Joining URBACT Festival!

Join the TechPlace session on June 17^th for a discussion on the role of the medium sized city within a tech entrepreneurship ecosystem. Who is the main driver of a digital economic development? Municipality or entrepreneurs? And how can TechPlace facilitate this development?

We will hear on experiences and examples from Barnsley, UK – a former mining town now being a landmark for creative and digital business, Mataro, Spain – city that is successfully exploring ways of keeping local talent from moving to a nearby Barcelona & Karen Burns, co-founder of Fyma – a computer vision AI platform based in Tallinn, representing the entrepreneurs perspective on ecosystem development. The session is going to be led & moderated by Alisa Aliti Vlasic.

Who are our speakers?

Tracey Johnson leads on creative and digital ecosystem support and development in the city of Barnsley, UK. She leads the DMC technology business hubs which are at the heart of The Seam Digital Campus, Barnsley’s regeneration programme to support a new living, working and learning quarter in the heart of the city. She is experienced in sector development and transnational working and has led two URBACT networks focused on digitalisation as well as contributing to UK and overseas creative and digital sector policy.

Josep Lluís Checa, after 25 years of experience in the ITC industry, since 2012 he is growing into the innovation ecosystem, leading a couple of innovation & research initiatives, both in Spain and Chile. Now in charge of an exciting project in the field of academy, entrepreneurship and business development, with focus in people and its professional abilities.
He has a recognized reputation in innovation and dealing with change and transformation of the organizations and processes, with a strong business and goals orientation, by creating the most adequate professional environment to deploy the team’s abilities, with strong ethical values.

Karen Burns is Co-Founder and CEO of Fyma, a self-service computer vision SaaS platform that turns cameras into predictive sensors and allows retail centres understand what happens inside their malls. She has 15+ years prior experience in ICT and Business Development roles, having most recently worked at CGI Estonia as Business Development Director, laying foundations for company-wide innovation and product development and prior to that at Mooncascade, Estonia’s fastest growing software development house where she tripled their annual revenue during her two years with the company as their Head of Business Development. Karen has lived and worked in the UK, South Africa and the Middle East, both in private and public sector organisations in management positions. A film buff, she also had the honour of working with Abu Dhabi Government Media Zone Authority to bring productions such as fast Furious 7 and Star Wars 7 successfully to the Emirate.

Ian Graham is an experienced facilitator and innovation leader, using a deep understanding of problem solving and coaching methods to help people understand, adopt and apply innovation techniques and participatory & collaborative practices. With a range of public, university and third sector clients, Ian has been working with URBACT since 2014 and is currently the Lead Expert for the URBACT DigiPlace APN and one of the Digital Support Experts for URBACT cities amongst other roles, including as part of the TechPlace team. Ian previously worked for 10 years in local city government running city innovation and change programmes, including acting as an URBACT Lead Partner for the City of York.

Where & How? Join us by clicking here, logging in or creating your own Hopin account, then complete the registration form (on the menu to the right).

When? The Festival officially opens on the 15th June, closing on the 17th early in the afternoon. TechPlace session is on June 17^th from 11 till 12AM CET.  

Download full programme here.