June 19, 2022 - The Association of Croatian American Professionals conference, ACAP 2022, has been an unqualified success. So much excellence in just one room in New York City.
A lot of my Croatian friends laugh at me when I am positive about the future of Croatia. I can understand why, after the disappointments and dashed hopes they have been forced to endure of the 30 years since that hard-won independence. The corruption, nepotism and emigration was certainly not part of the deal they thought they were signing up for in developing a newly independent country.
One thing I have learned about Croatians is that positive new initiatives are mostly embraced by skepticism. Something might worked wonderfully in every other country in the world, but in Croatia?
But things are changing, and I genuinely believe that. Overcoming that skepticism and turning the mindset into a positive direction is one of Croatia's key challenges, but - at least from where I am sitting - I see more and more bright spots, new initiatives, success stories, and a strengthening of the eco-system of Croatia 2.0 to realise that we are an a path of change.
Being a fly on the wall in a room in New York this week was probably one of the best snapshots of how far Croatia has come, and an indication of the direction it is heading. So many examples of Croatian excellent in so many sectors came together and networked, bonded, and connected. My social media feed and inbox has been flooded with positivity from New York these past few days from the ACAP 2022 conference.
So who was there and speaking? The ACAP 2022 Facebook page did a great job keeping us all updated. Congrats to the organisers and participants - the future of Croatia is looking just a little brighter.
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