KreNI conference took place from the 28th November to 2nd December in Nis, with the participation of 100 young people and more than 20 speakers.
Young creative people in Nis had the opportunity to gain new knowledge from experts in the fields of architecture, design, advertising, multimedia, management in creative industries, IT that will empower them to create innovative solutions to the problems they find in their environment.
Participants worked with a speakers from whole Europe: Rodolphe de Warenghien, architect and founder of architecture office CAWA studio in Paris, Christina Forster, cofounder to Heartbeats Innovation & Communication and expert for Digital Marketing in the Impact Hub Vienna, Stefano Mirti, designer, partner of IdLab, Milan and responsible for Expo Milano’s social media team, Mila Milenkovic, Head of Digital Innovations and Applications Dept at Digital transformation and IT Planning, IT/ICT at Telekom Srbija, Martin Cuff, Advisor to Serbia Creates national platform for the development of the Serbian creative sector, Anica Divac, Communications Specialist in Human Resources Department in company LEONI Serbia, Aleksandar Stojkovic, Digital architect at Microsoft, Šymon Kliman, co-founder Nova Cvernovka in Bratislava, Mario Celan, director of the Development Agency Simora LTD and Regional Coordinator of the Sisak-Moslavina County in Croatia, Tadej Slapnik, director at Tolar HashNET, Chairman of World Blockchain Hub and Council member at Circular Change platform, Pedro Gadanjo, architect, curator, and writer from Portugal, currently a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Dimitrij Aleshkov, tech ninja from Helsingborg’s Stad, Kruno Ris, Software Architect and Head of Software Development in Unicredit Bank in Croatia. After the workshops we formed five teams from all participants.
The ideas that have been developed during the conference were focused on environmental issues, climate change and circular economy. For this work they had a help from the mentors, experts experienced in business development, marketing and environment. Mentors who helped them were Jelena Stevanovic Preradovic, Manager Sustainability and Internal Communications for South East Europe in Philip Morris International, Milan Zdravkovic, professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Branko Krsmanovic from Startap centre Nis as well as our speakers Anica Divac, Šimon Kliman, Dimitrij Aleshov and Kruno Ris. The mission of the all lecturers was to empower them to create innovative solutions to the problems they notice in their environment.
On the last day of the conference, the teams presented their ideas in front of jury and attendees at Oficirski dom. The jury was composed of: H.E. Jeal Louis Falconi, Ambassador of France in Serbia, Bojana Pejcic, Youth Office of the City of Nis, professor Slobodan Milutinovic from the Faculty of Occupational Safety, Sonja Popovic director of Centre for environmental protection from PUC „Mediana“ Nis, Jana Pavlovic, advisor for environmental protection at the Standing conference of towns and municipalities and Ivan Nikolic, director of bakery „Brankovic“.
The ideas that were developed at the conference are:
- GiftNI - a platform that would allow the donation of clothing in our city, initially will start through Facebook and Instagram pages until a free app is developed where everyone will be able to post pictures of their clothes that they would like to donate. The goal is to prevent throwing away excess of clothing but also to take care of people who need help.
- DigiTick - an application that would help to reduce paper usage in Nis by making all tickets electronic. The target group of the project are students who will install smartphone applications for electronic tickets for public transport, cinemas, theatres. Their motto is "Paper is cool, but nature is better!"
- Be Eco-Precise - an idea that would make ecology fun by creating attractive designs that would be everywhere in our city, attracting the youngest to think about our environment. They have devised a creative and interesting way to paint trash cans to inspire younger generations to start sorting their trash. The project would also be accompanied by creative environmental workshops for children.
- GreeNish - a festival which will be held at different locations each time. With this initiative, people would be encouraged to be more outdoors and reduce car use. During the festival people would plant trees, plants and arrange benches.
- Tree and me - reduce air pollution by planting more trees. Using the app, people could buy different trees from PUC "Mediana". Users could personalize their trees: give them names and get all the information about them using QR codes.
Following the decision of the jury, the winner of the 5th KreNI Conference is the second team “DigiTick”.