Serbia Innovates held a panel at the Kopaonik Business Forum

On 7 March 2022, we organized a panel at the Kopaonik Business Forum entitled The Future of Innovative Industry - Additional Acceleration or a Straight Line?

This panel was a chance to present our observations about the potential of an innovative industry to a large audience. Although innovative industry in Serbia is constantly growing, the question is whether this growth can survive on individual good examples? It is also becoming increasingly clear that in order to continue growing, we need a paradigm shift towards cooperation, common goals and focus on the most promising areas.

The panel was opened by our director Aleksandra Popović. In an introductory speech in which she touched on the need for focus and cooperation, Aleksandra had the opportunity to once again remind the business public that at the end of last year we chose the four most promising technological domains in Serbia:

  • HIGH TECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PRODUCTION

  • THE GAMING ENVIRONMENT AND VIRTUAL REALITY

  • WEB 3 AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES

  • ADVANCED SOLUTIONS IN MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY.

"In the coming year, we will support the development of these four areas and single out the one around which we will create the first Serbian supercluster in 2023. Our goal is to accelerate technological growth and put Serbia on the map of world leaders in the most promising area of innovation," concluded Alexandra.

The panel was moderated by Kosta Andrić, director of ICT HUB. He explained what sets blockchain, agriculture and gaming apart and how the cooperation of all stakeholders within these areas can create added value. Kosta hosted representatives of three of the four areas with the greatest technological potential. Vladimir Crnojević, director of the BioSense Institute, emphasized the importance of cooperation with Serbian and international organizations and companies and presented BioSense as a central point for combining innovative technologies and biosystems. Ivan Bjelajac, founder and CEO of the MVP Workshop, noted how important it is that Serbian engineers have become involved in the blockchain in time, and that thanks to this, Serbia is recognized in the world as a great destination for this technology. The third panelist was Nikola Čavić, founder and board member of the Serbian Video Game Industry Association, which has 110 members - companies working on game development, but also other areas that are important for sustainability. Čavić emphasized that the strength of that association is precisely that it brings all actors from the industry under one roof, where they overcome challenges through cooperation.

Participants also discussed a number of other important topics concerning innovation in Serbia and the world. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian crisis and its implications for the technology sector are unavoidable. The panelists concluded that quick solutions will be sought, and that innovation could be an answer to this.