This year’s Czech Space Week, a festival of space-related activities organised by the Ministry of Transport together with CzechInvest, Planetum – Prague Observatory and Planetarium, and other partners, will reach beyond the borders of the Czech Republic and even farther. The event will take place from 28 November to 2 December 2022 and will offer an extensive programme for companies, investors, startups, students, children and other space fans. The festival will celebrate the successes of Czech companies operating in the space industry and present the innovations that drive the space sector in the Czech Republic. The general partner of the event is the Brno-based company TRL Space Systems.
Czech Space Week to welcome space-industry representatives from Africa and the Middle East
The opening and, at the same time, a key event of this year’s edition of Czech Space Week is the event called Space2Business, which is an official event of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It is a day for companies operating in the space industry together with an international conference, a B2B section, a trade fair and an extensive ancillary programme for visitors interested in innovative space technologies. The purpose of this event is to support businesses in the space industry and to establish new business partnerships. The event follows a series of successful Space Industry Days held at previous editions of the festival. This time, however, the event will focus particular attention on cooperation across the whole of Europe and with countries in Africa and the Middle East.
In connection with the event, the organisers are also preparing an extensive ancillary programme, including panel discussions on the topic of Space Together with representatives of space agencies from around the world. The champions from ESA BIC will also face off against each other on the main stage together with startups from EU and EUSPA competitions. An expert jury will then select the overall winner of the pitch competition and thus determine the best European space startup.
The forum for users of Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation programme, will bring up a discussion on the war in Ukraine
Concurrently with the Space2Business event, the Czech Copernicus User Forum, which has been held in the Czech Republic since 2012, will take place at the Prague Congress Centre. This year’s forum will be thematically framed by the impacts of the war in Ukraine, which is manifested in many areas of our lives, including agriculture, trade, energy, food security and environmental protection.
Employment of women in the space industry and other technical fields
This year’s Czech Space Week festival will also include the traditional Space4Women event, this time in a Czech version. The discussion will feature successful women from the Czech Republic who have succeeded in establishing themselves in the space industry with overlap into other technical fields. The objective of the event is to attract more women into this sector and to show that today it is possible to find employment in the space industry even after earning a degree in other technical fields.
The festival will also offer a programme for children and students
Planetum – Prague Observatory and Planetarium will hold a mini-conference titled Next Stop: Space for secondary-school and university students who are interested in developments in the Czech space industry. The purpose of the conference is to familiarise young people with the possibility of internships during and after their studies and to motivate them to gain further education in this area.
Additional ancillary events for students and children are being prepared by the partners of Czech Space Week, namely the Brno University of Technology, the European Space Education Resource Office for the Czech Republic and the Brno Observatory and Planetarium.
