IT Events: A platform connecting Croatia’s IT community

Croatia’s IT community is growing, but event information was scattered across Facebook groups, LinkedIn posts, and individual organizer sites. There was no single place to see upcoming conferences, meetups, and workshops in one view.

IT Events (itevents.space) was built for that gap.

The problem we solved

IT event organizers in Croatia share the same challenge: reach. A Zagreb meetup is posted on LinkedIn, but someone in Osijek or Split may never see it. At the same time, developers and IT professionals want to follow relevant events but do not have time to check ten sources every week.

The goal was simple: one place, all IT events, a clear schedule.

Technology choice

For this kind of platform we considered two paths:

WordPress + custom post type: Fast to launch, but limiting for UX. Every interaction reloads the page, filtering feels slow, and design tweaks mean fighting the theme.

React SPA (Single Page Application): Snappier UX, instant filtering and search, full control over design. Higher upfront development cost, but a much better result.

We chose React + TypeScript + Vite + Tailwind CSS. Reasons: development speed, type safety, strong performance, and full control over every aspect of the user experience.

Technical challenges

Performance on mobile

Most users open the site on a phone — commuting, between meetings, waiting in line for coffee. The page has to be fast even on slower networks.

Concrete optimizations:

• Code splitting — each route loads only the code it needs
• Lazy-loaded images — images load when the user scrolls to them
• Preload critical assets — fonts and CSS load in parallel with HTML
• Small JavaScript bundles — total size under 250 KB (gzipped)

Result: LCP under 1.5 seconds on 4G.

SEO for a SPA

SPAs have an inherent SEO issue: Googlebot sees an empty <div id="root"> until JavaScript renders the page. For a site that should rank for “IT events Croatia”, that matters.

Our approach:

• Dynamic meta tags via react-helmet-async — each event has a unique title, description, and Open Graph tags
• JSON-LD structured data — Event schema per event, ItemList for listings
• Sitemap at build time — automatically includes all active events
• Server-side rendering was not required — Google renders JavaScript well today, and correct meta tags address most of the challenge

Responsive design without compromise

Design is not “shrink everything for mobile”. Mobile users want date, location, and signup link fast. Desktop users want a calendar view and category filters.

We used Tailwind’s responsive utilities for genuinely different layouts at different breakpoints — not only size changes, but a reordered information hierarchy.

Lessons learned

1. Simplicity wins

The first version had filters for city, category, date range, event type, and organizer. Users only used two: date and location. We simplified the rest.

2. Speed is a feature

Users do not think of speed as a technical metric — they read it as quality. A page that loads in a second feels professional. One that takes three seconds feels amateurish, regardless of content.

3. EU hosting is a must

For a site aimed at the Croatian market, a server in Central Europe (Frankfurt) cuts latency by about 60–80 ms compared to the US. On mobile networks, that difference is noticeable.

Outcome

IT Events now serves as a central hub for IT events in Croatia. The site is fast, clear, and usable on every device. Most importantly, it does what it set out to do: connect people who want to learn and share knowledge.

If you have an idea for a similar project — a platform, web app, or site that needs to be more than a brochure — get in touch for a free assessment.