May ended with an island detour to the Unlock conference on Rab. Our Elder team traded the studio for the coast, returning with something far more valuable than conference swag: new perspectives, fresh ideas, and conversations that lasted well beyond the sessions.
The event brought together designers, developers, product teams, founders, and business leaders. For three days, we joined talks, panels, and discussions about where digital products, teams, and decision-making processes are actually heading.
For us at Elder, this year’s conference had a special layer. Bojana Škaljac and Marija Perić took the stage for the first time as our Elder keynote speakers, joined by Account Manager Ana Bugarinović and CEO Mirjana Spremo.
Design for people, made by real people
Our keynote explored the invisible decisions behind every brand and product.
Everyone sees the logo. Very few see the hundreds of decisions that go into it. Even fewer see what happens when brand and product stop telling the same story.
What stood out most, however, was the process behind the talk itself.
It was incredibly useful to go through the preparation process and participate in something where everything just falls into place. I’d attribute that to having a shared vision,
noted our Bojana Škaljac, adding:
The whole team collaborated beautifully. Throughout the process, I constantly felt that this was something we were doing together, not individually, even in the moments when I was the one standing on stage.
Her co-speaker, Marija Perić, felt that same sense of alignment and highlighted how the setting influenced their performance:
Rab felt like familiar ground from the very beginning, which made it much easier to communicate our shared vision exactly the way we felt it should be told.
She also noted that the inclusion of a dedicated design track was an important milestone for the event, stating,
It was a genuine refreshment at Unlock, and I hope the organisers continue to nurture it in the years ahead.
Across the talks, panels, and hallway conversations, one idea kept resurfacing as a common thread. As Marija pointed out, regardless of the technological leaps discussed, the human aspect remains irreplaceable:
No matter which tools are involved, an empathetic human will always stand behind every design and every product.
AI, tools, and the reality behind them
AI was one of the most discussed topics at the conference. No surprises there. 🙂
Some perceived it as a major shift in how products are designed and delivered. Others approached it with caution, focusing on quality, control, and responsibility.
Despite the noise around new tools, one constant remained surprisingly stable: Figma is still treated as the single source of truth for collaboration between designers and developers.
The tools evolve, and the need for alignment does not.
Academia, Business and AI: A Conversation That Is Only Just Beginning
One of the strongest impressions for our CEO, Mirjana Spremo, came from the panel dedicated to the role of artificial intelligence in education, research and business. The panel, ‘Artificial Intelligence in Economics: Education, Research and Development at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Rijeka’, brought together Anamarija Zron (Teaching assistant, Department of Computer Science, EFRI), Saša Drezgić (Dean, EFRI), Ana Babić (Assistant professor at the Department of Information Sciences, EFRI), Ivan Gržeta (Vice Dean for Quality Assurance and Student Affairs, EFRI), Damir Juričić (CEO, AMN) and Ivan Mužić (Co-founder at Adria Analytics and Research and Teaching Assistant at EFRI).
What made this discussion particularly valuable was not simply the topic of artificial intelligence itself, but the way it created space for meaningful dialogue between academia and industry. This is where Unlock Rab proved especially impactful – as a platform where academics, researchers, business leaders and experts from different fields could exchange perspectives and collectively reflect on the challenges that will shape the years ahead.
A particularly important part of the conversation focused on how AI is influencing not only business processes and decision-making, but also the way young people learn, acquire knowledge and develop the skills that will one day make them our colleagues, collaborators and future leaders. Equally important was the question of how we will assess competence, knowledge and potential in a world where information and powerful tools are more accessible than ever before.
The market does not reward perfection
Across the development track, a recurring message was simple: shipping matters more than polishing.
Products that spend too long in refinement often miss real user feedback. The strongest teams were not the ones chasing perfection, but the ones learning fastest from real use.
Who decides: clients, designers, or users?
In the session featuring Natalija Mihaljević (Team Lead & Digital Marketing Specialist, Prospekt Agency), the discussion focused on a familiar tension in design practice. Rather than framing decisions as a conflict between client and designer, the conclusion was clear: the final authority is neither. It is the user, and the data they generate.
Career pivots worth making
The session ‘Career Pivots for the Better – at Different Stages of Life’, featuring Petar Kozjak (FP&A Consultant, Farseer), Martina Vasilj Matković (CEO, Prospekt Agency), and Dino Oreški (CEO, Upping, Consalta Up), focused on how careers actually evolve. The message was clear: career paths rarely follow a straight line, and that is actually good news. Whether changes come by plan, by necessity, or simply because we outgrow roles we have spent years building, these pivots are what shape us.
Martina Vasilj Matković shared a particularly vulnerable insight about public speaking, noting that even those who appear fearless on stage often struggle with discomfort. It served as a vital reminder of the reality behind the scenes:
behind every great business and successful project, there are real people navigating their own insecurities, taking risks, and learning new skills through every stage of life.
Start before you’re ready
In the panel ‘If you were starting from scratch today – what would you do differently?’, featuring Matija Matijevac (CEO, MAIDEA, CTO, Zuluhood), Zoran Šljivić (IT Expert, 4IT), and Nina Erceg (Product Cybersecurity and DevOps Lead Engineer, Rimac Technology), the discussion shifted away from technical perfection towards real-world impact.
A major takeaway was that the market does not reward perfectionism; it rewards problem-solving. Today, it is less about which tool you use or whether every pixel is flawless, and more about whether your product actually solves a user’s pain point. The key is to launch prototypes quickly and test them on real people, rather than losing months to endless polishing.
Alongside this, the panel emphasised that visibility matters from day one. Building a personal brand and entering public conversations are not optional extras, they are the foundation. You must try, fail, learn, and keep moving. As the speakers noted, while technical skills and programming languages have a ‘shelf life’ and can quickly become obsolete, soft skills like creativity and clear communication will never become a technological surplus.
Networking is not optional
One of the most repeated ideas across sessions came from Matija Matijevac:
Networking, unfortunately, moves you forward.
The humour in ‘unfortunately’ landed immediately, but the message was clear. Relationships often matter as much as expertise. Hrvoje Nekić (Founder & CEO, Web Marketing) confirmed this after the conference, noting that Matija had convinced him to attend, which led to a series of new connections he hadn’t expected.
As Petar Kozjak put it:
You come to Unlock for knowledge but leave with much more than that: new contacts, ideas, and good company that lasts long after the party ends.
Strong brands are built on character
In the interview ‘Branding under the sign of Aries: Why bold brands win’, Mladenka Tomić (CEO / Brand Manager, Fabula) made a simple yet sharp point: brands are not collections of content. They are expressions of character.
People do not stay because of polished campaigns. They stay because they recognise the consistency of who a brand is and how it behaves, especially when things get difficult.
That perspective fits closely with how we approach our own work at Elder: not as isolated visuals, but as systems that need to hold up under real conditions.
Global perspectives, local realities
In an interview conducted by Dragan Petric (Editor-in-Chief at Bug), Siniša Krajnović (President of the Board, Ericsson Nikola Tesla) shared his journey of returning to Zagreb and leading a global giant. The conversation focused on breaking local boundaries and transforming regional talent into world-class leaders.
For our team, this talk crystallised the three pillars of modern business. The focus was not on theory, but on the real-world challenges of today:
- Building and leading teams that are geographically and culturally completely different.
- Managing complex technological projects on a global scale.
- Defining what true leadership actually means in the modern era.
It was a powerful reminder that playing on the global stage requires more than just technical skill; it requires the ability to manage immense complexity.
Closing thoughts
Looking back at three days on Rab, the core takeaway was clear. Regardless of the session – AI, branding, development, leadership, or careers – the defining message remained the same: understanding real users and solving real problems is always at the centre.
While tools and workflows will keep changing, one responsibility remains unchanged: to understand the people we design for and to make decisions that truly help them. This is the most valuable lesson we brought back from Unlock Rab.
As our CEO Mirjana Spremo put it, we’re already looking forward to the next edition, and until then:
