What happens at Weekend?
Third Weekend Media Festival, central meeting place for region’s communication industry, gathers 3,000 participants
In 2010, a lively discussion on TV digitization, featuring executives of the region’s biggest both public and commercial TV stations, closed the third Weekend Media Festival. Around 3,000 participants, including almost 400 accredited journalists as well as 110 speakers and panelists from around the region and other European countries, have proven that the Festival has become the central meeting place for the media and communication elite. Over the period of two days the unique interior of the old Rovinj Tobacco Factory hosted over twenty lectures and panel discussions.
Following the warm-up at the Hellish JD Birthday (powered by Antena Zagreb) on Thursday night, the official program kicked off on Friday morning with a debate on sports marketing titled Faster, Higher, Stronger: Sports in the Region. Nonetheless, the biggest interest was drummed up by the panel discussion titled Has the True Journalism Died?. The heated discussion between the journalists and editors-in-chief of the major print and electronic media in the region, moderated by Hloverka Novak Srzić, left many questions unanswered. Some of the masterminds behind the 1980s media revolution, including Veran Matić (founder, director and editor-in-chief of B92), Franci Zavrl (formerly Mladina, nowadays Pristop) and Ninoslav Pavić (formerly Polet, nowadays EPH) reminisced about the good old times, at the same time trying to predict the future. The speaker of the day was Pierluigi Collina, whose lecture Decision-Making, as anticipated, whipped up considerable interest among the participants. After a whole day packed with activities, everyone went and had a great time until the wee morning hours alongside Belgrade’s Showtime Band and iPad Video Disco at the huge party organized by the daily 24 sata.
The program continued Saturday in as many as three different halls, for the first time ever. Conveniently enough, Saturday morning brought a discussion about morning radio program, which has changed radically all over the region over the past decade or so, becoming the most important part of radio production. At the same time, representatives of the media and PR industry once again attempted to answer the eternal question about whether the journalists and PR practitioners loved or hated each other. The heated discussion was followed by a number of questions from the audience and in the end the panelists concluded the following: journalism is not free from the negative influence of PR but PR can also be positive if there is a common interest; the key to success lies in mutual respect. The stars of the day were Andrew Keen, one of the world’s biggest internet critics, and Pete Radovich, Creative Director at CBS Sports, whose lectures had attracted the biggest number of both the media and Festival’s participants. This year’s Weekend Media Festival’s icing on the cake was the panel discussion on TV digitization and its consequences. Despite conflicting views and opinions, the panelists Josip Popovac (HRT, Croatia), Aleksandar Tijanić (RTS, Serbia), Dražen Mavrić (Nova TV, Croatia), Johannes Züll (RTL, Croatia) and Pavel Vrabec (Pop TV, Slovenia), agreed that TV digitization would result in advertising market fragmentation, which will eventually affect not just the TV but other media as well. The Festival ended as it had begun, with a party. This time it was a Sarajevo-themed bash, featuring Dubioza kolektiva and DJ/VJ duet Diskobajagi.
The two-day program also featured the After Beach Party by Soundset and Javno.hr, Radio Dalmacija’s birthday party and a premiere of the rock 'n' roll documentary titled Bijelo Dugme by Igor Stoimenov. The Festival also boasted two rather popular workshops as well as a number of promotions and presentations.
This year’s Weekend Media Festival will once again, for the fourth consecutive year, be held under the general sponsorship of Adris Group.