We will remember this July for the first international business conference, which is our gift to our people and our city of Kragujevac.
As a reminder, on July 13, 2023, Knjaževsko - Serbian Theater hosted our birthday conference "The First 5 in Business".
 

Our original idea was to organize a business meeting to mark the 5 years of our business, which turned into an international story, which brought together speakers from the USA, Ireland, Romania, North Macedonia, Croatia, and Serbia.
Despite the summer heat and the fact that it is vacation time, around 130 attendees had the opportunity to hear the extraordinary stories of our participants and gain a better insight into the functioning of the entrepreneurial and business world.
Although we are aware that we cannot give you the full experience of the conference itself, we will do our best to give you at least a glimpse of the atmosphere that marked this very important day for Proman Consulting.

Our dear colleague Tamara Obrenović led our "The First 5 in Business" conference. After opening the conference, Tamara thanked our sponsors who supported this special event, namely: IT Engine, DDOR Garant a.d. Belgrade, New Look Entertainment, PlaySafety Systems, Knjaževsko - Serbian theater, PS Fashion, Zlatara Filigran, Cafeteria Salvador, ABC School of Foreign Languages, Dental studio Mirčić Dent, F apartments Kragujevac and Mucissima Food Goddess.
 

Tamara then announced our first speaker, Bojan Zrnić, founder and CEO of IT Engine. 

During his speech, Bojan referred to his own beginnings in the IT industry and the challenges he faced. Also, he told us about how the current trends in the IT market created the need to work on the sales pipeline, which is why sales have been building in IT Engine for some time, both internally and externally. This was followed by a question from the audience, which is the biggest difference in the IT industry then and now, and Bojan's answer mainly related to financial changes.

After Bojan, the speech of our director Strahinja Tirnanić followed. He talked about the circumstances and challenges he faced during these five years of doing business, which brought a rich experience both to him personally and to the Proman Consulting agency. As well as contacts and projects all over the world, from Slovenia, Poland, Ireland, and Switzerland, through communication and meetings with companies that come from practically all continents, all the way to go to the USA for further development. The key takeaways that Strahinja pointed out and which he believes are necessary for every entrepreneur are commitment, networking, global mindset, high-quality service, transparency, team, giving, "don't chase money, chase excellence, money follows excellence", so a mix of certain activities but and attitudes and philosophies.

And then a tech discussion took place on the stage of the Kragujevac Theater, which was led by Nikola Milanović, founder, and CEO of Tenacity startup and co-founder of PetsMeet, a social network for pets, and participants:

• Ivan Košutić, founder and CEO of the software company New Look
  Entertainment and tools Sales Snap,
• Aleksandar Ubavkov, from North Macedonia, founder and CEO
  International Growth Agency and co-founder of Demandster,
• Bruno Stojaković, from Croatia, founder, and CEO of PlaySafety Systems,
• Bojan Zrnić, founder and CEO of IT Engine

The tech panel was a real treat for all present because these "great five" from tech companies shared their experiences about the biggest challenges, the most difficult projects, big sales, and investments. Practically all of them were sales teams at the beginning of their companies' operations, considering that the budgets were small and their systems were practically undeveloped. Some sold their companies in advance, some sought investment through Venture Capital, and some of them managed to raise their company with their working capital. Much to the dismay of those in attendance, the panel lasted about thirty minutes, and the comments were that the audience could have listened to them for hours. Our tech crew is awesome!

And then a lady, Ana Anđelković, an executive director of DDOR-Garant a.d. , got her space on the stage.

We could hear from her about the importance of financial literacy, as well as how they brought refreshment to their industry, more precisely how marketing innovations improved the business of DDOR-Garant. Arriving at her new position, Ana was aware that young people are the ones with whom she should communicate and that this method of communication as well as the channels should be at a very advanced and modern level. They introduced great innovations, which even their competing and much larger banking systems recognized and successfully copied.

After Ana, those present could hear an online speech by Adam Buck, who is an investment analyst at RevTech Labs, a Venture Capital company. Adam sent a video from Charlotte NC, USA, to show us the world of investors, what kind of investors there are, what they focus on, and what are the investment stages and opportunities for potential ideas and startups.
 

As Adam's speech switched us to the English language, it is in that spirit as well continued to run our program. The stage was joined by the YTILI panelists, who spent 6 weeks in the USA, as stipend holders of the Innovative Young Transatlantic Leaders Initiative at - YTILI. This unusual discussion was led by Maša Dragašević, founder and director of Study Abroad Today, and host of the Dive In podcast, and the panel participants were:

• David Connolly, from Ireland, New Frontiers program manager
• Elena Cobianu, from Romania, Glasskoo founder and development manager
  of a business for the GLAMI fashion platform
• Strahinja Tirnanić, director and founder of Proman Consulting

The YTILI panel gave us a bigger picture of one of the biggest entrepreneurship
programs in the world, and between the USA and Europe - YTILI. And we are from our panelists we could also hear how the US market works, what they learned the most in America, what they liked the most, what they liked the least, and what are the biggest differences between our cultures and business worlds.

That's how we got to the most emotional part of our conference, where our director Strahinja distributed thank-you notes to everyone who supported the growth and development of Proman Consulting during these first 5 years in business. Individuals such as professors Petar Veselinović and Milan Kocić, businessman Goran Vidanović, Boris Jotić, Slobodan Zornić, former colleague Ivana Jovanović, but also organizations such as AIESEC, Knjaževsko-Serbski theater, etc.

And after Tamara and Strahinja closed the formal part of the conference, it followed the informal one, when our guests moved to networking. There, our guests had the opportunity to get to know each other better and chat, with appetizers and refreshments, and as far as we've heard, some business collaborations were also agreed upon.
We are still collecting impressions while watching videos and pictures from our conference and we are immodestly making plans so that this kind of business event can live in our city. 

Maybe this should become a tradition for us, so let's do it like this we celebrate the following birthdays in the same way.

One thing is certain, the  "First Five (years) in Business" conference is the first international business conference in Kragujevac, and we will do our best not to be the only one Organized by Proman Consulting.

P.S. A new idea is already simmering in the heads of Proman's team, but we can't tell you what we came up with yet. But don't worry, you will be timely informed, we promise. Until then, enjoy your summer!