The second SPLET Tech conference, a leading regional event on innovation and entrepreneurial innovation, organized by two projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID): “Serbia Innovates”, implemented by ICT Hub, and “Venture an Idea”, carried out by a consortium led by Digital Serbia Initiative, was held in the mts hall in Belgrade. More than 2,500 visitors, members of the innovation ecosystem, had the opportunity to hear inspiring stories from over 100 speakers, experts from Serbia and the world.
With a regional character, this year’s conference brought together speakers from the corporate as well as the startup world, and with successful stories on topics such as scaling and internationalization, provided answers to visitors, entrepreneurs, and startup founders on how to expand in international markets and grow rapidly from the initial positions, which is key to further development of the domestic IT industry.
“We are proud that this year, once again, we gathered almost all support organizations for the development of the startup ecosystem in one place, from science and technology parks from different cities, to innovation centers from smaller environments, along with a large number of young people from Niš, Novi Pazar, and Kragujevac, who are already in the startup waters or at university. This year’s conference also had a regional character with numerous sessions by colleagues from the region who are involved in startup development, but our startups also had the opportunity to present themselves to those who are most important to the startup community, the investors, and we hope that these acquaintances will bear fruit in the future,” said Nebojša Bjelotomić, one of the conference organizers, Executive Director of the Digital Serbia Initiative, and Director of the “Venture an Idea” project.
“We are pleased that for the second year in a row we have managed to gather all actors of the innovation ecosystem in one place with a common goal – to show how important innovations and entrepreneurial innovation are for the development of our economy. We are especially proud that this year’s SPLET Tech Conference also presented the first Serbian supercluster ‘Excellent 3’, which will strive to place our web3 and blockchain scene at the top of the world in the next two years,” said Aleksandra Popović, Director of the Serbia Innovates project.
“I really like the holistic nature of the regional approach to problems, it’s not just a look at one industry, but a view of everything, and understanding how technology is used, how the community comes together to solve some of the fundamental problems. I think that’s great and it’s wonderful to see the energy of all the entrepreneurs here. For me, entrepreneurship means solving problems and here we have a lot of people trying to solve problems, so that’s great,” said Andrew Nguyen, a world-renowned expert and leader of the global medical informatics team at Roche.
In addition to USAID, this year’s conference was supported by companies A1, Generali, Gate group, Comtrade, Roche, Bosch, and Tenderly, the Israeli embassy in Serbia, UniCredit Bank, the Innovation Fund. Media partners of this year’s conference are: Podcast.rs, WebMind, Euronews, Blic, Netokracija, Nedeljnik, Biznis.rs, Nova ekonomija, Nova.rs, ICT Business, and Journal.
