The TAL 2020 Conference: The Best in European Automotive

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“Each year’s TAL has one thing in common. Our wish for its participants to bring home the best of experiences, as well as ideas that will help them towards an even better formulation of their vision and strategy for manufacturing and logistics management,” says Roman Žák, chairman of the board at Aimtec, on the history of Trends in Automotive Logistics (TAL). Originally a side event for Autosalon, a trade fair in Brno, it has become an independent conference with international speakers and attendees, will be celebrating 20 years in 2020 and promises an attractive programme once again.

Roman, what are your memories of TAL’s first few years?

My memories of organising this conference, and of the topics we discussed, bring a smile to my face. We sent out invitations by fax, and we talked about things like EDI and barcode-based unique IDs for handling units as the latest news. In other words, things that are a matter of course today.

And what about 2020 – what can we look forward to?

I’m most pleased that Marco Prüglmeier will be coming in from the BMW Group, where he’s in charge of innovation and implementing Industry 4.0 in practice. He and his team have just won the prestigious German Logistics Prize, which only confirms that his presentation is the best of the best today. Marco is also an immensely easy-going and communicative person despite his standing and successes.

What other topics will we be hearing in Pilsen in February?

We’ll be taking a look at automation and cloud systems in a way that lets them “properly snap into” an overall digitalisation concept, instead of treating them as isolated islands. We’ll also spend time on the role of visualisation for project success. This will be presented through examples from practice, in contrast with BMW via, for example, smaller projects wherein these phenomena even still have a significant impact on entire companies’ processes and operations.

Why is TAL in Pilsen? Do you ever think about switching locations?

TAL has moved several times over the years. We started out in Brno and in Slovakia, and by way of Prague, we’ve made it to Pilsen. Here is Aimtec’s headquarters, and we can also use the location to bring in German visitors. In Prague, we always tried to offer untraditional venues, such as DOX or an old wastewater treatment plant in Bubeneč. So far we haven’t found any sites with that much flair in Pilsen, but I’m confident that this year’s “beefy” content and evening side programme will best the previous years once again. We’ll also be providing considerable room for attendee networking. And with that, I’d like to heartily invite you all – and I look forward to seeing you.

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