From Thursday, 3 October to Sunday, 6 October 2024, the third and final seminar of the CGYPP 2024 took place. In Brno we focused on the theme of this year’s edition: “Czechia and Germany – Ready to Face Tomorrow’s Challenges Together?” We have concluded a series of three seminars that started in April in Berlin and continued in June in Prague. Participants of the current year, as well as alumni of the previous 14 program years, will also have the traditional alumni meeting in January 2025.
After a short welcome we started the program on Thursday afternoon with 14 participants of the current year at Delong Instruments. Radka Martínková introduced us to the development, production and sales of electron microscopes and also to the building of a community connecting private companies and Brno universities. This community has great potential to make the South Moravian metropolis an even more important centre of this technologically advanced production with global significance.
On Friday, a day of external visits and discussions awaited the participants. Programme started at the Jiří Mahen Library, where we got acquainted with the individual departments and how the library works with the public.
The initial internal workshop was focused on the preparation for the topics we opened during the seminar – cybersecurity and competition in the online space, sustainable solutions and the environmental aspect of community development, and lastly energy security, especially with regard to the almost three years of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Subsequently, we met with Tomáš Krejčí, Deputy Director of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, with whom we discussed, among other things, the use of Chinese technologies in critical infrastructure, as well as the activities of the agency.
Late in the afternoon we visited the Partnership Foundation, where Lucie Smolková introduced us not only to the Foundation’s activities supporting local communities, but also to the garden serving as an educational space and meeting place. We ended the day again in the library, where we learned more about the activities of Europe Direct Brno.
On Saturday and Sunday, a rich programme of external and internal workshops and engaging activities was prepared. At the beginning of Saturday’s programme, Martin Jirušek spoke about energy security, the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the challenges of reducing dependence on Russian supplies of raw materials. The last external input was prepared by Petr Holík from the Facts about Climate organization, who focused primarily on communication about climate change during the workshop on non-violent communication.
In the meantime, we also focused on finalizing podcasts prepared by 2024 participants, which should be posted on the Czech-German Perspectives channel in the coming weeks.
The third seminar thus concluded an extraordinary year accompanied by a celebration of the 15th year of the programme, which took place in Prague in June. In 2024, our alumni network has grown further and now numbers over 180 dedicated individuals who have actively participated in CGYPP.
The program is initiated and financed by the Czech-German Fund for the Future. Seminar was organised with the support of the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, too. We would also like to thank the Europe Direct Brno and Jiří Mahen Library for their cooperation in the realization of the seminar.
