Telefónica to show at 4YFN how internal innovation and startups interact to create new technological solutions

• Gonzalo Martín-Villa, Mariano de Beer (Telefónica) and Miguel Arias (Open Future_), among others, are to participate on panels also featuring CEOs from startups.
• Ferrán Adrià is to talk with Andrés Saborido, director of Wayra Spain, about how innovation must constantly challenge the established norms.
• Senior representatives of four of the world’s leading telcos, brought together under the Golgnite alliance, will debate the technological trends in this industry.

Telefónica Open Future_, Telefónica’s open innovation platform, and Wayra Spain, its startup accelerator, will be present at the forthcoming edition of 4YFN Barcelona (#TOF4YFN18) to open the debate on many of the big issues that, as a result of transformation in technology and in society itself, are on the table.

Pioneering Open Innovation is the slogan of a programme comprising debates and demos which will basically demonstrate how the interaction happening between the technological solutions developed by Telefónica and those from startups is serving to develop specific innovations designed to meet both the internal needs of the group itself and those of its customer portfolio worldwide. The three panels programmed will boast leading professionals in the sector who are experiencing the transformation of the various industries firsthand.

In this regard, on Tuesday 27 February at 16:00, the Nestlé stage will host a distinguished line-up of experts who will explain from different angles how “Technological innovation is a springboard for transformation” of society and industries and how the new model must also adapt to emerging needs, a panel which will be moderated by the director of Wayra Germany, Christian Lindener. The list of experts will include names like Gonzalo Martín-Villa, Chief Innovation Officer at Telefónica, who will address the subject of technology, entrepreneurship and journalism; Mariano de Beer, Chief Commercial and Digital Officer at Telefónica; and David del Val, Director of Product Innovation at Telefónica, who will talk about Edge Computing. In addition, Ana Segurado, Director of Innovation Funds for TOF_, will interview Guillermo Freire, founder and CEO of Trocafone, and Pedro Castillo, CEO of LogTrust, to show the type of relationship there ought to be between the CEOs of startups and investment funds.

“Challenging the standard rules” is the title for the second panel, scheduled for Tuesday 27 (at 12:00 on the Nestlé Stage). The aim of this event is to share the constant challenge the entrepreneurial ecosystem has to face in order to progress towards new models and disruptive solutions – a challenge taken on by Wayra Spain, which will present its new value proposition. Miguel Arias, Global Director of Telefónica Open Future_, will be in charge of highlighting these key issues.

The second part of this event will feature Andrés Saborido, Director of Wayra Spain, and Ferrán Adriá, who is for many the best chef in the world and who was included by the US magazine Time  in its 2004 list of the most innovative people in the world. Saborido and Adriá will elaborate on the essential aspects, the nuances and the common elements that are part of any innovation, and the application of each of these factors when creating an innovative technological solution.

Lastly, at 11:00 on Wednesday 28, the third panel discussion will be held on Stage C. With the title “Do you want to discover the trends in the telco industry?”, representatives from four of the world’s leading telcos, together under the GoIgnitea alliance, will share their plans regarding open innovation and highlight the technologies they consider to be most prominent. This panel will feature Edgar Hardless, CEO of Singtel Innov8; Axel Menneking, General Manager of hub:raum; Bertrand Rojat, director of the startup ecosystem at Orange, and Miguel Arias, Global Director of Telefónica Open Future_. At the end of the discussion, the conditions for GoIgnite’a third call for proposals from startups will be presented.

Demos and presentations from startups at stand 6 of 4YFN

Over the three days of the 4YFN event, Stand 6 will showcase the contributions of some of the most interesting startups from the Telefónica Open Future_ ecosystem. These are:

•  Airtime Rewards (United Kingdom), an innovative and pioneering company in affinity and reward plan solutions in association with leading mobile telephony operators;
• Babooni Technologies (Spain), a startup that creates IoT-based solutions to improve the consumer experience;
• Floorfy (Spain), a virtual reality solution for the real estate sector which allows customers to carry out visits from anywhere in the world;
• Highbrow (United Kingdom), a Netflix-type startup with education videos created by teachers and content producers from around the world;
• Innospot (Germany), a company that provides services involving scouting for startups according to the needs of organisations;
• Rysta (Germany), a startup with a hardware base and operating system specifically designed to test out new IoT solutions before they are launched onto the market;
• 3Ants (Spain), a startup devoted to fighting piracy in content which detects and eliminates illegal online uses through a solution based on Artificial Intelligence;
• Synaptiv (United Kingdom), a project that transforms data generated by connected cars for the benefit of users; and
• Tokbox (USA), a solution that makes it possible to create a personalised experience through videos that are added to websites in minutes using Video Chat Embeds.

Other startups from the Telefónica Open Future_ ecosystem will also participate in 4YFN through different stands or demos. These include Nattule, Pet-presso, Missionbox and Rentingfy, from the El Cubo crowdworking space (Seville), as part of the Andalucía Open Future_ initiative; Toursnapp and Real 3D Matrix from the La Cárcel space (Segovia Open Future_); and Okeepo, Kpeye and BemyFit, from Cornellà Open Future_.

Telefónica Open Future_

Telefónica Open Future_ is a global platform designed to connect entrepreneurs, startups, investors and public and private partners around the world to capture innovation and business opportunities. Its goal is to support talent at all stages of growth through a comprehensive model for acceleration that is designed to connect talent with organisations, investors and companies. The programme incorporates all the Telefónica Group’s open innovation, entrepreneurship and investment initiatives (Think Big, Talentum Startups, crowdworking, Wayra, the Amérigo investment funds, the Telefónica Ventures corporate funds) through a global network that is open to participation by external partners that wish to develop their own entrepreneurial and investment strategies and connect them with large companies. To date, more than 54,000 proposals have been analysed, over 783 startups have received investment and in excess of 1,700 startups have been accelerated. Telefónica Open Future_ is present in 17 countries and a total of 425 million euros has been committed to investment by Telefónica and its partners since 2011. Further information: https://www.openfuture.org