Vehicle Lighting in Czechia: From History to New Tech & Innovation
By Paul-Henri Matha
We are glad to publish our final docket, which you can download here of the first DVN event in Czechia. We will do it in a historically significant place, Dolní, a unique place near Ostrava which served for black coal mining and production of raw steel between 1828 and 1998. It was in 1828 when Rudolf I of Bohemia, the archbishop of Olomouc, ordered that the metallurgical plant be established in Vitkovice. This was the start of the unique place for heavy industrial production which until then was unprecedented in Europe. The industrial giant has now changed into a no-less-unique educational, cultural, and social centre with reach beyond the country’s borders.
Thanks to our main partners (OP Mobility, ZKW, Forvia Hella, and Magna), 10 additional sponsors (Delo, Ecoglass, Edag, Reichle, TechnoTeam, Hilase, AML, LumiDISP, Sony DADC, and Endego), the strong support from Škoda Design & Lighting R&D, and from the Moravskoslezský Automobilový Klastr (“Moravian-Silesian Automotive Cluster”), we have built a super interesting docket for our two-day event, including demo car testing, 29 lectures from automakers, tier-1, and -2 suppliers, local government and universities, all located in Czechia or in a 100-km radius (Poland, Slovakia, etc).
The role of the vehicle lighting community in this part of eastern Europe has been growing increasingly important over the last 20 years, with more than 1,500 lighting engineers in this region – the biggest vehicle lighting engineering cluster in all Europe.
Already 140 people are registered and we estimate a final participant count approaching 200. Feel free to join in and register here.
The welcome speech will be given by Libor Dobes, Managing director of Moravskoslezský Automobilový Klastr, the regional automotive cluster of Ostrava region. Here are some of Libor’s points about the importance of the automotive industry in Ostrava:
“The automotive business is the key part of the Czech economy. 9 per cent of the Czech GDP comes from automotive. It represents 34 per cent of the industrial production, 24 per cent of the national export, 30 per cent of all industrial investments. 180,000 people are directly employed in the automotive sector, with 500,000 employees in total counting the indirect jobs in the country.
“The Moravian Silesian region is the centre of automotive excellence with 2 OEMs – Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Company and Tatra Trucks, and multiple global tier-1 suppliers with their production facilities and R&D centres located here and serving the customers in the EU and globally.
“More than 30,000 people are directly employed in the region in the automotive business. The region is the most significant player in the lighting production plants and R&D centres. There are 7 lighting production plants in Czechia, of which three reside in the region. On top of that, seven out of total 10 Czechia-based lighting R&D centres are located in the region along with two testing facilities.
“Personally, I take the automotive business here with passion and pride, spending more than 30 years in various managerial positions the business and wishing the automotive business a great future despite the global turbulences. We have great people here and a lot of talented engineers”.
To conclude, I asked Libor what he is hoping for from this first DVN Lighting event next month. He says:
“We are all in the same business and sharing our best knowledge and “putting more light” on future plans and trends makes all of us stronger and successful”.
To sum up, I see a strong motivation from all the lighting engineers to gather in just two weeks. It seems to be like the family you gather. Everybody has connections, friends, ex-colleagues in different companies. Even if you are competitors or partners, you share the same passion for our automotive lighting business. It is a great initiative proposed by OP Mobility, ZKW, Forvia, and Magna, and we at DVN are proud to organise the show.
