Foto: ©meet_the_leader

Last week, the yearly meeting of the World Travel Market in London, taking place from the 5^th to the 7^th of November, ended and created again new possibilities, ideas, and plans for the travel industry in the world. One of the world’s most influential travel provider, like Johan Lundgren, CEO, easyJet, or Bruce Poon Tip , founder of G Adventures and other speakers from different parts of the world, like Eliza Reid, the first lady of Iceland gathered at the WTM meeting 2018, exchanging new ideas and experiences to develop the travel industry and thus, to create remarkable opportunities and social initiatives for travellers. How do we navigate this world of possibilities? This was one of the key questions of this years’ meeting of the World Travel Market in London that faced not only the diversity of possibilities but also the challenge of dealing with ‘this world of possibilities’. The annual World Travel Market London allows the most influential travel providers to share their innovative ideas that will shape the world’s dreams and plans for travel over the next years. The program of the meeting this year varied a lot and gave the different travel agencies and entrepreneurs the chance to connect with experts from different areas of expertise. An interesting and relevant part of the meeting was focused on responsible tourism in order to establish sustainable development. In this sense, the social impact startup Authenticitys was shortlisted in the WTM Responsible Tourism Speed Networking Buyers 2016 at the World Responsible Tourism Day for ‘responsible travelling’. Also this year, on the World Responsible Tourism Day (7th of November), a lot of great WTM Responsible Tourism sessions, talks and panels took place.

©WTM Responsible Tourism

On the first day of the WTM 2018 different topics, like the panel about “Business Taking Responsibility for Security, Health and Safety” stood on the program. There, different solutions for managing the responsibility on different aspects of guests and visitors were provided and discussed. “How can these risks be managed and reduced and whose responsibility is it?” The focus of this panel was to underline the role of businesses in ensuring the security, health, and safety of the travel community. Also, “Creating Shared Value” was another interesting topic. Presented by Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter, it discussed the importance of businesses going beyond CSR and creating shared value. The professor argues that tourism companies must redefine their purpose in order to create a shared value that can bring back together business and society. Only by then, the shared value can “reconnect company success with social progress”. It is getting more and more important, that tourism businesses achieve the engagement of people from the local community with the visitors and tourists, sharing their natural and cultural environment. What is more, the WTM meeting included the input about the exposition “Expo 2020 Showcases the Future of Sustainability- Water and Energy”, a particular project unveiling further details on the plans and progress of the sustainable world expo for the Abu Dabhi Sustainability week in January 2019. “More than just an event” The annual World Travel Market is an opportunity for travel provider and businesses to learn and profit from expert content, networking tools and the exchange of different ideas and solutions for more responsible tourism. By bringing together a community of global travel professionals all year round, mutual learning and understanding can be established and therefore, enables the transmission of creating a social impact in the travel industry.

As one of Europe’s most dynamic startup ecosystem, especially in the field of new technologies (Internet, Mobile Software & Services, e-commerce, Big Data, and Tourism), Barcelona has become a treasured hotspot for entrepreneurs and experts to create new companies and businesses. Furthermore, our co-founder of the social impact startup Authenticitys, Elena Rodriguez-Blanco made it to the list of the most influential evangelists of active entrepreneur leaders in the startup ecosystem of Barcelona. Developed by the Barcelona Founder Institute, this updated list of the “Barcelona Startup Guide” serves entrepreneurs as a guide and overview of all relevant steps for establishing a startup. What is more, it helps them to find useful resources they would need to build up their businesses. The Founder Institute is a global platform of startups and mentors that help entrepreneurs to create their own technology business ideas and to give them a stable impact.

Foto: ©Barcelona Startup Ecosystem Guide

What impact does the startup ecosystem have? Through the steady expansion of the startup ecosystem, the importance of a professional guide and an interactive setting about impact investing and social impact has raised a lot. As an example of this necessity, the first Impact Investing Academy will take place in Vienna between the 8^th and 9^th of November 2018, gathering top experts of Impact Investing to exchange knowledge and experience in an interactive workshop setting. In this context, Authenticitys itself was part of the Investment Ready Program in 2015, a program by #impacthub, based on the belief that “impact ventures play a vital part in accelerating the worldwide adoption of sustainable and inclusive technologies, policies, and behaviors”. Thus, the goal was to make impact ventures ready for investment, growth and international impact. According to the 2018 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) the global startup ecosystem continues to grow, also as a result of the global connectedness and the technological progress. The global connectedness keeps startups at the leading edge of global knowledge about innovation and business models. This, in turn, provides the ability to engage with global customers from the earliest stages and increases the chance to distribute their message to the world. This continual rise of startup ecosystems should be seen as a chance for purpose-driven entrepreneurs and experts from all corners of the world to actually realize a social impact, to spread their message and to reach the society.

Foto: ©@paanfo Barcelona – How can we tackle Europe’s most pressing challenges through collective impact? The Kairos EU Summit 18 started its first day on Friday, 19^th of October with the Co-organizer  of the Gaudi’s World Congress (GWC). A congress, where creative and innovative minds, including the Kairo Society, came together to exchange on sustainable and innovative solutions for outstanding issues in society, incorporating the individual’s creativity, art and originality in order to create social impact. As a global community of top students and global leaders, the Kairo Society aims to find solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. Starting with identifying challenges of industries or governments, they try to collaborate with the greatest minds and experts to find strategies and to address these problems. For this reason, from 19^th to 21^st of October 2018 people from all around the globe gathered at the Kairos EU Summit 18 in Barcelona, where influential industry leaders, mentors, startups and entrepreneurs shared their visions, ideas, and solutions for the future.  The social impact entrepreneurs from Authenticitys were also invited to join the conference, among others. By designing and hosting experiences that will leave a positive impact in the city you visit conferences like the Kairos EU Summit serves Authenticitys as a mentor and tool for reflection to foster their commitment, to create new ideas and get new inspirations, visions, and initiatives by other social entrepreneurs and experts. Also for other guests, the initiative of the Kairo Society was inspiring: "A great community on the verge to better the world through push endurance and tenacity. Thanks for having me", twittered one of the guests, Christoph Auer-Welsbach, Co-founder of TheCityAI. How can we tackle Europe’s most pressing challenges through collective impact? Around the central question of the summit, various speakers like David Roman (Founding Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine), Corinne Vigreux (Founder of TomTom) and Jaan Tallinn (Co-Founder of Skype) exchanged their reflections and visions to address the biggest issues in Europe in healthcare, education, immigration, and climate change. Foto: © @Mattiasbegstro @KairoSocietyEU The program of the Summit, in continuation to the GWC on 19^th of October, provided interactive think tank sessions, dialogues, panel discussions, on topics like “Technology- Education’s Enemy or Ally?” or “Who designs the future?”. Relevant questions that the world has to confront these days: "The need for tech talent and good coders will keep on growing in Europe and across the world" -  states TomTom Co-Founder Corinne Vigreux in a panel with David Rowan and Skype Co-Founder Jaan Tallin. For a harmonic rounding off, after intensive days of reflection, the experts and industry leaders had the option to spend the last day of the Kairos EU Summit enjoying unconventional and unique activities and action experiences that Barcelona has to offer. Foto: © @KairoSocietyEU Fotos of the Kairos Summit 18 to find here! More details, comments and information of the Kairos EU Summit: #Karioeusummit, @KairosSociatyEU, @kairoshq            

The Gaudi World Congress 18 In Barcelona Barcelona – The 3rd Gaudi World Congress (GWC) 2018 in Barcelona has ended and we can look back to a successful and – literally -“original” event full of creative and innovative minds. As Antoni Gaudi quotes: “Originality consists of returning to the origin”. For this reason, experts from the past and the present came together last Friday, 19^th of October for the Originality and Innovation GWC 18 to get to the core of some of the world’s most pressing issues and to exchange on how to solve them with creativity and originality. The unconventional location of this conference in the Bellesuard Tower, one of Antoni Gaudi’s most iconic buildings, offered a unique atmosphere - open for a dialogue between creative minds all over the globe. From Innovation and Leadership, over the unknown Gaudi and Design to the question of Sustainability - the program at the GWC congress provided a varied program. Not only were there included important insights from great individuals representing some of the biggest industry leaders, but also different talks and panels on relevant issues, like innovation, creativity, and sustainability. Authenticity’s Co-founder Elena Rodriguez Blanco and Marc Buckley, official UN SDG advocate, and Social Innovation, Climate Change Agriculture, Food and BeverageExpert Network member of the World Economic Forum, were talking on the topic “Sustainability and Social impact”. How can we channel all of our actions to creating a better society? On the basis of questions like this Rodriguez Blanco and Buckley focused on solution-based outcomes for optimising the social structure, business models and therefore to help the environment and the society to prosper in a sustainable way. Like Marc Buckley's mission says: "to empower billions of global citizens to live an adaptive lifestyle of health and sustainability within planetary boundaries". Moreover, as a central focus, the Congress discovered interesting and mostly unknown details about the famous modernist Antoni Gaudi and his impact on society. This implied a guided tour in one of Gaudi’s most emblematic buildings: the Bellesguard tower. Besides, all guests at the GWC 18 had the opportunity to unleash their creativity through mosaic workshops, by creating a “Trencadis”- Gaudi’s mosaic. And last but not least: networking opportunities! The Gaudi World Congress in Barcelona of course also provided a lot of space and time to meet the greatest minds all around the globe, including the Kairos society and many other industry leaders, experts and entrepreneurs. Although there is still a long way to go - the GWC 18 was a great step forward to get the core of the things that create the most serious problems in our world – and thus to generate a sustainable society and surroundings for our future! See more details and fotos of the GWC 18: @gaudiknowledge , #Kairoeusummit, @KarioSocietyEU,  

Valladolid - This week started in the city of Valladolid with the 1st UNWTO Conference on ‘City Breaks’, a reflective and solution-oriented exchange about creating innovative experiences for city tourism. On the 15th and 16th of October 2018 people from different parts of the world came together for the international event to listen to representatives from Google, Tripadvisor, Amadeus, Civitatis and Authenticitys discussing ‘City Breaks’: Creating Innovative Experiences. One of the conference speakers was Elena Rodriguez Blanco, the Co-founder of Authenticitys, talking about the social impacts urban tourism can bring with it. Organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) this conference aimed to reflect and discuss different areas of specialization that can contribute to the successful positioning of urban destinations as City Breaks. The conference served as a multicultural dialogue, exchanging different perspectives, experiences, and ideas that contribute to the rising trend of ‘City Breaks’ and to the leisure experience of traveller. Each speaker presented successful cases and experiences of new tourism segments from their own area of expertise, to discover the importance of ensuring quality visitor experiences and creating tools for attracting different kinds of travellers. How do we understand and manage urban tourism growth beyond perceptions? By exploring together the innovative strategies and solutions a city can bring with it, such questions were discussed and tried to be answered. Not only the positioning of cities as sustainable and competitive urban destinations play a crucial role. Also the question of how to address the challenges arising from the growing popularity of short-holidays and the effective planning and managing of these challenges, such as connectivity, accessibility and the infrastructure need to be treated thoroughly. With the growing demand of city tourism, bringing together innovative ideas, experiences and know-how has become more important than ever. It can be seen as the inspirational pool and key to contribute to the development of destinations as city breaks and especially, to ensure the quality of life of its residents.