Farewell Heapspace!
The hardest thing in life is to know when to (let) go. The more you develop this technique, the better you will be at it. And more importantly, it will become natural as you adopt it throughout the years.
Change drives me. It creates new paths, opportunities, and ultimately, it makes me rethink my choices and reconsider the actions I took.
Change creates the space for two things:
a) the analysis of a period in my life with an intention to conclude what I could have done better, and to map what I did wrong;
b) to plan the future actions with the goal of understanding how I can use what I’ve learnt in order to improve.
Based on that, I am currently in a reflection phase, looking back at my five years long engagement at Heapspace. Here’s a quick visual guide to showcase the projects I was working on.
2015
The first big conference I helped organize was Voxxed Days Belgrade 2015. At the time, only two tech conferences took place in Belgrade and Novi Sad, so we’ve hit the sweet spot. VDB15 had 550 visitors and we occupied Yugoslav Film Archive and Kolarac for two days.
2016
Next year, we wanted to go bigger, so we rented Belexpocenter and figured we can do three days and four parallel tracks in that space. The audience was eager for more and the conference was again, sold out.
2017
This year was special, because I was given an opportunity to hire a famous designer (Nemanja Jehlička) and redesign the visual identity of Heapspace and Voxxed Days Belgrade. Under the tagline “Tech is bold, smart and quirky”, we launched the weirdest conference design. This was also the first year I took on the role of the Project Manager and kept it for the next two years.
At the closing session of Voxxed Days Belgrade 2017, we announced “the new conference in town” — heapcon.
Heapcon’s logo came to be a dynamic flag, calling for tech community members to stand under it. The visual identity of heapcon was crafted by Milica Pantelić. Heapcon aimed at setting the standard for conference organizers, but it was also used to test how software engineers and other IT professionals react to a slightly different type of content.
In parallel with the efforts of organizing the first edition of heapcon, I was particularly eager to organize events outside of Belgrade and Serbia. In September 2018, Tech Breakfast (Tehnološki doručak), a short and spicy morning event started to take place on a regular bases in Zagreb and Novi Sad. In the following months, we ‘conquered’ two new cities: Subotica and Niš. In the period of several months, we had breakfasts in five cities, showcasing around 180 ideas/projects/startups.
I must outline that the Tech breakfast in Zagreb wouldn’t have happened without the support of Lea Kosović, a local young entrepreneur. 💙
2019
From day one this year felt like a crossroad, both professionally and personally. These three words would accurately describe my state of mind marking this year: curiosity, determination and fatigue. I caught myself saying multiple times that I can’t wait for this year to be over, only to figure out how significant it really is for me.
Back on track with heapcon. This edition of big tech conferences was our fifth — a small jubilee.
We changed the venue from Belexpocenter to the Belgrade Youth Center and probably outdid ourselves with the design, since many people said it was the best we did so far. Milica Pantelić was again the author of the visual identity for heapcon 2019.
Check it out!
So, why am I saying goodbye?
Many people asked me this question since the news got public, so I will enjoy sending this link instead of repeating the whole story :)
And here’s the answer! 🥁
Five years is the longest period of time I’ve spent working in one organization. And it was great, it drove me better than any project I’ve done before. What I liked so much about it was the feeling that I was doing something meaningful and that there were no boundaries for whatever we wanted to do.
But then, as every individual progresses in their career and life, your interests, motives and visions separate in a moment. If you don’t communicate this subtle separation and devote a serious chunk of time to analyze it within the organization, you can be sure that your co-workers will experience the same change of vision.
I think I did my best and that my creative capacities within Heapspace have reached their limit.
To spice up this five-year reflection and a farewell explanation, I am slowly drafting a new interdisciplinary community.
Stay tuned! :)
