Rail Baltica Business Network in Latvia opened its year with a discussion event on the topic “Rail Baltica – the platform for next generation technological development” on February 02, 2018 at a co-working space Techhub Riga.
The event gathered more than 30 representatives of large infrastructure, logistics and transport companies as well as the Latvian start-up community. The aim of the event was to introduce the participants to the business opportunities using Rail Baltica as a new platform.
The discussion was introduced by Egidijus Skrodenis, an associate partner of Civitta Lithuania, who talked about the Intelligent Transport systems also touching upon long term trends in the railway industry, such as Internet of Trains, use of virtual reality, artificial intelligence and robotics.
The event continued with the discussion panel with the following speakers and participants:
Kaspars Rokens of RB Rail AS who introduced the current status of the project, highlighting the possible areas of engagement for innovation.
Gunita Kuļikovska from Virtual Reality company Vividly, shared her experience on working with the European Railway Lines on virtual representation of Riga Central station, emphasising the importance for large enterprises to be opened for innovation and cooperation with startups.
Agnese Razgaite from a Latvian drone company Aerones introduced the variety of technical abilities of drones and discussed their potential use regarding the Rail Baltica project.
The event raised an interesting discussion regarding the startups cooperation with already established businesses who participate in the Rail Baltica procurements. The businesses are looking for innovation that could be given by the startups and outsourced at the R&D stage, also allowing startups to reduce their risks and access large projects otherwise out of their reach.
