25.9.2017
Participation of HT employees at a large number of panel discussions, presentation of a humanoid female robot named Pepper, the running app SightRun, gyroscope, and hashtag printer are only a few of the contributions provided by HT in Rovinj
HT stand
The 10th edition of Weekend Media Festival was held in Rovinj from 21 to 24 September. Hrvatski Telekom was one of the general sponsors of the Festival, which has brought together over 5,000 participants. This year, HT has absolutely done its best at all levels.
In the indoor exhibition area, HT stand presented the latest technology solutions:
- The female robot (fembot) Pepper was first presented in Croatia, and she participated in the panel discussion entitled “STEM je t'aime: The Future Has Already Started”. Hashtag printer presented the latest technology in printing of photos posted on Instagram (the printer recognises all the photos shared on Instagram with a specific hashtag and instantly prints them in small pocket-size format within 45 seconds). Throughout the duration of WMF, all the photos with a specific hashtag were being printed on stickers for the creation of a mosaic-like visual with the image of Pepper;
- The running app SightRun was presented, for which WMF/Rovinj route had been prepared and its free download was available for all the visitors of WMF;
- Sea Hero VR game is a new VR game, whose first promotion was at WMF (VR technology enables a more comprehensive and intuitive diagnostic assessment of navigational problems which are the first symptoms of dementia).
In the outdoor premises, there was the adrenaline zone with a gyroscope.
Around 200,000 ICT experts required for digital transformation in Croatia
Boris Drilo
Around 200,000 ICT experts are required for digital transformation in Croatia, and yet their current number in Croatia is around 50,000. Around 1,500 of them complete their university studies on an annualised level, which means we need around a decade to reach the desired ratio of experts, as pointed out by Boris Drilo, Member of the Management Board of Hrvatski Telekom for Technology and IT at the commencement of the lecture entitled “STEM, je t'aime: The Future Has Already Started”.
During an interesting lecture about the preparedness of the Croatian education system for the STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the moderator Nino Đula talked with Nenad Bakić, Advisor to the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović for Digital Transformation and STEM, Boris Jokić, a scientist from the Institute for Social Research, the entrepreneur Mate Rimac, and Marko Matijević, Editor-in-Chief of the portal srednja.hr.
"A student who has completed STEM education earns substantially, quickly achieves career advancement, and their earnings soon exceed around HRK 60,000. The tax that they need to pay on this amount is so huge that the STEM people are eventually left without almost half their earnings. That is why they leave and opt for places where this is not the case", stressed Drilo.
According to Drilo, in order to prevent it, the state needs to provide assistance, yet also the entire society needs to have a clear picture of what it wants to be and achieve by 2020 and 2030.
"The Croatian economy shows growth of around 3%, as opposed to other economies that record a growth between 5% and 6%. The difference is primarily due to technological development. Hence, we are good, but we are not the best. STEM is an immense opportunity, we have proved to have solid experts who are achieving excellent results abroad. Nevertheless, we need to invest more into digital competences of the entire population in Croatia", noted Drilo.
Like the other interlocutors, he also believes that youth education requires more investment, yet he does not ignore those over 50 and 60, who account for around 35% of the Internet users.
HT – STEM UP Accelerator
Saša Kramar
Development challenges of new categories of products, consumers’ wishes and needs, the positive and the negative aspects of neighbours and Croatia from the economic aspect were only some of the topics addressed during the panel discussion entitled "When new Packaging is no Longer Sufficient".
"Telecom companies long ago ceased operating only as providers of fixed and mobile services, and they are currently Internet companies", as emphasised by Saša Kramar, Member of the Management Board of Hrvatski Telekom and COO Business, adding as follows: "The networks we currently have are the basis of digital transformation and other industries, yet it does not mean that we necessarily regard them as competitors, we only expect to be treated on an equal footing from the regulatory aspect. Since a long time ago, HT developed a wide range of new categories of services, and in some of them, such as IT services for corporate users or Smart City services, we are already market leaders".
Only 3% of the launched start-ups manage to develop into successful businesses, whilst 97% of them fail, resulting in losses incurred by their investors. What everyone is counting on is STEM. The projects that are currently successful on the technology ideas market were pointed out by the participants in the panel discussion entitled "HT as a STEM UP Accelerator".
As the largest regional start-up accelerator, HT invested in Aspida and they have recently jointly presented the mobile app named Tvizzy.
"It is an app that has thus far had 5,000 downloads, which provides the highlights of the Croatian First Football League of three countries in the region through innovative notifications. The users receive a notification on their mobile phone every time a goal is scored in the Croatian First Football League in high resolution, and the video can be viewed also on the lock-screen, explained Marin Erceg, CEO in Aspida.
SightRun is a mobile app intended also as a monument tracker in the city for the runners, and they do not need to stop during the training session.
"The app combines running and sightseeing, striving to enable the runners to go wherever they want. We have provided 4 routes especially for Weekend Media Festival, the longest of which was 6.5 kilometres and the shortest only of 2.5 kilometres, and it guides you through the centre of the city of Rovinj", stated Hrvoje Horvat, Chief Technical Officer.
The panel discussion also saw the participation of Bojan Mušćet from HT Corporate Communications and Marin Trošelj, Chief Executive Officer at STEMI.
A brief overview of the topics addressed in other panel discussions
Pepper fembot
Moreover, during Weekend Media Festival, tricks and tips for winning the hackathon Hack It! in 24 hours have been shared, with the participation of Ana Pauzar, Head of the HT Product Enablers and New Business Section, as well as Bojan Opačak, co-founder of the start-up Maggie, who was last year’s winner.
The state-of-affairs in the PR sector has deteriorated, although PR agencies still have a better reputation, according to a research conducted by the Croatian Public Relations Association, as an introduction to the panel entitled “PR-10 Years Later”.
"There is currently ample potential to PR, due to the changes that are underway. Consumer habits are changing, the quantity of available data is greater than ever, and the technology has advanced more than we were ever able to anticipate some 10 years ago. The challenges ahead are increasing, and the biggest challenge is to present our industry in the right way", stressed Nina Išek Međugorac, Director of Corporate Communications in Hrvatski Telekom.
Lost in translation is a situation that all those involved in the communication between agencies and clients have been faced with at least once in their lifetime. The issues of what it is like to receive a good brief, what the problems faced on a daily basis by both agencies and clients are, and the point in which a communication breakdown occurs were tackled during the panel discussion entitled "Lost in Translation".
"If the relations between the parties involved are good and if they are based on confidence and long-term co-operation, the agency will simply identify the problems the client deals with and provide the solutions required", noted Sanja Milinović, Director of the Go-to Market Department in Hrvatski Telekom, who during her career happened to experience what it is like to walk both in the shoes of an agency and in the client’s shoes.
Each advertiser should have a digital eco-system that connects all the channels, either online or offline. The possibility of different interpretation of the same idea through various platforms allows us to simultaneously target different profiles of users and not only develop an interactive platform, but also a platform that connects with the users, pointed out Fran Mubrin, Creative Director of Agencija 404 during the panel discussion entitled "How to be Creative in the Time of Mobile?".
Digital channels account for only 5% of advertising on Nova TV, whilst, within these 5%, only one fifth of the budget is re-allocated to mobile channels", explained Maja Blumenšajn from Nova TV.
Sonja Stahor Gašpar from HT has been faced with an identical problem, and she believes the solution is to be found in training for advertisers.
"When you start working in a large company with huge budgets, you realise there is little room for online. Each of us has a role to connect the technology and data in order to successfully target those groups that are relevant for us and simultaneously enjoy what we do", concluded Stahor Gašpar.
Croatia has been lagging behind for a long period of time and that did not start at the beginning of the 1990’s. This century is extremely unfavourable for Croatia. I would take the year 2000 as the point in which the problem started manifesting itself, noted Velimir Šonje from Arhivanalitika and Economic Lab during the panel discussion entitled "Every Day in Every Way We Are Getting Better and Better". The panel discussion was moderated by Danijela Jozić, Editor-in-Chief of tportal.
Marijo Volarević, Director of HT Business Development and Innovation Centre Department, participated in the panel discussion entitled "Who Needs an MBA?"