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The Fair Sourcing Awards for procurement excellence were awarded at Wednesday evening’s gala event to innovative and inspirational users of eSolutions. Maria Biñas, the Chair of the jury, confirmed that for this year’s 8th edition the bar has been set very high. "I see this year as a turning point. We can see that the potential of people participating in the competition is immense," he said, adding that the creativity of particular solutions is increasingly important.

The Start category was won by the municipality of Žiar nad Hronom, second place went to the Banská Bystrica Region and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic was third. In the Trend category, the Liberec Region came first, followed by the City of Ostrava and third was Masaryk University in Brno. The winner of the Master award was Fernando Batista of the Portuguese Institute IMPIC, second was Ondrej Kuruc from the Slovakian Ministry of Health and third Jana Hybšová of the General University Hospital in Prague.

On the first day, many eBF participants headed for the stages hosting the traditionally acclaimed Hyde Park and Practical Arena events. The curators looking after their content were Messrs Mário Biňas and Jan Vašek, who created a blend of topics that are "happening" in corporate procurement. Discussions on category management, eCatalogues and procurement in times of rising prices, along with case studies on the evaluation of bids, were all greatly welcomed. It all culminated in an extended afternoon debate about the implementation of ideas and the meaningful use of eSolutions.

Under the guidance of one of the eBF curators, Mr. Karel Otýs, there was another novelty. This was the Sixth Stage in the Puppet Theatre, where you could listen to the stories of buyers from international corporations as well as Czech and Slovak companies. They talked openly about how to make savings happen in line with the management's expectations and how to negotiate with suppliers at a time of rising prices, amongst many other topics. The new programme format worked great. It turned out that the greater the authenticity of the story, the more people identify with it.

We are honoured that for the first time in eBF’s history, one of the stages has been taken over by one of our partners. This year's Asahi Stage, chaired by Mr. Tomas Veit, offered not only an overview of what the global brewing group Asahi is doing in the field of digitalisation, but it also included contributions from procurement experts from other trend-setting leading international companies. One important discussion topic among many was the changing role of procurement in the “New Procurement” era.

The programme in the main hall, where public procurement experience is being shared on Wednesday, began with Alena Ševčíková's prologue. According to her, eBF has grown to such a height it touches the stars. She explained with a smile that the festival is an "organized set of special social events", which suits us fine. However, the main thing was something else. In her own words: "We are at a festival that has a strong heart with a regular beat. I hope that its comfort and atmosphere will also be transferred to your hearts. Let eBF 2018 live!"

The very first event of Wednesday’s eBF started at 7am for Malcolm’s morning run around Ostrava. If you like sport outdoors, then take advantage of the still very pleasant Indian summer conditions and join in tomorrow. You’ll have another chance to expand our little group of runners at 7am in front of the Imperial Hotel.

Before the start of the programme, which is taking place on a record six stages this year, all of the participants were also welcomed by the eBF Director Milan Kaplan: "It is amazing that you have all come. Welcome!" He then reminded us that the fourteenth year of our festival brings a lot of new developments, including Friday's round tables with Leopold Sulovský and Vladimír Vůjtek. Another new development was the festival bell, whose ringing signalled the festival could really begin in earnest.

The opening ceremony of eBF took place on Wednesday morning with Mr Tomáš Kotyza, the Director of the Moravian-Silesian Regional Authority, one of our partners. “I very much appreciate the fact that eBF has been here for such a long time and that it has an atmosphere that is unbeatable. I think that due to its informality, barriers are broken and this makes the effectiveness of information transfer much greater”, were the kind words of our honoured guest, who finished with, “Enjoy the conference and also Ostrava!”

Real creativity and the power of the creative soul that inspires emotion have again signalled the start of this year’s eBF with the TOGETHER exhibition. This is the fourth year of this Tuesday evening event, and this year we celebrated the spirit of the First Republic. We paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovakia, a milestone that deserves the attention of all of us. The pleasant atmosphere was inspired not only by period costumes, but also by the musical performance of Petr Donath's family group. All together, we could view beautiful drawings, paintings, photos, ceramics, and fashion accessories. They will be on display throughout eBF in the exhibition space at Dlouhá 6.

We're looking forward to all the news from Europe. Who is furthest ahead in digitalisation? Discussions on the EUROPA stage will focus on the current status of the mandatory digitalisation of procurement in EU member states, spiced up with inspirational examples of what works and is proven in practice.

What's going to happen and what has the EU got in store? Does it also affect us? On Thursday 8th November, you'll be greeted by representatives from both the EU and several European countries, led by the curator of the whole stage, Branislav Šarmír from VO SK (Public Procurement Slovakia).