April 12, 2023 - Not so long ago, we had the honour of attending a fantastic little event - the Out of Office conference, which included a day and a half of education, fun, laughter, and socializing with other travellers and travel enthusiasts. The conference took place in the Wespa Business & Lounge, and it included talks, Q&As, a super cool pub quiz, and an open entertainment corner where you could try fun gadgets such as VR and even get a little massage. It was a perfect weekend treat, and we know we'll be back for the next one. Until then, let's meet the Croatian globetrotters. It would only be appropriate to introduce the lovely organizer of the conference, Lora Pleško.
Who is Lora Pleško, what does she do for work and in her free time? What does travelling mean to her?
To paraphrase an old lady from a documentary about music: To me, travel is only everything. That's why I like to say that I'm a traveller, and in my spare time I run a boutique IT agency that produces custom software. And a few other things, such as starting the volunteer initiative Mentoring Byte with three other IT ladies, creating my first physical product, the WeDoo organizational board, and the organization of the Out Of Office travel conference - by travellers for travellers.
I like to travel in any possible way, the main thing is to just go and get to know new places, cultures and customs, but one of my favourite ways to travel is home exchange. I discovered home exchange in 2015 and my first exchange was a month in Bali. I have had 12 exchanges so far, and I have a few more in line in the summer. In this way, I visited 4 continents, and with the exchange of a house, we often get a car - of course, this means that we also have to provide ours in return. More about home exchange and travel in general can be found on my Instagram profile, and soon I hope to start an Out Of Office blog. I'm lucky enough to be able to work from anywhere, so I can travel even when I'm not on vacation.
Home exchange in Canada
Now that you've had some time to process it, how are you and how was the event?
I am very happy that the first Out Of office travel conference went so well. The feedback from the audience has been simply incredible, and the atmosphere was truly phenomenal. You never know how people will accept it, especially when it is organized by someone they do not know at all, so there is always the fear that no one will even respond. But the response was great, the lecturers were really interesting and inspiring and I hope the visitors learned some new tricks that they can apply in their future travels. I have already applied one when I went on a home exchange in Norway shortly after. At the conference, Kruzovi had a talk about Iceland, where they explained that the aurora borealis can't necessarily be seen with the naked eye, but that it can be seen very well through a camera. Remembering that, when the clouds parted one evening, I pointed my cell phone at the sky and screamed in delight when I saw a dancing green light in the sky. So I think that no matter how experienced a traveller you are, there is always something new you can learn, and this is exactly one of the values of the Out Of Office conference.
Photo: Sandra Novaković
What made you want to the organize a travel conference?
I wanted to gather travellers, like-minded people, researchers, in general - curious people. I wanted to show those who might want to travel but don't know how to start or find countless excuses in the form of various obstacles that prevent them - to show these people that it is possible to travel in various ways. For cheap, with children, while working. I wanted people to be inspired by the stories of others, get new ideas and simply hear different perspectives on travel. I was really looking forward to Karla Horvat Crnogaj's talk about her experience jungle trekking, because jungles really attract me. But when she told her story, no matter how much she tried to convey the wonderful experience she carries with her after it all, I have to admit that she swayed me quite a bit in that intention. Sometimes it's good to break down the things which you might have romanticised, so you accept that it's still nice to observe them from the warm comfort of everyday life, rather than embarking on a real adventure. All these different stories are important because they help us learn about ourselves.
Who were the main participants, would you like to thank anyone in particular?
For the fact that everything went so well and painlessly, I have to send a huge thank you to the Wanderlust Events agency - Marija helped a lot with her experience in organization and saved me from many headaches. I also have to thank Patricija Lacković who, together with me, contacted potential speakers until we reached the ideal ratio of diversity of topics. I've known Ida Prester ever since we played music together in Lollobrigida, so she was a logical choice for me as the moderator of the Out of Office conference. As she is a travel lover herself and a top host, it was a perfect match and she really contributed to the relaxed and positively charged atmosphere.
Were there any surprises?
I was surprised by the warm, cordial, relaxed and positive atmosphere that you could feel during the entire conference. It was wonderful to see people socializing, getting to know each other and exchanging experiences, and my heart really felt like home.
What's next? What will change, what would you add or take away?
I hope that potential sponsors will recognize the value that our visitors recognized right away in this first year of the conference, so that next year we can design an even richer program. And I hope that next year I will realize an idea that I had through cooperation with embassies, which this year I started a little too late.
According to visitor feedback, it looks like we hit the mark with the length of the conference and the dynamics of the talks, so we will probably keep the same concept of a day and a half next year as well. We will put a little more emphasis on travelling with children and on our visitors socializing. Also, though not a large number of visitors used our entertainment facilities: bicycle corner, VR corner and massage corner, the post-survey showed that these were a total hit among those who did use them. They especially loved the VR corner, which consisted of immersive films that I shot in various locations around the world with a 360-degree camera. It's a camera that records from all sides, so when you watch the film through VR glasses, the experience is simply fantastic - it's really like you're there, in that location, which is another way to get to know all the amazing little corners of our beautiful planet.
Photo: Sandra Novaković
Why should everyone visit an event like this?
As I already mentioned, no matter how experienced a traveller you are, you can always learn something new, meet new people, connect for some new trips, get inspired, learn about the locations that interest you firsthand. The Out of Office conference does not sell anything, there is no agency behind it trying to sell its arrangements or a company that already has some interest - the value is precisely in connecting ordinary travellers and sharing honest, authentic and undistorted experiences.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Travel section.
){kind=link}