Sending Latvia's Team to Budapest: NStrim at Szakma Sztár Fesztivál 2026
The 19th Szakma Sztár Fesztivál filled two pavilions of Hungexpo in Budapest on 26 and 27 March 2026, with close to 200 finalists competing across more than fifty trades. NStrim sponsored the Latvian delegation's trip to it. The competition itself ran entirely on the organisers' own infrastructure — our part was getting the Latvian team there.
The 19th Szakma Sztár Fesztivál filled two pavilions of Hungexpo in Budapest on 26 and 27 March 2026. Organised by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it is the national final and public showcase of Hungary's SZKTV and OSZTV vocational competitions, bringing close to 200 finalists across more than fifty trades in front of an audience for two days.
NStrim sponsored the Latvian delegation's participation. The competition ran on the organisers' own infrastructure; we had no technical role on site. What we covered was the part that quietly decides whether a delegation goes at all — the travel and arrival costs of getting Latvian competitors to Budapest.
Why sponsor a trip rather than supply a platform
Most of what NStrim does is infrastructure: environments, dashboards, snapshots. But a vocational student's exposure to an international field is not an infrastructure problem. Competing abroad, seeing how the same trade is taught and judged in another country, and measuring yourself against people trained differently — that changes what a student believes is possible for them, and it is usually a budget line rather than a technical one.
Skills competitions run on the goodwill of the people and companies who fund exactly these unglamorous line items. We were glad to be one of them.
If you are organising a national competition, or sending a delegation to one, talk to us — and note that competition mode and live invigilation will ship in the open source edition in Q1 2027.