The most valuable conversations, partnerships and innovations at the Liftoff conference often happen outside the conference hall

Liftoff, a conference dedicated to deep tech innovations, startups and connecting science with the market, will take place on 30 June and 1 July in Zagreb. The conference is organised by Nuqleus, an academic entrepreneurship programme operating within the Nikola Tesla Innovation Centre (ICENT) at FER, and over the course of two days it will gather representatives of the startup community, investors, technology companies, scientists and decision-makers from Croatia and across Europe.

This year’s edition of the conference will focus on the development of the European deep tech ecosystem, cooperation between startups and industry and strengthening the regional innovation scene. This was precisely the reason for speaking with Mirta Anjoš, Head of Marketing and PR at Nuqleus, who revealed how an event of this kind is created, how demanding it is to connect the scientific, investment and business sectors and why networking and the destination experience are now playing an increasingly important role in the success of conferences.

How would you introduce Nuqleus to readers who may be encountering your work for the first time? What is its primary mission within the Nikola Tesla Innovation Centre?

Nuqleus is a startup incubator for scientists who want to turn the results of their research into a concrete product or service and launch a startup. Our programme is open to researchers from various fields, from robotics and energy to medicine and advanced materials. Through working with them, we help them validate ideas, find a market, develop the business skills needed to transition from the academic environment into entrepreneurship and learn how to speak with investors and present their innovations to the market.

We are proud that, in three and a half years of operation, we have helped establish more than 25 startups based on scientific research. Our mission within the Nikola Tesla Innovation Centre is to build a bridge between the academic community and entrepreneurship and contribute to the development of the Croatian startup ecosystem, while through Liftoff we aim to position Croatia in the long term as a centre of deep tech innovation in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. In all of this, we are supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth and the World Bank through the DIGIT project.

The term “deep tech” is being mentioned increasingly often, but for many people it is still not entirely clear – how would you explain it to our audience and why is it crucial today for technological progress?

I would describe deep tech in the simplest terms as technology based on scientific discoveries that requires long-term research and has the potential to change the way we live. Unlike “traditional” innovations, which largely improve existing solutions, what makes deep tech special is the fact that these are technologies capable of solving major global challenges – from healthcare and energy to security and climate change.

Deep tech requires major investment before commercialisation, often has a longer return on investment and carries greater risk. However, it also has enormous potential to “change the rules of the game”. So, beyond transforming markets, deep tech innovations are also changing and improving the society we live in over the long term.

Connecting the scientific community and the global capital market

What are the goals of the Liftoff conference and who is it primarily intended for, in other words what kind of participant profile does it attract? Are we speaking exclusively about scientists and developers or is the circle broader? How many participants have attended so far and how many do you expect this year?

The goal of the Liftoff conference is to connect science, startups, industry and investors and demonstrate how innovations created in this region can become globally competitive products and services. We want to present domestic talent, scientific excellence and the growing startup ecosystem to an international audience because, in the long term, we see Croatia as a centre of innovation and deep tech in Central and Eastern Europe.

Scientists, startups and investors are a key part of our audience, however Liftoff is intended for a much broader range of participants – industry representatives, especially technology companies that develop and invest in innovations, students, representatives of the academic community and public sector and generally everyone interested in the future of technology, science and innovation, as well as Europe as a technologically and economically independent leader. It is precisely this diversity of participants that encourages quality conversations and creates new partnerships and collaboration opportunities. Last year we had an excellent response and gathered around 500 participants, while this year we expect additional growth and increased international interest.

How many people are involved in your conference organisation team and what are the main specifics of planning an event that combines science, the corporate sector and investments? How do you balance content that is interesting for everyone?

The organisation of the conference is handled by our “core” team of around ten people with experience in the startup ecosystem, science, event management, marketing, PR and project management, with the support of external collaborators. It is precisely this combination of different expertise that is key to organising an event such as Liftoff.

The specific challenge of a conference like this lies in connecting several different worlds – scientists, startups, investors and industry. That is why it is important for us to find a balance between expert, high-quality content and topics and speakers that are also sufficiently relevant for a wider audience. The conference content is focused on the future of innovation in Europe and the positioning of the Central and Eastern European region within it, including Croatia itself. In addition, we bring concrete stories, experiences and advice from successful domestic companies that can serve as inspiration and contribute to the development of new businesses and innovations.

How do you approach technical production and cooperation with agencies? Do you have permanent partners for that part of the work or do you handle everything in-house?

We manage the organisation of the conference internally, but for specific segments such as technical production and design we cooperate with external partners who have experience in producing larger-scale events. We want to create a truly high-tech conference in every sense of the word, so reliable specialised partners are extremely important to us. We always strive to achieve the best possible cooperation with them and build trust in order to establish long-term partnerships.

We believe the best approach is a combination of internal expertise and reliable long-term partners because it is important to us that everything looks professional, while technology remains in the service of high-quality content and a strong participant experience.

Informal content and the destination experience as the key to success

Alongside the official programme, do you organise additional content such as networking events, social gatherings or city tours for international participants? How important are such elements for the overall event experience?

Absolutely, additional content is a very important part of the overall conference experience for us. It often turns out that these informal activities become some of the most memorable moments of the entire conference and that the most valuable conversations between participants happen precisely there, where new collaborations are agreed and new partnerships developed. It is also at these events that we, as organisers, can best present ourselves as true hosts to our partners and conference participants.

We always look forward to showing Zagreb, as well as the wider region, to international participants and that is something that always stays with them – an experience they continue to talk about and one that makes them eager to return.

Alongside informal networking events, we also organise various side events, such as an expo zone featuring leading startup incubators from the region and the Nuqleus Demo Day, where deep tech startups from our programme present their innovations to investors during the conference itself. In addition, ahead of Liftoff and as a kind of prelude to the event, we are organising a smaller exclusive event called the “Grow in Europe Bootcamp” on the island of Cres for selected startups and investors focused on ClimateTech and PhysicalAI. We truly invest a great deal of effort into showing international participants the very best that Croatia has to offer.

How do you measure the success of a conference such as Liftoff – through the number of participants, media visibility, achieved business results or something else? Has the conference so far resulted in significant investments, partnerships or the launch of new innovations on the market – can you share some examples?

We measure the success of the conference through the number of participants, the quality of the audience, the number of international participants and delegations, participant feedback and the concrete collaborations that emerge after the conference. We are building Liftoff as a platform that connects top scientific excellence and talent from Central and Eastern Europe with investors, industry and policymakers, so it is especially valuable for us to see that conversations about investments and partnerships have already been initiated through the conference itself. We have already had examples of startups establishing contacts with numerous investors after the conference and we believe that precisely these kinds of connections will be the greatest value of Liftoff.

The visibility the conference brings to the Croatian and regional innovation ecosystem is also very important to us. Liftoff brings people to Croatia whom we rarely have the opportunity to hear from in person – leading European experts, investors and decision-makers from the deep tech and startup world. Among them are the Chairman of the Board of the European Innovation Council, Michiel Scheffer, Chief Operating Officer of one of Europe’s leading startup incubators UnternehmerTUM, Stefan Drüssler, co-founder and COO of one of Europe’s largest deep tech conferences Deep Tech Momentum, Isabelle Simon and Selma El Ouardi, Head of Investor Relations at Europe’s leading deep tech conference Hello Tomorrow. In addition, representatives of leading European venture capital funds are also attending the conference and we are already developing different forms of cooperation with all of them that will, in the long term, benefit the entire domestic startup and innovation ecosystem.