Technology and Entrepreneurship, main topics at the third edition of "Futuro en Español" (Future in Spanish)

The Hospital Real de Granada (Granada's Royal Hospital) and the Palace of Charles V, the Alhambra, were the meeting place for the third edition of the Future in Spanish meeting which took place on May 22^nd and 23^rd under the title Language, Education, and Innovation. These working sessions, organized by CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, and the Vocento Foundation, are a result of the agreement that both parties signed with the objective of strengthening the value of the Spanish language in the entrepreneurial environment.   

The meeting was inaugurated by Enrique Garcia, CAF's Executive President and Luis Enriquez, delegate of Vocento, who were accompanied by the Minister of Justice, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon; Sebastian Perez, President of the Council of Granada, Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, CAF's Director Representative for Europe, and the President of the University of Granada, Francisco Gonzalez. 

Enrique Garcia stated that humanization and social improvement are challenges of the Spanish language, underlining that "work needs to be done in a project such as Future in Spanish to connect language, education, and development". 

CAF's Executive President highlighted the language ties that bring together countries and citizens, as the root of a society, to achieve a better quality of life. He expressed that "the challenge is to improve the life conditions of millions of people, and to do so, bringing together experts in different disciplines with Spanish as a link is a great option to think about the future and contribute solutions". 

Garcia ended his address remembering Gabo (Garcia Marquez) as a "creative, imaginative writer, who inspired us to contribute to the improvement of the Ibero-American communications media". 

Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, Minister of Justice, highlighted the figure of the deceased Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and encouraged the use of the author's clarity in order to "succeed", stating that the Spanish language is a crucial element in trade.  

Francisco Gonzalez, President of the University, showed his satisfaction for hosting such an important event aimed at giving value to the use of the Spanish language, a place to meet and learn about the diversity of peoples, and to preserve their union. 

The working sessions continued with the master conference by Chilean writer Jorge Edwards Valdes, winner of the Cervantes Award, regarding the wealth and linguistic value of Spanish. 

Later, there was a heartfelt homage for Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died last April. Researcher and biographer Gerald Martin, Pilar del Rio, President of the Jose Saramago Foundation, Jaime Abelo, Director of the Nuevo Periodismo Foundation, and Benjamin Lana, Editorial Director of Vocento, were in charge of recalling Garcia Marquez's literary and journalistic legacy. 

After that, there was a debate regarding online press and the shaping of public opinion, which included the participation of Carlos Malamud, researcher of the Elcano Institute; Cristina Manzano, Director of esglobal; Daniel Moreno, General Director of Animal Politico, moderated by Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, CAF's Director for Europe. 

The session entitled The Value of Teaching Spanish included the participation of Javier Galvan, Director of the technical cabinet of the Cervantes Institute; Rafael Perez, Director of Alliances with the Microsoft public sector; Ferran Mateo, Manager of the Dialnet Foundation; and Juan Francisco Delgado, National President of the Red de Telecentros (Telecenter Networks). 

The Thursday session concluded with a heartfelt collective reading of the texts of the Nobel Prize winner, with the participation of Jorge Edwards Valdes, Salvadorian poets Jorge Galan and Roxana Mendez, Paula Bozalongo from Granada and singer Miguel Rios. 

Entrepreneurs in the Alhambra 

On Friday the 23^rd, in the hall of events of the Charles V Palace in the Alhambra, the discussion focused on the challenges of productive transformation in Latin America. This working session included subjects such as entrepreneurship, biotechnology, and industrial innovation. 

The first subject, Entrepreneurship in Spanish, included the participation of Pablo Sanguinetti, CAF's Socio-Economic Research Director; Javier Santiso, Founder of StartupSpain; Rosa Maria Martinez, representative of the Confederation of Social Economy Entities of Andalucia; and Matias Acevedo, entrepreneurship and innovation consultant and former manager of Corfo Chile. 

Pablo Sanguinetti explained the details of the 2013 RED report Entrepreneurships in Latin America, carried out by CAF, which highlights that "the countries of the region have a high entrepreneurship rate: one out of three workers has his own business. However, a majority of them are enterprises without employees". He emphasized that of the total enterprises with employees, 75 percent of them are micro-enterprises with fewer than five workers. Sanguinetti pointed out that "many of these micro-enterprises have emerged due to the lack of working opportunities in the salaried sector, and they do not have the potential to become transforming enterprises". 

According to CAF's researcher, "the problem of self-employment lies in the fact that it destroys the working capacities, making it impossible for these people to move toward a better quality employment in the future. This, in turn, may become an impediment for entrepreneurs with potential to make their companies grow due to the lack of qualified workers, bureaucratic obstacles, and lack of financing". 

Biotechnology 

The attention in the working sessions turned to a booming sector, biotechnology, with the presence of the President of CRB Inverbio, Enrique Castellon; Javier Velasco, General Director of NEOL; and the Director of the Genyo Center of the Health Technology Campus of Granada,  Jose Antonio Lorente. 

The last session was dedicated to industrial innovation as an opportunity to collaborate. It included the participation of representatives from important Spanish enterprises with large projects in Latin America: Luis de la Haza, Financial Director of Cosentino; German Bejarano, Director of Institutional Relations of Abengoa; Jose Luis Angoso, Indra's Director of Innovation and Alliances; and Fernando Quero, Tecnalia's Director of Business Development. 

The closing ceremony was presided by the Finance Counsellor of the Andalucia Council, Maria Jesus Montero; the Editorial Director of Vocento, Benjamin Lana; The General Director of IDEAL, Diego Vargas, and Guillermo Fernandez de Soto, CAF's Director for Europe, who thanked the authorities of Andalucia, of Granada, and of the University of Granada, and the executives of Vocento, and of the newspaper Ideal, for the extraordinary organization of the working sessions in the historic city of Granada, which contributed to the success in fulfilling the objectives of the meeting.