Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović has officially opened the Meeting G2.4 conference in Zagreb. The fourth edition of the conference, aimed at developing business connections between Croatia and the diaspora, is being held at the Forum Congress Centre in Zagreb, with more than 150 business people from Croatia and abroad attending. More than 70 successful businesspeople from 19 countries have gathered to discuss the development of business relations with Croatia. The largest delegations are those from Australia and Austria, with more than 20 participants each.
At the opening, the president said: “A whole other Croatia lives outside the official borders of the Republic of Croatia, and the Meeting G2 makes an important contribution to linking Croats in Croatia with those living abroad. We must realize that people are the greatest treasure and an advantage and that they are building the future, which makes the investment in demographic renewal a priority. I am particularly pleased that this initiative came from returnees and I want the voice of businesspeople to be heard. Their suggestions and constructive criticism about the measures we need to take in the country for business development, as well as about activities we can do abroad, are something which we can all benefit from.”
The Meeting G2 conference began yesterday afternoon with the competition of eight Croatian start-ups, which had to present their innovative projects in front of the gathered investors in just 10 minutes. The jury consisting of business professionals and entrepreneurs from Croatia and abroad awarded the first prize to RioBot, a chatbot that functions on the basis of artificial intelligence and makes it easier to book and track scheduled appointments with various service providers. The winning project received EY’s consultancy services worth 15,000 kuna. Interestingly, the other seven projects – 3Dtech, Authland, ExRey, Good Game, MONAstays, Tinja and WePark – are also apps and various platforms, such as those for gaming, booking local tourist experiences, connecting solar panel installers with users, parking reservations and the like.
During the Who is Who in G2 session, each participant had an opportunity to present their business in one minute and say with whom they wanted to connect. This made it possible to quickly exchange contacts and create business connections immediately after the event. It was possible to hear, at one location and in less than two hours, about a number of successful projects – construction projects, financial projects, logistics, heavy industry, ICT, artificial intelligence, architecture, various consulting services and many others.
In order to better connect the diaspora with Croatia in the future, the Central State Office for Croats Abroad presented the project of developing the Registry of Croat Entities outside Croatia. By the end of the year, a pilot project will be implemented in three countries (Germany, USA, Argentina) which will gather data on physical and legal entities in these countries. Users will be able to express their interest for connecting with specific events and organizations. The idea is for the registry to function as a communication platform between all users.
Today, the conference will feature seven panels with more than 40 participants. The topics are the importance of chambers of commerce for exporters, innovative design in the wood industry, Croatian delicacies and their placement on markets around the world, real estate, non-traditional forms of tourism and blockchain in Croatia.
The meeting-g2.com website has all the detailed information about this year’s programme and previous meetings, and all interested to join can sign up online.
For more on Croatian diaspora, click here.
