On September 26 and 27, 2022, the European Cluster Conference took place in Prague. The conference was organized by the European Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic as part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. The European cluster conference was attended by more than 500 representatives, mainly of European cluster networks and associations, and part of the program included a so-called site visit to members of the Czech optical cluster HILASE and ELI Beamlines.

COC Manager Petr Přikryl attended the conference on behalf of the Czech Optical Cluster, who assessed the event as very beneficial in terms of establishing new contacts with representatives of other clusters: “The opportunity to meet and share experiences with important European clusters is an invaluable experience. Part of the conference was a matchmaking format meeting with cluster managers. I believe that we will include new contacts and ideas for interesting cooperation in our Action Plan for next year.”