A look back at Innoweek 2024 (fall semester)

The Department of Romance Languages has prepared several interesting events during this year’s Innoweek.

The French Section organised two events during Innovation Week. On Tuesday 5/11, Louis de Fouchécour, Economic Counsellor and Head of the Economic Section of the French Embassy, Magali Voisin-Ratelle, Director of Business France in the Czech Republic, and Pavla Elsterová, Representative of Atout France for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, accepted our invitation. More than 80 students had the opportunity to learn that France is the 4th largest customer and the 6th largest supplier of the Czech Republic in foreign trade and that all French companies operating in the Czech Republic together represent the largest foreign employer on the Czech market (over 70 thousand employees); what are the activities of Business France and for whom the programme of up to two-year internships in French companies V.I.E. (Volontariat International en Entreprise) is intended; what and how France, the first tourist destination in the world, attracts Czech tourists. Thank you very much to all three for accepting the invitation and we look forward to further cooperation, the ideas are already there!
On Wednesday 6/11 we also went to the cinema of the French Institute for the first time for a special projection for students of the PUEB. Sixty students watched a powerful story from the school environment, inspired by the personal story of director Teddy Lussi-Modeste, Pas de vagues (The Good Teacher, 2024), in French with Czech subtitles. This is not the only film you will be able to see in the cinema as part of the French Film Festival, which starts on 21/11.

For Spanish language students, our department, in collaboration with the Commercial Department of the Embassy of Spain, organised a lecture on “Sustainable Development” (Uso eficiente del agua: desarrollo sostenible), focusing on water. In view of the natural and human catastrophe caused by the floods that the south of Spain is facing, we held a minute’s silence to express our solidarity. The students were guided through the lecture by Mr. Jaime Alcaide, Commercial Counsellor of the Spanish Embassy, who in turn introduced the different speakers, who were: Mr. Ignacio Parrado (Aqualia CR), who spoke about water treatment and purification and its subsequent use; Mr. Jindřich Čejka (AC Marca CR), who spoke about the use of water in industrial production; Mr. Ivo Kareš (Astralpool CR), whose presentation was on the issue of sustainable use of water in entertainment and leisure (swimming pools, whirlpools); and finally Mr. Ferran Cabrera (Anecoop Praha), who presented to the students the volume and forms of import of vegetables and fruits to the Czech Republic and the rest of the world in a presentation entitled Uso eficiente en la agricultura. In addition, Mr Cabrera brought several boxes of ‘persimmon’ fruit imported directly from Valencia as a treat for the audience, with which he delighted everyone present.

Once again, many thanks to all the speakers for their contributions and we look forward to the next Innoweek!