Suppliers Opportunity Forum
2009/09/24, AFI and CzechInvest to organise a meeting of investors with Czech suppliers at the beginning of October
Blind date. With a little exaggeration, this could describe the Supplier Opportunity Forum, which will take place in October and is being organised by CzechInvest in cooperation with the Association for Foreign Investment (AFI). However, this date is all about starting beautiful relationships in the business world.
Imagine that you represent one of the big manufacturers operating in the Czech Republic. Whether your company has been active on the local market for ten years or you opened the factory gates just this spring, you have one thing in common with all the others - the desire to compete with similar firms in the Czech Republic and around the world. What do you need to accomplish this? Above all, quality products and the lowest possible production costs.
Or, conversely, you manage a company that manufactures components for the mechanical-engineering or electronics sector. You recently introduced a new production technology, so you know that you can offer your product with an outstanding quality/price ratio.
These two scenarios can come together at the Supplier Opportunity Forum. This past summer, CzechInvest addressed selected investors with an offer of cooperation in finding new suppliers. "Based on the precise specifications of individual investors, we selected from our databases several dozen companies whose profiles correspond to the given requirements. The investors themselves had the last word, as they chose the firms with which they will meet in October," says Alexandra Rudyšarová, CEO of CzechInvest.
CzechInvest has extensive experience with organising similar events, having arranged supplier forums for numerous clients. Honeywell, Valeo Compressors, Telefonica, Delphi, Elektrolux and VDMA (German Engineering Federation) have found new business partners at such events.
When selecting firms, CzechInvest works with extensive databases of suppliers that cover a broad spectrum of industrial sectors, such as aerospace, the automotive industry, electronics and electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, plastics and the increasingly popular ICT sector. "When compiling offer lists for participants in the Supplier Forum, we chose from more than three thousand firms that are registered in our databases," says Rudyšarová.
Individual meetings at the forum will be managed by the participating firms. Suppliers will have the opportunity to present their marketing materials, samples of products and references from satisfied customers. A precisely defined time period will be set aside for personal meetings. The event's programme will also include presentations of consulting firms from the ranks of the Association for Foreign Investment. Investors and their counterparts from a range of suppliers can thus become familiar with current trends in, for example, currency-risk management and assurances in commercial relationships. They will also receive information on how to proceed when a customer is insolvent.
The Supplier Opportunity Forum will take place on 5 October 2009 at the ČKD Technology and Innovation Centre in Prague. Scheduled participants include Ingersoll-Rand Equipment Manufacturing Czech Republic, Automotive Lighting, Daikin Device Czech Republic, Daido Metal Czech, Toyoda Gosei Czech and Edwards.