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Zdeněk Pytlíček will thrill his listeners in the eCatalogue block. At innogy he deals with all procurement activities that can’t be done if you don’t work with suppliers. He is the creator of many new approaches and ideas which he doesn’t keep in the drawer, but straight away implements successfully. His life credo is, "Do what you enjoy and people will enjoy what you do". There’s nothing more we can add; we can’t wait to see what he does for us.

Martin Zelinka, a renowned corporate procurement expert and manager will, with his customary charm and professionalism, lead and curate the Category Management block on Wednesday on the Hyde Park Stage. His experience in implementing new digital procurement solutions and integrating them into a company's internal processes is now being applied at Siemens, where he is Head of Procurement. Outside his professional life, he also spends his leisure time seeking long-term goals, quite literally. Last year he did the Budapest Marathon and we are curious about whether he will also join Malcolm's morning run in Ostrava :-).

We're very pleased to announce that the Sixth Stage at the Puppet Theatre, one of the innovations at this year's eBF, will be entirely curated by Karel Otýs. "I envisage the greatest contribution of the Sixth Stage will be in sharing the authentic stories of the speakers, be they successes or mistakes," says the experienced lecturer and consultant, who recently founded Amplio, a new training company. In addition to successfully assisting procurement and business teams, our by now traditional guest is an extreme supporter of freedom and independence. He considers himself an introvert, but is very happy to tell stories, for example about how he lives in an energy self-sufficient house. "Because of its unusualness, my life can be of great interest to many people," he adds. That goes for us too!

We’ve put a lot of serious thought into the idea mooted last year of selecting independent curators from among the ranks of successful buyers and procurers for each thematic block. It has hardly been noticed, but there has been a very big change since last year: automation. Bearing this in mind, we took this step cautiously and with a certain amount of fear, but it has turned out to be totally amazing. Sure, sometimes everything hasn’t gone totally according to plan, but overall the sense of the whole programme jumped out at us. This year we are putting our foot on the gas and have been looking for new curators from the procurement world not only for programme blocks, but also for whole stages at November’s eBF. More heads, more hearts, more ideas, more energy, more innovation.

The European Association of Public eTendering Providers EUPLAT exists to promote and spread the idea of fair eTendering. This is why they will this year support the Fair Sourcing Awards (FSA), a competition rewarding success in the digitalisation of procurement which is organised by APUEN, the Czech and Slovak associations for users of eProcurement solutions.

We are very pleased to be able to prepare this year's eBF under the auspices of Tomáš Kotyza, the head of the Moravian-Silesian Regional Authority. Thank you for your support!

Our advantageous "Christmas Birds" offer was taken up by a few dozen of the faithful who believe that this year we’ll put together another quality event. Thank you for your trust, and we hope that this year brings lots of happiness, love and success to you, your families and your colleagues.

At eBF this year there were about a hundred lectures full of facts and wise words. Everyone talked about something different, but equally a lot of them examined the insight of Peter Kraljič, who we rightly labelled the legend of procurement management.

He came to the podium with a big story, about globalization, about competitiveness, about the strategic role of buying, about the importance of the right leaders, about the desire to be better and about the courage to face challenges and share experience.

"Think about the problem and then use your common sense," was his advice for life. We thank you!

You were perfect and meticulous, and thanks to you, buyers here have the best job in the world! With the feeling that everything had gone as it should, we said our goodbyes to some on Thursday and then some more on Friday during the Caffè Lungo meeting.

“Its genius is in its perfection,” said Daša Paláková of the detailed provision of transport for eBF guests. It’s the little things that make a great whole, as we have now seen for the thirteenth time.

“I’m so glad that we always look forward to seeing each other more and more. That’s excellent. We sometimes say to ourselves that next time will be troublesome, but you always give us the opportunity to improve every time, and for that we thank you,” added Milan Kaplan.

One of the most stimulating aspects of this year's eBF was the debut of joint presentations by corporate and public sector speakers. On Thursday afternoon on the Hyde Park stage and in the Practical Arena examples of what the corporate sector can bring to public procurement were discussed.

It’s true that companies can be a little less involved with processes and responsibilities than institutions, which are by their very nature more cautious, but mutual inspiration exchange can still be important. Such was the case with Jaroslav Lexa and Mario Biňas, who got to the root of the big issues in construction tenders.