The former vice president of the United States, Al Gore, and the president and CEO of Inditex until last March, Pablo Isla, are just some of the confirmed participants for the tenth edition of South Summit, the global meeting between the main figures of the entrepreneurship and innovation.
Under the slogan ‘decoding reality’ (‘decoding complexity), the latest technological advances, innovation and the fight against climate change will mark the program of the event, which will also include the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, Sal Khan; Aerofarms co-founder and CEO Marc Oshima; the founder and CEO of ECOfashion Corp, Marci Zaroff, and the CEO of BioTech Foods, Iñigo Charola, among others.
The organization of the event has announced that in this edition, which will be held again at La Nave in Madrid between June 8 and 11, the more than 450 speakers of recognized international prestige who have confirmed their participation so far will meet.
These leaders will share with the attendees their successful careers in the field of innovation and the business world.
In the last 2021 edition, more than 22,000 physical and virtual attendees participated, more than 1,600 investors with a portfolio of approximately 135,000 million dollars, 8,000 startups, 680 speakers and 7,000 members of corporations.
With 11,100 startups, employing 140,000 people, Spain is the fourth European country by number of these emerging companies and Madrid is the main focus, with an ecosystem of 3,000 companies and their respective 40,000 jobs. During the ten years of South Summit, the organization has been responsible for more than half of the investment in Spanish startups according to the PwC consultancy report ‘The socioeconomic contribution of South Summit in Spain’.
During the presentation of the report, in which the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, participated, along with members of the municipal government such as vice-president Begoña Villacís, the CEO and founder of South Summit, María Benjumea, affirmed that they have fulfilled their objective of “positioning Spain as a global benchmark for entrepreneurship”.
“We are talking about what is probably the decisive decade for digital entrepreneurship in our country. The decade that has marked the trends and dynamics of a digital revolution that is here to stay,” said Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence.
In this year’s edition, and according to the PwC report, the South Summit is expected to generate an economic activity of around 20 million euros in the city of Madrid during its celebration, with more than 22,000 expected attendees. In addition, the 100 finalist startups from last year will be present at this edition.
