Jure Apih

My fondest memory of Golden Drum
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Jure Apih, Golden Drum Hall of Fame member and Honorary President of the festival

“At first there was the end. Berlin wall, Yugoslavia, Yugoslav marketing communication festival. And then the thought. New Europe.

At the end of a long dark corridor in a big untidy building close to Vaclav Namešty, Meta and I found Jiři, President of Association of Czech Advertising Agencies. No problem, we are with you.

Portorož is heaven on earth, said Czech participant at first Golden Drum in a TV interview.

Michael Conrad, worldwide creative director of Leo Burnett accepted at once to be the President of Golden Drum and till today he is still its golden godfather.

Bob Garfield, first name of Advertising Age magazine, wrote us from New York that he’d like to be master of ceremony at next Golden Drum. On the stage in a big ships hangar in Marina, with a stuffed pigeon on his shoulder (Golden Drum’s symbol in the year 1997 was a pigeon with a cock’s comb). Bob and Ivan Chimburov lead unforgettable witty dialogue about American versus Russian creativity.

Fred and Farid wrote us more than once that they would gladly preside the jury at Golden Drum.

Twenty-five years ago at the other side of Italian and Austrian border I knew almost no one. Golden Drum is a friends making festival, we wrote. And it really was.

When I served out, Golden Drum went its own way. Children are your greatest happiness. Then they stand on their own feet and go away.”

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