Success isn’t just about big and resonant stories but also quiet achievements, which all too often slip the attention of the media. Successful Slovenia did not overlook them – successful students, innovators, businesspeople, farmers, doctors, scientists, artists, sportspeople … Their achievements give hope that Slovenia will use its creative power to take its place among vital societies.

Special people …
The first person to interview was Janko Jamnik, the director of the Institute of Chemistry, whose vision is to turn the institute into the leading research institution in this part of Europe. In the following weeks, we also presented Božo Himelrajh, who won the 200m run at the World Master Games, 19-year-old Michel Adamič, who represented Slovenia at two international science olympiads – the International Physics Olympiad and the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics – winning a bronze medal and an honour mention, Marija Podobnik, the female farmer of the year, Janez Benedičič, the innovative young farmer of the year, Nejc Čeplak, the state champion in memorising as well as this year’s winner of a silver medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad and a bronze one from last year, Ida Baš, a radio presenter with a smooth, sonorous voice and the winner of this year's Crystal Microphone Award for Lifetime Achievements, Gabriela Babnik, one of the winners of the EU Prize for Literature awarded to Europe’s best emerging authors, and Ivan Rocco, the winner of the award for the best young Slovenian fashion designers.

… special awards …
We talked to Edita Cetinski Malnar, who received HORUS 2013, a special Slovenian recognition award for responsible involvement in the society, for her weekly TV show Prava ideja (The Right Idea), in which she presents successful Slovenian businesses, Karmen Erjavec, one of the authors in a study on hate speech in web comments, which was awarded as the outstanding scientific achievement of the year, Dušan Olaj, the owner of Duol, who was chosen as businessman of the year for his work achievements, Marko Guček from GoOpti, the winner of Slovenian Innovation Forum's special award for the most innovative business model for its smart organization of passenger transport, and Aleš Potočnik, the owner of Potočnik Furniture, which designed a kitchen model that won the main award for design at the 2013 Ambient furniture fair in Ljubljana.

A group of researchers from the Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana won the Puh Award for their discovery of a new water-soluble form of co-enzyme Q10, the Kofein company developed an app called Yugo – which suggest the most appropriate cultural event based on the user’s expectations and habits – and received an award at the European tender for ideas in the field of IT in culture, the Slovenian architect Rok Žgalin Kobe co-designed LEGO Architecture product range, which was awarded as the best specialized toy product of the year by the toy industry association, and the Ortotip company from the Prekmurje region won the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce’s (GZS) silver award in the category of the most innovative companies for its 3D didactic gadget called Ciciprinter
A team from the ITSI INFO company managed to cross the finish line at the prestigious TechCrunch conference, where 100 start-up teams from all over the world took part in a 24-hour competition, and presented a working concept of a simple electric motor controller. A group of young Slovenian entrepreneurs developed a special key-ring called Chipolo, which can be put on one’s keys or wallet. Using a wireless Bluetooth or a smartphone enables the user to determine the location of the key-ring in every situation.
… and exceptional achievements
MMC also interviewed David Pangerl, a co-founder of Actalogic, a company with 10 million users of its computer games, Marjana Kamnik from the Slovenj Gradec retirement home, who received a special prize, a first-time award in the field of social services, from GZS for her project called The Key Person, Niko Klanšek, the young Slovenian businessman who invented a “bike for the 21st century”, Dejan Durini and Daniel Nunić, who came up with an idea to depict the days, weeks and months in a cyclical manner, and whose cyclical calendar was also awarded by GZS.
A group of researchers from the section for intelligent systems at the “Jožef Stefan” Institute won the world championship in activity recognition in Spain, setting an all-time record in the number of points collected, and the Red Pitaya team managed to launch a product in 9 months that has instantly convinced an elite American university.