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You might be asking yourself which part of the bulging programme was the best. Many considered it to be Thursday on the main stage, where the eSourcing meeting was home to presentations by leaders in corporate procurement, headed by such luminaries as Peter Kraljič, Angus McIntosh, Ctirad Fischer and Zdeněk Pytlíček.

"I believe that we will take away many ideas from here, and then we just need the courage to introduce them into our companies," said Martin Zelinka, another presenter. We also believe this to be true, regardless of whether you are more interested in the Kraljič Matrix, defining procurement priorities or trends in Procurement 4.0.

On Thursday morning Tomáš Macura, the Mayor of Ostrava, came to greet us, having not got back from a business trip to Prague until that very morning, so there had been no point in going to sleep. In this respect many of us could sympathise with him, because many of us had done the same after a demanding Wednesday programme.

Concord has also been reached in the case of digital solutions, which Ostrava has been using for its procurement since 2010. The city, which has 180 organizations, is among the pioneers. "We would like to have savings of at least 10% a year, but the effect is far greater. That's why Ostrava is changing for the better," said the Mayor. We salute him!

During the first day of eBF there was great interest in often very harsh examples of the buying practices in the corporate sector. Indeed, three whole blocks on three stages in the afternoon session were devoted to presentations on critical procurement errors, recurring problems and extreme negotiations with suppliers.

Sometimes you'll find a skeleton in your cupboard which can only be discarded at great expense, but this cannot be avoided. "Negotiating and above all patiently building long-term relationships is necessary, otherwise we can be replaced by machines," said Miloš Olejník from the Slovak company HB Reavis.

Apart from this, other experts such as Jan Vašek and Ondrej Jombík spoke about "lessons learned from mistakes"..

After the contributions on eProcurement in Europe by Ivo Locatelli, a href="http://ebizforum.com/about-the-presenters/timo-rantanen">Timo Rantanen and a href="http://ebizforum.com/about-the-presenters/steve-robinson">Steve Robinson, we could certainly be sure of one thing. Mandatory digitalisation of public procurement is coming to all EU countries by October 2018 and every member is at a different stage of readiness.

The British are taking everything into account, the Dutch are just about ready, the Finns have taken a big step and the Slovaks are dealing with the regulations too strictly. How it will be going in a year is yet to be seen. However, the space for e-solutions is huge. Indeed, only 17% of organisations in the Czech Republic are reported to be using it.

Let’s take a look at this year’s facts and figures. 444 attendees have joined us in Ostrava, which is 10% more than last year.

The most numerous are Czechs (208), followed by Slovaks (176), Poles (35) and the rest being other Europeans. There are representatives from 16 government ministries. The 5 stages are hosting 80 speakers presenting around 100 topics.

Ratio of private sector: public sector is 58:42, indicating an increase in interest from the private sector.

PS: Everybody makes mistakes from time to time, but it’s good if you know how to avoid them.

Tomas Kotyz, Director of the Moravian-Silesian Regional Authority, posed the question during the FSA ceremony of whether, as well as a journal, we should also publish an eBF soundtrack, due to the great musical performances of the participants.

This is certainly a thought-provoking idea. Because our festival is growing, we can tentatively promise that next year, on November 7th to 9th 2018, two more stages will be added to eBF, the Practical Arena will be enlarged and it will be possible to make reservations.

The highlight of the FSA prize-giving ceremony was the award of the Grand Prix for outstanding achievement in the field of procurement that Milan Kaplan bestowed on that legend of procurement management and our very special guest, Dr Peter Kraljič.

"It is a great surprise for me and also a great honour to receive this award," said the author of the famous Kraljic Matrix, which has been and sill is the cornerstone of procurement since its publication in 1983,

The highlight of the first day was the announcement of the 7th annual Fair Sourcing Awards (FSA), in which professionals are rewarded for the original use of digial procurement solutions. "We are surfing the right wave, which is confirmed by entries from nine countries, including Mexico, Ukraine and Portugal," said the FSA organizer Marcela Turčanová about the global reach of the competition.

And who won? In the Start category, the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice was awarded first prize, second was PBS Velká Bíteš and third SBD Krušnohor.

The Trend category was won by innogy CR, second was the City of Eindhoven and third Erste Group Procurement.

The Master category was taken by the ProZorro Team from Ukraine, second was the Mexican Social Security Institute and third was Pavel Hrnčíř of Equa Bank.

Many professional conferences just rely on a top-class programme to succeed. However, at eBF we have a festival whose magic lies in the fact along with the excellent quality of the presentations we also do what we like to do in our free time.

As the first afternoon turned into evening, it was a beautiful change. Those who had earlier been delivering their procurement expertise picked up musical instruments and played and sang for their colleagues, friends and acquaintances just for the joy of it. What else? We are at a festival after all!

Maybe we can all agree that lemons are sour. However, they may taste even sourer if you pay for a kilo and end up only eating half. Have you ever tried to buy from a supplier a kilo of pure lemon without the peel so you’re not paying for the waste?

If so, you probably know the precise specifications of what you’re buying. Michal Kristiňák from Amazon was speaking about this on the main stage. According to him, you have to know clearly what you want to buy, explore the market, analyse it critically, know the risks, involve the suppliers and, above all, be active!