This past 7th and 8th of October, the Catalan Foodservice Cluster carried out the VII Strategic Immersion, a Food Hub for Innovation in Catalonia at the Alicia Foundation. The event gathered 75 companies of the Catalan Foodservice sector to deal with strategic challenges, think of solutions and innovative projects and see the world trends of the future.
Mr. Albert Castellanos, Secretary of Business and Competitiveness, opened the day and stressed the importance of continuing to prioritize innovation and projects driven by clusters. His speech was followed by the welcoming of Toni Massanés, Director of the Alicia Foundation, and by Raimón Bagó, President of the Catalonian Foodservice Cluster.
The presentation on international trends of the future, by Beatriz Romanos (TechFood Magazine), was very well received. Beatriz spoke of the change in trend from scarcity to abundance, which has grown a lot in recent years, and how those companies that manage to focus on abundance grow exponentially. She exemplified it with several international cases of the most inspiring. Next, the reflections on restoration with David Romero (Grupo Andilana), Santi Carda (Cal Blay) and Raimón Bagó (Serhs Food), stimulated by Sonia Gasa (Retail Tech) contributed different points of view on the new trends and how to face the new ones. challenges of the catering sector in Catalonia.
The last activity on the 7th was the Food Hub of Innovation, the 5 corners of food innovation, led by Toni Massanés (Alicia Foundation), Ricard Soler (Atlantis), Beatriz Romanos (TechFood Magazine), Raimon Puigjaner (R4S) and Sofía Garín (Inédito). The Food Hub was a meeting point to exchange reflections on the 5 proposed challenges and a food reference point to initiate all kinds of business collaborations.
The day on Friday October 8 began with the seminar on personalized food, social catering, and groups with specific needs. Fabiola Juárez and Adriana Gálvez (Alicia Foundation) brought the audience closer to better understand the importance of what when it comes to eating well, as well as to reflect on new concepts and ways of working.
The presentation of the Second Foodservice Market Observatory by Edurne Uranga (NPD) was also very remarkable. The numbers, trends and forecasts were not only positive, but also gave contextual data to see where we came from and where we are going and how the sector will have to adapt to new market trends, such as the exponential growth of delivery.
In the following presentation, Miquel Ristol (Horeca Business 360), inspired with his presentation “Reset post-pandemic”, about how he went from leading a family business to creating several companies with international finance and with exponential growth.
Finally, the activity that culminated in the VII Strategic Immersion was Coffee with innovative and disruptive companies with Alex Vidal (Hiedra), Mariano Oto (Nucaps) and Joan Solomando (Nueva Meat). All the presentations and the reflections that the speakers made among themselves generated a lot of interest and questions from the audience, who came out with new ideas and knowledge.
