The Santa Eulària des Riu town council, with the collaboration of the island’s council Consell d´Eivissa, organised two conferences this month designed to create incentives for starting up and supporting businesses, and to provide solutions for reviving the tourist sector.
The 6th Ingenion Entrepreneurs Forum is a key event for business entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors, enabling them to meet up and network, motivating all those who have been instrumental in creating wealth on the island, albeit for one, three or fifty years. The exceptional line up of speakers in the forum which included the likes of Ricardo Urgell, Pacha’s creator, Diego Calvo, who founded the Concept Hotel Group and Pedro Clavería, CEO of Playtomic, all highlighted the fact that it is in times of crisis like the present that it is essential to promote new ideas and support them.
This year, the event was virtual, so open to participants from all over Spain from 12 to 13 November, with this occasion also providing the opportunity to award the finalists of the 1st Ingenion 2020 Competition for New Entrepreneur and Best Adaptation in the Time of Covid-19 with cash prizes of 1500 euros presented to María José Marí Bufí, from Frigoladas, and Yolanda Torres, from Academia Torres. The Ibizan company Art-La Sirena was also acknowledged for its long and successful business career.
“The cases and the experiences that we have heard about in this forum are an indication that the success of a business is simply about managing to overcome our mistakes and knowing how to fix them” according to Carmen Ferrer, the mayor of Santa Eulària des Riu, who affirmed that “Ingenion is and will continue to be, come what may, a meeting point for ideas and positivity”.
In turn, the 7th Ibiza Tourism Forum proposed a revival for tourist destinations, in the light of the new challenges raised by the current health and economic crisis, highlighting the need for a seamless public and private collaboration which will articulate a tactical plan in Europe as crucial to its global recovery.
The event was held on 19 November in the Jesús Cultural Centre, with online participation and a number of national speakers were present, including leading employers and authorities who raised issues both in virtual format, and in the face to face sessions, such as the health corridors, PCR testing at destination, safety protocols and seamless support for business from the authorities, which they considered should all be part of the route map for addressing future tourist seasons in 2021 and 2022.
According to the experts, the emergence of a new vaccine has come as a lifeline, bringing hope to a situation of uncertainty, but “we still need to work together in a transparent and unconditional manner in order to ensure that the tourist industry continues to prosper”, emphasised Vicent Mari, president of the Consell d’Eivissa.
The Tourism Forum held various round tables which addressed future strategies for increasing competition among small businesses, recovering airline routes, renewing the productive fabric of tourism, the role of the communications media in reviving tourism, and public and private collaboration as the bedrock for ensuring a revival of tourism and the economy in Ibiza.