Meeting G2.3 Recap: Connecting The Dots

I’d had it on my calendar ever since I my end-of-summer road trip to Cleveland and Pittsburgh with my dad. And I knew it was important. But I didn’t realize exactly what I was getting myself into when I got off the tramvaj and headed to the Kongresni Centar Forum in Zagreb.

Josip and Mara Hrgetic founded the Meeting G2 organization with the goal of driving “a new era of Croatian economic development, growth and productivity.”

They are the leaders of the Croatian diaspora in the 21st century, and they’re looking for you to join them.

Professionals from around the world gathered at Meeting G2.3 to connect with their native-born peers. The main themes of the event were a desire to improve economic conditions to capitalize on shared business interests.

But to merely leave it at that would be to simplify an event that was at times overwhelming in its scope, even for its most productive and engaged participants.

I did not imagine that in a single week (and in only two days of formal meetings) that I would have left with so many new contacts across a variety of industries ranging from ones I know quite a bit about (journalism and politics) to those I know very little about (solar energy, produce distribution, luxury travel, etc ).

I tend to apply behavioral economics in various real-life situations. But I am not fond of the concepts of “personal branding” and “selling yourself” because it connotes inauthenticity and tackiness.

You don’t need to go out of your way to B.S. people or strain yourself trying to impress them. I don’t have a different version of myself that I use to sell products or pitch stories to people.

This wasn’t easy for me to understand after experiencing several environments where people tried to undermine my authority when I was in leadership position or outright take advantage of me because of my forgiving nature and the fact that I never had any desire to “get one over” on someone or pursue conflict for the sake of the spectacle that so many people who aspire to be in my industry (and unfortunately other fields as well) crave.

Surely, I will derive just as many lessons from pretentious or unfulfilling interactions as I will from the ones that go surprisingly well. The difference here was how many people sought to reach out to me after I introduced myself and told them about my interests, skills, and goals, and you can’t quantify that kind of support.

What sets the members of the Croatian diaspora apart is the lengths they will go to support their youth, from offering a discount to students so they can afford to attend, as many young people did from as far away as Argentina or as close as Austria or Germany.

It’s going the extra kilometer (when in Zagreb) to deliver for clients, scheduling meetings around the clock and collecting business cards from people you meet on the street just because you thought this person might be a good contact for your friend.

This exists in the U.S., but don’t overlook the importance of ethnic cohesion in all of this. The reason why Jewish, German, Mexican, Cuban, and African-American professional associations all thrive is because they take care of each other.

As a member of ACAP, the CFU, and soon AFCA, I understand the significance of this. And when I can contextualize my lifelong loves of sports and music (with timely visits to a packed Maksimir Stadium for a 4–1 Croatia win over Greece with the G2.3 folks and a tour of the historic Croatian Music Institute with my class), it’s not difficult to see the dots are lining up and connecting.

It would be easy to be dismissive after seeing so many reasons to be discouraged about the state of things here early on, including a thoughtful question I asked of a panel of Croatian bureaucrats where I stated my interest in increasing the number of American applicants to the Croaticum program, improving the communication issues on their end and ensuring that they wouldn’t go through the same uncertainties and unnecessary logistical obstacles that I did, and I was met with a woefully short and disinterested and incorrect answer about the number of students from the U.S. who participated in the program.

Perhaps the fact that many Croatian-Americans have no idea this opportunity exists is a problem. But it’s one that won’t persist if I have anything to say about it.

It’s truly remarkable what the power of the free market and an entrepreneurial spirit have done to the Croatian economy. Last week I toured Rimac, the manufacturer of the world’s fastest car (that’s right, it’s not a Ferrari or Lamborghini) and Greyp, a high-end electric hybrid motorbike.

My friend who took me on the tour and said, “have you ever been more proud of your heritage than you are right now?”

My answer was, of course not. But I see no reason why we can’t be even more proud of what we can accomplish together — at Meeting G2.4 and beyond.