OpenExpo Europe celebrates open technology innovation

This year´s event brought together around 3000 visitors, offering a wide variety of formats and contents about the trends of technological innovation. The collaboration was very extensive with sponsors such as IBM, Red Hat, Google Cloud, Magnolia, Arsys ... and media partners such as Brainsins, Compilando Podcast, Comunicae, TodoStartups, El Español, Martech Forum, Ecommerce News, IT Latino, La Neurona … and many more!

Among the 73 stands at the fair, there were ​companies such as OVH, IBM, Ivnosys, Kiwi TCMS, Arsys and Magnolia,. Likewise, there were communities such as the Free Software Foundation of Europe (FSFE), Madrid Maker, HackMadrid, KDE as well as the press and especially media partners.

The Congress was a success, equipped with seven closed rooms (IBM Auditorium, Arsys Room, Europechain Room, Hall, Prestashop, Ydral Room, Red Hat Room and WhiteBearSolutions Room) and three open spaces which were designed for "Open Talks" (Open Talk Urban , Open Talk 2Byte and Open Digital Corner). In total there were more than 100 speakers. These included Chema Alonso, Fernando Mateo Sanz, Horacio González, Angélica Sanz, Fernando Acero, Hong Phuc, Tomasa Rodrigo, Jorge Oteo, Javier Pozo, Cristina Aranda, and Anton Sankov.

In this 6th Edition, OpenExpo Europe had the objective of improving two of its most valuable activities, which maintained the aim of boosting the technological innovation sector: ​the Startup Connector & Mentoring​ and ​1to1 Business Meetings.

The first objective was aimed at entrepreneurs or startups that required advice (legal, marketing, financial and presence in media); in this case, they received free mentoring from companies such as Ibercaja, The Social Media Family, PADIMA and Media Startups.

On the other hand, in the 1to1 open interviews, companies such as Vocento, Idealista, Nielsen, Between Technologies, Delonia, Mindsait, Giuntitsy and Grupo CPS, interviewed a programmer in five minutes (Front - End, Back - End and Full Stack), having contact at the end with about 25
professionals.

The aim of both activities was to increase the dynamism of the innovation sector, helping companies in their operation and in capturing the necessary profiles for success.

In addition to the many speaker slots, OpenExpo Europe set up debate sessions with the eight round tables including 40 experts in diverse subjects .
This way, it was possible to discuss and come up with new ideas and trends for each one of the relevant topics.

The eight roundtables included the following topics: Blockchain, Cybersecurity, CIO Summit, Entrepreneurship, Fintech, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation and Women in Tech.

Blockchain roundtable
Organized by Blockchain Spain, in which each of the members presented his experience with this technology and discussed current issues and challenges those that the Blockchain will have to confront in the future.
Moderator: ​Alex Preukschat
Speakers​:
● Lucas Carmona Ampuero
● Enrique Palacios Rojo
● Jesús Pérez Sanchez
● Daniel Díez García

Cybersecurity roundtable
Cybersecurity is one of the main trends and investments that current companies need to bear in mind. In this meeting the experts contributed ideas on how companies have to establish a good cybersecurity strategy in the field of Open Source.
Moderator: ​Vicente Ramírez
Speakers:
● Tomás Isasia
● Ángel Ramos
● Fernando Antonio Acero
● Jorge Oteo

CIO SUMMIT
In this case, IT leaders met to give visibility to the role and to discuss the main challenges CIOs face in the next few years.
Moderador: ​Bryan McEire
Speakers:
● Enrique Diego Bernardo
● Tomás Isasia
● Javier Pozo Ugidos

Entrepreneurship roundtable
What are the differences between the entrepreneurship of traditional companies as opposed to the technological ones? What are the characteristics and challenges of both? In this debate, these questions were answered, in addition to hearing the experience of the panellist entrepreneurs, in the context of a changing and dynamic world.
Moderator: ​Miguel Ángel Robles
Speakers:
● Pablo Sammarco
● Alex Vallbona
● Bruno Bianchi
● Alejandro Guerrero

Fintech rountable
The financial sector is one of the most advanced in terms of technological innovation; this has led to the establishment of the term "Fintech" to refer to this relationship. In this round table the experts, conscious of this reality, tried to summarize the trends of the future of the banking and
Fintech companies.
Moderator: ​Oscar Domínguez
Speakers:
● Álvaro Rezola
● Álvaro González
● Amparo Marín de la Bárcena Grau
● Teresa María Alarcos

Artificial Intelligence roundtable
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered as one of the main technologies that will revolutionize the world in the coming years. The professionals of this round table shared their experiences in implementing IA, the regulation of AI, and the importance of a good cybersecurity strategy in AI.
Moderator: ​Fernando Mateo Sanz
Speakers:
● Francisco Carrero
● Antonio Jiménez Ramírez
● David Carabantes Alarcón
● Carlos Alonso Linaje

Digital transformation rountable
The speakers responded to questions about how companies with the adoption of digitization can optimize their resources while offering better experiences to users and customers, and provided the keys to carry out an efficient digital transformation in different aspects.
Moderator: ​Pedro Pablo Merino
Speakers:
● Fares Kameli
● Rafael Gil Horrillo
● David Lastra
● Javier Garrido

Women in Tech
The world is constantly changing and in the life of women it seems to be getting better. In this round table the speakers shared their experiences on how they could adapt to the technology sector and how life is today for woemn in the technology sector.
Moderator: ​Sara Alvarellos
Speakers:
● Roya Chang
● Tomasa Rodrigo
● Monica Villas

At the end of the presentations, the ​Open Awards Gala took place in the Arsys Conferece Room, where awards were presented to the winners of the different categories and honourable mentions were given to certain professionals in the sector, reconising their contributions.

This gala, sponsored by Ipcore and AWS (Amazon Web Services), was presented by Philippe Lardy, CEO of OpenExpo Europe, and Paco Estrada, producer of Compiling Podcast, and included other well known personalities, including Roya Chang, Fernando Mateo, Fares Kameli, Teresa María
Alarcos, among others.

At the celebration the check of € 1150 was delivered to Julita Campos, Vicepresident of the UNICEF Committee of Madrid, to which OpenExpo Europe devoted half of the amount collected from admission tickets to the event.

These were the WINNERS OF THE OPEN AWARDS 2019:
Best Tech Community: Kiwi TCMS
Best Services Solutions Provider: Irontec
Best Success Story Company / Public Administration: Liberbank
Best Innovative Platform / Project: Apprender - SM
Best StartUp: Waima Technologies
Best Cloud Solution: IBM
Best Project in Transparency Citizen Participation and Open Government: ERASER
Best Medium or Blog: The Atareao

There were also SPECIAL MENTIONS for projects, in particular specials in the sector:
-Women in Open IT Innovation: Cristina Aranda and Sara Alvarellos for WomenTech
-Open Source Solidarity Project: UNICEF Madrid Committee by Unicef Innovation Fund
-Open Source in Medicine / Science: Luis Falcón by GNU Health
-Open Source in Education / Social Services: David Montalva by project Lliuex of the Generalitat
Valenciana
-CEO Collaboration Award in Open IT Innovation projects: Julián Fernández CEO of Fossa Systems
-CE Collaboration Award in Open IT Innovation projects: Jorge Oteo CIO of Vocento

Finally, it is important to note that during the whole event there was no shortage of relaxation areas, designed for attendees to chat, create networks and establish relationships between them: Open Garden, the Lounge Bar in the center of the venue, the VIP lounge area for speakers and exhibitors
and an outdoor space where the Food Tracks were located and at the end of the afternoon there were Networking & Beers to the rhythm of​ ​Agus & Martin's music.