However, the onset of COVID postponed these plans for several years. As soon as the situation with the pandemic and the restrictions it brought calmed down, a new training date was announced this summer. Thanks to several colleagues within Peikko Group, the seminar was successfully held between November 15 - 17. The venue of the training was chosen as Bratislava and the premises of the Park Inn hotel on the banks of the Danube, in the heart of the historic center of the Slovak capital.
Almost all units nominated their own engineers to experience the three-day training together and finally meet face-to-face. It was really worth waiting several years for this training. The professionalism of professors J.F. Demonceau and J.P. Jaspart attracted a wide audience of more than 50 Peikko engineers from all over Europe and the mix of nationalities turned out to be positive, and the professors themselves were pleasantly surprised by the expertise and interest of our employees.
"When we were informed about the presence of 60 persons coming from various countries, we were afraid that we would not be able to create a dynamic of group appropriate for such a long 3-days seminar. But our fear rapidly disappeared thanks to the involvement of the attendees reflected by the numerous questions we received and to the consistency of their expertise in design." said professor J. F. Demonceau from the Faculty of Applied Science of the University of Liège. We also asked these two experienced scientists and educators how they see the difference between a lecture for private company's employees and a lecture for University students. "With attendees with a professional experience, various problems related to execution, erection, economy, design etc. can be deeply addressed, what is for sure not possible with University students. In addition, some attendees were addressing specific problems they are meeting in their daily practice, what enriched the exchanges" appreciated prof. Demonceau.
The taught and explained topics consisted of Eurocode part EN 1991-1-8, analysis and design of connectors and simple connections and best practice.
Oral presentations were enriched by practical examples and guided exercises. "It was very useful was to be able to make some real calculations by hand to realize how the component method works." claims Gabriel Morvay from Peikko Slovakia. Stefan Carstens from Peikko Group, who is new to Peikko says "it was the first face-to-face meeting with many colleagues. This was important and I really enjoyed it. Furthermore, regular training is always important to keep up to date."
Added value for our engineers is also complexity of the workshop and additional education. "I had not been aware of this from my studies. The dimensioning of welding connections is a component of many development projects in the connection area and is therefore always helpful." agrees Stefan. Among our engineers we are happy to have also few ladies. From the UK, Kasia Fitkowska visited Slovakia, who wished "there were more examples with Peikko products, but understand that time was limited, and a lot of knowledge was included already." Most appreciated among participants was level of knowledge of the professors. "We are happy about the training. Professors level of professionality was high." adds Kasia. The same opinion has Artúras Vitkus from Lithuanian unit: "It was very interesting to listen and learn from professors who are top level in their field."
We were pleased to welcome these gentlemen, whose presentations were not only educative, but easily understandable and our engineers spent quality time learning new practices. As the meeting is over, we can wrap up, that it ended with success and our employees claim, that next training should follow up with new versions of Eurocodes. Let´s see what the future brings. Many thanks for organisation goes to Veronika Dojčanová, Diego Ferrer, Slavomír Pargáč and Simo Peltonen.
It was challenging to organise the meeting, and without your hard work it would not be possible. We are looking forward to next events held in Slovakia.
