respect their own rules that may be different from the rules of the people who make the network. Some of the consequences are 6 degrees of separation between any two persons and 3 degrees of influence on the related persons. Along with market mechanisms, we should also implement network mechanisms in business models", Kopal explained in the introduction.
The next evolutionary phase of understanding the networks mechanics is social physics which describes mathematical links between information and flow of ideas on the one hand, and human behavior on the other, said Kopal. Thus, for example, calculations of 'social conductivity' and 'social friction' can be used to define the likelihood of an information cascade that allows forecasting trends in many industries.
The Conference started in a somewhat more casual style, and in continuation of the first day the participants can expect the announced novelties such as CoCo Dating – innovative business networking in a relaxed atmosphere, CoCo BeerUp and CoCo Quiz. On Thursday, after the opening ceremony of the 11th edition of Combis Conference, there will be a plenary lecture by Jonas Kjellberg, one of the creators of Skype and presentations which are this year divided into five theme areas: Combis Solutions, Connected Future, It's All About Technology, Securityand Redefined Workplace.
For the third Conference day, organizers are announcing soft skills workshop and a series of lectures on IT security and inspirational presentations on the topic of Combis' vision of the IT future.
This year's Conference gathered a record number of 500 visitors. With Hrvatski Telekom, partner of the Conference, Combis Conference is supported by platinum sponsor Cisco, gold sponsors Citrix, Commvault, Dell EMC and Intel, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Palo Alto Networks, Veeam Software and Wacom Europe GmbH, silver sponsors Lexmark and VMware, sponsor Lenovo and media sponsors ICTbusiness.info, Jutarnji list, Lider, Mreža, Netokracija, Novi list, Studentski.hr, ŠibenikIN, tportal.hr and Večernji list. The Conference is also supported by Euroherc insurance, the official insurer of Combis Conference and Algebra, academic partner of Combis Conference.