On November 7, Startupbootcamp Internet of Things & Data is welcoming promising young startups to their first Barcelona Pitch Day. The Startupbootcamp Barcelona team will select the 10 best teams from all of the applications, and those teams will be invited to pitch, get feedback and learn more about the Startupbootcamp program. The teams chosen for the event have the … [Read more...]
Heard@ Techscout 2014: Strategic Venturing and Innovation Excellence
An update on innovation strategy Another conference on innovation landed last month in Barcelona: the European Networking Group with its Techscout 2014: Strategic Venturing and Innovation Excellence. Open Innovation directors from large corporates as Nestle, Unilever, General Mills, Shell and DSM shared their experience. The central question was: are we entering innovation … [Read more...]
Heard@ Next Bank Europe: Disrupting The Banking Industry
Recently Temenos, one of the sponsors of the Next Bank Europe Conference, released a white paper on industry disruption in the banking sector. Their introduction depicts clearly the urgency to come up with new business models and value propositions. “Digitization is changing the industry’s dynamics. Cloud computing is lowering the cost of doing business. Improvements in … [Read more...]
Why Confab Europe Is The Most Important Event That You Will Attend In 2014
It’s all around you and, by all accounts, it’s the very lifeblood of your organization. It’s the stuff that guides your team’s decision-making, attracts new customers or causes you to burn money like it’s going out of style. Sometimes it’s good, once in a while it’s great, but the vast majority globs together as an infinite landfill of clutter diluting your brand and sabotaging … [Read more...]
The Definitive Barcelona BIG Tech Event List for the Second Half of 2014
Well, it's August and there's not much to report on during these sultry Barcelona summer days. Many escape the city for a few weeks of holiday bliss, while the rest put their heads down and actually get some work done, undisturbed from the usual hustle and bustle of startup life. So, as you have some downtime and chance to take a step back and assess the rest of 2014, here is … [Read more...]
Barcelona Taxis Threaten Violence Against the Startup Community and Hotels As Uber Protests Escalate
A group of professional Barcelona taxi drivers have channeled their angst against Uber onto the entire Barcelona startup community by threatening violence at a now-cancelled startup event hosted by Startup Party and Iniciador. Startup Party is a young, but rapidly growing offline community that hosts monthly informal gatherings and social events for Barcelona's … [Read more...]
Think global, act local reflections
Last week, the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations (WCPUN) organized a multi-stakeholder platform to dialogue on the topic of local innovation for global sustainable development challenges. Citizen participation is a central tool and mechanism for the WCPUN. The objective was to discuss challenges and get local input for the global agenda, debate and connect minds … [Read more...]
Unleash Your Inner Maker at Fab10 Barcelona 2014
Fab Lab: a digital fabrication laboratory. Nice self-explanatory play on words right? But what happens in these labs, and are they actually more than just rooms with 3D printers? Well, they are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, which aim to popularize and expand access to personal (and collaborative) manufacturing, and invention. These are the labs where this … [Read more...]
Meet The 10 Barcelona Startups That Pitched At Pirates On Shore
World Cup be damned. Uruguay takes down England? No thanks. It was pitch night in Barcelona as Pirates on Shore arrived and friends from Wellington Partners, Nauta Capital and Active Venture Partners came out for the deal flow. Wayra Barcelona sponsored our shindig at the MediaTIC Cibernarium and the call went out for Barcelona’s best to test their merit. We were not … [Read more...]
Pirates on Shore Brings International VC’s To BaRRRcelona
Picture a junk yard - scrap metal, beat-up old cars and abandoned heaps of unwanted machinery. Now, light it on fire and make entrepreneurs walk the plank after pitching their startup in front of Europe's most successful investors. This Burning Man-esque startup events goes down every summer in Cologne and it's called the Pirate Summit. For the last four years, the Pirate … [Read more...]