Marketing is changing rapidly. New technologies, tools and ways of reaching customers are constantly emerging. But even the best of them cannot solve the problems of a business that doesn't understand its customers or struggles to align marketing with product development and sales. Finding common ground between these areas was one of the central themes of the October Marketing Masters conference, brought to the region by the Regional Development Agency and the Liberec Region.

ZF Automotive’s Jablonec plant wants to test machine vision on an assembly line, while industrial equipment supplier FOXON plans to visualise data from electricity meters. These are just some of the challenges awaiting participants in TechStarter 2027, a competition programme organised for the third time by the Regional Development Agency and the Liberec Region. The programme gives students at secondary technical schools the opportunity to work on problems that companies are actually dealing with.

Come up with and create anything that makes everyday life easier. That is the challenge for the sixth edition of Business Talent, a polytechnic competition organised by the Regional Development Agency, iQLANDIA and the Liberec Region in cooperation with their partners. Over eight competition rounds, eighth- and ninth-grade primary school students will develop clever solutions to everyday challenges in the iQFABLAB smart workshop. They will have access to a wide range of equipment and technologies, including laser cutting, 3D printing and soldering. This year, they will also have the opportunity to program their inventions.