On Tuesday 4 December 2018 in Kulturfabric Tabačka in Košice, the second year of the kick-off conference “Východ nie je EXIT” (The East Is Not EXIT) was held with an initiative of the same title that intends to combat the outflow of young and skilled people from the Eastern Slovakia region. The event took place under the auspices of the Technical University of Košice.

During the three panel discussions, hosted by Aneta Parišková, 11 Slovak and foreign speakers discussed the issues related to this current phenomenon. At the event, TUKE was represented by the Rector prof. Ing. Stanislav Kmeť, CSc., who was a member of the “Expert Board”.

Panel discussion topics were:

• Panel/01 A view from the outside - According to the motto that no one is a prophet at home, speakers who have a distinct relationship with the east of Slovakia presented themselves in this panel. They had the opportunity to look at the world and the events in it from a rather global point of view and nowadays, their activities are linked to this region:
  Martin Jelínek from the Bright House Language Institute, Clayton Stone from the TUKE and Robert Vincze from the Won China Investment Europe SK
• Panel/02 City & University - Does the city need a university? Does the university need the city? Is the reduction of the number of students in Eastern Slovakia universities the sole problem of the university? Shouldn´t cities and regions, in addition to touring and investor campaigns, develop comprehensive campaigns, together with universities and companies, focusing on young people? These issues were discussed by:
  Lenka Vargová Jurková from Košice Region Tourism, Zuzana Pavlovic from Global Slovakia, Juraj Girman from Košice IT Valley a Jiří Uher from Masaryk University
• Panel/03 It can be done! - Discussion panel full of motivation and positive thinking.
  Inspirational Juraj Hipš and three young entrepreneurs from the east, who did not wait for a dream job, did not leave but took the courage to realize their own ideas and today they successfully do business and live in the region where it is not easy but certainly not impossible, presented themselves in this panel.
  Danka Bodnárová - Robin Street Food, Karolína Jankivová - Jankiv Siblings and Jaroslav Pčola - Reinter

The conference was the opening event of the 12th International Education Fair Pro Educo 2018, which took place this year in the Steel Arena.