International business leaders met at Business MeetUp 2022. Thanks to Arrows.
On Thursday 28th April, the long-awaited event of the spring - the International Business MeetUp 2022, took place under the auspices of Arrows. International business leaders such as Olin Novák - CEO Rohlik, Christian Gorny - CEO of ETL Global, Lubo Smid - CEO of STRV or Petr Kasa - CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Pilulka Lékárny, a. s. gathered at the National Museum in Prague. Over 250 participants from more than 30 countries came to listen to this conference full of prominent and renowned speakers. The conference was divided into four main panels covering topics such as Growing International, How to raise a unicorn, Going public and Big players tips.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for making the trip to Prague and let me welcome you to the Business MeetUp, powered by Arrows. Thanks to you and all the partners of this event, the idea of connecting prominent figures of international business, which I believe in so much, has become a reality," with these words opened the conference attorney and partner of Arrows ETL Global and also the main initiator of the conference, Mgr. Vojtěch Sucharda. He also invited Anastasia Dzhygola, a lawyer from Odessa, Ukraine, to the stage, as he believes that it is our duty not to forget even for a single day the difficult international situation. During her speech, Anastasia reflected on the crisis in Ukraine and shared with the audience the importance of the values that everyone should take as their own, such as humanity, solidarity and awareness of the importance of one's family and ancestors.
From left: Mgr. Vojtěch Sucharda, partner and associate at Arrows and Anastasia Dzhygola, lawyer from Odessa, Ukraine, during the opening speech
The opening speech was followed by a panel discussion called Growing international, which gave the participants insight into the issues of growing a company to a multinational level or building a start-up on a foreign market. Speakers Olga Chabr Grillová - CO-CEO of Leeaf, Petr Havlík - CEO of Capgemini Engineering, Vanda Seidlová - CEO of Twigsee, Max Verteletskyi - CEO of Spaceti and Ondřej Spodniak - Chairman of the Board of Premiot Group shared their visions of international business and gave valuable advice.
The second debate entitled How to raise a unicorm was equally engaging. Experts Vít Šubert - CEO of Unicorn attacks, Martin Medek - Seed Starter Founder, Martin Vápeník - CEO of Biometric ventures and Lubo Smid - CEO of STRV shared with the audience the secrets of unicorn start-ups, i.e. start-ups with a value of over one billion dollars. During the debate, Martin Vápeník revealed, among other things, what a unicorn start-up should not lack, namely a product with a truly unique technology and design suitable for the market, motivation and the right timing. Lubo Smid from STRV added other values that are important, such as a team of the right people. Lubo also considers the company culture, passion and purpose of what a start-up does to be important.
Panel debate How to raise a unicorn?
From left: Martin Medek, Seed Starter Founder, Lubo Šmid, CEO STRV, Martin Vápeník, CEO Biometric ventures Vít Šubert, CEO Unicorn attacks
The panel, entitled Going public, aimed to introduce the participants to the issue of going public, the challenges of this process and its advantages. This was discussed by Petr Koblic - Chairman and CEO of the Prague Stock Exchange, Ondřej Jančařík - Vice President for Legal & Compliance at Eurowag, Jan Sýkora - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wood & Company, Petr Kasa - CEO and Chairman of the Board of Pilulka Lékárny, a. s. and Jan Drahota - CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Colt CZ Group. This debate brought unique experience and know how from the IPO area, as well as a very interesting comparison between the Prague Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
The highlight of the evening was the Big Players Tips debate with representatives of the most important international companies such as O2, Rohlik, ETL Global and the United Nations. At the end of the debate, all speakers Olin Novák (Rohlik), Jindřich Fremuth (O2), Christian Gorny (ETL Global) and Martin Illner (UN) shared their optimistic view of the future of business.
Panel debate Big players tips
From left: Christian Gorny, CEO of ETL Global, Martin Illner, member of the UN advisory committee, Jindřich Fremuth, CEO of O2, Olin Novák, CEO of Rohlik.cz
"I am glad that after two years with covid, this event could finally happen on such a large scale. It is a great opportunity for the participants to meet and listen to the most important business personalities in one place and build new business contacts or friendships. We are glad that we, with the help of all our partners, were able to facilitate something like this," summed up Business MeetUp 2022 Mgr. Vojtěch Sucharda, partner and associate at Arrows.
Would you like to taste a bit of the Business MeetUp atmosphere? Take a look at the photos from the event here.