Fourteen things learned at KIM Conference 2017, a new edition organized on June 7th in Barcelona by KIM on his tenth anniversary.
Here they are some of the thoughts, knowledge and lessons learned by those attending the event and KIM’s team. Speakers and the audience shared with their knowledge and thoughts about the changes caused by disrupting technologies: new ways of interaction, robotics and industry 4.0, how to adapt traditional materials to smart materials, how to find the right business in this changing situation.
1. “The essence of society transformation are the principles and the technologies that allow society wishes to become true in record time”. Joan Parra General Director of LEITAT Technological Center, Member of Knowledge Innovation Market’s board.
2. “The public-private collaboration is essential to solve social problems. The administrations are promoting innovation public procurement to improve public services”. Juan Manuel Garrido General Subdirector of Innovation Promotion at Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain.
. “As a public administration, we must be ready to have tools that facilitate rather than complicate the innovation processes”. Mariona Sanz Director of Business Innovation at ACCIÓ-Generalitat de Catalunya.
4. “Disruptive technologies have the capacity either to respond to new social challenges or destroy the system. To avoid and control the associated risks it is necessary to legislate with measures as social insurance for robots, basic income or regulation of the use of collaborative robots”. Xavier Pont Social entrepreneur at SHIP2B.
5. “Users want to experience Virtual Reality but are not prepared to have it at home. GATE will bring Virtual Reality to museums, stadiums, public institutions, shopping malls, demonstrations and everywhere”. Toni Mayorgas & Jordi Sellas Founder & CEO at Digalix Strategy & Innovation Director at Minoria Absoluta.
6. “The operator of the 21st century must have the technological skills to work together with a collaborative robot, which becomes a tool. The robot will perform repetitive tasks during assembly processes, making it easier for the worker to focus on the value-added work”. Jordi Pelegrí Sales Development Manager at Universal Robots A/S
7. “The more machines there are, the more technicians we need to control them. But they cannot be operators with the current profile. We are not prepared to change the way we work. We need to change our education system first to have professionals with the appropriate training”. Cristina Reguant Concept Laser Service Partner at Hofmann Innovation Group.
8. “We are not a product company, we are not a robotics company, but we have developed our robot, Street Cleansing Assistant, to give a solution to a market need. For us, robots are worker’s assistants”. Laura Saralegui Head of Innovation for Water and Environmental Services at Ferrovial.
9. “Lumentile project develops an intelligent tile, capable of interacting with the user (showing them lights, colors and sounds) and whose industrial production is estimated for 2018”. Guido Giuliani Chief Technology Officer at Julight Associate Professor at Università degli Studi di Pavia.
10. “The market for ‘smart’ textiles is increasing. There are already photoluminous, aromatic, cosmetic, antimicrobial, 3D and resistant to water textiles. This allows the development of new environmental, sanitary or safety textile applications”. Lorenzo Bautista Researcher in new materials at LEITAT Technological Center.
11. “The future of intelligent materials in biomedicine is the personalization that we will be able to make adapting to the needs of each patient”. Salvador Borrós Professor and Director of the Material Sciences and Chemistry Engineering at Institut Químic de Sarrià Chief Scientific Officer, Co-fouder and member of the Board at Sagetis Biotech.
12. “To get funding you have to have a ‘WOW’ project: with an identified market and a good team”. Víctor Oró Deputy Head of Grants Department at F. Iniciativas.
13. “If there are no customers, if there is no demand, if there is no market, it is an indicator that your project does not work. As long as you have money, stop and go the other way”. Eneko Knorr Serial entrepreneur and investor.
14. “We emerged KIM with 4 strenght ideas: 1) Innovation as a philosophy. 2) Making R&D investments profitable. 3) Be based on Critical Mass and Open Innovation. 4) Maintaining a Market Pull optics. These four strenght ideas persist in our genetic code and we have tried to put them into action with the best of our intentions during our not so brief history”. Antoni Paz Executive Director at Knowledge Innovation Market–KIM.
