The second conference of the Portugal Inteiro cycle, organized by Jornal Económico and Altice Portugal/Altice Labs, had the theme “Innovation: The Interior as an opportunity” and was held on the 25th June in Vila Real, at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD).
Innovation is always the focus of these debates organized by Jornal Económico and Altice Portugal, in which the most diverse topics of the present day are also introduced. After the success in Faro, with “Innovation as an Instrument of more and better tourism”, the cycle of conferences titled Portugal Inteiro went to Vila Real and was attended by Alexandre Matos, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Altice Portugal.
The CFO of Altice Portugal, during its intervention, reinforced the position and concern of the company on the interior of the country, noting that the main leverage for development is nonconformity. This way, as Altice Portugal has been defending, this cycle of conferences Portugal Inteiro has been decentralizing the discussions and debates, inviting spin offs, startups, mayors, managers, entrepreneurs and other personalities to participate and to make known their opinions. Portugal Inteiro will have, this year, three more conferences, from north to south of the country.
Altice Labs is already a historical partner of UTAD, namely in several projects in the areas of Strategy and Technological Innovation. In this conference, Paulo Pereira, director of the Innovation and Technology Strategy department at Altice Labs together with Emídio Gomes, UTAD Vice-Rector for the Research and Innovation Area and João Barroso, Pro-Rector for the Innovation and Technology Transfer Area , have taken advantage of closer ties between Altice Labs and UTAD, widening horizons and fostering new challenges and seizing new opportunities between both parties.
Parallel to the conference, a space was exhibited at Altice Labs with the Smart Mirror demonstration, a smart mirror prototype that allows gestural interaction with personalized content for the Vila Real region. The Altice Innovation Award 2019 was also promoted, as well as the branding awareness with UTAD.
“I think it is in the non-conformism the verb that solves the dissatisfaction of society is born and that the entrepreneur tries to fill,” points out the CFO. Briefly, “to undertake is to solve the dissatisfactions of the human being“, is to be and be concerned, is to support causes and question everything that is normalized. Nonconformity is the most important factor for any entrepreneur to wage in the interior of Portugal and, as Altice, to approach society and create activity in these regions.
In order to create an entrepreneurial environment, Alexandre Matos affirms that “it is necessary cooperation between agents and entities, entrepreneurs and academia, between the business world and local authorities, local power.“
Another of the major issues discussed was the connection between the companies and the academy. This is an imperative to isolate – and the fact that the region of Vila Real can count on this factor ends up transferring to that geography another reason to be known and exploited.
This was one of the most important notes left by most of the participants, namely KeyNote Speaker of the event, Silva Peneda, former minister, who is president of the General Council of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro.