Michal, on Sunday 20th August you took part in the 2nd edition of the „Jablonska osmička“ running race with your colleagues from the coalfamily. How did you enjoy running in the tropical heat? And why did you decide to support this race again as a general sponsor?

This running race goes from extreme to extreme. Last year it was cold and rainy, this year it was sunny and incredibly hot. But I enjoyed both editions to the fullest. This year I had to adjust my pace not only to the weather, but especially to my poor physical condition. Fortunately, I didn't get too carried away with the crowd and was able to finish with a smile. We also supported the run last year. I really like the idea of this race, „It doesn't matter if you are an athlete or a hobbyist, let's all do sports together!“. This year the organizers have made a huge shift from last year and I believe they will find the strength to continue in future years.

Are you satisfied with your individual performance? And what do such events mean to you personally? Even if not everyone from the coalfamily took part in the run, they at least came to cheer for the three handcuffs in the fire. It says something about our company culture, doesn't it?

It wasn't really about my individual performance. Although the fastest runner from the coalfamily was promised an extra day of vacation, but fortunately I defended my first place. I was really pleased with how involved we were in the organisation of the event this year. A big thank you to our marketing guru - Filip Cervinka, who took full advantage of our mutual relations and together with the Czech Ball Hockey Federation and the Ball Hockey Club from Letohrad provided a program for children in the form of a ball hockey shooting range, which was bursting at the seams during the race. This year we were largely plagued by absenteeism, but I believe we will see more than 10 orange shirts again next year. And if the weather gets really hot again, we have a refreshing surprise in store for all the competitors, next year!

A big working bite? The management team did it perfectly!

Summer is slowly coming to the end. How did you personally enjoy it? Did you and your colleagues from coalsoft and coalios have enough to do? And can you tell us what top interesting projects you are working on?

The summer season is often quite free. Our customers have full holidays and overall projects slow down, so we have a lot of time to tighten up the rests and improve our deliveries. I'm incredibly pleased to have successfully established a partnership with SYD Consulting Ltd, with whom our applications will be used all the way in New Zealand. We have also managed to complete the implementation of HELIOS iNuvio for our customer in Slough - Regional Charity Ústí nad Orlicí. In fact, we can say that we have customers at a distance of 1 km to 18,000 km. My greatest pleasure this summer was the large turnout at our first Summer Party, which we spent with our families for the first time this year. It was like one big family. Everyone came in Hawaiian costumes and we had a great time.

But those aren't all the occasions when you get all the staff together, are they?

Yes, that's right. There's a lot more. Our company slogan with our company culture is no tinsel. For example, we also hold regular company breakfasts together. Here it is very pleasant to see how individual employees proactively participate in the breakfast topics, whether it is pancakes, scrambled eggs or „bring what you want and share it with others“. The welcoming atmosphere with a variety of treats really brings us together and gets us started on what can often be a busy workday.

From your position as Chief Executive Officer of coalsoft and coalios, how would you evaluate your performance after the first half of the year? You are regularly adding new faces to the teams of both coalfamily companies, have they integrated well and are they an asset?

In terms of recruitment, we clearly took a big bite at the beginning of the year, but thanks to the great work of the entire management team we managed it well. Here I would also like to highlight the work of our colleagues, whom we call „buddies“. These are the people who often go above and beyond their job duties to help newcomers get more quickly involved in the company.

We are starting to come to the top of the list of attractive employers in Letohrad.

There are 4 months left until the end of this year. We couldn't help noticing that there is a big banner with job offers hanging in Letohrad, near the football field. You're obviously going all out, aren't you?

We definitely want people to know about us. We are building a young and ambitious company that brings the opportunity to work in IT to Letohrad. I dare to say that we are starting to come to the top of the list of attractive employers in Letohrad and the surrounding area. Currently, we would like to reach out to more senior candidates as well - either in search of a Project Manager or reinforcements for development or consulting teams.

And what about the long-gestating COALedu project? Any progress?

A shift? Actually, yes - in time. The original plan was to start this project with everything in place in January 2024, but during the initial analysis of this project, we found that there is a huge amount of work and preparation that will need to be done to give the whole project a chance of success. We are therefore expecting its sharp start in September 2024. Currently, our team has also been strengthened by Jitka Krejsova, who will be in charge of the whole project and I believe that the first activities for the public will begin in the first half of 2024. The main vision of this project is to spread IT education in Letohrad and its surroundings. The whole project will be based on three pillars - the first one is a circle of teaching the basics of programming for children. The second part will be lectures on IT security, working with information, verifying sources and, for example, safety on the Internet and social networks. The third pillar is the preparation of retraining courses for IT positions.