Prysmian Group participated in the Innowave Summit 2022 Cluj-Napoca on 19-20 May, one of the most important high-tech conferences in South-East Europe, focusing on the digitization of the private and public sector and improving digital transformation and technology transfer in Central and Eastern European countries.
The event brings together in one place the best experts in marketing, e-commerce, customer service, blockchain, cloud services, fintech and other business fields to share the latest trends and innovations in front of a wide audience. The Innowave Summit brings together entrepreneurs, leading experts, startups and executives from 28 countries to exchange ideas and best practices and seek ways to elevate their business in global markets!
As part of the event, Prysmian participated in two very important panels at Innowave. At those discussions, we had the opportunity to present our expertise and solutions for communities and local authorities and to showcase our examples of good investments to European Commission representatives.
In the first panel, Future of the Cities. Future of European Communities, Mathew Baldwin - Horizon European Mission Cities Coordinator, European Commission, presented in the first panel the 100 cities that are included in the European pilot program to be carbon neutral by 2030.
In this panel, the European Commission representative learned from Oliver Weiker - Chief Officer CEE at Prysmian Group, about the investments Prysmian has made in the Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area, but also how important digitalization is for a community to become carbon neutral. Oliver Weiker said, "From an infrastructure point of view, we at Prysmian can support this technology with innovation to drive, to achieve these goals, which is really a challenge. And here we have to have entrepreneurial ideas and individual approaches to drive this to go in new ways to look for new technologies.
We have famous renewable energy projects in Germany, where we are trying to bring wind energy from north to south and where solutions are needed to transport this huge amount of energy over several hundred or thousand kilometers. In addition, we see innovative projects with excellent entrepreneurship, for example here in Cluj where we have come up with digitalization solutions, bringing broadband to the countryside. Here we have a project to connect small villages in the metropolitan area of Cluj-Napoca to provide a functioning broadband-ready infrastructure.
With the opening of the Cluj City Hall we have been able to invest here in infrastructure, built infrastructure, with the help of the patrons. And we are proud to be a partner here to build such a solution. We heard from the local team that it was quite a lot of hard work to bring this project to fruition. And we've learned that we have to develop from the bottom up. So, we need to have some pilot programs developed that we can take to the next level, to offer best practices to other regions and areas and then move to scale.
We, as a company, can offer technology here, we can offer engineering solutions. With our 25 research and development centres worldwide we have a great capacity to support.
On the other hand, we need to have those entrepreneurs who can say that we are ready to support and go down this path. So here we can be the supporter and not the leader. And this is also the main challenge of the future, where we need you, the EU, on the one hand, content providers, communication systems and energy companies, on the other hand, who can support these infrastructure projects."
Cristian Gheorghe said, "We talk about projects, but it's all about infrastructure. We need to bring these cables closer, if we use the national value we have. Because we have strong producers here, who are investing, but we have to take care of these producers, because this is the only sustainable way the country can grow communities right here. We need to have lower carbon emissions, and that can be achieved by reducing transportation, by having stocks closer to the investment area or other things. We need to put pressure on this industry to work together to develop an infrastructure that makes sense for the community.
Let's take care of the national, and local investments, to have good factories in Romania. Let's use them and have a partnership between the administration and the private sector. Let's have a discussion, let's lead each other to develop in the interest of the communities because in the end, it's all about the interest of the community. And we need to talk to the administration to tell them what we're trying to offer, to listen to what they need, but the most important thing is to go with projects to the public, to talk to the communities and say: okay, what will be interesting for the man in that community who is already behind because we haven't arrived with our infrastructure. There are a lot of great places, but without infrastructure, in our country, and young people choose to leave them and go to big cities.
In the same panel, Matthew Baldwin concluded: "In the European Union we are talking about dual transitions: the digital transition supporting the green transition. And this is important because we don't see the city as an isolated atom in the universe, but as part of a wider connection. As we build stronger cities, cities will grow and build examples and points of connection for the rest of society. So we need to think about creative solutions, development solutions and infrastructure solutions. My message is to cities, in partnership with companies, is to look for these opportunities to divest projects with solid EU funding, but to take these projects forward and then use private funding sources.
We can do this by developing best practices together to enable cities like Cluj to make strides and grow more like other cities. We can only make transformational seismic changes together. We can't pretend we can do it alone, we are not atoms floating in the Universe. We do this together. We know what we're trying to achieve. We are trying to do this for and with our citizens."
Oliver Weiker pointed out that at least 10% of rural communities in the EU are still not connected. This means that there should be communication between the EU and local authorities, and in the meantime, Prysmian is here to support and has the means to provide the capacity and technology to be considered a strong partner.
At the second panel - Digital Infrastructure and Innovation for the (European) Rural Space - the discussion was more practical and with the participation of the Romanian authorities represented by Mr. Marius Poșa - Secretary of State in the Ministry of Digitization of Romania, as well as representatives of local communities.
The Ministry of Digitization has taken on the role of digitizing Romania. "It's not an easy thing to do, but it's taken on at the ministry level, so it's important to move forward. In the ministry's view, it is important not to stop at the bad things, but to find solutions and develop. And where they have found good solutions, to replicate them in many other areas and communities", said Marius Poșa in the panel.
"Everyone sees the internet as a measure to watch movies and appreciate content. But no one sees the internet today as the future of saving energy. If you have internet in the countryside, you don't have to drive to the city center and, in fact, we think there could be a project in the 10-year timeframe so far. We need to take all the new solutions and put them together with all the solutions," Poșa concluded.
Lisa Cocea - Local Councillor in Ciurila Commune, Cluj said: "In communities, it is easier to use social media, but it is much harder to build and connect villagers further. It is essential to rely on the Internet for all villages in the community. And the pandemic itself showed us how vulnerable children in these villages are when they need to go to school online."
Cristian Gheorghe showed the video from the project developed in Plaiuri village, with examples of locals using new internet solutions to develop, learn and embrace digital life as part of their daily lives. Cristian also talked about the difficulties encountered in implementing the project and how hard it was.
"There is a market where communities are not limited. 45% of communities worldwide are not connected to the internet. Of course, in Romania it is less because we had a different strategy, but there are still parts of our communities that are not yet connected.
When we had this opportunity and we said there is not even a mobile signal in Plaiuri, we proposed to start from the bottom up. Let's be totally innovative because projects like this exist in Europe where there are more solutions, but there you have an alliance between a telecom operator and a municipality. So let's start with the municipality, let's show them what we can do here. Of course, there is only infrastructure, nothing else.
I was lucky enough to have another discussion on other topics with our Hungarian partners. They said they have something similar, so we could install the same solution at the Plains. Because we already had the technical details, we had the cables and we had partners who were very supportive. It is not easy. It's difficult (this implementation) because you go into something you're not ready for. Normally this is done strategically, working with telecom operators, and they do the work. Now we are trying to move forward and we are pursuing other authorisations and utilities. The reward came from a meeting yesterday with a person from Plaiuri, who met us while we were taking pictures at the technical box in Plaiuri. He stopped and said, "Please come to my house and look for me, I'm in the middle of the village, finally, my grandchildren will come here from Cluj because during the pandemic they didn't come. And I think Mr. Poșa had a similar experience with a guy who said: ha, finally the internet is coming here.
We don't offer internet. We just facilitate solutions. We also facilitate innovation. I mean everyone can come in and hopefully, they'll think about digitization as a way to meet their needs, not just fancy stuff or Netflix."
The pilot project consisted in the implementation of a new multi-operator fibre optic network concept in Petreștii de Jos commune, Cluj county, which will allow communities in Plaiuri and Livada to use digital solutions to improve their living standards. Prysmian's solution allows infrastructure provider and data service providers to be separate without being competitors. The system includes everything needed to build a passive optical infrastructure from the multi-operator distribution point to the distribution point (PBO) in the immediate vicinity of the residences. In addition, the system can also include the terminal boxes and subscriber cables needed by any operator to connect any household.
Emilia Botezan said, "The vision of these projects is much bigger. The vision is taken on by the educational cluster which has founding members: the county of Cluj, the municipality of Cluj-Napoca and six universities. The vision is to understand what tradition is and the best definition of tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the keeping of fire. It is very important to come up with concrete solutions to show other cities in Romania, or other mayors around the country, that if it can be done in Cluj, it can be done anywhere."
În a doua zi, Laura Ordean - HSE Prysmian a susținut un discurs în cadrul unui panel privind EPI - European Pact for Integration - Expats, Migrants and Foreigners as resources for boosting innovation and local development.
Laura Ordean said, "With a history of over 140 years in cable production and a worldwide presence, Prysmian is responding to the needs of society with innovative technology. Collaborative projects developed with local authorities in Cluj have demonstrated Prysmian's ability to bring digitization into people's homes while preserving the authenticity of those seemingly untouched places we all look for when we want to recharge our batteries. Prysmian's written history is due to its well-trained people who are dedicated to their mission, so I invite you to get to know each other better and together develop sustainable projects for today's and tomorrow's generations."