Prague is a beautiful city, however, modern spaces for congresses were missing here for a long time. Our goal is not only to bring interesting cultural events to O2 universum, but we also want big global corporations to meet in here. It is, therefore, no coincidence that the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists will be held at O2 universum in autumn 2020, says in the beginning of the interview Robert Schaffer, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Bestsport, which owns and operates the O2 arena and O2 universum.

Investing in O2 universum is primarily an investment in all of us, in society, in Prague, in the Czech Republic, both in terms of culture, and in terms of the contribution of interesting content, and people who will present spectacular stories and cultural events. We would have never been able to do it without O2 universum.

Robert Schaffer Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Bestsport, which owns and operates O2 arena and O2 universum

The new O2 universum complex is linked to the O2 arena building, covers four floors with a total area of almost 50,000 m2 and a capacity of up to 10,000 visitors:

• Congress Hall B divisible into three sections with capacity up to 1,400 persons,
• Congress Hall C divisible into three sections with capacity up to 1,100 persons,
• two Conference Rooms E with a capacity of up to 480 persons each,
• one Central Hall A with capacity up to 5 000 persons.

There are 12 additional Conference Rooms D which can be interconnected to make 4 halls by mobile partitions, each with a capacity of 100 persons.

Thanks to the possibility to connect O2 universum with O2 arena on all floors, we gained space for up to 28 thousand visitors, which is equal to a small district town or a large football stadium. We have to provide a full-fledged area with plenty of exhibition or presentation space, restaurants of all categories and other services. The size, segmentation and number of halls we are talking about make us realize the importance of each member of our team, all of them must be perfectly synchronized. If you have a team that is enthusiastic about the job, they enjoy it and see the meaning behind their job, then other goals are much easier to accomplish.

Another important prerequisite for our future success is open communication with customers, with whom we must be in constant contact. Asking about their demands, needs and wishes. Listening to how they would like to organize their event, but also being available during the event itself. See that everything is running as it should. Why? Because every event is special in some way. You can use this approach to find out how to do this better or in a completely different way. You must constantly check with your visitors, agency, customer and ask how satisfied they are. It is a great pleasure when they tell you that everything has worked out as they imagined, or when you see them returning to you again.

The result of our work is not just words, but real experiences.

All halls are equipped with large projection screens, high-quality sound system, state-of-the-art projectors, mobile stands, stage equipment, lighting, but also quality wi-fi signal. O2 universum also consists of many common areas which creates the need to direct and orient the participants of individual events. The space in the foyer is therefore equipped with information panels so every visitor can easily find their event.

Sometimes people don't know what they want until you offer it to them. That is why we try to have basic presentation technology in every hall and in case of specific wishes we arrange rental or design of any other modern technology. The O2 universum building is designed to accommodate two or more events at the same time, for example a violin concert in the Hall C, a basketball match in the Central Hall A and an international congress in the Hall B. Individual halls are perfectly acoustically sound-proof thanks to a special construction that prevents the sound from one hall to reach the other, so individual events do not interfere with each other.

Since we enjoy working on large projects where we can surpass ourselves, in 2021 we decided to open a four-star hotel. The hotel will offer 300 rooms and seven conference rooms with capacity from 15 to 300 people. A large part of the hotel occupancy will be related to the events happening in our venue, but the hotel will also accommodate guests wishing to visit the capital as such. My goal is to attract interesting personalities, exceptional content, tempting stories, but mainly real experiences that will inspire and move us forward in general, concludes Robert Schaffer.