History of International scientific conference IPoCC

IPoCC conference (International Postal and e-Communications Conference) is organized by the Department of Transport Management, Marketing and Logistics at Jan Perner Transport Faculty in a two-year cycle. IPoCC is an alternation to POSTPOINT international conference, which was organized by the University of Žilina, also a partner of the IPoCC conference.

Within of fourth International scientific conference (2006), meetings were held in the section "Economy and Technology of Postal service", which was as well zero year of international scientific conference IPoCC focused on postal services sector issues. Chairman of the IPoCC conference was Assoc. prof. Ing. Libor Švadlenka, Ph.D. Presentations were presented by representatives of the Czech Post, Mediaservis, Worldcourier, ADMAZ association and also by academics and participants from Slovakia and Poland.

Topics in this section were following: the process of liberalization issues, deregulation and corporatisation of postal services sector, the quality of postal services in the national and international context, new services supply, customer relationship management, new trends in the postal service technologies, supply chain management of postal services, etc.

Next conference IPoCC 2008 took place on 25 - 26th September 2008. This conference was held under the auspices of the Minister of Industry and Trade, Ing. Martin Říman, and the Dean of Jan Perner Transport Faculty prof. Ing. Bohumil Culek, PhD. The aim of this year conference was to inform the scientific and professional community with new trends of scientific knowledge in the field of postal services and electronic communications and possibilities of their application in practice.

Papers were presented by the force of Ing. Jiří Řehola (Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic), Ing. Eduard Prandstetter (Czech Telecommunication Office), prof. Ing. Karol Achimský, PhD. (Slovak Post), Ing. Jiří Stojar (DHL Express Czech Republic), Ing. Michael Rauer (Mediaservis) or Ing. Pavel Bobek (Department of the postal network). Distinguished guests were representatives of Finnish and Polish Post. There were presented also contributions of other representatives of enterprises, institutions, colleges and universities. The conference was attended by nearly 100 participants.

Next conference IPoCC 2010 took place on 16th and 17th September 2010. The conference was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the dean of the Department of Transport, prof. Ing. Bohumil Culek, PhD. The main theme of this conference was the issue of the completion of the liberalization process of the postal sector and setting conditions for the fully open postal market, including providing of universal postal services.

The conference was attended by 120 guests representing the European, national and private postal operators, companies providing express and courier services, companies providing other services relating to postal services (delivery of newspapers, promotional materials, etc.), Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech Telecommunication Office, Office for the protection of Competition, Ministry of Transport, Posts and telecommunications of Slovak Republic and finally scientists from research institutes, domestic and foreign universities and colleges. Linking the sector of postal services and electronic communications clearly declared lectures by representative of the Czech Post and representative of InPost.

Presentations were presented by Germano Rizzo (ATON), Dr. David Strnad (MGE DATA), Philippe Claeys (PricewaterhouseCoopers), Joost Vantomme (Strategic and Regulatory Affairs of the Belgian national postal operator), Karel Duchek (Wundermann CZ) or Dr. Tomáš Hájek (ADMAZ).

IPoCC 2012 took place on 13 - 14th September 2012 and was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Dean Jan Perner Transport Faculty prof. Ing. Bohumil Culek, PhD. The conference was attended by 100 guests. The main theme of this year's conference was the issue of the completion of the liberalization process of the postal sector and setting conditions for the functioning fully open postal market. This should be inspired by electronic communications sector.

Presentations were presented by Francois Guillaume Postel (Ernst & Young), Koppány Mátyási (Hungarian Post), Ing. Hana Hankiewiczová (Communications activities and regulation of postal services) or Dr. Robert Ledvinka (eGovernment, Ministry of the Interior). In addition to that, representatives of Slovak Post and Serbian Post spoke about their experience and knowledge in preparation for fully liberalized postal market in the future.

In the technical conference sections, there were presentations on the RFID technology and its application in the postal services sector, for example presented by Claus Møller from the Danish company Lyngsoe Systems. A separate section was devoted to the new opportunities for postal operators, especially in connection with the development of e-government. Contributions on this topic were presented by representatives of the Czech Post and the Slovak Post.

Last but one year of the conference, IPoCC 2014, took place on September 18^th – 19^th 2014. The conference was traditionally held under auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic and the Dean of Jan Perner Transport Faculty. The conference motto for this year was "Postal Value Chain in the Electronic Age".

The main topic was the actual situation on the postal market after the completion of the liberalization process of the postal sector including providing of universal postal services. The second key topic of the conference was the issue of logistics in e-commerce that was discussed at the round table. Traditional topic solved within the IPoCC conference was the issue of automatic identification with the focus on logistics and postal services including the issue of technological optimization of distribution networks.

The number of participants reached approximately 100 guests that were representing the sector of postal services including related e-commerce activities.

Within the topic of liberalization and regulation of the postal market for example the contribution of Mr. Christian Jaag, a partner of the consulting company Swiss economics, was held on the topic of "Legislative evolution of the postal services sector in Switzerland".

The issue of logistics in e-commerce was discussed at the round table innovatively for the first time ever at IPoCC conference. The participants at the round table were chosen from the companies of Czech Post (Česká pošta), UPS, INTIME SPEDICE, Expert ČR, Vivantis and Zásilkovna. The chairman of the discussion was assoc. prof. Libor Švadlenka from the Jan Perner Transport Faculty. The discussion went through the actual trends in this area, for example the issue of same day delivery, self-service parcel lockers network development or potential utilisation of drones in postal last-mile delivery.

Traditional issue of automatic identification with the focus on logistics was presented for example by Mr. Piotr Wołowicz from Polish Post (Poczta Polska), Mr. Wołowicz assessed the system of quality measurements with the use of automatic identification methods that is currently used in Poland.

Oficial part of the conference programme was added by a social event within which the conference participants had an opportunity to personally discuss mentioned conference topics.

Last year of the conference, IPoCC 2016, took place on September 13^th – 14^th 2016 in newly reconstructed space of University of Pardubice. The conference was traditionally held under auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic and the Dean of Jan Perner Transport Faculty.

The introductory topic of this year of the conference was problems of regulation of the postal sector on both European and world level, primarily in connection with prepared regulation of the parcel items area.

The second key topic of the conference was the issue of logistics in e-commerce that was discussed partly by the form of presentations of single e-shops representatives, logistics operators or academics, partly by the form of discussion at the round table with chosen company representatives.

Another topic solved within the IPoCC conference was the issue of automatic identification with the focus on logistics and postal services. According to this year motto of the conference "The Role of Intelectual Capital in Communications", topics related to development of the intellectual, respectively human capital in the postal services sector ran through whole conference program.

The number of IPoCC 2016 participants reached approximately 90 guests representing national and alternative postal operators, logistic services providers, e-shops, state administration in the sector of postal services, research institutes and universities. The innovation in this year conference program was inclusion of two videoconferences with well-known foreign specialists.

First "virtual" speaker of the IPoCC 2016 conference was Jan Bart Henry, head for EU matters of the Dutch post (PostNL) who spoke from Brussels about formation of EU politics in the postal services area. Second videoconference call was with the deputy of general inspector of USPS OIG, Mr. Mohammad Adra, who engaged first in situation on the mail market in the USA with accent on present and possible future form and financing of universal postal service and then in new trends in logistics e-commerce.

Official part of the conference programme was added by a social event which took a place in the Pardubice Castle. According to this year motto of the conference this social event included activities focused on possibilities of development of intellectual and human capital within the conference participants had an opportunity to personally partake in.