10th Agora session of SOM-INN PORT

The 10th Agora session of Som-Inn Port was held on the 14th of December at the Teatret del Serrallo. We had the participation of Xavier Lesauvage who spoke about “Innovative leadership with impact” and two startups, Syndeno and Beamagine, who explained the application of their solutions to the port world.

The event began with the presentation of the results of the Open Innovation Cycle 2021 by Carme Tarragó, Head of the Department of Studies and Innovation of the APT and Coordinator of SOM-INN PORT.

This year’s cycle was different from those that had been carried out previously. The main objectives were to promote the axes of Competitive Surveillance, Training, Networking and Communication.

Carme Tarragó, explaining the results of the Open Innovation Cycle 2021

In relation to the Competitive Surveillance Axis, we have created an observatory of innovation trends in the port world, to give visibility to projects of the member organizations of SOM-INN PORT, as well as to generate knowledge on the state of the art of port innovation. In order to promote open innovation, the Observatory is available on the SOM-INN PORT website.

In the Training axis, five Inspiring Talks and one Training session were held:

Inspiring Talk “Entrepreneurial attitude”, by Xavier Verdaguer.
Inspiring Talk “Collaborations that boost innovation”, by Agustí Rochet.
Inspirational Talk “How to create innovative ecosystems capable of attracting talent” by Iolanda Triviño and Miquel Barceló.
Inspirational Talk “Why Blockchain and its applications in the supply chain” by Robert Ballart.
Inspirational Talk “Impactful Innovative Leadership”, by Xavier Lesauvage.
Training action “Agile mindset and the rules of the SCRUM game”, by Berta Esteve.

Regarding the Networking Axis, many of the activities have been carried out in open access, such as inspirational talks, to facilitate connections with external members of the ecosystem. There has been a presentation session of innovation projects of Som-Inn Port members, and visits have been organized to events, congresses and important centers in the world of innovation, such as 4YFN and Mobile World Congress; Smart City Expo World Congress and Smart Ports; and TECH Barcelona.

Two sessions of the SOM-INN PORT Agora were also held.

With regard to the Communication Axis, a Content Plan has been drawn up to dynamize the SOM-INN PORT digital community based on four pillars:

Pillar 1 Innovation Agents: Three “Interviews with Innovation Agents” of SOM-INN PORT have been carried out, who have explained their experiences and the results obtained from their participation in the activities organized in the ecosystem. Anna Navarro and Núria Bordas explained their example of Intra-entrepreneurship and their idea that was selected in the Ports 4.0 call. Marina Almazán explained her example of entrepreneurship with the creation of her company, and Eduardo Sañudo, who is also a member of the Innovation Commission of SOM-INN PORT, explained the importance of innovation for Vopak Terquimsa.

Pillar 2 Observatory: 15 port innovation projects external to the ecosystem and 11 innovation projects of Som-Inn Port’s own members have been disseminated.

Pillar 3 Events: posts/news on the lessons learned from the inspiring talks, pieces of training and events attended have been published on the website, the digital platform and social networks of SOM-INN PORT and the APT Intranet. Videos of the activities carried out have also been uploaded to the digital platform.

Pillar 4 Learning from innovation, three interviews were conducted with experts from outside the ecosystem who shared their experience of innovation in their organizations: Margarida López, Head of Innovation at Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona; Marc Centellas, Manager at Laboratorios Gebro Pharma and Maria Fernanda González, CEO&Founder of Fregata Space.

Carme Tarragó highlighted the importance of people’s involvement in innovation. In each cycle we have the opportunity to add new participants. This year four new members have joined the ecosystem. Currently, SOM-INN PORT open innovation community is made up of 38 members and 63 innovation agents. It is worth mentioning that the main characteristic of this cycle is that most of the activities have been open to encourage people outside the ecosystem to follow us and participate.

After each activity, satisfaction surveys were carried out, which helped us to improve the experience of the participants. The results of the surveys have shown that the degree of satisfaction has been high both in terms of content and organization.

As a summary of the three cycles of open innovation carried out so far in SOM-INN PORT, the indicators give us the following data:

The results obtained in the first call and the characteristics of the second call of Ports 4.0 were also explained. These are calls for public aid, provided by the Port Authorities, to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the port world:

Carme Tarragó encouraged the members of SOM-INN PORT to participate in this new call and to publicise it so that start-ups, spin-offs and companies can present their proposals for innovation in the port world. The Port Authority of Tarragona will support as a facilitating agent the proposals that may be of interest to the Port of Tarragona.

This was followed by the Inspirational Talk “Innovative leadership with impact” by Xavier Lesauvage.

The speaker began by explaining the three main elements needed to innovate. Firstly, having an innovative culture within the organization. Secondly, to have a clear strategy and finally to have established enabler processes to fulfill the strategy.

Xavier Lesauvage during his inspirational talk.

He also emphasized the importance of separating the operational world from the world of innovation. Both are necessary elements within organizations, yet they are difficult to combine. On the one hand, the operational world is a barrier to innovation because it slows down processes. On the other hand, the world of innovation often hinders the operational world because it seeks to change established processes.

Finally, Xavier Lesauvage gave a series of tips on how to lead innovation within an organization:

It is necessary to connect teams with different profiles and encourage the crossover of knowledge.
Small teams should be empowered and allowed to work autonomously.
You have to encourage the ability to explore, curiosity is an essential characteristic for any innovation leader.
Identify opportunities and have a forward-looking perspective.
It is important to have the ability to move in uncertainty, as it is usually a common element in all innovation projects.
Creativity tends to tend to be dispersed, which is why it is necessary to limit it to challenges in order to focus on needs.
The output of innovation must be measured.
We must be able to constantly reinvent ourselves and adapt to market changes.

Afterwards, the startups Syndeno and Beamagine made their pitches.

Alberto Iglesias, CEO of Syndeno, explained their solution and their vision for the future. Syndeno’s solution consists of a software to integrate in a single platform the information related to the tracking of goods to facilitate the transmission of data between all parties involved.

How Syndeno software works

In the world of software, integration is very important, which is why their next objective is to integrate it with other databases in order to be able to work with as much information as possible and improve its efficiency.

Alberto Iglesias, CEO Syndeno

Jordi Riu, CEO of Beamagine, explained how his solution could be applied in the port sector. Beamagine is a startup that has a technology for detecting objects in the environment. It uses 3D sensors that can be combined with thermal, RGB and polarimetric cameras. Thanks to this technology, bulk cargo volumes on a ship could be monitored, remote crane operations could be carried out and autonomous ship navigation could be facilitated.

Jordi Riu, CEO Beamagine

This 10th session of the Agora brings to a close the SOM-INN PORT Open Innovation Cycle 2021. Carme Tarragó thanked the members, innovation agents, speakers and trainers for their participation in the activities organized this year, and the INDUCT team, Ignasi Clos, Pep Orellana and Laia Cotet for their collaboration in organizing the activities. He also wished a Merry Christmas and good health for the next 2022, with the wish that Innovation continues to be our passion.