Dean Kuchel to Hold AMA Session for Digital Nomads in Zagreb

Nimrod Dean Kuchel gave a keynote speech at Zagreb Digital Nomad Week

Having lived in Croatia full-time for 18 years, it is always refreshing to hear the first impressions of new arrivals, as time tends to take the edge of one’s own impressions of a destination you have lived in for years.

As such, TCN’s coverage and advocacy for the digital nomad opportunity in Croatia has been refreshing indeed. Not only have I met some fascinating and stimulating characters with a global perspective (many barely half my age), but the overwhelmingly positive comments about what they are finding on their visits to Croatia is a nice confirmation that we have something very special here. Something which, if developed properly, can repivot Croatia into a fabulous new direction.

The whole digital nomad buzz is still pretty new here, but it has already attracted global attention. TCN started writing about the potential about May 2019, and there were others before us, but the topic only really started to enter the mainstream media on May 11, 2020 after Split-based Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong penned an open letter on LinkedIn to Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, asking him to introduce what would have been only the fifth digital nomad visa in the world at the time (and the second in Europe after Estonia).

A lot has happened since then, with a lot of people contributing to the story in their various ways. De Jong kept pushing, five ministries coordinated, the law was changed, and on January 1, 2021, the Croatian digital nomad permit came into being. The media coverage was huge, and I can’t remember a positive story about Croatia during my time here which got as much free global publicity, with the very notable exception of the World Cup.

But while de Jong was focused on the visa, there was plenty happening on the ground. Facebook communities catering to digital nomads in Croatia started to pop up, some dedicated to individual cities such as Split, Dubrovnik and Zagreb, as well as Digital Nomads Croatia, which now has a following of 6,700. Saltwater Nomads, in partnership with TCN, and the City of Dubrovnik and Zagreb and Dubrovnik tourist boards, held a number of events which helped to promote Croatia as a DN destination, winning several awards and precious international column inches. These included the first-ever DN conference in Croatia, Dubrovnik for Digital Nomads, the Dubrovnik Digital Nomads-in-Residence Program, and Zagreb Digital Nomad Week & Digital Nomad Ambassador Project.

And the nomads are coming, as TCN reported recently in some very encouraging statistics extrapolated from NomadList. Read more in Zagreb, Split Attracting More Digital Nomads than Prague, Krakow, Budapest.

One of the stars of Zagreb Digital Nomad Week was Nimrod Dean Kuchel of Digital Nomad World, whose online community numbers an impressive 24,000. This allows Kuchel to travel under the mantra of ‘I travel alone, but I never travel solo.’ – wherever he travels, he knows that he will bee able to connect either with his own community or one established in the destination. His presentation on the importance of building community was one of the highlights of the conference, and Kuchel was clearly impressed with the potential of Zagreb as a DN destination, as you can see from the short video interview on Lake Jarun, above.

So much so, in fact, that he decided to return and is currently residing at Doma Zagreb Aparthotel, as the third Zagreb Digital Nomad Ambassador.

And he has been busy ‘not travelling alone’ by catching up with several of his own community, as well as integrating well within the existing community. To have such a fantastic promoter of the digital nomad lifestyle in Zagreb for a month, actively willing to help with his knowledge and experience of community building is a great asset. Young Kuchel has wasted no time in getting involved in the Zagreb scene, and he will be a special guest at the Digital Nomads Croatia gathering at Bustan Bar in the city centre on September 16, where he will be holding a special AMA (Ask Me Anything) session about the digital nomad lifestyle, both in and out of Croatia.

Dean is a great speaker and a very entertaining guy, and it is great to see nomads seeing the Croatian opportunity from afar and willingly doing their bit to spread the word. Things are starting…