The series of International Congresses CHISA taking place in the center of Europe was launched in 1962 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, then it continued in Mariánské Lázně, and since 1972, the Congresses have been held in Prague. However, it is worth mentioning that the logo was used for the national event as early as 1953 (therefore, the CHISA 2020 will be in fact the 67^th meeting in series counting also national ones). The term CHISA originates from the Czech acronym for “Chemical Engineering, Chemical Equipment Design and Automation” and later became a “trade mark” for large meetings which had emphasised especially the East-West-European and later pan-European contacts. Nevertheless, the stepwise development during the last two decades has transformed the one-time European Congresses into an event of world importance.