The extraordinary interest in taking part in this event, held as part of the activities of the Enterprise Europe Network, confirmed the topical nature of innovation in production. Automation, robotisation, digitalisation, the cloud, data integration, optimisation. All these terms were mentioned frequently during the course of the conference. The series of lectures presenting “Production Cell 4.0” in Kuřim and the technology it implements demonstrated that these are not mere words, but possible reality. The lecture given by Dr Stetter from Munich’s technology company ITQ GmbH, which placed the emphasis on the key to the successful path to smart production – education and motivation for young people with an interest in technology, was highly inspirational.

The attendance of Austrian and Slovak companies, with which discussions could be held on the possibility of technological and commercial co-operation at B2B meetings, was another extremely valuable aspect of the event. The Austrian viewpoint on Industry 4.0 was also evident in the specialist part of the event and was represented by Roland Sommer, Director of the Austrian Platform for Smart Production. The lecture given by Pavel Bezucký from the company Universal Robots, which specialises in collaborative robotics, aimed to dispel fears of human work being taken over by robots. The specialist part of the programme came to an end with a presentation by Professor Václavek who talked of plans and opportunities for research and development co-operation with Brno University of Technology.

The closing section of the conference was set aside for B2B meetings agreed in advance between people taking part in the event. More than 50 of these meetings were held and, according to the initial reactions of those taking part, they resulted in interesting contacts and information for new co-operation in the area of technology for smart production.