Is Split the ‘Silicon Valley of the Mediterranean’? On Friday 9th February 2018, Split, the first formal nonprofit of the Split-based technology community, featuring companies, individuals, meetups, associations and institutions, and partner-sponsored by the Split-Dalmatia County, launched at WiP coworking space.
Split Tech City, the first formal association of the Split-based technology community, involving companies, individuals, meetups, associations and institutions, was presented at the WiP coworking space in Split.
Split Tech City is committed to the most successful Split technology association Startup.hr, which has gathered Split volunteers for ten years with the help of their own resources. To date, more than 700 individuals have joined companies, more than one hundred meetings have been organized, there have been dozens of lectures, and it has secured a place on the map of European startup centres.
Over 12 months, members of Startup.hr have prepared the concept, mission, activities and goals of Split Tech City. Here’s a look at the vision via Dalmatinski Portal on February 12, 2018.
“In 2017, in cooperation with members of the community, we set up a framework for defining the Split-based technology community, identifying its members, achieving common goals and measuring the contributions. We have all summarized this in a document called the ‘White Book of the Split Technological Society’. In the process, we have linked a number of associations, businesses and individuals and aligned their common goals. Consequently, some of the members have already created the first strategic plans that show their role and contribution to the community,” explained Tomislav Mamić about the process of forming the association.
Tomislav Mamić
One of the key goals of Split Tech City is to provide free education, lectures and seminars to young people towards high paid technological jobs and to create conditions for their stay in Split in cooperation with technology companies. Additionally, the ambition of this association is to become a concrete link between the academic community and the labour market, to support the further advancement of the Split technological scene, to consolidate the acquired knowledge, and the necessary step forward from the local to the global framework. Special attention will be given by the members of Split Tech City to devote specific technological solutions to improve and enhance the lives of Split citizens. As its ultimate goal, the founders of the Association emphasize the profiling of Split in international frameworks as a kind of ‘Silicon Valley of the Mediterranean’, a city where, for the general good, they encounter technology and tourism.
Damir Brčić, the Project Manager of the ICT Region, explained how the local IT community in Split-Dalmatia County could expect to cooperate:
“Having conceived the ICT counties project, Split-Dalmatia County was an ideal partner in the Startup.hr association, given that it is a perfect example of action in the area that the County also detects as a priority – helping to break the IT scene in Split as a prerequisite for its further development and growth. What is interesting to point out is the fact that Startup.hr’s Association into the activities of animation of the IT community started to be quite visionary and didn’t wait for the institutions to engage. That is why we have an awake and ready-made community of IT professionals and IT companies who regularly communicate, exchange experiences through a group of meetings and cooperate in business in the Split area today. The ICT County project aims to stimulate the significant growth of the entire ICT sector in the city of Split as well as the County, so Startup.hr – now Split Tech City, is considered as a partner in the mission, which will be supported in maximum and all respects – financially and organizationally. Also, Split Tech City helps the ICT counties project in designing activities and projects, especially in the preparation of the County IT Center (coworking and incubator space) in the former Varteks building in Ruđer Bošković Street.”
The first members of Split Tech City thanked the founder of the association, Toni Trivković:
“After years of work in the direction of the welfare of the local technology community, it is a tremendous honor and pleasure to gain the trust of the first members, among which are the leading technology companies and associations in Croatia.
The association already consists of seven organizations, 13 meetups and 22 companies, and there is no doubt that the number of members of Split Tech City will exponentially increase as it will become the intersection of all technology experts and initiatives in this part of Croatia.
Split Tech City plan a series of activities in the upcoming weeks and it will regularly update information about all news on its new website – designed and developed by Agilo’s specialists, as well as on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This will serve as an everyday exchange of ideas and communication with the IT community. They are at your disposal for further inquiries. Contact person: Tomislava Saša, executive editor of Split Tech City [email protected]
Translated from Dalmatinski Portal
