In late autumn of 2015, I was walking through the alleys of a small town called Čačak (my hometown in Central Serbia). I bumped into my dear friend Milos, a 3D motion designer, who was joined by someone I didn’t know at the time. That other person happened to share my name — Marko, a web designer. The three of us ended up chatting outside on a cold night about design for a while.

We agreed to sit for coffee someday. Usually, when you say “see you around,” you rarely meet again. But this time we did. And oh, that led to many things.

That other Marko asked if I’d be interested in helping him organize Technest, his inspiring idea. It was meant to be a monthly educational event with this format: each month, a high-quality educator; attendees from the small town (ages 7 to 107) applying to join; and afterward, networking. The sessions were more like talks than formal lessons, where people shared experiences and how they achieved success in the online world.

People lined up to attend, and sometimes we couldn’t host everyone because we were limited to about 60 seats.

It was energizing, fresh, bold, and simply awesome. Especially in a town that had never seen anything like this before.

Over the course of a year, I met incredible people who came to give talks — some of whom I’m still in touch with today. On the other side, I quietly met one after another of those highly ambitious people, pursuing hard-earned results through design excellence. This gathering eventually formed a group of friends who worked together for years, growing alongside one another. It bonded six people who made a real difference in each other’s business journeys — financially, educationally, and beyond.

We became family friends. Although most of us live in different cities, we visit often, and once a year we make a retreat escape to hang out for a weekend, usually around a fire in the mountains. This unexpected crew of designers and life colleagues keeps growing — someone brings along a brother they taught to code, someone else brings their new employee.

If you ever found us working together, it would be nothing short of a dream team. One the whole world would hear about. That’s how awesome this crew is, which met randomly.

For me, Technest is simply ultimate proof of how a random meeting can change your whole life.

What’s your Technest?