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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.

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.