A few weeks ago I was lucky to finally meet the CEO and Founder of Hedone Design, Branko Nikolic. Branko took the opportunity to create a BlackBerry Developer Group in his home region of the Balkans. Branko worked with our Developer Relations team to setup the first event for BlackBerry developers in the Balkans: a “mini” BlackBerry 10 Jam in Maribor, the second biggest town in Slovenia.

Why “mini”? Well, there is a reason for that… but it turned out to be everything but “mini”! The event took place at Feri, a local university, and everything was organized perfectly – from the invitations for developers, to the badges, to the video interviews, the sessions… everything. Over 170 developers were there to listen to our sessions about BlackBerry 10 architecture and development tools. A few local devs also showcased what they developed already, with also a presentation by a local dev company, Codeten. Also, it’s worth mentioning the great (and funny!) presentation made by Dennis Reumer, who runs another BlackBerry Developer Group in the Netherlands.

Last but not least, Branko organized a party for us and for the developers, transforming a popular club in Maribor into a fully-fledged BlackBerry club. Everything inside, from the waiter’s t-shirts to the DJ console (using a PlayBook, of course) was branded BlackBerry. Devs were more than happy and the first surveys demonstrate that now devs in Slovenia (mostly Android developers) are more willing to develop for the BlackBerry 10 platform than ever before.

In short: praises to Branko and his team for the incredible job! I am looking forward to looking at apps from developers in the Balkans showing up in BlackBerry World.