Portugal Criativo – Creators and Doers

Piers Roberts, from Designer’s Block, stresses the importance of focusing on local culture when organizing creative events, criticizing what he sees as a trend of cities just putting in place models developed elsewhere without drawing influences from their own environment.

The conference, which was conducted in a somewhat sloppy manner, with announced speakers not showing up and their last-minute replacements not being given the chance to make their presentations, also had the presence of Evan Roth, from Graffiti Research Lab, and Scott Burnham, director and strategist at Premsela.

Spie UP 10 – The Future of Entrepreneurship

John Harthorne, the man behind the worldwide Mass Challenge, talks about the importance of having a solution-oriented mindset in order to thrive, minimizing the influence of the external context in a project’s success.

This closing conference also saw the interventions of José Filipe Torres, founder and CEO of Bloom Consulting, an agency specializing in country branding, and Malik Sacoor, chairman of the Portuguese clothing company Sacoor Brothers.

Spie UP 10 – Creative Industries

Michael DaCosta Babb, director of Addict, makes a call to action for people to step forward and take advantage of the current momentum around creative industries in Portugal, building upon it to effectively transform the perception of the country, both internally and abroad.

Also in this panel, were Filipe Mesquita, from creative boutique This Is Pacifica, José Santos, Chief Divergent Officer at Diverge Design, and the portuguese director Cristiana Miranda.

Spie UP 10 – Social Entrepreneurship

Miguel Alves Martins, director of IES, points out the Vitamimos project as an example of how social entrepreneurs can help find solutions to everyday problems – in this case, how to promote healthier lifestyles from an early age.

The panel also counted with Frederico Lucas, from Novos Povoadores, a project whose aim is to counter the desertification of the Portuguese interior, Sara Moreira, president of the non-profit Moving Cause, and Maria do Céu Conceição, founder of The Dhaka Project.

Spie UP 10 – Start-Up

In the panel dedicated to Start-Ups, Tiago Andrade, founder of branding activation agency Lifetime, talked about how entrepreneurs must be prepared to endure difficult times if they expect to succeed in their businesses.

The panel also had the presence of Ricardo Morais, president of Idea Puzzle, Vera Mata, from i-Sensis, and Helena Leite, CEO of Cardmobili.

Spie UP Second Day

We’re back to FEUP for the second day of Spie UP 10.

In the morning, we had a session about financing startups, with Clara Gonçalves (UPTEC) José Martins, (NET), João Pereira (Inovcapital), Anabela Carvalho (Clarke, Modet & Cª Portugal) and Sara Medina (APBA).

We’re now about to step into the first afternoon session, dedicated to the creative industries. We’ll be reporting back soon.

Spie UP last session of the day about to…

Spie UP last session of the day about to begin. We’ll be talking into the night with Mário Silva (Oon Solutions) and André Rabanea (Torke).