200 representatives from 80 Technology Parks and businesses will meet from tomorrow at the 10th International Conference of Scientific Parks held in Vitoria

The Alava Technology Park will be the seat of the 10th International Conference of the Association of Science and Technology Parks -APTE on 17, 18 and 19 October, which will be attended by almost 80 technology parks. Alava Park will become a huge international forum for the exchange of information on different initiatives, projects, and opportunities relating to sustainable economy.

The opening paper, to be presented on Thursday morning at 10.30 will be given by Juan Verde, electoral campaign advisor to Barack Obama. This will be followed by a number of round tables with prominent guests.

The opening presentation will be followed by three round tables, the first of which has the title “Business opportunities in the renewable energy sector” and the participation of the president of Aernova, Iñaki López Gandasegui, director of renewable energies for Repsol, Julio Cortezón, director of innovation at Iberdrola, Agustín Delgado, and director of the division of fossil power generation, renewable energy, oil & gas at Siemens, Daniel Fúster.

In the afternoon, “Mobility, urbanism and construction, factors of sustainability” will be subject of the round table session, attended by the president of the Fundación Metrópoli, Alfonso Vergara, director of the Barcelona ecology agency, Salvador Rueda, director of Daimler-Benz Vitoria, Emilio Titos, manager of the department of sustainable consumption and production at Ihobe, Ander Elorriaga, and the Head of Electric Mobility at Ingeteam, Jon Asín.

The last of the round table sessions will take place at 17.00 hours on the same day under the title “Science and Technology Parks as an instrument for the development of sustainability strategies”. Marian Ibarrondo, director of innovation at the Bizkaia Science and Technology Park, director of the European Business and Innovation Centre of Aragon, José Luis Latorre, director general of the APTE, Soledad Díaz, and Josep Piqué, Head of 22@Barcelona will take part in this session.

After the meeting last year in Seville, representatives from more than 80 Science and Technology Parks will come together for three days at the conference, organised by the Basque Network of Technology Parks, member of the SPRI Group (group of public companies from the Department of Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism dedicated to helping the Basque business network), to address sustainable economy. Initiatives will be proposed to promote sustainable and imaginative policies in spite of the current economic climate.

The Science and Technology Parks share their driving force to lead initiatives on sustainable economy or sustainable development, which is understood as the meeting of current needs without compromising future needs through excess consumption. Undoubtedly, this sustainable development is linked to green development, to environmental sustainability, and therefore it is no coincidence that the international conference is taking place at one of the parks belonging to the Basque Network of Parks, which, for some years, has played an important role in the area of sustainability with sustainable constructions, energy savings, environmental conservation or social projects. In addition, all the participants will be able to see the achievements obtained by Vitoria-Gasteiz to become worthy of the title “European Green Capital 2012”.

The main questions posed at the Alava Park will discuss the existing challenges and business opportunities in the renewable energy sector, mobility and transport in sustainable development, where the electric car is already a reality, or the approach that must be taken in R&D policies on sustainability.

The APTE is formed by more than 80 Science and Technology Parks distributed across Spain and is home to 5539 companies providing work to more than 145,000 people.

Holding the International Conference of the APTE in Euskadi will also provide an opportunity to exhibit the successful model of the Basque Technology Parks that ended 2011 with a 5% increase in turnover and a rise in the number of employees.