Due to the changes in a busy schedule of two major speakers, Mr Maroš Šefčovič (The European Commission) and Ms Martina Werner (The European Parliament) their personal participation in the IRFC 2017 conference was not possible despite being long-planned. However, both speakers assessed the importance of this event by sending their video message, which opened both, the Forum (21 March 2017) and the IRFC 2017 conference (22 March 2017).