IMAGINE Press Release
A group of entrepreneurs from Barcelona, together with La Fundación Banesto, McCANN World Group, BMW, Everis and Innovalley have opened a center in Silicon Valley (California) which imparts a revolutionary creativity program to generate ideas to change the world.
The program will take place twice a year, with 12 participants of different ages, nationalities and educational backgrounds. These participants will develop their ideas with the support of experts from the most innovative companies at Silicon Valley (Google, IDEO, HP, etc.) and mentors who belong to the Stanford University faculty.
The first edition of this program will begin the next month of July and will have 12 participants (called “dreamers”) who have been chosen by different universities and Spanish companies (McCANN, IED Barcelona, Universidad de Deusto, EOI, Fundació Inlea).
The participants (dreamers) will generate ideas for the future in all sorts of areas where problems are detected, from technological projects to social initiatives while entering the world of marketing and communication. The knowledge base of the projects that will be worked on during this first edition will be provided by: McCANN World Group, BMW, Fundación Banesto, Cink and Innovalley.
The ideas generated will be presented to the community of investors and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley the 27th of July in a public event that will take place San Francisco. This event aims to be a display of creativity in the environment with most capacity to invest in innovative ideas.
The experience of the 12 dreamers will be collected in a book and a documentary. The goal of these documents is to foster the entrepreneurial culture and divulge the keys of the innovation system of Silicon Valley, known for being the environment where the world’s most successful companies are created.
The main driver of the IMAGINE program is La Fundación Banesto who also provides 4 of the participants who have been selected from their YUZZ program, a program which was created to detect young talented people. IMAGINE counts with the sponsorship of 8 companies and Spanish universities: (Universidad de Deusto, IED Barcelona, Escuela de Organización Industria EOI, Fundació Inlea, McCANN World Group, BMW,Everis, Orbea and Innovalley) and with the collaboration of multiple European and American entities and companies.
IMAGINE is an initiative of a group of entrepreneurs led by Xavier Verdaguer, founder of an innovation company focused on smart apparel in San Francisco called Innovalley. The program is directed by Ariadna Mateu, expert in creativity, and counts with the guidance of teacher Hugo Pardo Kuklinksi, Christian Hoyos as well as with the professionals Diego Paredes, Rosa Monge and Silvia Riba in the production.
The presentation act of IMAGINE took place Friday 17th of June at 1:00 p.m. at the Barcelona Activa headquarters (C. Llacuna, 162 Barcelona), with the intervention of the Elected Major of Barcelona Xavier Trias,the General Director of La Fundación Banesto Francesc Fajula, the serial entrepreneur Xavier Verdaguer, the director of the program Ariadna Mateu, the Vice-president of Innovation of McCANN World Group Mónica Deza and the 12 participants (dreamers) of IMAGINE’s first edition.
