IEDC – Bled School of Management was proud to contribute to this important national gathering, which brought together founders, investors, policymakers, and key ecosystem stakeholders to discuss how to strengthen the country’s innovation and growth trajectory.
A central highlight of the forum was the strategic contribution by Prof. Stjepan Orešković, Founder of the Future 500 initiative and President of the Supervisory Board of IEDC. In his address, he emphasized that the core challenge facing Slovenia - and Europe more broadly - is not a lack of ideas or talent, but the ability to transform entrepreneurial energy into companies with sustained global impact.
He underlined that Europe’s competitive gap lies in scaling: building companies that can grow into global champions while maintaining European ownership, governance standards, and values. The Future 500 initiative was created precisely to address this challenge by connecting high-potential growth companies across Europe and strengthening the ecosystems that enable their expansion.
As part of this broader effort, Slovenia is now launching Future 100 Slovenia, a national initiative aimed at supporting the country’s most ambitious companies through improved access to capital, knowledge, talent, and international networks.
The forum also marked an important milestone for collaboration. Future 500, IEDC – Bled School of Management, and SPIRIT Slovenija signed a Memorandum of Understanding, establishing a foundation for a more structured and long-term approach to supporting scale-up development in Slovenia.
The discussions and commitments made at the forum signal a strong step forward in positioning Slovenia as a more dynamic and competitive environment for growth-oriented companies, with increased ambition to translate innovation into global success.