November 24, 2020 - The second edition of Entrepreneurial Mindset for Youth takes place this week, as Croatia's top entrepreneurs will inspire the next generation. 

There are only two main things wrong in Croatia today - the system and the mindset.

Changing the system is only possible if we change the mindset, and there are several great initiatives out there which are aiming to do just that. 

One of the best such initiatives in recent years has been the Poduzetnik Mindset (Entrepreneurial Mindset) conference, which first took place last year. Some of Croatia's biggest entrepreneurial minds shared their experiences of success - and failure - showing that it is possible to succeed in the modern Croatia. As part of the initiative, Croatia's leading entrepreneurs also committed to supporting a second conference, Entrepreneurial Mindset for Youth, donating their time and expertise to inspire Croatia's next generation of entrepreneurs. 

The second edition of Entrepreneurial Mindset for Youth takes place online tomorrow, due to the current situation, and more details are in the press release below. 

On Black Friday, November 27, 2020, the Entrepreneurial Mindset for Youth conference will be held. Guided by the motto "The future is you", the conference will help high school and university students in their professional orientation by presenting them with successful Croatian entrepreneurial stories. Special emphasis will be placed on the visionary ideas of the younger generation of entrepreneurs and everything they have encountered on the road to success.

Due to the epidemiological situation, the conference will be held via YouTube, and high school students, students and other young people can follow the conference for free with prior registration on the website: Entrepreneurial Mindset for Youth.

“The Entrepreneurial Mindset for Youth Conference is being held for the second time. With it, we want to bring young people closer to people who are more than leaders for us. They are people who can be an inspiration to all generations, especially young people. It is those young highly motivated people full of great ideas who can encourage an entrepreneurial venture. For a happy future in Croatia, we need to build a new mindset, the entrepreneurial one ", said Ognjen Bagatin, the initiator of the conference.

The conference will last for four hours - from 10 am to 2 pm.

Hrvoje Balen, a member of the Management Board of Algebra, and Andrija Čolak, founder and owner of the Čolak Franchise Consulting Group and the Surf’n’Fries brand, will speak about the professions of the future.

Berislav Horvat, Country Managing Partner of EY Croatia, and Luka Abrus, leader of the digital agency Five, will deal with the topic "Where is the formula for success?".

"Go or stay?!" - is a dilemma faced by many young people, and the arguments for each of these two choices will be carefully analyzed by Dr. sc. Siniša Marijan, an experienced manager from the company Končar.

Saša Cvetojević will talk to Irena Tinagli, a member of the European Parliament from Italy, about the opportunities offered to young entrepreneurs by the European Union.

Hanza Media board member Ana Hanžeković will lead a panel in which Tomislav Car from Infinum and Albert Gajšak from CircuitMess, will talk about the importance of a good mentor and quality leadership in the beginnings of the company.HT Management Board member Boris Drilo will talk to Alan Sumin, co-founder and co-owner of Nanobit, about one of the most interesting business events in Croatia this year - the sale of Nanobit to the Swedish Stillfront.

Marko Emer, director of Moj-eRačun, co-founder and member of the Management Board of Poslovna inteligencija Anita Cvetić Oreščanin and member of the Management Board of Sv. Katarina Jadranka Primorac will all be on a panel moderated by Bojana Božanić - How important is connecting the 'common mindset?'

In the second panel, the young leaders will deal with the topic What does tomorrow bring? The director of Slavonija DI, Martina Ravlić, the co-founder of Bazzar.hr, Tana Zimmermann, and the director of Naftalina, Matea Pirić, will take part in the discussion. The moderator of the panel is the director of 24sata Boris Trupcevic.

For more details about the online conference, and to take part, visit the Poduzetnik website dedicated conference page. 

November 26, 2020 – The popcorn from the first Croatian popcorn factory is made exclusively from home-grown ingredients, without using additives, and comes in many different flavors.

As Jutarnji list reports, Zagreb got its first popcorn factory a little over a month ago. Behind this great project called PopUp Corn is Marijan Babić, who came up with the idea of opening the first Croatian popcorn factory while preparing another snack during the spring lockdown.

"The idea was to create a snack that people won't be afraid to give to children because they don't know how it's made, but also that adults can enjoy the same snack, just like we all enjoy when we make our popcorn at home," explained Babić, whose popcorn is made exclusively from home-grown ingredients. Also, they are baked in dry air without oil, which is why they retain their freshness and remain crispy, and then they are also seasoned, mixed, and packaged by hand.

They come in several flavors: salty, with butter, cheese, chili, and the Mediterranean. For lovers of sweet snacks, there are variants with caramel and a combination of black and white chocolate.

"We don't use any additives. We have 10 ingredients that we use in the preparation of popcorn and that's it. All the corn comes from the Vukovar area, and butter, dehydrated cheese, chili, sun-dried tomatoes, chocolate, vegetable and olive oil, and everything else also comes from domestic producers. Even the bags are Croatian," said Marijan Babić, adding that his goal is to support domestic producers.

More than a snack

Due to the current rather uncertain situation, Babić initially decided to sell his popcorn only on his website.

Popcorn is currently made from the popcorn type butterfly, the most common and most recognizable to domestic customers, the one from which popcorn is most often baked at home, in an old-fashioned way, on the stove in a pot, covered with a lid.

They recently introduced another type of popcorn called mushroom, which, Babić explained, is more suitable for gourmet popcorn, especially for sweet variants. They are most easily recognized by the shape of a butterfly or mushroom.

"We will soon be launching gourmet popcorn for which we will use the mushroom variety of corn. We finally managed to find it here so we decided to use it to produce special flavors such as popcorn with gin and tonic, cracklings, and truffles. They will be created for die-hard popcorn fans, but also those real gourmets who are looking for something more in the snack," said Babić.

They do not lack new ideas

His small popcorn factory currently employs eight people, and he plans to climb to a high 24. The reason is the philosophy he learned from foreign producers of quality popcorn (which he has enjoyed for years on every trip abroad) which dictates that human hands mean far more than machines. Also, more employees would help him realize his plans – to climb from the initial 30,000 to the desired 120,000 popcorn bags per month.

But that is not the end of his wishes and plans. Namely, he would like to make PopUp popcorn available to a larger number of interested people and one day open a specialized store where customers would bake and spice up their popcorn. But at the moment, Babić says they are focused on production and gift packages that are in great demand.

"We have ideas, and we want to implement it carefully and show the quality of our products in the best way," concluded Marijan Babić.

To read more about Croatia, follow our dedicated page.

November 26, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Austrian Airlines returns to Zagreb for the holiday season.

Croatian Aviation reports that Austrian Airlines will briefly resume operations on the Vienna-Zagreb route. During the Christmas and New Year holidays, the Austrian company will operate 14 flights between the capitals of Austria and Croatia.

Austrian Airlines has been a long-time user of Zagreb Airport and one of the biggest unpleasant surprises in this crisis year was the news that the Vienna-Zagreb route was interrupted.

Although the reason for the temporary departure from Zagreb is clear (drop in demand), the question remains how Austrian regularly operates to smaller destinations in the region, such as Pristina, Skopje and Sarajevo, and is also present in Belgrade.

The line will be in operation from December 18 to January 3, during which time Austrian Airlines will make 14 rotations between Vienna and Zagreb.

Direct flights will be available on the following days: Friday, December 18, Saturday, December 19, Sunday, December 20, Monday, December 28, Wednesday, December 30, Saturday, January 2, and Sunday, January 3. 

DashQ400 aircraft with a capacity of 76 seats in the Austrian Airlines fleet has been announced for all flights. A larger E195 aircraft with a capacity of 120 seats was announced for the flight on Sunday, December 20.

Austrian Airlines will offer 1,152 seats between Vienna and Zagreb in three weeks of operation.

After January 3, this line will be interrupted again, according to the airline's current plan, until March 1 next year, when Austrian should resume daily traffic between Zagreb and Vienna. Whether this will really happen will depend on the demand itself and the epidemiological situation.

Unlike other airlines (KLM, Eurowings and Edelweiss), Austrian will not introduce direct scheduled flights to coastal airports this winter.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

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November 26, 2020 - Continuing our look at the digital nomad lifestyle in Croatia, it may be late November for some, but Croatia's endless summer sport continues for some.

The Adriatic Sea is a focal point for seasonal visitors to the Dalmatian coast for good reason; it’s positively refreshing on hot summer days. But some people swim long after the crowds have gone, when the only onlookers are wearing coats.

(When summer tourists crowd Split’s beaches, everyone carves out their own spot on the sand and in the water.)

Ever since I heard that Split’s summer weather can occasionally extend into fall, I got it in my head that I wanted to swim as late into the season as possible. Swimming is one of my favorite sports for the feeling of being in the water as much as the exercise. Everything about it signals freedom and expansion, increasing my movement, thoughts, and bodily sensations. I love the open water and Croatia’s total seaside environment—sun, salt, azure sea, temperature, and rugged beauty—is perfect.

(Pine trees, white beaches, and teal waters are hallmarks of the Mediterranean coastline that draw visitors from around the world.)

Before tourists

Back in the spring, during early morning Žnjan beach walks, I’d end up sitting on a rock with my bare feet dangling in the water. Sure, it was cool outside, but I was bundled up in layers and my feel were thankful to be out of socks and shoes. As I looked over my surroundings, I craved summertime just to be fully immersed in the gorgeous water. When it finally arrived, I plotted my swims—whenever and wherever.

(Ramps and other accommodations are found all along the seaside; they allow people with disabilities to get into the water.)

Island life

A rocky enclave on Lokrum, the Blue Lagoon near Trogir, the famous Zlatni Rat on Brač, and diving off a sailboat were perfect staging grounds for my addiction. I was mindful to soak up every minute in these brilliant surroundings. Sometimes I’d pop my head above the surface and laugh at my good fortune and my happiness; it was pure joy.

(Shower facilities on every beach look like aliens from another planet.)

Opportunities everywhere

It seems any spot to enter the water is fair game. Croatians will climb through large rocks and pull their cars to the side of the road just to take a dip. I learned to toss my bathing suit and travel towel in a bag when meeting friends because an opportunity could pop up any time. After visiting a bee farm on Šolta, I swam before coming home because why not try another island, right? When biking around Marjan Park, I pumped my brakes at the sight of Kašjuni beach and promptly turned back to join the bathers. Dalmatians inherently love the sea and for them, this behavior is second nature.

(View from just above the surface, where colors and textures from above and below the water meet.)

Ideal weather

September, October, now November… and I’m still checking the sea and air temperature daily. My bathing suit hangs on a doorknob as a visual reminder; each day I hope it’s the right one. So far quite a few have worked out, even though we’ve passed the Daylight Savings mark on the calendar. Back home my swim gear would’ve been packed away months ago. The Atlantic Ocean is not this agreeable.

Getting cooler

Let’s be real though, things are cooling down. On both ends of these late fall days I wear proper fall clothes. Yet, today the water and air temperature were nearly equal at 18.8ºC (65ºF) and I swam effortlessly. A small admission: I get cold very easily. The idea of swimming in November is way past my comfort zone and I honestly don’t know how I’m doing it.

(The morning sky can create the best view for an early swim.)

Still swimming

Perhaps living in a new place brings new inspiration. Or maybe the cold is all in my head. I don’t need to figure it out, I’m still swimming and loving it. 

Learn more at TCN’s Digital Nomads channel.

Story and photographs ©2020, Cyndie Burkhardt. www.photo-diaries.com/

For more of Cyndie's experiences, check out her Croatia Through the Eyes of a Digital Nomad column. 

November 26, 2020 -The Croatian football club HNK Sibenik is officially in the hands of the Columbian company Football Smart International d.o.o.

Sibenik.in reports that the agreement on the sale and transfer of shares was signed on Wednesday in the City Administration by Mayor Zeljko Buric and the director of the company Eduardo Fernando Zapata Sierra.

It should be reminded that the City of Sibenik announced a Public Invitation to collect offers to purchase shares in HNK Sibenik, owned by the City of Sibenik, upon completion of which it was determined that the most favorable offer was that of the Colombian company Football Smart International d.o.o. with its headquarters in Zagreb, which was then adopted by the City Council of the City of Sibenik at its session in September 2020.

The company Football Smart International, following the terms of the public tender, paid HRK 3 million as collateral and HRK 651,000 as the remaining purchase price for 297,056 shares of HNK Sibenik. HRK 100,000 was paid earlier as a precondition for participation in the tender procedure.

The contract defines that the buyer is familiar with the condition of sports facilities for which the Sibenik first league club is given the right to use and accepts the same condition and that the City of Sibenik is not responsible for the investment maintenance of sports facilities HNK Sibenik has the right to use. The buyer has also allowed HNK Sibenik to make their sports facilities available to the City of Sibenik, city company, or institution at any time, upon a special invitation.

In the formal procedure of taking over the club by the new owner, it is necessary to obtain the consent of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports - Commission for Professional Sports Clubs on the contract signed Wednesday.

During the signing of the contract, the representatives of Football Smart International expressed their satisfaction with the completion of the procedure, as well as their interest in starting work on raising the quality of the club as soon as possible.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

November 26, 2020 - The City has announced that the famous area in front of HNK Split, also known as Gajo Bulat Square, will be transformed. 

Preparations for the tender announcement to choose the contractor for the transformation of Gajo Bulat Square have begun! 

At the initiative of Mayor Andro Krstulović Opara, an amendment to the project documentation based on the first-prize winning competition work from 2016, authored by academic sculptors Đani Martinić and Frane Šitum and architect Damir Vujčić, was recently completed.

The project solution was adapted to the needs of the Croatian National Theater, more precisely to the needs of new theater space, because the way we live our lives has changed drastically due to the COVID -19 epidemic. Thus, it was concluded that the entire area of Gajo Bulat Square can be used as the Split Theater's outdoor space. The project solution also has the approval of the Split Conservation Department.

The costs necessary to revamp the Square will be known after the public procurement procedure and will include the renovation of the staircase in front of the Croatian National Theater, the erection of a monument to Dr. Gajo Filomen Bulat, a Croatian revivalist and the mayor of Split, fountains showing the former sources of drinking water in the Dobri area, and the construction of a park with trees and lush shrubs.

It is important to note that the public area around the Gajo Bulat monument will be paved with stone slabs placed in semi-dry mortar on a reinforced concrete slab according to a static calculation.

"Gajo Bulat was the leader of the People's Party of the Croatian municipality in Split and I believe that the time has finally come for him to get a lasting, tangible memory in his city. Together with the experts, the conservators, and listening to the citizens who have long called for the renovation of this most frequent entrance to the heart of the city, we have taken into account the possibilities, as well as the experiences of the epidemic in which we find ourselves. I believe that we will soon enrich this space with the figure of Gajo Bulat himself and greenery and water elements, but also arrange it for outdoor social events, as a new stage of our Theater," said Mayor Andro Krstulović Opara.

A public tender for the works will be announced by the end of the week.

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

November 26, 2020 - Diego Armondo Maradona passed away on Wednesday at the age of 60. Today, we remember the Argentine football legend Maradona and his Croatian connection.

One of the greatest and most controversial footballers of all time has died from the effects of a heart attack two weeks after a blood clot operation in his brain.

The news of Diego's death shocked the whole world, and many active and former athletes said goodbye to him on social media.

Maradona was in independent Croatia for the first time in 1994 in a friendly match at Maksimir as preparation for the World Cup. Batistuta, Caniggia, Diego Simeone, Fernando Redondo and other Argentine stars came to Zagreb with Maradona, and against Ciro Blazevic's Croatia, they played 0:0.

There were 40,000 people at the stadium, but less than half of them saw the end of the match because of an epic flood. The then-president Franjo Tuđman received a football as a gift from Maradona.

Maradona often said that Dražen Petrović was one of his favorite athletes and he used that trip to Zagreb to visit his grave. He went to the grave with Davor Šuker, his teammate from Sevilla, and Dražen's mother Biserka and laid a wreath.

Diego returned to Croatia in 2005 when he was a special guest at the humanitarian tennis and football tournament in Novi Vinodolski.

"I'm glad to be in Croatia again. I want to have fun and play a little football and tennis. My knee hurts, but I will endure," said Diego, who played tennis with Goran Ivanisevic, gave autographs, and took photos with fans. He was led by Ćiro Blažević, with whom he hugged after the game, and signed Ivanisevic's Hajduk flag.

Tennis brought him to Croatia again on November 26, 2016, for the Davis Cup finals between Croatia and Argentina. Although he was in a much worse condition than when he was in Novi Vinodolski, Maradona cheered with all his might for his national team. Before the final, he gave a short interview for Nova TV.

"Croatia is a beautiful country that loves the Davis Cup as much as we Argentines. I congratulate the Croatian audience for welcoming me with wonderful respect. They told me I have Croatian roots, but I can't confirm that. My father is of Basque descent, and if I have Croatian roots - good," Maradona said.

Maradona's grandfather was allegedly Mateo Kariolić from Korčula, who named his older daughter Dalma, Diego's mother, after Dalmatia. Maradona gave the same name to his daughter and once said that she was also named after Dalmatia.

Source: Index.hr

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes on the 25th of November, 2020, in just a few years of its existence, the Speck agency from Krizevci has risen from a ‘speck’ to a Croatian IT sector star.

Speck's rapid upward trends were recently verified by the powerful consulting company Deloitte in the tender of Fast50, the fastest growing technology company in Central Europe, as the company grew by an incredible 1076% in a year.

Speck took third place in the Rising Stars category, a company under four years old but with growth potential. The team led by the 30-year-old graduate electrical engineer Tenodi (Speck's co-founder is Luka Radicek), justifies this potential by implementing projects of design and development of software and mobile and web platforms year after year. Here in Croatia, they are a partner of Combis on cloud applications, their edtech (for e-learning) project is autoskola.hr, and here they are currently working for 24sata, the KTC shopping centre, a young startup with a machine learning project and the Krizevci Instruction Centre.

''In just under a year, Speck has grown empirically and numerically with 20 employees on a team of more than 40 experts involved in building global edtech, fintech and martech platforms such as Petersons, Minka and Covideo. In addition to new collaborations, we've entered into an important partnership with a private acquisition fund from the United States, Triangle Digital Ventures (TDV), which has opened the path for new projects and expansion in the US market,'' says Tenodi. Speck's partnership with Triangle Digital Ventures, a private investment fund from America, happened, he added, spontaneously, through work on one of Speck’s projects.

''Covideo is a SaaS video marketing company with which we've been cooperating for a little over two years now, and in May this year it acquired TDV. Speck was a design and development partner on the project, we had the opportunity to work with the founders of TDV, who soon gave us the opportunity to work on more projects from their portfolio,'' says Tenodi. Apart from the quality of the work so far, these projects were, conditionally speaking, more accessible to Speck thanks to the fact that from the end of 2019 it has has an office in Indianapolis, his third after the ones located in Krizevci and here in Zagreb. There is now one employee there because of the pandemic working from home. It was the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic that accelerated Speck's growth as an agency, Tenodi added.

"The crisis has further strengthened our relationships with our clients. It is precisely such partnerships, in which agility and understanding of the needs of each specific client dominate, and that's the key to reacting quickly to market changes. The biggest challenge the pandemic brought us was on the KidzToPros (KTP) project, for a client in California. A key aspect of their business was the provision of extracurricular activities in an offline format for more than 250 schools, and their work during the pandemic was completely stopped. In less than three months, with the KTP team, we've developed five new digital products through which they have expanded and digitalised their business,'' explained Speck's boss. Speck's references also include work for clients in Germany and France, and a project for a Colombian fintech named Minka is now underway.

"Minka has teamed up with us to develop an open, flexible and highly scalable financial services infrastructure that companies wishing to provide services such as money transfers and e-wallets can use instead of developing their own infrastructure," they explained from Speck.

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