Episode 21 - Veroljub Zmijanac, Managing Director, SportIT.Agency - a podcast by Mass Participation World

Today on The Aid Station we travel to Belgrade, Serbia to meet Veroljub Zmijanac.

The industry in Serbia has shown massive growth in the past 10 years from less than 1,000 runners to over 100,000 but, like in most countries, has ground to a standstill since the onset of covid-19.

Veroljub shares "like many event organisers, I'm a 'Control Freak'. One of the most important decisions was to accept that I'm not in control. This is an opportunity to reframe". He shares that "some businesses are going to die but I have made the decision that we will not die - that is an important mindset to have"

His key focus is keeping his team motivated and engaged, exploring ways to help runners and the industry and part of that is recognising that "we are not an event company but and experience business - there are many ways to create experiences that support runners"

Veroljub believes there are opportunities to create "hybrid events" where for example there may be multiple small groups of maybe 100 runners meeting social distancing guidelines participating in an event and linked together virtually.

He is hugely inspired by the massive number of people out running in Belgrade "its a revolution for running"

Watch the interview with Veroljub here https://youtu.be/h1ha5FDKfmg

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