"This is the most important IT conference in this part of Europe, and this year's anniversary edition is dedicated to the current topic of digital transformation and impact on the future, because it is a concept that marks our era," said Full Prof. Vjeran Strahonja, Ph.D.
By now, the conference has already achieved enviable credibility in international scientific circles, as evidenced by the increasing number of participants, as well as the increasing number of related scientific and professional activities. The first day of this three-day conference consisted of lectures delivered by eminent world-known experts - professor Wolf Rauch of the Karl-Franzens University in Vienna, professor Sirje Virkus of the University of Tallinn and professor Günter Müller from the University of Freiburg. Keynotes spoke from different perspectives on the topic of digital transformation, which, they say, has penetrated in all aspects of the modern information society.
The conference was followed by the presentation of scientific papers by domestic and foreign authors in 11 scientific sections, evaluated by 78 reviewers, of which 46 are foreign scientists and experts in the field of information sciences. "These are high-quality scientific papers that have come to us for this 30th anniversary", said FOI Dean Assoc. Prof. Nina Begičević Ređep, Ph.D., especially emphasizing the fact that FOI was able to maintain the tradition of this conference by increasing the number of scientific papers year by year, thus expanding internationalization at this Faculty. Jan Fauser and Christine Koppenhöfer received the Best Paper Award at this year's conference for their work entitled 'Modeling and Evaluating Business Model Ecosystems in the Energy Domain'.
This year, the conference attracted a total of several hundred attendees, who were able to participate in expert workshops on 'DIGITRANS Methodology' and 'Data Analysis', and the 'Computer Games - Professional Track', presenting professional achievements in the field of computer games. The attendees also had the opportunity to project activities of FOI and partner institutions across Europe.
Faculty of Organization and Informatics, as the organizer of this conference, paid special attention to students of all years of study, who were able to present the results of their research within the student and poster online section, participating by 31 students with 19 research papers. In addition to FOI students, foreign students from Princeton University of New Jersey, the University of Central Florida in Orlando, University of Pennsilvania in USA and the University of Shkodra and "Luaras" University in Tirana, Albania, also participated.
An important part of the CECIIS 2019 conference program was the 11th International Doctoral Seminar, which gave FOI doctoral students and students from partner universities in Bratislava the opportunity to present and discuss their own research proposals and whose work are published in the CECIIS 2019 Proceedings.
In the end, this conference greatly contributes to the development of scientific tourism in Croatia, therefore, many foreign participants were presented the beauties of our region, from Varaždin to Međimurje, over the next three days, organized by the Organizing Committee of CECIIS 2019 under the leadership of Assoc. Prof. Valentina Kirinić, Ph.D.
This year's 30th CECIIS 30th Conference was sponsored by the President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar - Kitarović, the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Varaždin, Varaždin County and INFODOM, ORACLE, DIGNET SOFTWARE.
Special thanks goes to the Minister of Science and Education Full Prof. Blaženka Divjak Ph.D. and Deputy Mayor of the City of Varaždin Mr. Zlatan Avar, who attended the conference. Let us also mention that the opening ceremony of the conference was supported by the FOI Academic Choir, led by ditigent Ms. Janja Knapić.
