Last May 12th during the session of the Agora of Som-Inn Port, Innovation Ecosystem of the Port of Tarragona, we presented the novelties and the program of activities of the current Cycle of Open Innovation.
Ramón I. García, General Director of the Tarragona Port Authority, welcomed the participants.
Carme Tarragó, Head of the Department of Studies and Innovation of Tarragona Port Authority and Coordinator of Som-Inn Port, explained the actions that will be carried out in the six Innovation Axes of the Open Innovation Cycle of Som-Inn Port:
– Competitive Vigilance Axis: Port Innovation Observatory has been created at Som-Inn Port website, in order to disseminate the innovation projects carried out by Som-Inn Port member entities and to learn about those carried out by other national and international ports.
– Design Thinking Axis: It will be possible to continue sharing needs and challenges through Som-Inn Port Platform. It will respond and create connections between similar challenges, recommendations, etc.
– Prototypes Axis: The implementation of projects from the previous two innovation cycles will be promoted. During this cycle, the World Friendly/Port intrapreneurship project will be implemented, which has been selected in the Ideas section of the Ports 4.0 call for proposals. The Port Authority of Tarragona has also participated in this call with five project proposals in the section of pre-commercial projects. We are currently awaiting the results of the selection process.
– Training Axis: Inspirational Conferences on general topics of open innovation will continue to be held by renowned speakers in the field of innovation. The novelty is that this year they will be open in order to facilitate connections with external members of the ecosystem.
We will also continue to hold training sessions on innovation topics (strategies, tools, methodologies…) exclusively for agents and Som-Inn Port members.
-Networking Axis: Sessions will be held to present projects of Som-Inn Port members and innovative projects in the field of port management (startups, other ports, etc.).
-Communication Axis: A content plan has been developed to stimulate the digital community of Som-Inn Port:
- Pillar 1 Innovation Agents: Incorporates interviews or news that put the innovation agents of Som-Inn Port at the center.
- Pillar 2 Observatory: Information related to port innovation projects.
- Pillar 3 Events: All the activities that Som-Inn Port generates through its innovation cycle and all the events in which it participates: meetings, workshops, conferences, agores, visits, participation in congresses, etc.
- Pillar 4 Innovation learnings: Conversations with experts from outside Som-Inn Port who share lessons learned from their experience in innovation.
To conclude the Agora session, an inspiring open lecture was given by Xavier Verdaguer, CEO and founder of Imagine Creativity Center, under the title “Entrepreneurial Attitude”, a key element of the innovative DNA of professionals and organizations.
Xavier Verdaguer gave examples of entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial attitudes within the framework of the Lombards method: Inspiration, Ideation, Prototyping and Communication:
– Protofy and SEAT: Construction of low-cost ventilators.
– Vincles BCN: Trust network for elderly people who live alone.
– Glovo: Purchase, collection and delivery of orders in less than an hour through delivery drivers.
– Adan Medical Innovation: Intelligent case for Epipen connected to the mobile phone.
During the conference he shared ideas that help us to incorporate the entrepreneurial attitude to our day to day:
– There are no people more creative than others. Being an entrepreneur, more than a legal status or a position, is an attitude that makes facing a problem be seen as a challenge or an opportunity, that makes a challenge become a dream which make you fight to achieve it.
– We must move from protest to proposal.
– Innovation works when there is diversity.
– We must learn to work on shared values. They help to overcome team crises/difficulties.
– Innovation requires that we live each day as if it was the first one, approaching reality with the passionate eyes of young children who want to discover everything.
– Technology, as cutting-edge and distant as it may seem, is at our reach: Nowadays it is easier than ever to collaborate with people who have the technological skills you need to undertake. Today it is easier than ever to create a new business.
– If we want to activate our entrepreneurial attitude, we have to take advantage of the opportunities that we have around us: The initiatives of our organizations or of our territorial environment that help to promote new ideas.
– Don’t go by yourself: Innovation is successful when we are able to join forces with people with innovative and diverse skills and competences.
– It is necessary to develop communication techniques to defend our projects, to look for investors, etc.
– Innovation needs passion.
May 12, 2021
Studies and Innovation Department
