In the second edition of Emtech Spain, 23 international speakers participated and addressed topics related to the challenges of the cities of the future, specifically energy and services. Topics such as social networks, medical innovation, the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the Internet and network redesign have also been discussed. The conference was completed with the presentation of the winners of the TR35 award and with an Investment Forum in which 9 companies located in science and technology parks participated.

The event has had the collaboration of APTE, which has participated in the dissemination of the event and has attended the conference, as part of the activities to promote technology transfer and boost companies located in science parks and technological activities that the Association carries out.

Emtech Spain hosted a closed-door Investment Forum, which brought together prominent entrepreneurs with the best specialized investors. Among the companies participating in the Investment Forum were 9 companies installed in 7 APTE member parks, specifically in the Asturias Technology Park, Cartuja Science and Technology Park, University of Valladolid Science Park, 22@Barcelona, ​​Science Park of Madrid, the Scientific and Business Park of the Miguel Hernández University of Elche and the Leganés Technological Scientific Park (Carlos III University of Madrid).

During the conference, topics such as “Cities of the future: energy and services” were discussed, given by Pedro Moneo at the opening ceremony. In addition, several round tables were held. The first was focused on the challenges of the cities of the future, where international experts highlighted the importance of establishing measures to control energy use in homes. Subsequently, José Llorca, president of Puertos del Estado, and Joaquín Ayuso, vice president of Ferrovial, highlighted, in order of intervention, connectivity as an essential element for smart cities and the need to integrate urban services and promote the collaborative city, promoting the role of the citizen.

The second table focused on social networks as a driver of collaborative action. The debate on how crowdsourcing and gamification can be tools with which to deal with emergency situations through social networks was the protagonist. Next, the presentation on the entrepreneurial ecosystem took place, where the speakers highlighted the importance of promoting a system of entrepreneurs in addition to introducing a new term, Intrapreneur, that is, entrepreneurs working in companies.

Subsequently, experts in innovation in the field of medicine intervened. This section featured Julio Mayol, director of the Innovation Unit at the San Carlos Clinical Hospital, and Jose Gómez Márquez, medical device designer, Little Devices, at MIT. These experts have highlighted the technological revolution that biomedicine is currently entailing, thanks to ICT.

During the second day of Emtech Spain, the presentations continued, in addition to the TR35 Spain awards being presented and the Investment Forum taking place.

The first presentation, Internet, redesigning the rules of the game online, featured the participation of international experts who debated the possibilities of the network when designing and implementing the businesses that are generated on the Internet. Then it was the turn of Joaquín Cuenca, creator of Panoramio.com and co-founder of LoQUo, who presented the Thumbr.it project, an online platform that creates thumbnails of documents from different formats. After Cuenca's intervention, the last table called Capital after the first rounds: where it is and why it invests, focused on the financing mechanisms so that startups can grow.

During the event, the winners of the TR35 Spain awards were also presented, awards that recognize the work of the 10 best young Spanish innovators under 35 years of age.

This year the awards went to David Gascón, who received the Innovator of the Year award for his smart sensors to transfer information from the real world to the cloud, which his company Libelium markets; and for Juan Moreno, CSIC researcher, who has received the award for Solidarity Innovator of the Year, creator of systems for the efficient rehabilitation of people with reduced mobility.

The remaining 8 proposals ranged from nanotechnology applications for aeronautical materials, to technologies to create “living” medicines, ultrasensitive nanomaterials, nanoparticles to make biofuels, creation of massive access to a network of laboratories, artificial intelligence, creation of implants with their own cells. and security in identification of interlocutors.

In addition to the companies attending the Investment Forum, representatives from the Huelva Science and Technology Park, Geolit ​​Science and Technology Park, Andalusia Technology Park and the Leganés Technology Science Park attended the conference, as well as several companies from the Huelva Park and the Scientific Park of the University of Valladolid.