In case you don’t know it yet - the Balkans are hot. HOT! Boiling with innovation and entrepreuership. Beaches and vistas of Croatia are nice as well. But let’s pretend to put business before pleasure ;) So…

Croatia is a perfect outlet to the Balkans and I personally believe there are many interesting start-ups there. I guess that’s why New Europe Events in co-operation with Initium association invites bold and ambitious entrepreneurs, professional managers and investors to participate in TMT.Ventures’08 Zagreb conference, which will take place on October 28th in Zagreb, Croatia.

Central and Eastern Europe is a fertile environment for technology start-ups which incubate bold and innovative services. But that you already know that.

What you DON’T want to miss:

Adeo Ressi - founder of TheFunded.com, an online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide. Very interesting site and very controversial one. Adeo will speak on “Money for your dream, funding great projects, and building regional markets… The ultimate win-win-win“.

Adeo also serves as a Trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation, which inspires radical human achievements through competition. TheFunded.com is the seventh start-up that Adeo has founded or built, four of which were acquired and three of which are still operating. The last company, Game Trust, Inc., was acquired by Real Networks, Inc. (RNWK) at the end of 2007.

‘7 minutes’ is a unique competition for innovative entrepreneurs and their projects from the space of telco, new media and new technologies. It is an express elevator up to the community of investors and experienced businesspeople with decision-making power whose recommendations and support are like rocket fuel for the projects aimed in the right direction.

‘7 minutes’ is also a challenge for entrepreneurs trying to make an impression and deliver a convincing presentation in an extremely short period of 7 minutes. It is a test of self-confidence and charisma for the project-leaders standing in front of a demanding audience, their competition, world-class investors, bloggers and media people.

Apply here. If you dare… ;-)

Panel discussion:

“Success stories from the Balkans: turning dreams into business”

• It’s good to know people who know people
• Teamwork saves time and money
• Inspire people, get their support
• The right strategy is always looking for the better strategy

Panelists:
Ilija Studen, activeCollab, Serbia
Marko Vojković, Adriatica.net, Croatia
Maja Jelisić, Mobitel, Croatia
Nenad Bakić, Moj-Posao.net, Croatia
Stanislav Prusac, Polar Software, Croatia

…and of course the after party. Can’t do without it.

But that’s not all, folks. Stay tuned.

Two weeks ago there was an interesting conference held in Croatia.  Web.Start was the first conference in Southeastern Europe focused exclusively on Web application development and Web startups. This year, conference took place on May 8-9, 2008, at the Hypo EXPO XXI Centre in Zagreb, Croatia. The conference was being organized by the Croatian Association of software and online entrepreneurs Initium.

Looks like it was a hot event. And I’m not writing about it because my grand-grand… grandma used to live in Dubrovnik when it was a part of Austria-Hungary. Croatia is a nice place to visit, great people. I learned to dive there. There are some nice WWII plane bombs at the bottom of the sea near Makarska.

We speak a similar language, have a similar national anthem, have a similar national flag and I was always a fan of Croatian football. The victory over the Dutch in 1998 FIFA World Cup Finals was great.

It’s a pity Poland plays Croatia in Euro 2008 next month. Some say Germany will win the group and the real race is for the second place between Croatia and Poland. Pity.