At the beginning of October (2 - 6 October 2023), the 27th World Road Congress, organized by the World Road Association PIARC, took place at the Congress Centre in Prague, Vyšehrad. The metropolis became the center of attention of the road world for a week as the event welcomed more than 3,500 delegates from various countries within 35 national pavilions with more than 300 exhibitors. The opening ceremony was inaugurated by the Minister of Transport Martin Kupka, the Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda, the head of ŘSD Radek Mátl, and the Chairman of the Czech Road Society Petr Mondschein.
The main topics of the congress were motorway and road management, mobility, resilient infrastructure, safety, sustainability, and operation and maintenance. New topics such as carbon neutrality, autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, and charging infrastructure were also discussed.
Why did we decide to have our own stand?
Our stand was part of the Czech-Slovak Village pavilion, which included big players in the Czech and Slovak market such as Dopraslav, Metrostav, ŘSD, Strabag, Swietelsky, Škoda, Vinci Construction, and others.
The presence of such a large number of experts and national representatives offered not only the Czech Republic but also us personally a unique opportunity to draw inspiration, share experiences, present our services and plans, and conduct business negotiations with people not only from the road infrastructure sector. After all, a surveyor is needed for every construction project, including road construction. Plus, our state-of-the-art data collection methods save work, time, and money. That's why our specialists, and fellow surveyors at the booth presented a Trimble X9 laser scanner and a DJI M300 professional drone.
What does it mean to partner on Student Day?
One of our long-term goals at the company is to raise awareness of our industry and reach young and motivated people. That's why our HR department works closely with high schools and universities in the field of surveying and geoinformatics. At the congress, every 1 day belonged to 1 student expedition (about 500 future experts) under the name Student Days. Each of these "groups" was sponsored by a selected company and on that day they were guided around the campus and answered questions.
We were given such an assignment in the second half of the event (Thursday, October 5, 2023). Our colleagues at the booth received a number of interesting questions and certainly were not bored for a moment. During the opening speeches of the morning and afternoon session, it was mentioned how important it is to work in a family company with employees on the basis of trust and to transfer the family atmosphere to the working environment and that we are looking for various talents in HRDLIČKA spol. s r.o. because we do not only employ surveyors, but economists, lawyers, HR specialists, administrative staff, and other employees.
And what do we take away from the congress?
A lot of contacts and new impulses. Furthermore, a good feeling that we represented our work worldwide, which some of us have been doing for more than 30 years. Experience and inspiration. Also thanks to the accompanying exhibitions, which formed an important element of the congress, we had the opportunity to see, for example, the trailer for the film "13: MINUTES" by the director Vit Klusák, which accompanied the prevention campaign of the same name by BESIP, or to hear various lectures.
The whole event was a demonstration of the joining of forces between government, industry and academia, which can have a positive impact on the future of road construction and road safety in the Czech Republic.
Hrdlička spol. s r.o. can say, "We were there."
Author. Mgr. Lucie Kmochová
Link to the event: www.wrc2023prague.org/cs
