Prague, 9 September 2018 – Innovative fuels, car sharing or autonomous driving – these are just a few topics of the second annual Reactions Conference, organised by Unipetrol and taking place in the Forum Karlín in Prague on the 11th of October. The themes of this year’s conference are innovations in the automotive industry, which will be discussed by prominent international experts, innovators and scientists. This year’s conference will also be open to the general public for the first time.
“The automotive industry is full of innovations and rapidly moving forward,” says Tomáš Herink, Member of the Board of Directors responsible for investment, research and development. “We at Unipetrol also make significant contributions to this development. We are trying to develop high-quality and highly efficient materials for the production of components for automobiles as well as exploring all possibilities for development of alternative fuels. The introduction of hydrogen as a fuel is at the forefront of this effort. The Reactions Conference gives us an opportunity to showcase not only current trends in the automotive industry to the public, but also show how we ourselves contribute to this progress.”
The conference will offer a wide spectrum of topics for discussion. Experts will deliberate not only the future of fuels, car sharing or autonomous driving, but also the future of polymers in car production, alternative fuels, circular economy and the geopolitical context of the automotive and refinery business. In addition to the main programme of lectures and panel discussions, conference visitors will have an opportunity to closely examine a virtual version of a city of the future, Polymer Smart City, the Toyota Mirai vehicle with a fuel-cell drive system, or see how they stack up in foosball against an industrial robot from FANUC.
The Reactions Conference, this year open to the general public for the first time, will be hosted by the tried and true duo – scientist Michael Londesborough and moderator Emma Smetana. During the main programme, visitors can look forward to a presentation by Gregory Haye, materials and process development expert at Local Motors, who will present a vision of the future of automobiles and new possibilities of using polymers in the automotive industry. He will also introduce the autonomous minibus, “Olli”, built through additive manufacturing when thin layers are gradually added and applied to form a product. Other speakers include Stephan Herbst, CEO of Toyota Motor Europe, Ivan Hodač, former Secretary General of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and current Vice President of the Aspen Institute in Prague, and Manuel Assali, Vice President of Nexant Training, in charge of training and public education in the chemical industry. In the second part of the programme, lectures will be complemented by panel discussions with additional experts.
The Reactions Conference, which was recognised as the best B2B event of 2017, will be held with the support of conference partners Benzina, Toyota Europe, ELAI, ICUK and FANUC. It is organised by Unipetrol, representing the petrochemical industry as a highly innovative industry with major investments in the development of the future.
Additional information, including ticket sales, is available on the Reactions Conference website:
www.reactions.cz.
The Unipetrol Group is the largest refinery and petrochemical company in the Czech Republic. It focuses primarily on crude oil processing, distribution and sale of fuel and petrochemical products — particularly plastics and fertilisers. In all these fields, the group is a key player on both the Czech and Central European market. The Unipetrol Group includes refineries and production plants in Litvínov and Kralupy nad Vltavou, Paramo with the Mogul brand in Pardubice and Kolín, Spolana in Neratovice, and two research centres in Litvínov and Brno. Unipetrol also owns the Benzina network of petrol stations with 406 stations, which is the largest chain in the Czech Republic. Unipetrol is one of the largest companies in the Czech Republic in terms of turnover. The group created revenue of over CZK 122 billion last year and employs more than 4600 people. In 2005, Unipetrol became part of the PKN Orlen Group, the largest crude oil processor in Central Europe.