Virtual business connection between Croatia and Croatian diaspora – together we are stronger and better!

Croatia simply has to make more and better use of the fact that perhaps 4 milion Croats and people of Croatian origin live in the whole world.

Hundreds of viewers from all over the world, two panels with five successful Croatian exporters, five video messages from five continents, Mario Ančić as a keynote speaker who spoke directly from Wall Street, and the world premiere of the new song Zaprešić Boys – it’s the 7th edition of the business conference MEETING G2 summary, which was held this Saturday under the name “Timelapse” in Zagreb. The organizers of this now traditional gathering – the Meeting G2 Association – which has been connecting homeland and Croatian Diaspora for seven years, do not hide their satisfaction with Saturday’s success.

 

“Even this year, we did not want to let the pandemic stop us, because we believe that the connection and networking we are working on is key to the further economic development of the entire country. Croatia simply has to make more and better use of the fact that perhaps 4 milion Croats and people of Croatian origin live in the whole world. In our name, G2 means the second generation, but it also includes members of the third, fourth and even fifth generation of emigrants who live on all continents and parts of the world “, points out the president of the MG2 Association Antun Krešimir Buterin.

 

Although this year’s gathering was organized as a virtual conference, without an audience, the program was arranged as a two-way communication thanks to digital technologies. On the one hand, 5 top domestic exporters who described their business before and during the pandemic gathered live in Zagreb, as well as on the other hand, 5 video messages of Croatian associations from North and South America, Australia and Europe (Austria) were broadcast. Croatian Ambassador Dario Mihelin reported from China.

 

Bernarda Cecelja, the owner of the Bernarda company, said that Croats must value themselves and their own more because we are just as valuable as others, but we lack self-confidence and faith in ourselves and our qualities. Goran Basarac from the Šestan-Busch company pointed out that their helmets are the safest in the world and that they are used by numerous armies and police around the world. As president of the Defense Industry Competitiveness Cluster, he added that the defense industry is “the crown jewel of the Croatian economy.”

The founder of the IT company Oradian Antonio Šeparović, whose software helps the poor in Africa to access financial services, said that the global company can obviously be run from Croatia, using all the benefits of a more relaxed lifestyle. “The same is thought by many foreigners and the diaspora, whose number in Croatia is growing from month to month, recognize Croatia as an ideal place to live and work.”

 

While the epidemic in most industries has caused a slowdown, even a blockade of business, some have experienced explosive growth. This happened to the participants of the second panel – entrepreneurs Mirela Švaić from Agropošta and Domagoj Boljar from the company Miret. Švaić described the great success of the family company Agropošta, which exports its natural organic fruit juices throughout Europe, and during the pandemic, their production and exports increased drastically. Boljar from Miret presented his vision of the most ecological sneakers in the world, and also commented on the new crowdinvesting campaign that is underway and with which they want to raise half a million euros. “We were at Meeting G2.5 in 2019 and it was the best and most successful event we have ever participated in. There we received the main award, met future investors, buyers, and today’s employees. Even today, we are reaping the benefits of MG2 “, Boljar emphasized.

 

Great interest was also aroused by a keynote speaker – the celebrated former tennis player Mario Ančić, who today works as an investment banker in an American fund whose investment helped the technological startup Infobip to become the first Croatian unicorn. Ančić called from Wall Street and said that Croatia is among the world’s top unicorns in terms of GDP, but also predicted that in the next year or two we could get new similar companies worth over a billion USD, because Croatia is full of top experts, colleges and schools. “Such companies send a strong message to the world’s investment houses that the domicile country is a place for fruitful investments, but at the same time they create a whole ecosystem of smaller companies that develop in parallel with the unicorn,” Ančić added. Their new goal is to prepare Infobip for the New York Stock Exchange, which would be a fantastic success for a Croatian company.

 

The Virtual Conference Meeting G2.7 ended with a musical point that aroused enthusiasm among viewers around the world. The Zaprešić Boys have chosen MG2.7 conference for the world premiere of the latest song dedicated to Croatian Diaspora. Thank you Zaprešić boys!