Second-year ZSEM students together with professors Rajh and Biočina have warmly welcomed president of the Croatian Society of Lobbyists M.Sc. Pokrovac in the Business Communication in English course.
Maja Pokrovac talked about her experience as a lobbyist and gave an insightful, detailed analysis of lobbying in the Croatian market. With the help of a PPT presentation, she emphasized how lobbying is a transparent, professional activity that helps and improves legislation by introducing new insights, improving policies, and increasing quality of overall governance. Ms Pokrovac explained how “the skills that are being taught to you [students] today are very important in lobbying. It requires a number of analytical and technical skills to present data accurately.” She explained her duties as a lobbyist working in the field of renewable energy sources, discussing her current project about installing solar panels.
The most interesting part of the lecture was when Mrs. Pokrovac went through some of the European countries to explain how lobbying is regulated and how Croatia compares to these countries since Croatia doesn’t have any regulations regarding lobbying. Also, she was talking about the US which has the strongest industry in lobbying and which could serve as an example to Croatia on how to regulate a market in which a lot of money is involved.
At the end, she described how her career choice influenced her on a personal level. “When I was young, I was always the shy kid that had only one best friend and barely spoke up in class. My job as a lobbyist changed that and gave me so much confidence to speak publicly; to even come and lecture students.” She wrapped up the lecture by answering students’ questions. We were honoured to have Maja Pokrovac in our online class.
Press release written by students: Antonio Kišan & Sajida Tawebi
