Last year’s edition of the Festival was cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic, and the Festival returned this year under the slogan #longlivelife (Croatian: #živioživot) to emphasise love, connection and friendship. 

The old tobacco factory in Rovinj will become a central hub for the most outstanding experts in media and communication. More than 600 journalists will cover the event, while organisers expect more than 15,000 visitors. 

Opening the rich program with a panel revealing the secrets of influencer marketing, Influencers – Influence Traders features world traveller and marketing agency owner Kristijan Iličić, influencers Ella Dvornik-Pearce and Erna Saljević, along with the famous TikTok star Dario Marčac.  

Lectures

German psychiatrist, psychologist and neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer will lecture about the Epidemics of Smartphones. In the past ten years, smartphones have changed our lives like no other technological innovation before. The world runs on smartphones without concern for the negative consequences on our natural human way of thinking, feeling, behaviour, health and society. Manfred Spitzer will use a different approach to present and talk about this popular topic during the first day of the WMF.

Additionally, Dario ljubić from Gideon Brothers will talk about robotics and the fast-growing industry in business and commercial use. 

Neostar prepared a case study on buying used cars and the lack of trust in purchasing, tackling the issue with their innovative digital technology. 

Professor dr. sc Božo Skoko prepared a lecture on the importance of national promotion using storytelling. 

Panels

Julijana Matanović and Pavao Pavličić, a famous literary-academic couple, will join the panel Read Me Softly (Croatian: Čitaj me nježno). The duo will answer some important questions about succeeding as a writer, Nobel awards, branding of Marko Marulić and Miroslav Krleža and reading habits in Croatia. 

Ten years ago, at WMF, editors Tonkica Zlački, Iva Radić, Ena Domić and Vesna Blašković discussed women and topics they like to read about. This year, they are joining the panel What Women Want 2.0 (Croatian: Što žene žele?), to discuss whether reading trends have changed and what women want to read, watch and listen to today.

An intriguing panel, Entrepreneur: State Enemy Number One (Croatian: Poduzetnik: državni neprijatelj broj jedan) will feature Hrvoje Bujas, president of the Entrepreneur’s Voice (Croatian: Glas poduzetnika) association, Mihael Furjan from the Croatian Employers Association, Stjepan Orešković from M+ Group, and Vjeran Vrbanec, Chairman of the Board of Croatian Agency for Small Business.

Croatia became one of the most popular festival destinations during the summer months. Ultra Europe, Špancirfest, INMusic, Garden, WMF and others have positively affected the development of Croatia as a desired tourist destination. The panel How Festivals Change a Destination? (Croatian: Kako festivali mijenjaju destinaciju?) will bring together Ivan M. Petrović from EXIT festival Serbia, Jovan Marjanović, producer of Sarajevo Film Festival, Tomislav Radoš PhD from the Croatian Chamber of Economy and Joe Bašić, organiser of Ultra Europe Music Festival in Split. 

One on one

Nikola Dujmović, Chairman of the Board of Span Group, will talk about the 30 year-long journey of the company that started with software sales and dial-up internet. From the Garage to the Stock Exchange (Croatian: Od garaže do burze) covers the rise of Span, talks about hard times when piracy covered more than 90% of the market, about today’s partnership with Microsoft and recent stock offering on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.  

Another interesting one on one session will host Ivan Burazin, founder of Shift Conference, recently acquired by Croatian Unicorn Infobip, with a topic How to Become a Unicorn? (Croatian: Kako postati jednorog). 

The full program is available here: https://weekend.hr/program-2021/