The fourth edition of ESADE Innovation Speed Dating, which was held on the Sant Cugat Campus, brought together over 170 MBA with innovative scientists and technologists with a view to setting up suitable business partnerships. These sessions, organised by the ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute, aim to encourage the set-up of companies with innovative and technological profiles. The ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute has closed this year’s Innovation Speed Dating session with a total of over 200 attendees and 28 current projects.
The event was attended by entrepreneurs and students with many different profiles, including technology, healthcare, tourism and communication sectors, among others. Simulating the quest for the proverbial ‘other half’ in a sentimental relationship, and through brief and informal meetings, participants got a chance to find out more about a variety of innovative projects in their search for their perfect business partner.
ESADE MBA students with a business management background made contact with scientists, engineers and designers to assess different possibilities based on the needs of each project. Innovation Speed Dating puts entrepreneurs in touch with students with a background in business and management, trained to realise projects after analysing the viability and profitability of the initiatives devised by the scientists.
Successful ‘couples’
Several successful ‘couples’ have already resulted from the union between the various parties, such as CogniCor, this year’s Wayra-winning company, who met their match at the last edition of Innovation Speed Dating. It was then when Sindhu Joseph, through the Research Park at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, put forward his idea: a website where conflicts between two parties can be resolved. At first, it might seem rather odd, but Dattatreya Tetala Satya Surya, at the time an ESADE MBA student, felt that this idea had a great deal of potential. Now he directs this platform which provides a variety of services depending on the area and the problems that arise between client and company.
Throughout the afternoon, entrepreneurs from various fields, including science, technology and energy, talked about some of the new ideas waiting to be launched onto the market. Among the initiatives is the case of a company that has designed a test to measure the likelihood of colon cancer in patients who have previously suffered this disease or a test that uses new technology to detect prostate cancer. There was also a report on programmes to help identify the images of advertising products that people remember more easily, online platforms that design the ideal vacation for users or a personal assistant for people with difficulty understanding and applying the latest technologies around the home.
In the field of medical research and technology, smart devices were introduced that can remind patients to take medication at certain times of the day by synchronising the patient’s iPhone with an ‘intelligent blister pack’.
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