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SPACE attracting Slovak companies

SARIO organized a successful event focused on the space and aviation attended by representatives of institutions and companies from the sectors.  More than a hundred people participated, demonstrating also the growing interest among the Slovak companies in this field.
 

On September 10 2020, Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) organized the second edition of Slovak Space Tech Day. Unlike in 2019 when the event took place in Košice, this year’s edition was held online. The event attracted more than s hundred representatives of the space industry and research area.
 
The universe is no longer just an exclusive club for the rich.

Slovak Space Tech Day was opened by CEO of SARIO Mr. Robert Šimončič and COO of the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency Mr. Pascal Claudel. During the introductory part, the participants had the opportunity to get to know not only the environment and the current situation of the space industry in Slovakia, but also its possibilities within the European space ecosystem. Notable speakers included Olivier Lemaitre, Secretary General of ASD Eurospace, as well as Pete Worden, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and former director of NASA's Ames Research Center.
 
At the end of the event, which was mainly devoted to current trends in the space industry, representatives of the Airbus Group, the Slovak company M2M Solutions and the consulting group PwC held the discussion. As the speakers agreed, "the universe is no longer just an exclusive club for the rich," but on the contrary, the application of a wide range of technologies attracts more and more actors from other relevant industries, such as IT, production of light materials and many others.
 
Slovak Space Tech Day also included a presentation of eight Slovak start-ups and companies. The winning start-up GroundCom was awarded a valuable business mentoring from the partner of the event – IBM.
In addition to this year's Slovak Space tech Day, the first edition of the Slovak Aviation Industry Day took place. It was mainly focused on such areas as the production of aircrafts and aircraft components, software solutions and innovations in air transport. The program included opening presentations by representatives of the Japanese company All Nippon Airways (Hironobu Kondo and Martin Hegeduš) as well as the Slovak designer and visionary Štefan Klein.
 
The subject of discussion was the present situation in the aviation industry, which is currently not favorable for airlines or global aircraft manufacturers and their supply network due to covid-19 pandemics. Assumed industrial recovery scenarios using new possibilities as for example alternative fuels and types of public transport were introduced by Mr. Vincent De Vroey from the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe, Mr. Ivan Ferencz from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and Mr. Ivan Masár from TTTech Computertechnik.
 
The final discussion was focused on new projects in the aviation industry from the point of view of Rudolf Zaujec from MASAM s.r.o., as well as from the point of view
of the academic sphere which was represented by Mr.  Miroslav Šmelko from the Technical University in Košice.
 
For more information regarding planned events and the SARIO Diversification Services, contact:
michal.brichta@sario.sk, Team Leader for Diversification Services