News

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).

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.