The Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja organized an open innovation event on February 3 and 4, 2026. The event brought together representatives of the academic community from both the country and abroad, experts in tourism, and key actors in the innovation ecosystem.

The central part of the program was a hackathon, in which student teams participated with mentoring support from teachers at the Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja, the Kraków University of Economics, and the Technical University of Liberec.

Eight teams competed to develop innovative solutions for modernizing mineral water sources in Vrnjačka Banja using modern technologies, with the help of the Valifiy business idea development application. Students demonstrated a high level of knowledge, creativity, and practical skills in developing and presenting innovative business ideas, which were evaluated by an expert jury.

In addition to the hackathon, the program included lectures by professors from the Kraków University of Economics, the Technical University of Liberec, and the University of Pannonia, who presented examples of successful open innovation networks in tourist destinations of the Visegrad Group countries.

IT solutions supporting open innovation in tourism were also presented, including the Valifiy application and the Platform for Open Innovation in Tourism, developed by the Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja.