LAB Mediterráneo Foundation, a project promoted by the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE)organized the second edition of LAB Live, an informative meeting to involve the media in all the actions carried out by the Foundation.
The meeting took place at 9:30 a.m. at the headquarters of the administrators of the Sésame HR Foundation with the participation of Hector DominguisPresident of the LAB Mediterráneo Foundation, and Enrique SotoDirector of the Foundation.
Héctor Dominguis recalled that the LAB Mediterráneo Foundation, whose board of directors includes 25 leading entities and companies in their respective sectors of activity, has the mission of positioning the Valencian Community as a benchmark in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research and stressed that “the objectives that the Foundation has set itself since its creation are to promote the creation and attraction of technological startups, attract technological companies that create a tractor effect, accelerate the digital transformation of non-technological companies, increase private investment in innovation and R&D, and promote research. These are part of the measures contained in the Draghi report aimed at reducing the competitiveness gap that separates Europe from the United States or China, so that they become, if possible, more valid and current.”
To achieve these objectives, the Foundation carries out various actions in four work areas: communication, dissemination, knowledge generation and support for existing initiatives in the Valencian Community and aligned with their areas of action.
In the field of communication, it was highlighted that this year’s notable action attempts to respond to a confirmed fact: the low degree of penetration of technologies in SMEs. with the campaign “That’s how it is”an audiovisual series of 4 chapters, aims to raise awareness among SMEs that the use of certain technologies within their reach can take companies to another level, and that “with regard to digital transformation there is no option “Either you transform and adapt, or you are left behind”, in the words of the director of the Foundation.
Also in communication questionThe Foundation launched this summer its podcast “Visions Unlimited” with the aim of generating information, knowledge and debates around the Foundation’s areas of action, on the one hand, and of making visible the existing talents in the Valencian Community in terms of entrepreneurship, innovation, technologies and research, on the other.
In the section of dissemination actions All actions that attempt to connect the different groups that are part of the Valencian innovation system have been valued, based on the belief that “exchange and collaboration are the true catalysts of innovation”, in the words of the president of the Foundation. With this in mind, the usual meetings have already been held this year to connect researchers and entrepreneurs, large companies and startups, businessmen and university students. In this last regard, the Foundation’s spokespersons have highlighted that “in the Valencian Community, every year 9,500 graduates in the STEM branch graduate. However, only 2% of employment in Valencian companies corresponds to personnel specialized in ICT, which is why the use of this specialized human capital is one of the aspects to be improved by companies.
Alongside the information session on how some Valencian companies are using AI to improve their business models, the next actions to be taken were anticipated. First of all, the III Unlimited Mentoring Day, whose aim is to make available to participating SMEs all the experience of the companies on the board of directors in relation to the challenges they face in terms of innovation and technology. It will take place on October 15 in Alicante.
Secondly, in terms of disclosure, it was revealed that the next destination of the trade mission, after those carried out in Israel and Silicon Valley, will be South Korea (from 11 to 16 November). It was recalled that the missions are carried out to learn from leading territories in the Foundation’s fields of action. In this sense, on the one hand, the lessons learned from the mission in Silicon Valley were highlighted: the crucial role of entrepreneurs and how existing business talent works as a decoy to attract more business and innovative talent; that of advisors, mentors and guides who accompany entrepreneurs throughout their journey; and that of investors and universities, which constitute “the pool of entrepreneurs”. In terms of learning, the Foundation stressed “the need to bring business closer to the education system, at all its levels”.
On the other hand, the choice of South Korea as a new destination has been motivated by the country’s great economic evolution in recent decades. South Korea, which has become the country that invests the highest percentage of its GDP in R&D after Israel, tops the various global innovation rankings. The Foundation has valued as factors that have motivated this innovation the leadership of its technology sector, with companies such as Samsung, LG or Hyundai, an educational system focused on science and technology and great government support that promotes technological innovation and the creation of startups.
In the third of the activity axes, the knowledge generationThe focus was on the presentation on the 12th of the LAB Observatory, a set of indicators that will allow measuring the annual evolution of VC in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research, and comparing this evolution with other reference regions. With this Observatory, the Foundation aims not only to offer useful information and knowledge, but also to provide proposals and recommendations to all actors who make decisions in their fields of action. This year, the Observatory also includes an analysis of the perceptions of Valencian companies in terms of attracting and retaining technological talent, a talent “for which they compete with companies from all over the world”.
In the last of the lines of action, support for existing initiatives, the activities that have received support from the Foundation were recalled as they were considered to contribute to the fulfillment of its mission, such as FTalks Food Summit or Somma connect, and the next events in which the Foundation will participate were announced: The Gap in Between and Valencia Digital Summit.
