CEE Automotive Forum - 1st day press release

Welcome
to Central and Eastern Europe’s largest auto conference, which brings together 200+ leading OEMs, suppliers, purchasing directors, solution providers and governments for two days of networking and news.

The automotive industry in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and neighbouring countries continues to grow in size, complexity and
expertise. Organised by Adam Smith Conferences, the Central & Eastern European Automotive Forum is the only strategic meeting place for senior automotive managers from all CEE countries.  Taking place over the course of the next two days, ( 11-12 October) in Prague, the forum is attended by more than 200 participants drawn from the region’s leading OEMs, suppliers, dealers and government officials who will discuss the industry’s challenges and opportunities!

Official support is provided by the Auto Associations & Investment Authorities and includes the Automotive Industry Association, Czech Republic, ZAPSR
Auto Manufacturers, Slovakia, MAJOSZ Hungarian Components
Manufacturers, Czech Invest, SARIO Slovak Investment & Trade
Development, UKTI Trade & Investment Promotion, PZPM Polish Auto
Association, Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, Spirit Slovenia
and others.

Participants here have the chance to discuss contracts and real business informally and create personal connections with auto executives, suppliers, purchasing
directors, analysts and officials:

• Network with 200+ senior industry representatives from all 12 CEE countries

• Hear from 45+ speakers and meet with 20+ regional Purchasing Directors

Among
Automakers
A. Korpak, MD, Manufacturing Poland, GM OPEL, P. Widel,
Governmental Relations Director, Poland, GM OPEL, M. Ognjanovic,
Purchasing Director, FCA Fiat Chrysler, L. Urban, Deputy
Managing Director, Hungary, SUZUKI, J. Barvinek ,
General Manager - Quality control, Kolin, TOYOTA TPCA, U. Karaca,
Purchasing Director, Turkey, MERCEDES-BENZ, A. Onur, Purchasing
Director – Central Europe, PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN, P. Matyus,
Head of Purchasing SEE, BMW, P. Silha, Managing Director, GM
OPEL, CR & SR, M. Gunel, General Director – Engines
& Transmission, FORD OTOSAN and others.

AMONG SUPPLIERS
M. Frenzel, Associate Director Purchasing – Europe, VISTEON, F. Toenniges, Executive Director – Engineering, Burscheid, JOHNSON CONTROLS, H. Miorini, VP Operations – Austria & SEE, BOSCH, T. Morgan, VP – Global Product Development, Varroc Lighting, R. Snijder, Group Sourcing Director, BOSAL, O. Benes, Head of Purchasing, FAURECIA, O. Becker, Executive Director – Process Innovation Advanced Product Development, YANFENG Automotive, C. Makos, CEO – Hungary, APOLLO TYRES, J. Kaizr, Business Director, CTP, S. Clauss, Area Sales Manager, item Industrietechnik,
A. Kovac, Powertrain Director, CIMOS, P. Ghione, General Manager –
Serbia, GRAMMER, B. Faulconnier, Operations Director – Central
Europe, PLASTIC OMNIUM and others.

The Programme of the first day of the conference was as follows:

5 sessions, hot discussions among key experts of the industry, new
global and micro auto trends, production,
expansion and investment plans, full session dedicated to leading
automakers and suppliers and a great opportunity to hear a
professional opinion on subject, being a part of a discussion process
among industry leaders while One-to-One Meetings and many
other.




Session 1

European
and global auto trends, forecasts and policy initiatives
MODERATOR:
Henry Foy, Financial Times

Series of 10-min Presentations

Followed
by Discussion

Overview
- New factory investment: Choosing a country for new production

Second wave of R&D: support for innovation and establishment of new R&D
and engineering centres

Strategic
outlook: How can the CEE region attract further OEM investment?

Czech
Republic: AIA AutoSAP: European and global auto trends, forecasts,
policy initiatives

Poland
and Hungary: update on domestic trends and plans for FDI and R&D

10-min
Case Study: Slovakia: Business friendly Slovakia

10-min
Case Study: Slovenia as investment platform for automotive industry

Romania:
are the low labour cost players maximising their advantages in
attracting investment and access to EU markets?

FOCUS
| IHS Markit: macro trends – what is behind the growth; CEE
countries with highest potential, the background to this growth,
Investments & CEE as production hub

Among
Speakers shared the opinion:
Henry
Foy, Central Europe Correspondent, Financial Times; Jakub Farys,
President, Polish Automotive Industry Association; Martin Krejci,
Director of Investment Division, CzechInvest; Robert Simoncic, CEO,
SARIO Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency;
Robert
Esik, President, HIPA Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, Tatjana
Mohoric, Director ACS - Automotive Cluster of Slovenia; Zdenek Petzl,
Secretary General ,Czech Automotive Industry Association; Sarah
Kingsbury, Senior Analyst,| European Vehicle Sales Forecast,
IHS
Markit

Session
2

Automotive
OEMs: Production, expansion and investment plans
MODERATOR: Sarah
Kingsbury, Senior Analyst, IHS Markit

FOCUS
| Volkswagen EE: How to become a VW Group Supplier

• Leading
  automakers: Near-term plans

• Costs
  vs. sales – how to maintain market share and profitability and
  capitalise on the market upswing?

• Rising
  output: With capacity already nearly full, how are the leading OEMs
  dealing with this challenge?

Among
speakers:
Carsten
Peters, Head of Purchasing, Regional Office Eastern Europe,
Volkswagen, Michal Kadera *tbc, External Affairs Director, Škoda
Auto, Alev Onur, Director of Purchasing, PSA Group Slovakia, Miodrag
Ognjanovic, Purchasing Manager, FCA Fiat Chrysler Automobile Serbia,
Jiri Vanek, General Manager, IVECO Czech Republic.

Session
3

Industry
leaders will debate questions critical for the sector
MODERATOR:
Ivan Hodac, Former Secretary General, ACEA

Topics
included:

• With
  manufacturing increase in Latin America and China, how can the CEE
  region remain globally competitive?

• Are
  macro-economic drivers of strong dollar and yen and recovering
  Eurozone sufficient safeguards for CEE's heavily export-focused auto
  sector?

• With
  new capacity both for OEMs and suppliers, what production and
  exports volumes can we expect?

• Despite
  several key university-manufacturer collaborations, the region is
  still experiencing shortages of qualified engineers.

• What
  should be done? R&D: as global automotive players invest into
  driverless, connected and electric technologies - how can CEE
  suppliers stay in the game?

Among
Speakers:
Andrzej
Korpak, Managing Director, General Motors Manufacturing Poland, Alev
Onur, Director of Purchasing, PSA Group Slovakia, Laszlo Urban,
Deputy Managing Director, Magyar Suzuki Corp, Frank Toenniges,
Executive Director- Engineering, Johnson Controls, Ivan Hodac, Former
Secretary General, Member of the Board of Directors, ACEA; Aspen
Institute Prague.

Session
4

Suppliers
– Strategies, efficiencies, costs, supply chain, facilities
construction
MODERATOR: Aleksandar Medjedovic, Turkish Serbian
Business Council at DEIK (Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Board)

FOCUS
| Johnson Controls: Trencin Tech Centre, JCI’s biggest plant
in
Europe: Setting up, running and further developing a high-end
plant
in CEE; Frank Toenniges, Executive Director Engineering, JCI

FOCUS
| Robert Bosch: Reducing fixed costs, new
electrification,
connectivity and time-to-market; Hanno Miorini,
VP Sales Central
Europe, Robert Bosch

Challenges:
Are production volumes adequate and quality control
sufficient?
Volumes & Costs: what are the investment
priorities of key global suppliers?

TEBODIN
- Low construction cost – how to get it?

Greenfield
and brownfield investments:
with recent OEM announcements, suppliers need to be ready to deliver-
which clusters will win new business?

FOCUS
| FAURECIA: Interiors leadership

FOCUS
| AFI: Competition -How can CEE suppliers remain globally
competitive?

FOCUS
| SGP Group: Quality outsourcing role in the assurance of the
production lines operational continuity

Among
Speakers:
Frank
Toenniges, Executive Director- Engineering, Johnson Controls,
Corneliu Antonovici, Senior Sales Manager, Robert Bosch EE, Jaromir
Kriz, CEE Director, Tebodin, Thorsten Bohnenberger, Product Line
Marketing Director, Faurecia, David Schnaider, Business Development
Director,
Videoton
Holding, Kamil Blazek, Chairman, Czech Association for Foreign
Investment, Sebastian Wilk, Planning and Development Director, SGP
Group, Aleksandar Medjedovic, Chairman, Turkish Serbian Business
Council at DEIK (Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Board).

Session
5

R&D,
Engineering, Design and Telematics
Presentations followed by
Informal Discussion

FOCUS
| Yanfeng Automotive - Autonomous Driving:
How will AD change the automotive interiors in future?
»»
Outlook: Yanfeng's Interiors Vision 2025/2030
»»
Trends that influence the interior

FOCUS
| Dual Education Model:
Workforce
availability and
engineering
jobs. Governments and universities working with OEMs
to
secure high-value-added jobs

FOCUS
| ROBERT BOSCH:
Market
trends and drivers in automation
Session
5. R&D, Engineering, Design and Telematics
Oliver
Becker,
Executive
Director Process Innovation
Advanced
Product Development & Sales,
Yanfeng
Automotive Interiors
Todd
Morgan,
Senior
VP – Global Product Development,
VARROC
Lighting
Jaroslav
Kaizr,
Business
Director,
CTP
technology
Case
study:
Challenges of becoming innovative automotive
supplier
Strategic
technology mix:
adapting to individual markets and
customers
Connected
tech:
integrating speed, complexity and
connectivity
Leveraging
private engineering SMEs and technical
university
tradition
CLEPA Green Innovation Award Winner 2016:
Hidria
Automotive
- Optymus Pressure Sensing System

FOCUS
| Autonomous Driving: Squire Patton Boggs
– significant
trends,
future developments and the likely impact forthe CEE region

Among
speakers:
Oliver
Becker, Executive Director Process Innovation Advanced Product
Development & Sales, Yanfeng Automotive Interiors, Todd Morgan,
Senior VP – Global Product Development, VARROC Lighting,
Jaroslav Kaizr, Business Director, CTP, Sebastian Clauss, Area Sales
Manager, item Industrietechnik, Paul Poirel, Chief Engineer Europe,
Nexteer Automotive, Frank Fickel, Future Trends & Technology
TransferMeetings, IAV Engineering, Bostjan Bratus, Vice
President, Hidria Automotive, Simon Garbett, Partner, Head of
Automotive, EMEA, Squire Patton Boggs.