Infobip Shift Conference 2021.
I will definitely remember this event in Zadar, Croatia. For the last year and a half, I imagined my first public event with a lot of people will be a concert but in the end, it was a business gathering. One easily adapts to everything, including the fact that we should no longer be afraid. Not human but a virus. Since in this situation in general, one, unfortunately, does not exclude the other.
The lectures began and lasted. A lot of great ones. Not only because of the topics but also in different ways of presenting them. Reasons are often in people themselves. Part of the international development conference Infobip Shift was attended by about 60 speakers from various companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others. In addition, great startups were presented. The program was held on a total of five stages. Three thousand participants from the world live and ten thousand participants online. Ivan Burazin and Marin Tomičić are young people who started organizing Shift six years ago in a cafe in Split. As of this year, their partner is the increasingly powerful Infobip company.
What is always the most interesting part is getting to know others. People who work hard in companies that we have heard about or may have been completely unknown until then. In the crowd, the easiest way to connect was the outdoor breakfast tables. Sometimes things are even simpler than we imagine. We met great people from distant countries, the ones from Pula who, despite not being a big city, we had never met before.
But the conference was not the only thing happening. I realized I hadn’t traveled completely alone in a long time. After the program, there were a few hours left to wander the streets of a completely unknown city. Last time, I was there when I was three. I remember only the ship we traveled with and the house of relatives who no longer live in Zadar. At one point, during my walk, I was left without a battery on my cell phone, so the only way to get the information was to ask strangers and hope for their kindness. Google cannot beat what locals know about their city and the most interesting hidden places.
Walking in silence allows us to notice things we would not otherwise. The last day, thinking I shouldn’t go home without visiting the famous sea organ, I sat along the shore like many travelers around me. We all did the same. And then I caught sight of an older man walking in great peace and quiet, carrying glowing children's balloons in his hand. In such a sublime way, belonging to some past times, he passed behind me. Then I reached for my cell phone to take a picture of a moment. And remembered that won't be possible. I felt tremendous relief. I wondered how many times I missed the full beauty of the moment in reality for trying to create a memory of it.
This conference and Zadar itself gave me a lot. Business trips do more work than we can plan and imagine in advance. There was no need to worry. As one of the lecturers said: don't solve the problem, eliminate it. So I did.
