Great success of the 1st BAIDATA FORUM
June 06, 2022
DESCRIPCIÓN
The BAIDATA association is up and running. Its first success: bringing together at the first BAIDATA FORUM more than 250 people from the data industry interested in learning about the association, its work in the development of shared data spaces and the reasons why the future of data depends on its sovereign management.
In the midst of European Data Week, Bilbao became its centre for a day, bringing together representatives of the European Commission, the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and Bilbao City Council, the main continental data space organisations (GAIA-X, Catena-X and IDSA) and key industrial companies such as the Mondragón Cooperative, GESTAMP, CAF, Petronor and BAIDATA's partner organisations for a unique occasion.
The launch event of this partnership aimed at boosting Spain and Portugal's public-private leadership in the data spaces was supported by a varied institutional presence. From Zoe de Linde, Deputy Head of the Internet of Things Unit in the continental Executive, to Estíbaliz Hernáez, Deputy Minister of Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation of the regional administration, through Ainara Basurko, deputy for economic promotion or Cesar Prol, director of digitalisation of the regional government, as well as Ane Miren Ibañez from the municipal government, who highlighted their support for the initiative and the commitment of their administrations to data and AI. On the other hand, Ricardo Gonçalves, director of the Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias (UNINOVA), participated from Lisbon, as representative of BAIDATA's activities in Portugal.
Against this background, the first BADAITA FORUM served to connect companies and institutions from Spain and Portugal interested in the development of the data economy with a view to working together in the future, as well as to update on the initiatives coming from the European Union regarding data. Lars Nagel and Thorsten Huelsman, CEO and COO of IDSA, the international association of which BAIDATA is the peninsular node, as well as Francesco Bonfiglio, CEO of the European federated cloud of GAIA-X and Oliver Ganser, President of the CATA Automotive Network, were present to talk about the ecosystem of organisations surrounding BAIDATA dedicated to promoting shared data spaces, President of the CATENA-X Automotive Network, who spoke about the work of their respective organisations, the importance of data sovereignty for business, the genuinely European nature of the initiative and the opportunity to use such an architecture as a means to make the continent more competitive on the global stage.
The debate that ensued will serve the association as a starting point for its work. In this regard, its president, José Antonio Echezarra, described its 4 lines of action for the next 12 months: firstly, the establishment of the BAIDATA Accelerator aimed at promoting innovation around strategic areas of data spaces through the implementation of assets for the accelerated transfer of specialised knowledge; secondly, talent management through the launch of the BAIDATA Academy with the aim of supporting the training of IDSA professionals, helping companies to connect their businesses to the common spaces and the data economy; thirdly, the development of the BAIDATA E-accelerators, which will be the first of its kind to be launched in the next 12 months; thirdly, the development of BAIDATA Ecosystems with the aim of incorporating data spaces in the development and innovation activities of public and private entities through pilot actions, and access to BAIDATA Knowledge through the development of an observatory that serves as a junction point with other initiatives and allows the development of sectoral guides for the adoption of these spaces.