Series of interesting lectures at Dubrovnik Campus

The co-op office has worked diligently during the last two months to provide our students at the Dubrovnik campus with various learning opportunities critical to their development. Through interesting guest speakers, workshops and visits, students were able to gain insight into various topics related to IT, hospitality and other fields of their interest.

1. RIT CROATIA ALUMNI BEHIND THE CROATIA BY BOAT TEAM

The Croatia By Boat team, led by RIT Croatia alumni Toni Njirić and Mihovil Kisić and their partners presented their new business to RIT Croatia students and faculty members. The initial idea behind the project Croatia by Boat was to incorporate the modern technology of the online booking systems to the market that was previously led by e-mail or phone requests. Considering there is no active distribution portal for boat rentals that would mimic Booking.com for sailing in Croatia, Toni Njiric and his team decided to create one, and introduce this part of the market and business to the new age of technology. Just the idea of having a real-time online booking system to book boat trips has aroused a lot of interest, having the team sign contracts with multiple agencies with their offers of boat trips, yacht charters and exclusive boat trips, even before they had any screenshot of their product presented.

2. INTERESTING PRESENTATION ON COMMUNICATION, MOTIVATION AND TEAM WORK BY SLOBODAN BOBI KECIĆ, MARINE, HSEQ & TRAINING SUPERINTENDANT AT TEEKAY SHIPPING NORWAY AS

Slobodan Bobi Kecić who works as Marine, HSEQ & Training Superintendent at Teekay Shipping Norway AS, gave a presentation to approximately 100 students about communication, motivation and team work. Mr. Kecić combined the following topics in a discussion with students: How to listen and be listened to; How to avoid the common excuses for failure; Is it possible to change yourself; and Secret of success in business. Students found most Mr. Kecić's personal success story the most interesting. At the end of the presentation Mr. Kecić gave the following advice to our students: "Be willing to leave your comfort zone as the greatest barrier to achieving your potential is your comfort zone. Great things happen when you make friends with your discomfort zone and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Wisdom helps us avoid making mistakes and comes from making them while good judgment comes from experience that comes from bad judgment."

3. STUDENT VISIT TO ENTERPRENEURHIP INCUBATOR IN DURA AGENCI IN DUBROVNIK

On Thursday, October 29th, Career Services organized a visit to Entrepreneurship incubator in the DURA agency (Dubrovnik Development Agency), where students met with Nikša Vlahušić from Futura club, who gave a brief presentation about 3D printing technology and its everyday use. Our freshman IT students had a lot of questions on developing 3D printer from scratch and the challenges that arise in that process. After the lecture, Mrs. Marijana Puljas, an associate in Dubrovnik Development Agency, gave students and faculty members a tour of Idea Factory offices, where 30+ startup companies started their business life.

4. VIDEO CONFERENCE ON EXTENSION ENGINE/MANAS D.O.O.

RIT Croatia hosted a video conference presentation and introduction of Extension Engine/ MANAS d.o.o. , an IT company with offices in Split, Zagreb, Los Angeles and Boston. This company was founded 15 years ago, and today employs 200 programmers, developers, testers and designers. The company was listed twice amongst the 5000 fastest growing companies in the United States. Experts in the field of Online Education technologies with constant growth, have Harvard, MIT, Fitch Ratings and Smithsonian as their main clients. Their main project is called edX, an online learning platform in which they play the main technology partner role. RIT Croatia is very happy to host Extension Engine/ Manas d.o.o. at our Career Education Days for the first time.

5. MR. CECO GAKOVIĆ, THE FOUNDER OF CITYOS.IO PRESENTED TO RIT CROTIA STUDENTS

As an introduction to the StartUp weekend in Dubrovnik on Friday, November 27th , RIT Croatia hosted Mr. Ceco Gaković, a founder of cityos.io. Prior to the social network era, Mr. Ceco Gaković architected portals and collaborative environments for clients such as Yahoo, HP, ATT, Microsoft, AMD, Cisco and Intel, as well as developed touch-screen driven automation and media systems for large vessels, including the largest sailing boat in the world at the time, Jim Clark's cyber-yacht project, the Hyperior. Students enjoyed Mr. Gakovic's presentation about Smart cities and Internet of things concept, and moreover how startups can positively change our lives with advanced technology. A team of three of our IT students participated at the Startup events and their projects under the mentorship of Mr. Gaković won from first to second place.

6. TATJANA JOHN, THE QUALITY MANAGER AT IMPORTANNE RESORT PRESENTED ABOUT QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

7. ANDREJ ŠARIĆ HELD AN iOS WORKSHOP

Our senior IT student Andrej Šarić, who developed, along with his team, several iOS applications, such as Libertas app, Dubrovnik card app, and is working on several projects that will be finished soon, such as Smart park - based on smart sprinkler system for the parks in the Dubrovnik area, and Smart Parking- system that helps drivers find the nearest available parking place, held an iOS workshop based on programming in Swift, for all interested students. Andrej's passion for technology and dedication to his education and work has become widely known among our student body, whose feedback was very positive.
Photo taken by Željko Tutnjević