Next Wednesday, March 14th, the president of the Torelavega’s Chamber of Commerce, Antonio Fernández Rincón, will host in the Casa de Cantabria (Madrid) the official presentation of the 1st entrepreneurship open contest, which will be hosted in Torrelavega from April 20-22nd. FIDBAN, by virtue of the collaboration agreement that has been recently signed with the Torrelavega’s Chamber of Commerce, supports and collaborates with this important event.
Torrelavega will host next April 20-22nd the 1st Entrepreneurship Open Contest, in which, from 40 preselected projects, the most remarkable ones will be rewarded €16,000.
The jury in charge of selecting the projects will be made up by prestigious figures from the business world. The jury will be made up by Javier Nuche from ATRESMEDIA, Alejandro Vesga from Revista Emprendedores, Juanma Romero from TVE, Andrés Dulanto from the Agencia EFE, Sergio Valcárcel from Socios Inversores, Juanjo Santacana drom El Economista and Jesús Miguel Pérez from TEDCAS.
The presentation of the contest’s first edition took place last may and was made by Torrelavega’s major, José Manuel Cruz Viadero, Antonio Fernández Rincón, managing director of Government’s Innovation, Jorge Muyo, head of the Fundación Innovación y Desarrollo (FIDBAN), Ángel Agudo, chief financial officer at Grupo PITMA, Manuel Gómez Arroyo and the area manager of RTVE in Cantabria, Juan Carlos de la Fuente.
This event is organized by the Chamber of Commerce and is supported by the regional government, the city hall and other public and private entities, among which FIDBAN can be found. Participants reception is on April 20th and the exhibition of the 40 finalist projects is scheduled for the next day. On April 22nd, the jury will choose ten finalists and will be giving the following prizes: €6,000 for the first prize, €3,000 for the second and €2,500 for the third. In addition to that, four more prizes priced at €2,500 will be given for the most “disruptive and special” project among the 40 preselected ones. As well, the projects will be “accompanied” throughout their development stage so that they become real projects.
In the presentation act celebrated at Torrelavega, the major explained that “the entrepreneurship is a key element” in the Besaya’s capital and said that this initiative has as its main aim to boost those entrepreneurs who have many ideas and have a clear focus on innovation. Hence, he was confident that the Contest “could be useful for the city, as some beneficial projects could arise from it”. Mr. Cruz Viadero assured that the Torrelavega’s city hall “greatly supported” this event, for it considers it is “a way to create employment as well as a means of support for innovation”, which is really “important” nowadays, in his own view, in order to be able to compete in the business world. Therefore, he was convinced that this first contest “was going to be very successful” and expressed that, in his opinion, the event “will consolidate” with the support of the city hall, and so, upcoming editions are to come, which “will be a benchmark regarding entrepreneurship for Cantabria as well as for Spain”.
The Torrelavega’s Chamber of Commerce chairman, Antonio Fernández Rincón, said that the “seed” of this contest lays in the initiative called “Espacio Emprendeedores”, which was launched last Summer by the Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, he recalled that Espacio Emprendedores aims to give an opportunity to innovative projects and to make them visible, be they national or international, so that they can give rise to new businesses. Likewise, Mr. Rincón stated that both the Chamber of Commerce and Espacio Emprendedores believe in the need to hold a contest like this one in Cantabria “for this is an ideal location if you want to start up a business” and to show the world the possibilities this region is offering.
In Mr. Fernández Rincón’s words, “the dream” of this contest is that it consolidates together with the Regional Entrepreneurship School that is to open within months in Torrelavega and so, that it “turns out to be the European Silicon Valley”. Ángel Agudo, from FIDBAN, highlighted that the foundation is committed to making this contest international through the presence of its communication channels in 30 countries from all over the world.