FORESDA was presented at the 14th Wood-Technology Conference by mrs. Tamara Högler - head of innovation affairs at CyberForum e.V, also lead partner of the project. The conference took place on the 5th and 6th of June, in Opatija, Croatia. 

After the conference, the consortium had its #2nd project meeting, sharing experiences, achievements results from the last 3 months, since the last meeting in March 2017 in Ljubljana; and also set up some new targets to be achieved in the next project period.  The partners agreed to organize the next meeting at the beginning of September, in Sopron, Hungary. We will soon come back with more details.

Please read below the final report of the  14th Wood-Technology conference:
The 14th Wood Technology Conference, traditional annual gathering of wood‐processing industry in Croatia and
the southeast Europe, which was held on Monday and Tuesday in Opatija (Croatia) in organization of the Croatian
Wood Cluster and CROBIOM, is successfully closed.

Excellent export results, continuous development of new products, as well as the successful participation in
different national and the EU funding schemes over the past 15 years and this meeting's tradition, ensured
presence of over 350 industry representatives and a number of important political and institutional stakeholders.
This year the Conference was held under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian
Parliament, the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship
and Crafts, the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning and the Rector of the University of Zagreb, while
the Ministry of Agriculture was a co‐organizer. Domagoj Hajduković, Vice President of the Agriculture
Committee of the Croatian Parliament, also addressed participants at the conference opening.

Minister of Agriculture, Mr Tomislav Tolušić, said that the wood industry is one of the most promising economic
branches, but that Croatia is not known for furniture production but manly as a country of quality and cheap raw
materials, which should be changed in future. The minister announced that the export of oak logs was
prohibited from July 3rd for the following two years.
After years of poor communication, in Opatija came whole Croatian Forests Management Board, led by Mr
Krunoslav Jakupčić, CEO, who said that it is his personal and Croatian Forests mission to contribute that wood
and forest become a key competitive weapon in market competition.
Employment opportunities in the forest based industries sector through active employment policy measures
were presented on Monday by Labor and Pension System Minister Mr Tomislav Ćorić. The minister stressed the
importance of the wood‐processing industry for employment and the economic and demographic survival of
rural areas. If we enable jobs and quality life conditions, we will stop emigration, Minister Ćorić concluded and
announced the change of the pension system and the extension of working life up to 67 years.
The second conference day was marked by themes of networking, European projects and new technologies in
wood processing. A series of technology producers for sawmills, primary and final wood‐processing, production of
energy from wood and forest fire prevention presented innovative solutions and demonstrated that this sector is
equally involved in the 4th Industrial Revolution through digitization and automation of production processes.
It is inevitable to work on greater export and the positioning on international markets, said Joško Klisović,
Parliamentary Representative, on Tuesday in the concluding panel discussion, and invited companies to more
actively use the services of economic diplomacy and Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. Good insight into
the exporting markets is a key to success, Klisović concluded. Branding and participation in international fairs are
most important tools in marketing.

Although wood‐processing sector is quite active when it comes to mobilization of incentives, investments in R&D
are still the least represented, which is certainly to be improved in the future. On the sidelines of the conference,
Croatian Wood Cluster is also actively included in the FORESDA project consortium meeting (under INTERREG)
together with other international experts in innovation, biomass and regional development.
Over 350 business representatives ‐ window, door, pellet and parquet producers, technology suppliers, sawmills
and competent institutions ‐ participated in the conference during two days.

For pictures about the event please check our 'Gallery' menu or our social media channels: facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/foresda/; twitter: https://twitter.com/foresda_eu_dtp