Post by Falko Kremp, Master in Management current student September 2014 intake
Twitter: @FalkoKremp
Spain is back! IE Venture Day 2014 in Madrid
The audience was cheering and applauding when Paris de l’Etraz, Managing Director of IE Venture Lab, stated in his opening speech: “No business school in the world has an international footprint in Entrepreneurship as IE has.“
Mr de l’Etraz’statement was proven true by the Venture Day Madrid, which took place on November 13th at Auditorio Rafael Del Pino. Venture Day Madrid is the latest event in a series of Venture Days all around the world. The one-day conference featured panel discussions, keynote presentations and, most importantly, pitches of start-ups launched by past and present IE students.
The panel discussions gave attention to the regaining strength of the Spanish economy, not least due to the tourism industry and its technological innovation, and the importance of emotions in business. A wide range of guests contributed exciting insights. Thus, Joe Haslam, Associate Professor at IE and VP of Strategic Capital, made many look surprised by revealing that the tourism industry would be bigger than the oil business. Besides, Olivier Gay, Director General at Cartier, shared company insights by stating that Cartier would watch the market entrance of Apple’s iWatch – but did not plan to react instantly. Thus, he reminded the audience that not every innovation is supposed to be permanent.
The first presentation was held by Sam King, a singer from New York currently based in Berlin, who taught everybody about the power of emotions by sharing his very own emotions through an amazing musical live performance.
The second presentation featured Avi Biran, CEO and a co-founder of Cyber Odysseys. Under the title “The Next Frontier in Cyber Security”, Mr Biran emphasized on the importance of data security for tech companies.
The highlight of Venture Day Madrid 2014 were the pitches from pre-selected startups. These were:
– Scano – reinvents 3D-scanner and -printer
– Unplugged – facilitates p2p-messaging by focusing on privacy
– Robosoft – develops software for robots
– Stylesage – delivers big data solutions for fashion stores
– Fikstore – helps developing beautiful online stores
– Invierte Mejor – wants to help ordinary people to have access to exclusive financial products
– Ruramex – helps to improve the rural life in Mexico by offering a safe stove
– Itaro – provides auto parts and tires to Mexican users
– Turismol – focuses on searching through touristic activities in Peru
– Pich – wants to provide tools for developers and banks
– Multifarmas – helps to compare medicine prices
At the end, Turismol was the winner of IE Venture Day. Pich could earn the trophy of the audience.
Looking into the future, the next venture day is already close. On November 28th, the Social Entrepreneurship Venture Day will take place, focusing on identifying, supporting and recognizing startup social enterprises in the Philippines and the Asia region.
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IE Business School supports entrepreneurs and alumni and has therefore launched the IE International Venture Days tour. This tour consists of a series of competitions organized in collaboration with partners all over the world where IE will be seeking out the most promising ideas. It’s an opportunity to pitch innovative business projects and a chance to obtain international investment.
Venture Days started in Madrid but have gone global since. Venture Days took place in cities all around the globe like Berlin, Bogota, Doha, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Mumbai, Providence US, Sao Paolo, Shanghai, Singapore, and London. More Venture Days in new and amazing cities are already scheduled and about to be announced. By giving Entrepreneurship and Tech Innovation a platform, IE Business School underlines its self-conception to be one of the leading educational institutions for Entrepreneurship worldwide.
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