The European Digital Innovation Forum gathered over 250 attendees at the South Campus of IESE Business School, including various executive profiles from SMEs, start-ups, innovation companies, investors, and research centers, with the aim of showing how to build and scale an open innovation strategy for businesses. The event, held on the evening of Wednesday, November 9th, was part of the Digital Innovation Hub of Catalonia (DIH4CAT), a project formed by the main digitalization support agents in Catalonia, with the purpose of driving the technological transformation of SMEs (with a special focus on industrial sectors and technology providers), technological start-ups, and public entities.

The event began with the presentation of the DIH4CAT project, conducted by IESE Entrepreneurship professor, Maria Julia Prats, and the Executive Director of the Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ), Joan Romero. During the DIH4CAT presentation, the focus was on the need for EU SMEs to adopt emerging technologies in some sectors. Additionally, the Hub’s grants and services for testing these technologies within companies were introduced.

Next, Maria Julia Prats moderated the panel “Building and Scaling Your Open Innovation Strategy,” which discussed the mechanisms needed for entrepreneurial ventures and achieving an open innovation strategy. This first panel included the participation of Beatriz Reyero, Global VP of Corporate Strategy at eBay Ventures; Gema García, Director of Corporate Entrepreneurship, Open Innovation, and Business Development at Repsol; and Mercè Girbau, CEO of Girbau Group.

Following that, the adoption of technologies in different use cases within tech start-ups was demonstrated. The presentation “Exploring Deep-Tech Use Cases” was moderated by IESE Entrepreneurship professor, Thomas Kleuter. He was joined by Bárbara Buades, CEO and co-founder of Meetoptics, who showcased several success stories in the field of photonics. Similarly, Irene Gomez, CEO and co-founder of Keybotic, presented Keyper, a four-legged robot capable of moving through any environment to inspect and map it.

The event also introduced cutting-edge business technologies in the panel “Innovating with Deep-Tech Start-ups,” moderated by Josemaria Siota, Executive Director of the IESE Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center. This panel addressed how large companies evaluate the best technologies in the market to incorporate and innovate through start-ups. Additionally, leaders from various companies participated, including Marta Antúnez, Director of Wayra Telefónica; Silvia Bruno de la Cruz, General Director of Innovation and Technology at Redeia (Red Eléctrica); and Mireia Torres, Director of Innovation and Knowledge at Familia Torres. To conclude the day, a cocktail was offered to all participants at the South Campus of IESE.

Upcoming DIH4CAT Events
This November, the partners of the project will hold other events as part of DIH4CAT. On the 23rd, IESE will host a virtual webinar titled “Digitizing SMEs through Emerging Technologies,” aimed at showing SMEs how to achieve a competitive advantage by creating new value propositions, impacting their traditional revenue and cost structures.

On the 24th, two events will coincide within the DIH4CAT framework. On one hand, i2CAT will co-organize with the Government of Catalonia the “5G Training Course for Companies” at Palau Macaya in Barcelona, providing attendees with foundational knowledge on 5G technology. On the other hand, Eurecat and DIH4CAT will also co-organize the “Workshop on Identifying Technological Challenges in the Value Chain of Companies and Funding Opportunities for Advanced Technology Adoption Projects,” which will take place at Tarragona IMPULSA, the employment, training, and business service of the Tarragona City Council.