Conscious Business

At 6 pm CET on Thursday, September 24th, EXIT’s sixth panel in a row within the Conscious R:evolution platform was broadcast live on EXIT Festival’s official Facebook page, on the topic of Conscious Business.

The panel participants were:

  • Mohammed Ismaeel, Senior Vice President of Marketing for CEMEA at Visa
  • Miša Lukić, founder and chief business designer at the NEW STARTEGY consulting company
  • Dušan Kovačević, founder and CEO of the EXIT Festival.

The host of this panel discussion was Danica Stupar, executive director of the leading business platform in Serbia, BIZLife.

Through a review of their practical experience, the panelists answered both the question of how conscious business can serve the community and contribute to environmental protection, and how and to what extent business today is changing, adapting and transforming in an ever-changing world, as previous business concepts are no longer sustainable and need to be changed and adapted to the goals of nature and the community.

With this panel, Visa and EXIT announced three free workshops held in October and November in order to provide support to small and medium businesses. The lecturer is Richard Barrett, the world’s leading author, leader in values, president of the Barrett Academy for the Advancement of Human Values ​​and founder of the Barrett Values ​​Center, the world’s largest value organization that has valued over 50 nations, tens of thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world. To apply for workshops, visit this page.

https://www.facebook.com/exit.festival/videos/3231937480249340/

Participants:

Mohammed Ismaeel
Senior Vice President, Visa CEMEA Marketing, VISA company

Mohammed Ismaeel

Senior Vice President Marketing for the CEMEA Region in VISA company. This role he has held since joining Visa over 5 years ago. Based in Dubai his teams across the region cover diverse marketing functions including Insights, Marketing Planning and Consulting, Sponsorship & Events, Product & Brand Marketing as well as all aspects of Social, Digital and Data led Marketing.

Prior to Visa he led the Regional Marketing Team for HSBC in the Middle East and North Africa, where he worked for a total of 10 years, based in the Middle East and for a time in Malaysia. He began his marketing career at Procter & Gamble, where he worked for 10 years, initially as a Financial Analyst but soon moved into Marketing where he held a variety of positions across multiple brands, culminating in his role as Associate Marketing Director for the Middle East region. Originally from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Mohammed was educated in the UK, and graduated in economic and political geography from the University of London.

Miša Lukić
Founder and Chief Business Designer, NEW STARTEGY

Miša Lukić

Lukić is founder and Chief Business Designer of NEW STARTEGY, first business and brand design consulting company in South-Eastern Europe that brings transformational growth through business model innovation. During his rich career path on the top management positions for more than 25 years, he successfully led marketing agencies in Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East. As regional CEO of Publicis Group, he was in charge of 30 countries of CEE, Baltics, Greece, Turkey and some Central Asia countries.

Miša Lukić is the youngest laureate in Adriatic region to receive The Life Achievement Award presented by the professional Serbian Advertising Practitioners Association (UEPS). Awarded the title of the "Manager of the year 2016" by the Serbian Association of Managers. In 2020 recognized as the Serbian Business Elite of today from respectable business magazine Nedeljnik. As of March 2016, he is a Certified Business Coach and Energy Leadership Master Practitioner (iPEC - Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching, London). Member of Entrepreneur's Organization (EO) and Membership Director for Serbia (EO SEE). Member of Advisory Board of Serbian Artificial Intelligence (AI) society.

Dušan Kovačević
Founder and CEO, EXIT Festival

Dušan Kovačević

Founder of world-famous EXIT festival (SRB) as well as Sea Dance festival (MNE), Revolution festival (RO) and No Sleep festival (SRB).

EXIT festival, founded by Kovačević, is one of the best-known festivals in the world. It has been awarded on several occasions as Best European Festival (2007, 2013 and 2017), and has graced the pages of almost every influential worldwide media such as CNN, BBC, Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Sun, Forbes, Daily Mail, Independent, Euronews, Lonely Planet, Huffington Post and many more.

EXIT has thus far attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists to Novi Sad, bringing more than 200 million euros in profit to local economy while expecting to at least double those numbers in the next decade. Along with the contribution to Serbian tourism, EXIT has significantly contributed to Serbia’s and Balkan’s image promotion all around the globe.

In 2015 Kovačević became the youngest person ever to receive a February award, given by the city of Novi Sad as the most significant recognition to extraordinary individuals who have contributed positively to the city. He is also the initiator of numerous social activism and humanitarian projects which led to the shift in attitudes of the decision makers and general public, instigating positive social changes in Serbia and in the whole region.

Danica Stupar
Executive Director, BIZLife

Danica Stupar

Moderator

The head of the leading business platform in Serbia, BIZLife and one of the founders of a new way of communication of the business community and the creator of projects that have contributed to the popularization of the business sector among young people. Unified media channels that include a portal, magazine, social networks, but also various projects require that they are run by people who are modern and broad-minded. Many years of experience in the field of design and visual culture have enabled me to bring a creative and attractive approach in the relationship between media and business.