Z-Blog

Can Ljubljana become web-capital of Europe?

Posted by andraz, under zemanta on May 15th, 2008

Location in SloveniaImage via WikipediaYesterday Cyberpipe hosted Richard Rutter from Clearleft who had presentation on web typographies. Recently a journalist from one of the big press agencies was embedded with Zemanta while he tried to find out if Slovenia might be brewing new wave of web companies to take over the world. Today there is presentation at Jozef Stefan Institute by Neel Sundaresan, director of eBay Research Labs. Cycorp decided to open their European HQ in Ljubljana. There are weekly web crowd meetings “Spletne urice” plus endless stream of entrepreneurial events. Something is up, but it is hard to point out what.

Last week web.start conference albeit happening in Croatia was occupied by Slovenians. Not to mention there are rumors floating around that another Slovenian startup called Noovo is launching next week.

When talking with smart people from the States and Western Europe there is a sentiment brewing that next big thing might come from New Europe. Saying Ljubljana is becoming web-capital of Europe is naturally exaggerating by a wide margin, but the region as a whole might be hiding some very precious pearls.

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  • TomazT
    Nice to see that IT is going upwards in Slovenia, keep up the good work.
  • Thx for the mention. Here's a good overview about the markets&trends in EE from my talk at Web 2.0 Europe:
    http://www.slideshare.net/nabergoj/eastern-euro...
    As far as Slovenia is concerned, I don't see yet any relevant initiative behind ours'.I was involved in starting one of the first VCs in Slovenia and angel clubs: the monies are here, but pipeline'z dry!
  • TomazT
    Yeah, the situation is kind sad but true. But on the other hand this means there's a lot improve.
  • andraz
    why would it be sad? there is more happening now that at any time before?

    and hopefully even more is bound to happen. there are lots of possibilities
  • TomazT
    In this monthly issue of some magazine(I think it was Monitor), they are giving an impression that nothing big is happening, for example Hermes, ambitious company, one of the largest here, which was recently bought by some bigger international corp. But yeah, they weren't nothing special in making something new and enjoyable, so to say, just another software firm.

    But optimism is a must, you got plenty of it, keep it that way.

    As you said a lot more is yet to come, guaranty :)
  • I'm pretty sure Zagreb has much better chances on that than Ljubljana! ;)
  • @Bratislav:I think that Ljubljana has more chances then Zagreb

    To be honest I would move back to SLovenia now since they are becoming more technological as ever. What could I work there as Bachelor of Computer Science , got any Cisco Networks there? :)
  • One thing that is most andvanced in Slovenia when compared to Croatia is judicial system and general climate of doing business. However, in (Web) technology we are shoulder to shoulder, and in some areas like online shopping Croatia is even having a lead.
  • I'm positively sure that we can make not only Ljubljana to be a tech capital... I would like to talk about all Slovenia.
    I'm located in Murska Sobota, five years in the market of the Web, and I see huge potential.
    Hey Zemanta team , I would like to know more about that "spletne urice"...

    Kind regards
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