CreativeMornings Prague

September 2019 - Bára Vencálková is a young author and poet. She graduated from history and now continues studying philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. She strives to understand things so she could help others find understanding as well. First and foremost, she is not a woman, but a person and like every person she wants to feel alive. She likes to think, read, run, draw, sing, and most of all, she does what she has always been doing. She writes.

March 2016 - Zdeněk Lanc is a designer. He had been working for the Czech Television for as long as 14 years as the head of the Design of New Media department. He ran development of first applications for smart televisions and was amused by the teletext phenomenon. Zdeněk started the tradition of sport specials and successful olympic websites such as those from Athens (2004) to Sochi (2014), even though he does not watch much of sports or television.

December 2020 - Adam is a psychologist at the Psychiatric Hospital Bohnice, where he works with people with personality disorders. He founded the project Therapy among trees (Terapie mezi stromy), which connects nature and mental health. Adam also brings the topic of nature and mental health to the public through his publishing activity.

August 2016 - Martin Rajniš is one of Czech most renown architects and urbanistic visionary. His projects have been inspired and intertwined with nature, natural materials and principles. He believes that going for WEIRD can lead to amazing things.

November 2020 - This time we decided to be radically different in our form and we decided to bring you not one, two or three, but four speakers! The speakers (introduced below) already honoured us with their talks during our previous mornings and we are curious to know how they are doing now during these turbulent times.

Our speakers are:

Zuzana Kuberová - the founder of the project called “Z pokoje do pokoje” and one of the three girls behind it. Their aim is to save old furniture from being thrown away by renovating it themselves and giving it a brand new life. Apart from a selling the re-made pieces, they also opened their workshop to the public and use it as a re-use center. Anyone can come, borrow tools and work on their personal projects.

Bára Vencálková – a young author and poet. She graduated from history and now continues studying philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. She strives to understand things so she could help others find understanding as well. First and foremost, she is not a woman, but a person and like every person she wants to feel alive. She likes to think, read, run, draw, sing, and most of all, she does what she has always been doing. She writes.

Sebastian James - a Czech psychologist and licensed psychotherapist. In both life and work, he believes in openness, the ability to sense one’s own body, being able to play and being ready to help others. These are also the principles, that his workshops are based on, focusing on long-lasting personal relationships and sustainable happiness in life. His theory of “Radical Honesty” is an answer to a common reality of pretending, which also offers healthier and more entertaining way of life, as Sebastian says. He leads adventure workshops, individual and couple psychotherapy or communication and leadership trainings in the corporate environment.

Richard Vrdlovec - first started doing yoga back when he was 10 years old. Then he returned to it with a higher intensity around 2004, while he was working for prestigious consultancy companies and feeling generally stressed. Since that time, he has studied various yoga theories and practices and got inspired by teaching yoga himself. After 2011 he persisted with Buddha’s meditation tradition and in 2016 opened his own studio Yoga Karlín. Together with other experienced instructors, Richard teaches a variety of yoga styles and meditation basics there.

August 2019 - This month’s lecture will focus on the examination of architecture and urban planning in terms of gender. This allows for uncovering problems of inequality and negligence in urban development. In her lecture, Milota will present the practical examples of gender-sensitive design and planning, the mobility of care in cities abroad, and the possible solutions to the improvement in the quality of Czech and Slovakian urban planning.

November 2019 - Lukáš Hána is a consultant and a lecturer on critical thinking. He offers training to the public, companies as well as intelligence services. He teaches tools for working with information and decision-making. He is also a founder of the project #krimyš (www.krimys.cz), within which Lukáš organizes an annual conference. He is a creator of the course for creative thinking at the University of Economics in Prague (VŠE) and he currently finished an online course series about critical thinking for Seduo.cz. Lukáš is an alumnus of the Center for Applied Rationality CFAR.

March 2019 - David Stránský is an Associate Professor in Water Management and Water Structures at Czech technical university in Prague as well as forensic expert in water management. Currently, he deals with the issue of rainfall-runoff relationships in urbanized river basins, specifically the mathematical description of these phenomena, the hydraulic reliability of systems and the integrated assessment of the effect of urban drainage.

The city and the people in it need water for their life, but its availability has become taken for granted over the years.

Recently, the climate change reminds us of how precious the water is, and makes us think whether today’s urban water management is right or not. You will see that the cities of the future will be substantially different from today’s … from the perspective of man but also the landscape in which it lies.

May 2020 - Matěj Novák is the first Czech to succeed in the field of big wave surfing, a name used for riding waves above 6 meter height. His love of the ocean led him to move to the Spanish coast, where he founded a community sports club WildHouse. The journey to conquering the famous “La Verdad” wave was documented in a movie “No wave back”. What obstacles did he have to overcome and what did the sea teach him?

October 2018 - Sebastian is a Czech psychologist and licensed psychotherapist. In both life and work, he believes in openness, the ability to sense one’s own body, being able to play and being ready to help others. These are also the principles, that his workshops are based on, focusing on long-lasting personal relationships and sustainable happiness in life. His theory of “Radical Honesty” is an answer to a common reality of pretending, which also offers healthier and more entertaining way of life, as Sebastian says. He leads adventure workshops, individual and couple psychotherapy or communication and leadership trainings in the corporate environment.

Martin is a mentor and presentation skills instructor. He graduated from the Theatrical faculty of AMU in Prague and later also JAMU in Brno. After completing numerous trainings and internships in the Communications field, including Germany, Austria or France, he started lectures and workshops on his own. Since 2001, he trained over 13 500 corporate employees. Martin also led international workshops in Leipzig, Krakow or Birmingham.

June 2018 - Zuzana is the founder of a project called “Z pokoje do pokoje” and one of the three girls behind it. Their aim is to save old furniture from being thrown away by renovating it themselves and giving it a brand new life. Apart from a selling the re-made pieces, they also opened their workshop to the public and use it as a re-use center. Anyone can come, borrow tools and work on their personal projects.

Září 2018 - Hostem dalšího dílu cyklu CreativeMornings bude jogín Richard Vrdlovec, který se od jógy podle knížek dopracoval až k vlastnímu studiu Yoga Karlín. Při své praxi se věnuje i základům meditace.

Vojta tells the story of how he started working at Wikipedia and how they inspire the elderly to share their knowledge.

Vojtěch is an instructor and methodology specialist at Wikimedia. He was the founder of “Senioři píší Wikipedii”, a project, inspiring the eldery to participate on writing Wikipedia articles.

CreativeMornings Prague. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks

Do you need investment advice? Unfortunately, we can’t tell you the secret of how to become a one-percenter, but we can give you far better advice on how to invest – invest in the change you want to see in the world. Invest in our teachers.

The speaker of the February Creative Mornings is Kryštof Vosátka. After his studies in literature at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, he underwent intensive teacher training at the Institute of Education in London. Kryštof also taught at several high schools and gymnasiums. Currently, he manages the cooperation with partners at the Teach Live (“Učitel naživo”) organization, which aims to contribute to the systematic improvement of the Czech education through the direct investment in teachers and headmasters.

Kryštof will show us that school is the most important social tool for the development of human potential. In order for schools to fulfill this purpose, it is necessary to focus on people and offer them superb preparation and support in their demanding work. Change is in people and teachers and principals are the key to achieve it.

CreativeMornings Prague. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks

Jano Suchal is the co-founder of Slovensko.Digital and activist in the field of state IT as well as programator, father and former rafter.

He studied IT and artificial inteligence and likes to dig into public data. In his free time, Jano started to review state IT contracts and compared them to those of other countries. He was so upset about what he found, that he, along with five other enthusiasts, founded a non-profit called Slovensko.Digital. They have been trying to improve digital service of the state and guard the millions that flow through it.

CreativeMornings Prague. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks

Can’t find the time to get out of urban bustle? Míša will tell us how to get back to the roots in the middle of the city and show us the benefits and opportunities of working with nature.

Our first speaker of the year is Míša Dudáčková. Míša visited the workshop “How to Start a Communal Garden” four years ago and after that, with the organization Kokoza, she helped to start the communal garden Mečislavka in a central courtyard in Nusle. The management of the garden and the creation of its community led her to establish the organization of over 30 members, which was responsible for such festivals as Zažít Mečislavku jinak (“Live Mečislavka Differently”), Nuselské dvorky (“Nusle Courtyards”) or Podnuselák (“A Run under the Nusle Bridge”). Working with the organization Kokoza, Míša focuses on sustainable real estate development, and the topics of community and its impact on communal spaces and urban gardening especially.

The mission of Kokoza is to promote composting and urban gardening. They want to inspire and motivate individuals and organizations to use composting technologies suitable for cities, for individual needs, and, of course, for pleasure.

CreativeMornings Prague. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks

Quieting our minds in a loud world that keeps becoming louder with media and information overload may seem to be difficult. However, there are ways to find peace and to quiet our thoughts.

The last but not least speaker of this year is Marcela Roflíková. Marcela studied international marketing and management at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, and IAHL in the Netherlands. She also received her MBA degree at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Furthermore, Marcela graduated the Mindfulness course by Jan Honzík, Ph.D. at the Psychotherapy Centre Lavka, and continued her education on mindfulness at Mindful Schools in the USA.

In 2015, Marcela founded the Czech Mindfulness Institute to bring mindfulness to the Czech corporate environment, to schools, and community in general. She likes to combine mindfulness with managerial and business topics such as leadership development, stress, and time management. She likes to spend her free time running, practicing yoga, or building Lego with her two sons.

Marcela will teach us how to focus on the present and how to shut our minds from the noise of the outside world. She will tell us how to overcome the greatest challenge of not losing our trust and peace in simple moments, wherever we are. She will also demonstrate how to practice loving-kindness meditation. In the end, Marcela will show us the new meaning of the saying, “Silence is golden.”

CreativeMornings Prague. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks

October 2019 – Which flow is the one to follow? Libor will share his views on sharing positive energy and work excitement, challenging yourself and creating meaningful things.

This month’s speaker, Libor Hoření, started his business at the age of 17, when he launched the Interned portal for sharing recipes, Toprecepty.cz, his most successful project to this day with over two million visitors per day. Once he had earned enough money, he began to wonder how he could use it to help others. This is how the idea of the Dobrokáva project started.

CreativeMornings Prague. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks

January 2017 - Animal trainer František Šusta believes in the power of positive reinforcement method. During his work with animals he has been treating them as partners and compares the training process to the one of a coach and an athlete. Finding common ground with beings that don’t share a language is not a MYSTERY to him___

RNDr. František Šusta, PhD. has been working as Animal Training Specialist in the Prague Zoo since 2008. Through workshops, practical trainings, articles and books, he propagates the positive reinforcement animal training methodology. He tries to seek new and better methods to make the coexistence of people and their charges optimal to both parties and to achieve the demands imposed by human on animals through dialogue and understanding instead of pressure and drill.

František was the first Czech to become member of the Animal Behaviour Management Alliance and International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association. He also became the holder of the historically largest collection of awards granted by the worldwide association of professional animal trainers.

November 2017 - Jiří is a graphic designer with a life mission of connecting the commercial, non-profit and public sector with design. He promotes the benefits of design thinking and engages in various educational activities.

Shaped by personal experience with death and remembering in his family circle, Jiří decided to reform the anonymity and fading standards in the funeral design field. In 2014, he founded Parteo, a design service, offering an alternative of original high-quality obituaries. He then followed with the project “Umění se rozloučit” (the art of saying goodbye), breaking the taboos around death and finding new ways for technology and rituals to cooperate.

July 2019 - MUDr. Bohumil Bakalář, a physician with many years of experience in the Czech Republic and abroad, was a member of the medical team of President Havel for intensive medicine.

What is it like to work in a department where most of the patients are unconscious, human organs are being replaced by devices and where even a tiny mistake is a huge problem? How many times did he stand trial? What do they think of euthanasia of the severely ill? What is Czech medicine’s inspiration for the world? If you are interested in the world and people of medicine, come and listen to an interesting lecture on intensive care.

November 2016  - Jiří Charvát is a Czech slam poetry master even though he used to be scared of speaking in front of people couple of years ago. He decided to overcome his fear and took a look at his life through a different keyhole. 

Jiří was the Head Copywriter at Seznam.cz. He wrote comedy office ESC blog for which he gets rewarded by his fans on crowdfunding server Patreon. Jiří also writes poems and lyrics and with his friends he founded festival of British humour, sci-fi and fantasy TRPASLICON.

Jiří’s life was changed when he started attending the school of improvisation (until then he used to have dreams of stage fright standing on the stage not knowing what to say). Now he looks for such situations and is the Czech champion in slam poetry

Květen 2018 - Miky na svých chybách i vítězstvích ukazuje, jak nakládá se závazky. Proč začal podnikat, jak to dopadlo a co ho to naučilo? Jak si poradit se zkaženými plány? A znamená pro Mikyho vlastně něco problém?

Miky is a traveller, entrepreneur and a visionary. He is commited to battling his safe zone as often as possible, which led him to visiting 40 countries and starting numerous creative projects on his own. In LowCost Race for example, participants are given 10 days to visit as many European cities while spending as little money they can, together with completing unusual challenges along the way. 

Martina Blazkova is a former athlete and succesful coach. In her talk, she reveals how important is the combination of talent, training and coach-trainee relationship. 

She studied law, but after her own athletic career she decided to become a trainer. She has won several National Championships in 400 m hurdles & heptathlon. She has trained our golden Olympics team of Fast girls and many others. Are you curious how she recognizes talent and how the magic of making an athletic superstar works?

The chief chaplain of the Czech army talks on what values are common for church and armed forces and how to pick young soldiers the right way.

Col. Mgr. Jaroslav Knichal is the Chief Chaplain of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic. As such he has been there for Czech soldiers believers and non-believers to help with their life situations. He studied theology at Palackeho University in Olomouc and became a roman-catholic priest in 2001. During 13 years of service as a military chaplain he has served in four foreign missions in Iraq, Kosovo and twice in Afghanistan.

 Co-founder and volunteer at Cesta domů, organization that helps the dying and their families, talks about what we fear and if there is something such as good ending.

Adriana Skálová co-founded a non profit organization called Cesta domů (the way home). It has been taking care of the dying and their families and has been helping them to let them pass away the way they want. What do we fear most when we have to face the REALITY?

 Tino Hrnčiar stands behind several projects and brands which can be anything but ordinary. He talks about what inspires him and how breaking the rules helps to move forward. 

Tino is an entrepreneur from Slovakia. After six years working for Red Bull HQ, he decided to quit his job, move to Prague and start his own business. He runs an art label and a streetwear brand called Life is Porno. He also organizes pop-up dinner experience called Forbidden Taste and recently opened a new venue - Forbidden Spot, which is an art gallery, brand’s flagship store and a space for creative food and drinks. Tino is a traveler, good food lover and a book writer.

Marie is the leader of the NGO “Nevypusť duši”, which she co-founded in 2015. Their aim is to raise awareness about mental health through workshops and educational programs for young people, starting with school-aged children.

She studied Neuroscience at the University of Nottingham, where she took part in the Student Minds project and the campaign Time to Change. While finishing her degree, she gained experience in clinical research and at the same time started her own initiative with her friend Tereza. They soon turned Nevypusť duši into a successfull non-profit organization, bringing mental health education to schools, debunking common myths and therefore breaking the stigma surrounding mental health and diseases.