Although for the previous 3 years the International Professional Conference Business in Heels has been held on June 15, due to the state of emergency caused by the Covid 19 pandemic, this year the conference was postponed by ten days, so women entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs gathered on June 25, at the Novi Sad Fair Master Center. Again due to the mentioned circumstances, there were no participants from the region, but some of them addressed the audience via online streaming, thanks to which it was possible to follow this event outside Serbia.
The organizers respected all precautionary measures, and provided means for hand disinfection at all points, and each participant received a protective mask along with promotional material. Thanks to all that, the maximum allowed 500 visitors were present.
This year’s conference also differs in that it is partly co-financed by funds from the Women Business HUB project within the Interreg IPA cross-border cooperation program Croatia – Serbia.
The president of the Association Healthy Life Promotion and the founder of the conference, Sofija Bajić, addressed first to participants. The conference was officially opened by Zoran Djordjevic, Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans’ Affairs and Social Affairs, who welcomed the gathering with a speech and emphasized the efforts of his ministry to facilitate the position of women in Serbia. Danijela Maletić spoke about the importance of social entrepreneurship, and Joland Korora spoke about the efforts made by NURDOR to make life easier for families with children with cancer.
Topics necessary for starting and successful business development were discussed, so those present had the opportunity to hear how to get from idea to business, which was talked about by Nikolina Josipović, owner of Paradox Consulting, Milana Ceković, owner of Agile Management and Dina Vukičević from Plant my tree association. How to finance your business idea, we learned from the director of the Guarantee Fund of AP Vojvodina Djordje Rakovic, Branislav Bandic from the Secretariat for Economy and Tourism, as well as Bojana Orsic, director of the Entrepreneurship – Development Center Erdut. Dragiša Ristovski from D.R. Gilbert Center, spoke very inspiringly about how marketing is important as a sales tool. About the importance of facial expressions and body language in successful business negotiations, spoke Darko Todorović, director of the Partner team center for microexpression. Dubravka Bjekić, owner of PaySpot, well-known food blogger Katica Vujanović – Baka Kaja, spoke about the need for digitalization of business and the importance of promotion on social networks, and Lidija Arsenin, owner of Content Studio, was especially inspiring with the story of social networks promotion. And last but not least, Vukasin Bajic, director of Vitalon, Maja Samokovlija from Gentle Day, and Dr. Mirjana Zivkovic Sulovic spoke about how to preserve our health.
The BEST HEELS plaques for 2020 were also awarded, and the motivational speaker and author of the book „How I Saved the World“, Elizabeta Stanimirov, also contributed to the great atmosphere.
Marija Radojčić, owner of the Best Brand Friendly agency, lawyer Branislava Stajić Tanjga and Maja Kostić from Melon Interactive Honesty spoke at the panel discussion on „Business Challenges during and after the pandemic“, moderated by Mara Skendžić.